what makes a best seller

sadhuji

During the recently concluded Boi Mela 2006 in Kolkata, there was an article in one of the newspapers on how to churn out best sellers. It was written in a lighter vein and it skimmed the surface. ‘Gone with the Wind’ was penned by the authoress in her sick bed and, due to good contacts she had, she was able to land a contract for the film by none less than MGM.

But such does not happen to all authors. They have to proceed through proper channels and trudge up the ladder of success one step at a time. Sometime, they falter and someone behind them will overtake them. Needless to say, the conventional route is a terribly long one. No one is willing to allow a toe hold; still, if they are determined enough, they can cling on to the bandwagon for dear life in the fond hope that someone already firmly entrenched in it will extend a helping hand. There is always a question in the background – ‘if I help you, how will you repay?’ Unless this equation is resolved to mutual satisfaction, authors are not likely to find their names in any of the bestsellers list. Unfortunate but true. Therefore, a new breed of managers has descended in the market to ensure that your writing gets noticed and talked about. First of all, you must pick on a subject that has potentials to generate controversy. In our country, the most favored ones are politics and religion. Like fashion shows, literary outputs are also stage managed – in some remote corner of the country, a minor drama will be enacted, adequate coverage will be given to the incident and dummy groups will come on stage to conduct mock fights. Within no time, the event will snowball into a major point for the opposition to tackle with the ruling party. Voices will be raised to impose a ban on the book, when the ban is imposed, the aggrieved parties will move the Honorable court and obtain a stay order. The popularity of the book in question will soar sky high.

In order to make an impact of sizeable proportions, the titles must be provocative enough with accompanying illustrations that may not have any relevance to the actual story. These will ensure that the book will be discussed in whispers. And, press releases, entertaining the pressmen and showering gifts on them help to get favorable reviews. In the long run, all these tiny bits add up to justify the label of the Best Seller.

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mooning over a moon journey

jyotirmoy

Exploiting morality is also a sure shot way for instant fame. Again it is sometimes purposely done or the authors land up in the furore inadvertently. Long ago Buddhadev's Rat Bhor Bristi & Samaresh's Bibar got the whole Kolkata & susburb by storm. Peopled lapped up the books & news papers did their contribution. It was a public frenzy I remember & we were told in no uncertain terms by our seniors at home that we must not read it & the seniors were reading it only to know how harmful it is for the society, a purely accademic exercise.

sadhuji

you are right jyotirmoy, hypocrisy begins at home.

lonelyaztec

Have u read that article. - Colin Todhunters...

A foreigners travelog about his journeys in India - where he gets roasted in the sun, drinks tap water and get dysentry, eats cheap food and gets stomach ache, touts follow him and cheat him, autodrivers take him around the city un-necesarily to get more money, where he takes a hotel room for rs. 50, where there is no hot water, there is a hole in the bathroom for a loo, the bed has bugs and the bedsheets have puke, he get into a village bus and travels with stinky villagers with hens and goats also .....etc..that is the recipie for a perfect travel best seller. I never liked any of these personally.

No one actually talks about staying in safe decent hotels, drinking bottled water, eat food in hotels that look reasonably hygienic, and no one actually talks about the fact that India is actually a poor country, where the poor man on the road, is actually much more poorer than the poor man in the street in theirs.

Anyway !

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Aztec

My photoblog

jyotirmoy

He missed out on what happned when he was chased by those angry bulls which roam the Indian roads with huge horns!