Even Jeffrey Archer and Dan Brown have to market their books today: Ravi Subramanian

Bestselling author Ravi Subramanian said that authors have to market themselves and put up dramatic announcements of their latest books in the age of social media and quick obscurity. He said it in response to Associate Editor, Times of India and Write India director Vinita Dawra Nangia's insights into the book buying trends, where she said: "More people are buying books because of author's active participation in their marketing these days."
The Times LitFest Delhi 2017 on its first day witnessed a star-studded line-up.For the first Write India session of the event, Vinita Nangia was in conversation with three of India's bestselling authors -- Anand Neelakantan, Ravi Subramanian, and Ashwin Sanghi.
The three authors in the session are all proud to call themselves commercial writers, and the factor that connects them is how they seamlessly write wonderful books and also rake in the money. A majority of the discussion focussed on how writers at the present age feel the need to market themselves in a vastly saturated field. Ashwin Sanghi was of the opinion that only a minority of authors get recognition and acclaim without propagating their book. “The vast majority of books, which have been commercially successful, are the ones where the authors have got out there along with the publisher and ensured that their books sell. The two major factors which affect us in our country today in terms of publishing are: discoverability and visibility”, continued Ashwin.
The authors talked about how literature in India has taken a sharp turn over the years and that Indian readers have observed a synthesis of global and local culture in our books. Talking about mythology and fiction, Baahubali author Anand went about how the growing trend of mytho-fiction is not a mere fashion to sway away soon, as such stories have been written since time immemorial and that he is just another brick in the wall contributing to a plethora of tales spun out of mythology.
Ravi stressed on the fact that the short story as a genre in our country is a neglected one, and thinks that publishers should make an honest endeavour to focus on it more. He believes that popular literature and commercial publishing has “bastardized the short story”, even though readers are interested. Over the recent years, the genre has seen growing popularity due to Write India, but still requires to come to the publishing forefront, urged the panellists. “Unless you put your book out there, it will not sell. A book is something the audience is most likely to miss unless they know that it is out there, about to be released," said Ravi.
The authors along with Vinita discussed the art of writing and the future of the short story in India. Both Anand and Ravi had their books published this year, and both were listed among the country's bestselling charts. Ashwin Sanghi's treatise with non-fiction in his 13 Steps series has received great accolades from readers across the country.