Write when drunk, market when sober: Best-selling author Ashwin Sanghi

In a conversation with Amrita Tripathi at Jaipur Literature Festival, the author narrated how his work was rejected several times by publishers and distributors.

Nobody was publishing my book, I had to publish it myself: @ashwinsanghi #JaipurLitFest

— Heena Khandelwal (@heenakhandlwal) January 22, 2015

But a book needs more than publishing to reach its readers. He needed distributors but, here again, he found there were not many takers.

Why rejection is not the end of the road

“I sent my book along with a note in it to 40 distributors, asking them to stock and distribute it. Only one wrote back to me,” said Sanghi while asking aspiring writers to take rejections with a pinch of salt.

He told aspiring writers, who he believes should be encouraged more, to not take criticism and critics seriously, and how somebody once said that he writes well but he should stop at page 10.

Sharing another anecdote from his early days, he said, “I went to a book store and saw my books kept in a corner with dust on it. I cleaned the dust and put it in the bestselling stack.” Sometime after this incident, he again went to that bookstore and found his books in the bestselling stack.

Balancing writing and marketing

When someone from the audience wanted to know how he balances the writer and marketing person inside him, he asked them to carefully choose their stories and write them without compromising on the content or the style or genre of writing and wear the hat of a marketing guy when they have finished writing. He also asked people to invest time in marketing the books to make sure they reach their readers.

Be 'besharam' if you want your books to do well: @ashwinsanghi #JaipurLitFest

— Heena Khandelwal (@heenakhandlwal) January 22, 2015

“The saying ‘Write when you are drunk and edit when you are sober’ has now changed to ‘write when you are drunk and market when you are sober’,” told Ashwin Sanghi.

Tips for budding writing

Reflecting on how many beginners have made it to the best selling authors’ list, he said that the best selling authors are not the best writers but are instead the most thick-skin ones who faced many rejections.

Ashwin Sanghi who will be launching three books this year also shared his mantra. “The last page of my book has to make sure that the reader buys my next book and the last line of every page should make sure he turns the page,” said Ashwin.