An Interview with author, Satyendra Dhariwal!!!

I got a wonderful opportunity to interview a first time author, Satyendra Dhariwal who is coming out with his book- An Immortal Story in April, 2014. Do read the interview and enjoy.

1. Hello Mr. Satyendra, what is your feeling after being an author? What’s your perspective about life now after achieving a rare flagship in your life?

Ans. It’s awesome. I am too much excited and nervous too. Excited because seeing your book in print first time is like seeing your new born baby. And worried because the book is yet to be released. Like everyone, I also want my baby to be praised.

As far as perspective about life is concerned it’s been changed to a large extent since I finished writing this story to until now. I have completed this story almost 1 ½ years ago. Now I want to establish myself as a full-time writer. 

2. When you saw your first novel for sale on E-commerce websites and placed at a bookstore for the first time, what kind of thoughts dominated your mind?

Ans. Since ‘An Immortal Story’ has not been released yet but it’s available for pre-ordering on E-commerce website(s). So yeah, it’s something beyond words when people comment that they are pre-ordering my book.

3. Before we head towards discussing your book, we would like to know in spite of being an author, what do you exactly do? And do you wish to continue with the job or come into full-time writing?

Ans. Nothing, seriously. I want to become a full-time writer.

4. What is your latest book- An Immortal Story all about? And from where did this idea occur to you? 

Ans. You can read all about the book here  http://authorsatyendra.com/Store.aspx  . The Idea of the story came to my mind while travelling to Nainital with my wife Vanita. I wanted to write a novel and we are discussing everything about life. The plot of this story was created in a bus, from Delhi to Haldwaani.

5. How much long did it take to write this book from the moment you started developing the story to start writing it till completing it finally with editing and all?

Ans. It took me five months. But 60% of it was finished in the last 25 days. Because in those five months there were days when I wrote nothing or just a single line or half of the page. Many times I thought that I could never finish it. But after completing it 40% I suddenly got momentum. After that I started sending this to publishers and in between whenever I felt, I edited.

6. Indian Publishing is too hard to deal with, was it easy for you to get a Publisher or did u wait for a long time to get your work published?

Ans. Yes, it is very hard to deal with. It took me almost 13 months to find a publisher. I was rejected by more than 20 publishers and literary agents/agencies and even waiting for a few to reply, till now. One thing I want to say is that it would be more beneficial to authors if there should be more literary agents/agencies in India. Initially I thought that it is good that here we can send our manuscripts directly to the publishers but that is not good enough. Almost every agent/agency replied me but not all publishers.

7. What are the Promotional strategies that you and your publisher have applied to promote/market your book?

Ans.  Several, including both online and offline. Like, Facebook, videos, free samples etc.

You can download first three chapters from here  http://authorsatyendra.com/index.html 

8. What exactly is your target from your Books- 1. Getting most copies sold out, 2. Getting the love of readers or 3. You just wrote it because you wanted to write a book once in your life, hence you have no targets?

Ans. Everything, but of course every other thing like money etc. is meaningless without the love of readers. This is what an author aspires most.

9. By when are you coming up with your next novel? And if possible, do give us an idea about what it would be.

Ans. May be at the end of this year or maybe next year. I can’t tell exactly when but it is sure that I will write another and then another and so on . At the moment I have few plots in my mind like a historical fiction based on invasion(s) on India. Other one is a story of six friends based on corruption and terrorism, one is a humorous story and a few other ideas are also there. But I am not sure which one would be picked up by my mind.

10. In the end, tell us in 5-7 lines, what speech will you give if you win a Major Award for the Best Indian Author for your books?

Ans. If ever that happens, I will definitely become speechless. And what one could say after winning an award like this other than thanking the people who supported him/her, the readers who loved him/her and the jury who selected him.