Showing posts with label Indian writers in English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indian writers in English. Show all posts

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Feedback from an author about my book

Available on Amazon.com
RA: Hi Julia, I'm reading "Until Death Do Us Part". What a wonderful, bold collection! You should seek out more reviews for your book. It deserves more visibility.
Julia Dutta: Thank you! Be the first to review, especially if you can put it up on Amazon itself. It counts there. You know, I do my job; it is for others to review/talk about it etc. But even a note from you, fulfills the purpose of writing. The book has touched one heart. I believe it has many. My job is over.
RA: Amazon's been discouraging reviews by fellow authors, which is why you should seek out other book reviewers. They've taken down quite a few of these even for me.
Julia Dutta: I know that they have been refusing to allow those who downloaded the book in the Kindle Free Download Offer to comment. The book will find its destiny, as they always do. Somehow, I feel very strange about promoting my own work. Finally, I am advertising professional - have you seen people in that profession scream and shout about their campaigns? I am grateful for your suggestions. I do take them very seriously and tweet about them.
RA: Even mainstream authors are required to promote their own books now, and you and I are self-published. I promote my book by offering it to book bloggers who blog in my genre. Have you ever seen me tout my book on any groups? I hate in-your-face marketing, as well.
One thing I would recommend for your book is the hiring of a professional editor next time before you send your work to a publisher. The book is very well written, though.
Also, the readership for your book will be necessarily limited because the shades of lesbianism will make people uncomfortable. I see you have not listed a category for your book. Want to try gay and lesbian literature/romance to see if you can find more readers/reviewers?
Julia Dutta: Thank you so much for your engagement with my book. The book has been published by Xynobooks LLC, USA. I have not self published. Regarding the editing, I agree with you totally; next time I will send in the text for professional editing before I send it to a publication. What I have found in this one is, like all good Editors, the publisher/Editor interferes very little with the manuscript and they do not add much to the text. So on my next one, I have been careful, done a lot of work myself. I can suggest to my publisher to add, Lesbian, gay, CSA etc. As you can see the Publishers have targeted Women as a category, to market to. "Stories of women from India" they said. Some of the stories are as old as 1985! Others are as new as 2011.
I am part of LinkedIn writers group and everyone there seems to have Self-Published and they do market their books very well. My publisher has said that the comment on Amazon is BEST and also talking about it on Twitter, as the book is naturally targeted to reach the hungry for India stories, NRI possessing Kindle, iPad, Tablet etc. In India, it is yet a far cry, the Kindle I mean.
RA: Btw, The formatting could have been better. The text being centered in my Kindle, is very hard to read. I format books, so I know this can be done better. People often will not read a book if the formatting is bad.
Julia Dutta: Do you mind if I told my publishers about the formatting? Perhaps they need feedback too to improve on their software too! Thanks a ton for talking to me.
Cheers!

Monday, April 04, 2011

Book Review: Turtle Dove by Divya Dubey

A real friend is forever available but might never be the one whose kind council is ever heeded to.

Can the power of the mind determine the gender of a foetus?

Must we always see the “older generation” as people we need to respect, or need we rethink what we have been taught?

Six stories, nay issues, which shake the reader even after they have put the book down and make them, think.

Welcome to Turtle Dove by Divya Dubey.

How can a math nerd think and do things which are so far away from his passion?

The book challenges the boundaries of human relationships and pulls up facts, one may not like to address, but can’t run away from them either.

To what extent can a family go, to prove that it is dysfunctional? For such families, is that a normal? Then, will the protagonists be cocooned in the cuckoo’s nest?

Every story is laden with layers of deep insights into psychology, working at the bottom of a surface that is both intriguing and fascinating. In fact, for those who are who are attracted to Psychology as iron filings to a magnet, this book can’t be overlooked.

It’s not as if there is some extraordinary literature here at hand, but yet, the way the stories unfold themselves, you might get absolutely obsessed about the story till you see it through.

I did!

Divya Dubey chose to publish this book herself thereby giving birth to her own Publishing House called Gyaana Books. I wonder if it was a choice or a compulsion because, the stories are so bold, I would hardly be surprised if Publishing houses chickened out.

Last but not the least, writing about love making or acts of sex are some of the toughest writing one can do, in my mind. To engage in the act, dressing it up with words that drag the reader into the performance, both as a participant in terms of the soft hues of excitement caused, and yet, still only an observer, is an art, not given to all writers. Divya Dubey has mastered the art. Hence, the weak hearted and the gentle souls need to skip through many paragraphs.

That is, of course, if they can!


Title: Purple Dove
Author: Divya Dubey
Publisher: Gyaana Books
Website: www.gyaanabooks.com

Pages: 227
Price: 195
Buy: www.flipkart.com
And bookshops in your city

About the author: Divya Dubey is Publisher Gyaana Books. This is her first collection of short stories. She is expecting to write more. She passed out of St Stephen’s College, Delhi, with MA in English. Later she did MA Publishing at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford. Occasionally, she also does articles related to writing/publishing for mainstream newspapers and magazines, and also conduct guest lectures on the same subjects. I was shortlisted for the British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur of the year Award (Publishing) 2010. You can also visit her blog: http://www.dearddsez.blogspot.com/