Writer and publisher Divya Dubey, who just started her own literary agency, talks to Rhea Dhanbhoora about books, publishing and what it’s like in the industry
Speaking to Divya Dubey changes your opinion about books in print. While most of us are ready to bow down to technology, she says that there’s still hope for the humble book. With her publishing house, Gyaana Books, ready to release two more titles next year and her new Literary Agency open for submissions, she’s got a lot going on. We find out more…
Tell us about your life before publishing?
I grew up in Ferozepur and Ghaziabad, and went to universities in Delhi and Oxford. I was an avid reader and enjoyed writing. At school and college, I worked with newsletters and magazines. I did a year of print journalism after my graduation, but I soon realised that I was in the wrong field.
Tell us about your publishing house.
Gyaana Books is a traditional publishing house which began in 2009. We’ve published eight titles – a romance; two crime fiction titles; gay fiction (Mahesh Natarajan’s Pink Sheep — a popular collection of short stories); literary titles (such as Dipika Mukherjee’s Thunder Demons, long-listed for the Man Asian Prize 2009 and Anjana Basu’s Rhythms of Darkness, a sequel to her bestselling novel, Black Tongue.
You also own a literary agency.
Authorz Coracle was launched this week. It will not be dealing with Gyaana Books on principle. We accept both fiction and non-fiction as long as they are well written and have the potential to sell.
How essential are literary agencies?
In India, literary agencies have just begun to gain popularity and prominence, partly because there are many more authors now and the number of publishers is growing. If the agencies do their job well, they reduce the publisher’s time and investment in a project to quite an extent. Plus, the author gets a clean, polished script as well as representation.
How can we sift between good and bad agents?
A good agent will always be straightforward with you. If there are gaping holes in the manuscript, they will help you fix them and offer good editorial input. They will provide you with correct information, make no false promises, give you a standard contract, do a good job of cleaning up your script and make a genuine effort to push it forward.
Is traditional publishing losing its ground to electronic and self-publishing?
Most readers have always been keener on popular fiction. Yes, the younger crowd has created a new genre (the campus novel) but, apart from that, traditional publishing still caters to the same old market of serious readers. Vanity publishing has allowed a few authors to get themselves published, but their sales have not made a significant dent in the market. Changes have sprung up because with computers and the Internet, retail methods have changed. Also, since there are more authors as well as publishers, there is more of a fight for shelf space. Finding visibility is a task, especially for smaller publishers. India still isn’t a ready market for e-books as far as trade-publishing goes. It’ll take some time.
The industry overlooks poetry because of poor sales. Is there any hope for the genre?
There are a lot of people out there who write poetry, but very few who read or buy it. So, even big publishers publish just one or two books a year. People buy already established names. But, a few Indian and international literary journals do publish poetry. There are also online journals. And the option to self-publish is also available.
What are the most common mistakes that new writers make?
They don’t do their homework — that is, they don’t search online, talk to other readers and writers or join online groups to learn more about the field. That’s why some of them fall victim to the wrong kind of publishers or agents. It is advisable to do some research since most mainstream publishers have websites and presences on various networks.
You say that journalism and publishing are extremely different fields? Could you explain that for us?
Each has a different purpose, a different target audience and different requirements. Journalistic writing is streamlined, to-the-point, at times incisive, objective and impersonal, directed at making a point. The focus is on facts, figures and column space. It’s about reporting, debating, or expressing opinions and time is a key factor.
Publishing, on the other hand, also has deadlines, but they’re differently managed. One needs the ability to recognise a good manuscript. The focus on editorial quality is crucial. As far as writing is concerned, creative writing has no hard and fast rules. If at all, they’re defined by the genre the author wishes to explore. It’s much more personal, experimental, layered and masked. The skill one requires is the skill of good storytelling. The pace differs, and there is a focus on poetry and beauty in language.
Tell us about your own book, Turtle Dove: Six Simple Tales.
Turtle Dove is a collection of six short stories, named after the title story. The stories are based in and around Delhi and are people-centric. They don’t just explore human relationships in an ordinary way, but also explore complications beyond taboo territories and the darkness in human nature.