Carolyn Scarborough is a professionally trained life and writing coach, and works with people to turn their “whispering” to write into a reality.  Her most recent book is “Backyard Pearls: Cultivating Wisdom and Joy in Everyday Life.” She is an award-winning magazine writer, editor and newspaper columnist and has published more than 500 articles in magazines around the world. Her passion is inspiring people to tap into their inner wisdom, then share their message with the world through non-fiction books, novels, memoirs, blogs or articles.  She offers one-to-one coaching on the phone with clients around the world, as well as group tele-courses and live retreats. Check out her site www.backyardpearls.com.

Abhijit: I have heard of animal whisperers – but a Book Whisperer or a Writing Wisdom Coach. What is that about?

Carolyn: Good question. I coach people who have the desire to write… yet they are not writing. Some people have a novel, memoir, non-fiction book or even blog that’s been percolating in them for years, but they either haven’t started writing… or they start and stop and can’t get any traction. It becomes very frustrating because they really want to write, yet they’re stopped. I coach with them to discover what gets in their way and clear the path towards joyful, more effortless writing.

As a Book Whisperer, I communicate with clients on the phone — usually a couple of sessions a month — and via email. I listen very closely to what they say – even listening to what they don’t say, their tone, the messages underneath the words. From there we identify where they are right now… and where they want to be. Through the process of deep, intuitive listening and discussion, I help them move.

I have one client who has had a book in him for 15 years, yet he was so doubtful of his abilities and how to start a book that he had simply done nothing. After just one session, he was off and running and now he can’t write often enough!

Quite a few people come to me who want to write, but somewhere along the way, someone told them they weren’t good. Often it seems a schoolteacher passed down this judgment. And from then on, they’ve been shut down. The process here is restoring their belief in their innate ability to communicate and write.

Some clients are hung up because they simply are confused on how to begin, while other reasons are more deeply buried. One woman had been working on a memoir, but it was taking a long, long time to write and she kept getting distracted. As we dug deeper, she realized she had a fear of seeing the book with her name on it on a bookstore shelf. It terrified her, being visible like that. Once  this was identified, we knew how to move forward.

Others have found themselves overwhelmed with jobs and busy lives, yet they feel they are missing out on creative expression and being in touch with themselves. They are ready to open a space in their lives that is more than the day-to-day grind. They want, as author Virginia Woolf says, “A room of one’s own.” They’ve had enough of taking care of everyone else’s needs and demands and realize it’s time to slow down and connect with who they really are. Once they do this, transformation happens that affects every other area of their lives – not just the writing.

In fact, we all need this type of creative respite on a regular basis. And by taking the time to look inward and be fully in the present moment, our writing brightens. On my blog, I talk about when I found myself in need of this kind of tune-up — http://www.backyardpearls.com/blog/2010/time-for-a-sea-change/.

Finally, a desire that drives many of my clients is sharing a message that can have a positive impact on the world. They are not writing just to see their names in print (although that’s a nice side benefit). It’s so beautiful how they want to share their wisdom and contribute in a bigger way. Writing and getting published reaches so many more people, and this is what drives them.

Abhijit: Does having a writing coach help people to get published faster or does it help them to write better? How is the coach’s role different from an editor?

Carolyn: A writing coach can help people get published faster, but speed isn’t the main focus. I had one client who had spent 4 years working on her book, sitting in confusion, going different directions, getting stuck believing it wasn’t good enough or no one would read it. We started coaching and one month later her book was finished and now it’s been published. Her entire life changed. It was awe-inspiring.

We also help clients get published faster simply because they finish their project in the first place! Having a coach means having accountability. However, I don’t hold people accountable in the usual ways, through admonishments if they don’t write.

I teach clients ways to stay with writing that are based not on “push,” but on tapping into their own inspiration and inner coach. I love the quote, “Discipline is remembering what we want.” I help them remember what they want, even when they’ve forgotten it, and that keeps them going.

As for the difference between an editor and a writer… well, an editor typically looks at a piece and improves it, whether re-arranging whole sections and the focus of the piece, or making it more readable or clear. They also get into the nit-picky details of grammar. I used to be a magazine editor and know that role well.

While an editor focuses on the writing, a coach focuses more on the person behind the writing. By inspiring someone, they write more authentically and more often. By clarifying their thoughts, they write with more organization. By teaching them how to find stories, they live in a way that draws story ideas naturally. So we change the writer, not the writing.

That said, however, I do sometimes look at a client’s writing if they’d like suggestions on how to make it more vital, more interesting or ways to get their point across more clearly. That’s not the majority of what I do, but I’m happy to do it if that’s what’s needed.
Abhijit: How does a writer find his/her voice? How does one know that they have succeeded?

Carolyn: The best way of finding your voice is to write without rules, which you can do in a journal that no one will read. What do I mean by this? Well, when I take my dog Ziggy for a walk, he really enjoys it, and he’s also very good at staying right by my side on the leash. Nothing wrong with that. Yet when I let him off the leash in the park, he looks completely different. He runs, he walks, he bounds, he rolls, he leaps. He has his “voice.” He also does things which are socially unacceptable, like eating from the garbage bin. That’s also his voice, but that part can always be edited out later. J

Voice is how we sound when we write without fear, without “shoulds,” without trying to look good. I had one client who was stuck on her book, but she could blog quite effortlessly. That’s because with her book she was so focused on trying to sound “impressive,” she couldn’t write at all! Her inner perfectionist got her.

Another client has a very warm, enthusiastic personality, yet her writing sounded stilted and formal. She had so many fears and so many rules she was trying to follow, that it didn’t come out naturally. Her own voice was choked out. But when she was able to see and let go some of her fears and break all the rules, something very different appeared.

Suddenly she began writing in a way that not only “sounded” like her in terms of cadence and flow, but she also had a lot more fun doing it. That’s another clue. If writing feels like pulling teeth, you’re not likely in your voice (unless, of course, you’re a dentist). Voice usually feels more like flow coming out, and there’s an identifiable feel to it no matter what you’re writing.

As author Patrice Vecchione says, “It’s always a risk to write and speak your truth, but the risk of not doing so is greater. You have only to speak with your own voice, in its rhythms, with its melody and cadence, the voice right there within you, your distinctly human voice.”  When you do that, the rewards are immeasurable…

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Read my take on Royalty and Other Fictional Characters

Chapal Mehra is a publishing professional with over a decade in the Indian publishing industry. He began is career as a commissioning person at McGraw Hill and later worked at the Oxford University Press and Sage Publications. His last full-time assignment in publishing was as Acquisitions Manager at Penguin India. He has worked on consulting assignments with Harvard Business School Press, United Nations Development Program  and the Global business Coalition Against HIV/ AIDS. He is a graduate of New York University and is currently based in New Delhi and works as a full-time strategy and content consultant. Ask Chapal about the authors he has introduced to the market and the list is impressive. The three he always mentions are (a) We Are Like That Only by ex-McKinsey consultant and Marketing thought leader Rama Bijapurkar was the bestselling book in the non-fiction and business category for over 2 years(2007-9) and still continues to be hugely successful book in its revised avatar.  Chapal had chaperoned that book into the market. (b) Arun Maira’s Remaking India was considered a path breaking book in the application of consensus building and conflict resolution in business to national politics and development. (c) The Romance of Tata Steel by RM Lala has been critically hailed as a definitive biography of this great Indian organization.

I thought it would be great to have his perspective that first time authors could benefit from.

Abhijit: What were you looking for when you commissioned those authors?

Chapal Mehra: I think some of the better known writers that I have commissioned at various times include Arum Maira, Rama Bijapurkar, Kaushik Basu, Santosh Desai and  Jerry Rao. Not all these books came to fruition but those that did were quite successful.

I think the fundamental qualities  that one looks for in an author is a deep understanding and passion for the ideas that they want to write on, an innovative perspective on the subject and a reasonably good writing style along with a fair bit of flexibility. New ideas are very, very important  as is context which makes it relevant to the immediate market that you are addressing. A book as you know is a collaborative process. A writer entirely left on their own is often insular. Unless of course, s/he is an absolute genius. But how many of those exist?

Abhijit: As a writer how does one know which publishing house is the right one for me?

It works differently for different genres but a few simple rules apply.

A natural point is that the publisher should a considerable presence in the market you wish to address. Every brand, however big, has specializations or sub brands. Make sure you are with the right brand which has the infrastructure to bring you to your reader.  A big brand which is not player in the area you are writing on is useless for you . For eg. An academic book is well-regarded when it comes from a university press instead of say Penguin.  The next, of course, is that the publisher should have substantial content or similar books like yours, for eg. you cannot do an engineering book with a social science publisher . It would be lost. So having a companion list is important. Having a companion list ensures that the subject area gets enough attention by marketing and promotion and also your book rides along with other books. You also need to look at what the publishers strongest points are – editorial, marketing or sales? You have to understand your partners strengths and weaknesses and what they can provide you best.

Finally, your publishing house and editor have to believe in the idea that you wish to write on. It has to be a combined passion of sorts. You cannot start your first book with someone who doesn’t share your excitement. The sad thing is that in India this paddling pool is tiny.

Abhijit: Should the first time writers have agents?

Chapal Mehra: Sure. If you can find one you like and who delivers for you. Its tricky especially in India. You need to know the following : What is the role of the agent? What do you want them to do ? What do you see them providing are all things that need to be discussed before you embark on the agent relationship. It also depends on the agent you get.

Whenever I have acted as an agent I draft a strategy with the writer before we sign anything and make it clear to them what it is that I can deliver. And there is usually a follow up plan . As an agent the fun for me is to over deliver. I am also brutally frank with authors whose work I don’t think has international audience. Its better of they hate you now rather than later. We start with clear goals and work towards them instead of having some hazy idea of making you rich and famous.

Writers often overestimate the service that agents can provide. Every agent is not going to take you international with a  big fat advance. And really do you deserve that? Also you must learn from other examples worldwide. How many authors travel internationally across the world to you? Does everyone have that potential? Clearly not

Before you get an agent, you need to be sure and clear about what you want the agent to do for you. There are a lot of editorial inputs that agents can give. They can also open the right doors for you in the publishing companies and advise you on the appropriate marketing and publicity strategy. But there are agents and agents so please be sure what you want from them .

Abhijit: How should a writer choose an agent?

Chapal Mehra: Like I said earlier, before you choose anyone be objective and determine for yourself what you want for your book. If you are not Murkami, Ishiguro or Rushdie you need to be a little bit realistic in the goals you set for your work.

So for starters, your vision of the book and the agent’s vision of YOUR book have to match. You have to agree on who the primary audience is, where it should be published and how it should be marketed. Again its like a long-term relationship. You need to be sure you want the same things and agree on a  common set of goals and these can include things such as specific deliverables such as advances and marketing  .

And in case you don’t know what you want, then you have to be guided by your agent but also do your little bit of research. Agents are like all other consultants, some deliver exactly what you want, some deliver more, some just don’t deliver. Remember the list of deliverables that you draw up helps the agent and you. Michelangelo didn’t paint the Sistine Chapel by accident –he planned it.

Abhijit: What are the most common mistakes first time authors make? How should one avoid doing those?

Chapal Mehra: Oh they are endless:

1. Wrong agent
2. Wrong publisher
3. No idea of what they wanted for their book except that it  should get published
4. No idea of the terms of the agreement they signed
5. No idea of their intellectual property subclauses
6. Not enough discussion on how the book will be marketed and promoted

Most assume that the publisher is doing them a favor by publishing their book. Hence they refuse to ask any questions and later complain about how they were tricked. This is at heart a business transaction. So you need to be sure what you are getting into. No one is doing you a favor.  It is also an intellectual transaction so you need to be doubly sure that your ideas are cared for and promoted.

That having been said, first time authors can also be real nut cases. Some of them think that the Nobel Prize for literature is theirs and drive their agents and editors nuts with questions queries and endless heckling. There is a limit to everything . I always tell such authors if you think you are such a genius. Go elsewhere. And truthfully, when such a genius arrives every editor or publisher puts up with their tantrums. So if I am not putting up with yours. You should take the hint.

Abhijit: What are some of the watchouts for first time writers when they sign a contract with a publishing firm?

Chapal: Most professional publishing firms have standard contracts which they are not open to amending. It is the way they do business and these cannot be altered to every author’s requirement. In fact they are mostly standardized across organizations with a few changes here and there. As a first time author you need to know what you get into a contract with the publishing firm for :

Copyright: Understand the difference between copyright and  the right to publish.

What territory are you signing the book deal for? Do you want to keep US and UK or Europe rights for yourself?

Please check the royalty clause. Are you happy with what the standard royalty is ? Usually it’s the same across publishing firms

Please check the subsidiary rights.  Do you want to give up or keep –translation rights, film rights, tv series rights etc. In most cases I would advise its best to let the publishing company keep these unless you want to do something with them or you think it will have enormous potential which you have a strategy to exploit.

If its an advance contract what are your dates of delivery? What are the conditions associated with non- or late delivery?

Its always good to discuss the contract with your editor to also understand why the organization is offering the contract that it is . Most large professional publishing firms are not out to rob you. But its important for you to understand their thinking.

Abhijit: What are the typical amounts payable as advance to writers. How does one get these million dollar advances that one hears of?

Chapal: Before we discuss an advance lets understand the nature of it. An advance is a monetary commitment to a writers work. This work is a product that the publisher hopes to sell. The advance is built on the foundation that the book will sell in certain numbers. Some authors labour under the impression that large advances are always doled out . Its only a fraction of writers that get such advances. It depends on what genre, the potential and the ability of a publisher to pay. Some advances from international publishers seem big because you multiplied them by 50 really! Its not too high in India unless you are a well-established writer or the book has huge potential. It can range from Rs40,000 to a few lakhs . In any case, these huge advances are only possible if the mathematics are done properly.  Most standard advances in fact are adjustable against future royaltyThere isn’t a standard strategy to getting that multimillion dollar advance. It depends on the potential of your work and the capacity of your agent. I know of people who have written to a big publishing firm directly and been offered reasonable advances because their work is good. others usually get it through agents.  So there isnt a single strategy. And what are multi-million dollar advances? I million dollars is the equal of 5 crores in India .Which Indian writer has received these recently? Only a handful …

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My favorite website in this respect would be http://www.advicetowriters.com/ They have loads of stuff you will read and learn from. Must read.

Should you have an agent and such vexing questions answered here http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article611600.ece

I found this article useful Ten rules for writing fiction

We have all grown up in a world that clearly values rationality and rational behavior. Being emotional was frowned upon. Whenever someone displays emotions in public view it makes news (Think of Maradona’s expressions as the team played and lost) and the world turns its cameras to look at the person who just “lost it”. When I studied Science in school, I was told by my teacher that if there was something that cannot be explained by Science it was not worth knowing and that it was obviously irrational. Such was the vehemence with which I was nudged towards being rational. As I grew to develop my own view of the world, I got fascinated by the limitations of rationality. Rational stuff had a logical sequence and clearly activated that part of my brain that I had difficulty accessing. You try this one and you got to do this real quick: A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Write down your answer. If you said that the ball costs 10c, then you are part of the majority. That is the good news. The bad news is that the correct answer is 5c. Shane Frederick, Prof at MIT Sloan posed this question to more than 3,000 students at eight different universities. Fewer than half gave the correct answer. The trick is to not go by your instinct which gives the wrong answer, but to take a second more and reflect on it. Shane has developed a 3 question test – that question is one of the three – that can be almost as accurate in predicting characteristics that other tests like the SAT, ACT, or the Wonderlic Personnel Test. He also found that those who do well on the cognitive reflection test tend to be more patient in decisions between smaller sooner rewards and larger later rewards.  Before you pat yourself on the back (your own or anybody else’s for that matter) remember, they are also more willing to gamble in financial domains.

Now let us check the other half of your ability. Try saying the words in the visual. The top line would read red, blue, orange purple. That is easy. . The task is to quickly name not the word itself, but the color of the word. As an example, for the word “green” printed in red ink, the correct verbal answer is “red.” Because of a phenomenon called directed attention, this is hilariously difficult to do. You must actively inhibit the automatic response—reading the word—in order to do something else. This is not the only way in which we can understand the power of the irrational. There are many examples that have been done to show how we all do dumb and irrational things despite taking pride in our rational selves.

Take for instance Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment. How far would you go giving what you thought were electrical shocks to another human being simply for a study about memory? What would you think when the learner went quiet after you apparently administered a shock labeled on the board “Danger: Severe Shock”? How far would you go? The majority, at least 63% of the participants continued right until the end – they administered all the shocks even with the learner screaming in agony, begging to stop and eventually falling silent. These weren’t specially selected sadists, these were ordinary people like you and me who had volunteered for a psychology study.

Magic tricks work in the same way. Rationally speaking you would of course agree that there is no such thing as a color changing card. If you picked one card from a deck of cards, how could a magician change the color of the card while you are watching the trick on camera. The camera never lies, right? Wrong.

My hypothesis is that you need to learn to develop the irrational – also known as the “creative” aspects of you. Writing a story is a good way to develop your irrational self. Stories are boring when they are straightforward and predictable. For instance try this for a rational (aka BORING as hell) opening lines of a short story.

A boy and a girl sat on the same bench in the Physics class. The Professor was teaching (what else) Physics. The boy and the girl were trying to think of what the possible question paper would be like…

Now try this one on

A boy and a girl sat on the same bench in the Physics class.While the Professor was teaching Physics, the girl’s mind wandered. She was thinking of options. What protection should she use when the boy would meet her that evening. Would it be better to carry a small revolver or should she just use the sharp kitchen knife, she wondered. The boy was telling himself, “If only I had known that she was vegetarian, I would not have poisoned the fish…

The best storytellers are magicians who use the same principles of psychology to lead the reader to a path that is perfectly rational and logical, but wrong. The purpose of every story is to coax the reader into suspending their disbelief. Good cinema does the same. See how much more interesting a life you would lead if you stopped resisting the irrational aspects of human beings. For instance, if you knew that groups fail to share information with each other that is known only to themselves and simply repeated what others already knew, you would put less faith in decisions made by the group. People are seen as more capable when they talk about shared rather than unshared information. To be on the safe side people prefer to stick to repeating things that everyone knows and, bizarrely, others like them better for it. Heck!! I am not suggesting that you drop all opportunities to be rational. Merely suggesting that the next time you do something irrational, maybe there is an opportunity for you to learn about stuff most people have learnt to ignore. For instance, by knowing about the 7 Psychological Principles of Scams you can protect yourself from scams that makes 3.2 million people each year in the UK into handing over £3.5 billion to scamsters.

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If you like to try more tests that check for cognitive skills, try a logic and reasoning skill test here

Or this interesting piece on Ten Social Psychology Studies

It is truly a magical moment when you read the manuscript and suddenly feel that there is nothing more left to add or to take away. If you add stuff you will feel the need to trim the fat and you cannot take away a single word without leaving gaps in the mind of the reader. It is that moment when you feel the most self-confident. You are ready to take the book to a publisher.

You write to the publisher and give them a taste of the good stuff. They do not seem to share your enthusiasm. Hmmm… maybe it is time to take your manuscript to another publisher. Some of them tell you that your work is not good enough, some find it “interesting” but they have their hands full, some say that it would be a couple of years before they can think of publishing your book.

Publishers really look for a commercial proposition in every manuscript. They want to understand how many people will buy the book you have written. It is always worthwhile to do that Math before you go to a publisher. The easiest way to do that is to go to a bookstore and see if there are other writers who have published books somewhat like the one you wrote. Ask the store, how many copies of the book they sell in a month or in a year. Now repeat that exercise for a few more stores. Maybe you can ask a friend in another city to do a similar exercise on your behalf. That will tell you if your book will have a market or not. If you have written a text book, ask a few schools if they would recommend your book as a required reading. Be prepared to explain why they should do that.

Finally, look into you list of friends, relatives, colleagues etc and ask how many of them will buy your book. Most of them will want you to “gift them a copy of your book.” Majority of the planet does not know that authors need to buy their own book if they have to gift it. You will occasionally find some people who will say, “Don’t expect me to BUY your book.” At this time resist any urge to kick their shin. They speaketh out of ignorance and not malice. Here is where self-publishing kicks in. For a small fee you could see your own book in at least your own bookshelf. NY Times had talked about self publishing thriving as the publishing industry undergoes some huge shifts with many publishers dropping advances paid to writers.

Vanity Publishing is used to describe books where the cost of writing, printing, production, distribution and even publicity is funded by the author. If you are a rich dude, this is your chance to be an author. The critics are less than kind to such books. A better version of this is called Subsidy Publishing where the publisher will bear part of the costs. Self Publishing is a good way of doing limited copies of your own book and testing the market. This is a good option if you want a 100% control over the contents – esp if what you are publishing may be controversial or off beat. Publishers do not take any of the proceeds and if the author distributes it too then there are no distribution fees as well. The result is a larger payoff because it is a much larger percentage of the sale price. Don’t feel apologetic about self publishing. The Celestine Prophecy, Chicken Soup for the Soul, What Color is Your Parachute are all books which were self published.

Some popular sites are Lulu, FastPencil, Create Space and Xlibris. Check out the website of Xlibris for their FAQs on why self publish.

Advantages of self publishing

1. Time
   Traditional publishing takes too long; most traditional publishers work on an 18-month production cycle. Choose to self-publish and your book could be ready for the market within three months. (AB: I highly recommend that you work with an editor who will trim the manuscript and make it more readable. Imagine if you could edit and clip your home videos and give it some crispness)
2. Your book-the way you want it
   A book is a reflection of the author. Self-publishing gives you complete control on the direction of your book. The decisions are exclusively yours and not limited by third parties with intentions and interests different from your own. (AB: You can choose the font, the cover design and paper quality of the book, even if you know nothing about it. Each choice will impact your cost. So keep an eye on the tab as you keep ckecking those fancy options. It is like assembling your own computer. Each accessory has a cost and it all adds up. )
3. Retain all rights
   As a self-publisher, you own all rights to your book. If you use a traditional publishing house, they will own all rights. If they lose interest in your book, you will not be able to print additional copies unless you purchase those rights back. (AB: This is one big advantage you have. If some regular publishing house thinks that your book has potential, they will be happy to offer you a deal if they get you to the negotiating table.)
4. Testing the market
   Because your book may fill a niche that has not been met, you can test the market by self-publishing. Find out how well your book will sell, and how successful it will be. (AB: This is a polite way of saying that if your book self only three copies then you know that it was not born to be a mass market product. It is what we will politely call a ‘niche product’. You will also realize why publishers did not find it a commercially viable proposition. You can print limited copies that you know for sure you could personally sell and then decide if you want to print more copies to hawk. That is the advantage of print-on-demand technology. If you want to make only three cups of coffee, no point buying a truckload of coffee beans.)
5. A limited market
   Your book may appeal to a limited market and, therefore, may not be of interest to a large publishing house. (AB: See commentary with point 4 above. Think of a school’s yearbook. How many times have you rushed out to buy someone else’s yearbook? The same would hold true for say most people’s family history unless you have a recognizable surname.)

Writing a book is tough. Finding the right publisher is tougher. Self publishing solves the second problem. But distributing the books and selling it through a bookstore is a helluva task – esp if you self publish. But that story is for another time.

Check out this neat piece on self publishing from NY Times or this one from HowStuffWorks

Career stories are in, and a new set of part-time authors is cashing in on the trend. Bankers, admen, scientists , hoteliers, HR professionals, are all drawing on their experiences to produce ‘corporate novels’ where the careers of the protagonists take up just as much space as their love affairs. And a new generation of readers is lapping it up, says Dibeyendu Ganguly in Corporate Dossier section of Economic Times dated 27 February 2009

Ravi Subramanian is the author of If God Was A Banker, which has sold over one lakh copies. With royalty payments at Rs 40 a copy, the book has netted the head of consumer assets and credit cards at HSBC a cool Rs 40 lakh since its publication in 2007. “I want to be the John Grisham of banking,” he says. “I’m the only one writing on this and there’s a big market out there. After all, banks employ more people than any other industry in India. Young people want to join banking and naturally, they are interested in reading about it too.”

Youngsters who read Subramanian’s book for insights into the banking world might be in for a bit of a shock. Following the rise of two IIM graduates to the top hierarchy of an American bank, the steamy novel is full of organisational politics, sexual harassment, fraud and a slimy direct selling agent who doubles as a pimp for the bank’s bosses and wields more power than the CEO.

The creative side of advertising has always tended to produce novelists, script writers and lyricists. Some hold on to their jobs, like Chauhan, while others move out. “People who join the profession are those who want to express themselves in some way,” says Jaideep Varma, who quit advertising after 12 years to become a full-time writer. “But then they realise that advertising is not going to lead to any kind of self expression. That’s why you find so many ad professionals moving into other creative areas.”

In Local, Varma’s debut novel, the hero is a fresher in a Mumbai ad agency who sleeps in local trains after work — an interesting idea which, alas, doesn’t actually work. The parts set in the ad agency, however , work quite well, which proves that it helps to have some experience of what you’re writing about.

Abhijit Bhaduri, Human Resources (HR) director of Microsoft India, has chosen to spin his novels around the HR profession rather than any particular industry. A graduate of XLRI, Bhaduri set his first novel, Mediocre But Arrogant, in the ‘Management Institute of Jamshedpur’ , from where his hero graduates to land his first job in HR.

His second book, Married But Available is about the protagonist’s early years in Balwanpur Industries, an Indian company that’s been taken over by a multinational. The book is sprinkled with HR gyan and Bhaduri, who has worked with Tata Steel, Colgate and Pepsico, says it gives his characters credibility: “The professional and personal lives of my characters aren’t separate, they’re wholly meshed.”

One of the biggest selling Indian novels of all time is Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans, written at the fag end of the license raj, when the middle class Indian dream was to immigrate to the USA. Utkarsh Rai, managing director of Infinera India, published a collection of Hindi short stories titled Reteela Safar after returning to the country ten years ago. “It was a theme people could relate to in those days,” he says. “Now the focus has shifted to Indians in India rather than Indians abroad.”

The big fans of the corporate novel today are Indians who are not into serious literature. They once had to look to writers like Arthur Hailey for industry-dramas but now have the option of picking up an Indian novel they can relate to. “Middle class Indians define themselves through their careers,” says Amitabha Bagchi, IIT professor and author of the novel Above Average. “They would naturally enjoy reading stories about the pitfalls of professional life.”

With liberal doses of romance, action and intrigue , some might say corporate novelists depict their work life to be far more exciting than it actually is. But one industry that always lends itself to juicy fiction is hotels. Four decades ago, Mani Sankar Mukherji wrote the best-selling Bengali novel Chowringhee, about the goings-on in a five star Kolkata hotel as told by a maudlin clerk.

Now Advaita Kala’s written the delightful Almost Single, in which her sassy heroine, a guest relations manager in a Delhi hotel, ‘tolerates her job, hates her boss and bonds big-time with her friends.’ The book is replete with hilarious vignettes from hotel work-life and Kala admits she’s drawn heavily on her seven years of experience with the Oberoi group hotels and the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. “My experiences were even more outrageous than what’s in the book. I’ve actually had to tone it down slightly,” she says

Almost Single has since sold over 50,000 copies and along with The Zoya Factor, it’s set the ‘chick lit’ genre rolling in India. “Men will never admit to reading it,” laughs Kala. “At the Jaipur Literary Festival last month, there were lots of girls who came upto me to get their copy of the book signed, but there was only one guy. And he said it was for his girl friend.”

One man the new-gen corporate novelists owe much to is Chetan Bhagat, the author one who opened up the market for this genre. Bhagat’s debut book, Five Point Someone, was set in IIT-Delhi , his own alma mater, but since then, he’s moved to writing novels that are based on research rather than personal experience. “I enjoy the research,” he says. “I learnt so much about call centres while writing One Night and I used google heavily for cricket history in The 3 Mistakes Of My Life.”

Does the Deutsche Banker ever plan to write a novel set in the banking world? “Not while I’m still in the profession,” says Bhagat, categorically. Which leaves the field more or less open to HSBC’s Ravi Subramanian, who is currently working on another novel called Devil In Pinstripes, which features bank collection agents who drive customers to suicide. “It’s important that I stick to writing about banking,” he says. “I want to establish my corporate novelist pedigree before I get into other kinds of writing.”

And finally, how are the corporates who are the subjects of these novels reacting to the trend? Kala, who now works with Time magazine, says the hotel industry has been hugely supportive of Almost Single, laying out the red carpet wherever she’s had a launch: “The ITC Kakatiya in Hyderabad, ISTA in Bangalore, all hosted my launch events free. The staff there made me feel I’m one of their own.”

At HSBC, Malini Thadani, head of public affairs, was the one entrusted with onerous responsibility of going through the manuscript of If God Was A Banker prior to its publication. She wielded the censor’s scissors in six places, cutting out all but one reference to HSBC. “My job was to ensure the book didn’t damage the institution. In the end, we accepted it as an imaginative and entertaining work of fiction,” she says.

Once it was published, however, HSBC sportingly backed the novel, with country head Naina Lal Kidwai launching the book at Crossword. After all the coflict and tension, an altogether happy ending.

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