How to Write a ‘Bestseller’ in India

The makings of a bestseller and a realistic look at the publishing industry in India with Arcopol Chaudhuri of HarperCollins Publishers India.

Firstly – what’s a bestseller?

You want to write a bestseller. Fantastic. But do you know what that is? Yeah well, neither did I.

“There’s no predefined number of copies that a book needs to sell for it to be considered a bestseller,” says Chaudhuri. “In India you could approximate that number at 10,000 but even that depends on a variety of factors – like the genre, the language of publication, the number of print runs, the advance given to the author etc.”

The smallness of that number left me astounded. In a country of 895 million literate people (Census 2011), how can 10,000 be enough?  I did a little research and it turns out - it's true! While no publishing industry in the world has a fixed number when it comes to this, the numbers don’t seem to be skyrocketing anywhere. This article from ‘07 says the number in Canada is 5,000... but there's nothing written in stone.

So, what IS magic number? Nobody knows. (In fact, the New York Times maintains that its definition of a bestseller is a ‘trade secret’.) Arcopol’s number is as real as it gets.

Okay, so the first step is to write my book, right?

The Two Ends of the 'Bestseller' Spectrum

Wrong. If the aim is to be a bestseller then the first step is to know what the audience buys. There are two distinct sets of audiences in India, and while they do merge to a certain extent, they have completely different definitions of a ‘good’ book.

“A lot of books that you (Vanessa) would qualify as crap actually sell very well,” Chaudhuri explains. “They’re mass market books that can be read in a few hours, require minimum effort to read, refer to ‘familiar’ scenarios and are affordable. On the other hand, the books that you would consider good also sell well. Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy sold over 4-5lakh copies. Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean in’ is flying off the shelves. So it’s not like people are only buying mass market books. Each has its own audience.”

“For every 100 books published only 8-10 actually sell,” says Chaudhuri. You need to figure who’s reading those 10 books and why.

Alright. Understand audience. Got it. Now?

Now would be a good time to write. “Write something that hasn’t been written, in a manner that your audience will understand and appreciate,” says Chaudhuri.

Once you’ve understood your audience it will become much easier to write for them. If the audience you’re catering to wants simple words, familiar scenarios and colloquial language – that’s what you give ‘em. Alternatively, if you’re catering to a fancy-pants audience that wants take a leap of the imagination and indulge in fantastic plotlines with unforgettable characters – so be it. The same story can be written to suit different types of readers. Just make the decision upfront and write till you can never read your own book again.

(And for the love of all things sacred, please don’t write crap!)

I wrote it! Woot! Everybody publish my book now!

Yeah… sure.  Getting your book published is easier than it used to be, but if you’re aiming for a renowned publishing house, get ready to do some serious waiting.

“If you send your book directly to a publisher, you can expect them to take at least 3 – 6 months to get back to you. IF they like it you can expect it to take up to a year for the book to actually be out in print,” says Chaudhuri.

“Having a good agent does speed up the process,” he admits. “The truth is that the supply is beginning to outweigh the demand. Everyone blogger and their cousin wants to have their book published these days, making the filtering process extremely difficult for publishing houses. A good agent is simply a much more credible source of manuscripts for a publishing house.”

They published it. But nobody is buying it. Sad face.

Aren’t you just the optimistic lil bunny, expecting people to just buy your book because you wrote it.

“The audience in India has a wide array of choices, it’s difficult for them to filter out what they want to read from what they don’t want,” Chaudhuri explains. It’s as simple as this – if they don’t know your book exists, how are they to even consider buying it? Here’s a fun fact - The internet reaches 12.6% of the Indian population. So, apart from traditional book reviewers, it’s a good idea to have your book reach bloggers, writers and twitterati who are known in this sphere. If you can get a celebrity to endorse it, even better!

Of course, being cute always helps. “Durjoy Datta, for example, has a large following – and a lot of it is comprised of teenage girls who think he’s cute,” says Chaudhuri. (Yes, irrespective of what I think of Datta’s work – it sells.)

If you have any understanding of marketing or decent networking skills, you might want to discuss the marketing of your book with your publishers. If you don’t know anything, try not to annoy them.

I sold 10,000 copies. My life’s work is done. I am awesome. Now give me my prize!

Congratulations. *sticks a gold star on your forehead*

You’ve just accomplished something in a large and growing industry. Things are looking good for you. “The publishing industry is doing well in India. It’s growing at 14-15% annually as compared to 4-5% internationally,” says Chaudhuri. According to Business Today ‘the per capita consumption of books in India may be low, but the sheer size of its population makes this country one of the biggest markets for books in the world.’

Make the most of it in two easy steps. Rinse. Repeat. 

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Arcopol Chaudhuri works with the Corporate Sales & Marketing team at Harper Collins and did this interview simply because I asked nicely on Twitter. Thank you, Arcopol, for putting up with my incessant and often redundant questions. May you always be blessed with intelligent company and a large twitter following.

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*This article is based on the assumption that you can write well in the first place. (Even though several bestselling authors don't exhibit any such skill)