For author Amish Tripathi, it was a tough journey when it came to publishing his first novel Immortals of Mehula. The author who self published his first work, today, is a best-seller and feels that the initial journey after finishing a novel, is a bit difficult. Moreover, there is a certain favouritism that exists in the publishing world. “Nepotism emerges from the basic parental instinct to protect, and like most things in life, has positive and negative fallouts. Every industry in all parts of the world has an elite. And it is natural for the insiders to protect their turf,” he says.
He adds that this is the way of the world. “Outsiders must try harder. It is the way life is designed. And perhaps, the way it will always be,” he adds. This, after numerous tweets emerged blaming the publishing world of being less respectful towards certain works that are adaptations of Hindu culture, much like Amish’s works. “My tweet was not so much about the difficulties that I faced. Quite frankly, I have often encountered kindness and friendship from this industry, which I mentioned in my tweets as well. I referred to the lack of respect in the publishing industry for Hindu culture that does not fit in with their paradigm. It is subtle. It is there. That is what troubles,” he says.
But the author, who recently released Suheldev: The King Who Saved India, is a fan of numerous contemporaries of his. “Although I read non-fiction, I read around 5-6 books per month. And almost 90% of my reading is non-fiction. Among the few Indian historical-fiction writers I regularly read are the works of my friend Ashwin Sanghi. And of course, he writes very well,” he says, adding, “Among the non-fiction Indian writers, who write in the history space, and whose works I enjoy, are Sanjeev Sanyal, Vikram Sampath, Hindol Sengupta, William Dalrymple (Indian in all, but birth), Abhinav Prakash (though he restricts himself to articles), Vishwa Adluri, Joydeep Bagchee, and many others. I used to enjoy the books of Ramachandra Guha, but I must admit I haven’t read any recent book of his. I will try to set that right in the near future.”
{{/usCountry}}But the author, who recently released Suheldev: The King Who Saved India, is a fan of numerous contemporaries of his. “Although I read non-fiction, I read around 5-6 books per month. And almost 90% of my reading is non-fiction. Among the few Indian historical-fiction writers I regularly read are the works of my friend Ashwin Sanghi. And of course, he writes very well,” he says, adding, “Among the non-fiction Indian writers, who write in the history space, and whose works I enjoy, are Sanjeev Sanyal, Vikram Sampath, Hindol Sengupta, William Dalrymple (Indian in all, but birth), Abhinav Prakash (though he restricts himself to articles), Vishwa Adluri, Joydeep Bagchee, and many others. I used to enjoy the books of Ramachandra Guha, but I must admit I haven’t read any recent book of his. I will try to set that right in the near future.”
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