CURTAIN RAISER BNLF IV : Preeti Shenoy - Keynote Speaker

“If the book doesn’t strike a chord or the reader finds the quality poor, he/she is not going to pick up another book by you.” - Preeti Shenoy

Preeti Shenoy is a keynote speaker “At Blog Now, Live Forever” - The Most Disruptive Conference on Blogging, conceptualized and hosted by IndiBlogger on 31st Oct - 1st Nov, Mumbai

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What is BNLF?

The Blog Now, Live Forever is an event, which is carefully constructed from the ground-up to give you a front seat to amazing insights into the world of blogging!

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Preeti Shenoy - A blogger, who managed become India’s most celebrated Author with her six best sellers, listed among the Forbes List of 100 most influential celebrities of India (2013) edition. She is also an Artist ( Portraits, Mixed media, paper quilling), Poet, Yoga-Buff, Ex-basketball player, Blogger, Dobe-owner, Nature lover, Ted X speaker and a Mother… and my blogger friends, this is how “Blog Now, Live Forever”  works. She is joining BNLF as key note speaker on Day 1 to tell you about her journey…

Apart from her family and friends, she loves reading, creating, learning. She says, “To me, all these activities I do are just extensions of each other. It is when words fail me I turn to art. They are not ‘deliberate’ pursuits. I am driven intensely by an inner need to express myself—and I use whatever form appeals to me at that point of time. But if you put a gun to my head and asked me to choose only one, I would probably choose art. Actually, writing. Wait, no---how can I choose?”

On a personal note, she says…

Coming soon...

If you have read my blog and met me in real life, you would find there is no variation. I have the same persona online and offline. I don’t pretend to be anything that I am not. Perhaps what people don’t come across would be my love for fitness and Ashtanga yoga, although I think I would have blogged about that too. I also am an urban farmer; into organic terrace farming and I grow my own vegetables.

Spending time with my loved ones makes me really happy. I am quite an introvert, though it doesn’t seem so from my blog. I do enjoy meeting people but I so need my solitude too.

“I am immensely grateful to be where I am today and happy that I have a job which I totally love and enjoy” - Preeti Shenoy

As many of the blogger’s do write, but they develop writer’s ‘Block’ when it comes to creating a buzz, so I asked her the inevitable question...

How to Market the Book

Marketing is really a combination of many things. I get many mails from readers, who tell me that my book has changed their lives, has made a difference to the way they live. Others tell me that there is simplicity and depth in my writing—something they find rare. Many men confess that they began seeing the women in their lives, in a new light after they read my books. I am glad that the stories I tell are able to make an impact on people. This, I think is one of the major factors in making a book click. There is only so much marketing that one can do. If the book doesn’t strike a chord or the reader finds the quality poor, he/she is not going to pick up another book by you.

In order to connect with the readers, one has to be genuinely interested in them! Else it just becomes fake and you can easily spot fakeness a mile away. Readers are not fools. So if you become active on the social media only when your book is about to come out, that will obviously not work. If you are genuinely interested in your reader, you will connect with them, no matter what!

"The important thing is to choose a good publisher who believes in the book as much as you do and is willing to go the extra mile for marketing". - Preeti Shenoy

On Women Empowerment

“There is a great divide between a rural and an urban woman. Recently I was a keynote speaker at the women managers’ convention of Madras Management Association. There were several women achievers, like the first woman sarpanch with an MBA, who hails from a ‘privileged’ background and yet has chosen to work in the village; Wing Commander Pooja Thakur, who led the guard of honour when Obama visited India; and my heart swelled with pride, hearing them. Yes, there are a lot of things that need to be changed for Women in India today, in order to make is safer and nicer for them. Mostly what has to be changed is the misogynistic mind-set of a few Indian men.”

On Advice To Bloggers

Blog regularly. Be genuine. Be Nice. Be yourself!

There are so many people who try to copy the personality of a successful blogger/writer. That’s a big put-off.

One should visit other blogs and leave comments but do NOT demand that they visit you back in turn. They will if they find your content interesting enough. Demanding reciprocation is a No-No. Take care of your grammar and punctuation. If you do not care about your writing, why should others?

On Blog Now Live Forever

The thing is when you are blogging; you are creating content that will exist forever. It is like a time capsule, which you can take to go back into that time. When I read my past blog-posts I can see for myself, what a long way I have travelled. Blogging for me has been something that changed my life, widened my perspective and my horizon endlessly, immeasurably and in a way, which I never thought possible.

“Blogging has made me live the life I thought was possible only in dreams.” - Preeti Shenoy

…and she is totally in love with India. In fact, when she was living in the UK, she had written a blog-post called “Phoren country—Desi Dil” and “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani"

So there you are friend, Key Note Speaker Preeti Shenoy - an inspiration to many of us blogger’s to live our dreams.

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Welcome to Mumbai and IndiBlogger, Preeti Shenoy, we look forward to a great learning experience with you at BNLF in Mumbai on 31st Oct - 1st Nov.

TO READ CURTAIN RAISER ON OTHER KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, PLEASE CLICK ON THE NAME BELOW...
1) Christoff Trappe 2) Jeff Bullas 3) Arnab Ray 4) Preeti Shenoy 5) Purba Ray

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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