"HOW TO BECOME A BEST SELLER" - Story Mirror Creativity Workshop III

Sharing some of my thoughts on “How to become a Best Seller” from the 3rd Story Mirror CreativityWorkshop, which was organized in association with Story Mirror, ApparaoGalleries, Madras Photo bloggers and Aspiring Authors Group. The  speakers at the workshop were budding author and poet Sulaiman Sait, Director Brindha Sarathy, famous cartoonist of Hindu - foremost Krishna Devotee Keshav and Film Director / Producer as well as a fine Tamil Haiku writer NLingusamy. 

If you like to know more about the workshop III, please check this post by Madras Photobloggers. For the details on the upcoming Workshop IV on 17th Dec @ Apparao Galleries, please register here and checking on the 'Going' Tab.

HOW TO BECOME A BEST SELLER

The agenda of my talk was to get the aspiring author to understand what goes on behind making a best seller and how a budding writer can work on the ideas to get to the top. The agenda of my workshop was...

And here are the main point from the workshop.

BASICS

First things first , to make your book a best seller, the content is the king. Write a great story with beautiful language, flesh your characters with interesting matter and thoughts, you have a winner at your hands.

Second, as I keep repeating in my talks the powerful words of Milan Kundera, “Any work of art has to have a purpose of its Existence”. Your book has to have a purpose to suastain interest in the long term.

And finally the 3^rd basic thing is to “Write the Damn Book” as Naresh Fernandes advised me some years back when I was looking for the way to publish my first book, “Songs of the Mist”. This is what the enthusiastic budding authors forget to do and waste precious amount of time in contemplating, thinking and finding the right / any publisher to publish the book.

MARKETING

Find your champions: The best and the most powerful advise that I can give, in terms of marketing your book, is to find your champions, usually they consist of your friends, relatives and colleagues.

Create your champions: And equally powerful advise you should thing about , in the process of becoming a best seller, is to help others become a best seller. This way you will create your own champions.

APPROACH

Keep the buzz going

Find New angles, Promote in new ways, Launch in new places

Workshops, Book Clubs, Training

Create a platform to share your thoughts, ideas and reach out to your readers

Write something that other’s can find use for e.g my post on Hindu Lit For Life is used as archive for the official Hindu Festival Page. Click here and click on the "Archive Blog" tab. Below is the case for IndiBlogger's BNLF Curtain Raiser, which was used in their portal for their mega blogging event last year, Oct-Nov.

In the end, here are some key points that you need not only to keep in mind but also actively pursue. Sharing also some of the pictures from the Story Mirror Creativity Workshop III. If you would like to attend the upcoming 4th Creativity Workshop, please register here...

Take-aways

1. Advertisements on FB, Twitter and most of the social media’s do give ROI. Personal Emails do, personal interaction do. SO create an email List

2. Keep the interaction going on, help before asking for help

3. Celebrity Endorsements, High Value Influencers, High Profile Publisher’s don’t work in terms of ROI

4. Book Readers, Review Bloggers, Book reading communities work. Get on to them

5. The best turn around is your own website, blog or group is. So create each one of them and invest your time and effort on it.

6. Write the next book, get your book translated, publish Kindle versions of supplementary books

7. Create workshops, help in learning curve of your readers, provide value of your interaction

8. Solve a problem, provide support without any need of reciprocation, become an expert in your niche area

9. Focus on your area of expertise

10. Get one blurb that counts, Get an introduction by some one of authority or expert in your area, ask for their help in spreading the word.

11. Utilise Amazon’s marketing tools

12. Finally, get your champions together, which will come from your family, friends and network.

TO ATTEND THE NEXT WORKSHOP ON 17TH DEC @ APPARAO GALLERIES - CHENNAI, PLEASE CLICK HERE AND CHECK THE 'GOING' TAB.

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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On Writing Fiction                  

TEDx Chennai - ERASING THE BOX

How one goes about 'Erasing the Box'...?

A professor gave a blank sheet of paper to his graduate students, which had a black dot in the centre of the page and asked them to write a small essay. Most of them wrote about the black dot, forgetting that there was also a wide empty space around the dot.

This is the way we respond to situations in our day-to-day life, formed through our past experiences. However, it is not our experiences that got our species to the top position on the evolution scale. We are there because of the innovative way we have responded to our given situation over the millennia. And that’s the essence of this year’s theme of TEDx Chennai, “Erasing the Box”.

But before I get into more details about this year’s theme of TEDx Chennai Event - ‘Erasing The Box’, let me remind you that TEDx Chennai is back and this time it is bigger, better and more innovative.

 
What is TED and TEDx Chennai?

TED is a global foundation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together the world’s leading thinkers and doers to share ideas that matter in any discipline.

In the same spirit, TED has created TEDx - a locally organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience, focusing on individuals and innovation in various cities. TEDx Chennai will be bringing together our region’s most innovative, inspiring and creative minds showcasing their story. This event is hosting 1200 open-minded, creative and forward thinking individuals representing all facets to Chennai life including businessmen, educators, artists, homemakers, activists, doctors, lawyers, students, futurists, and every person that is interested in broadening his/her mind by participating in this event dedicated to Ideas Worth Spreading.

TEDx Chennai Theme - ‘Erasing The Box’

We have been born free from any limitation since we first ventured out of the womb, but then the habitual way with which we usually respond to our diverse experiences has imprisoned our minds in kind of a box. Even though we try to simulate ‘out of box’ thinking, we are really not away from its limiting character.

‘Erasing The Box’ is about the free flowing thought without any preconceived notion or restriction. Just as the river that forms its own path, forming its own boundaries meandering across diverse landscapes, shaping rocks into bold sculptures, we look forward to giving you an experience that will shape your ideas into success stories. It is about time that we erase that box…

And to facilitate this, we are organizing some great speakers from across India with diverse background and experiences to share their thoughts. The idea behind wholesome full day interaction at TEDx Chennai is to equip ourselves to erase these limitations through stimulating conversations and venture out to explore new thoughts - an excursion for the mind of sorts.

And that you will be inspired to do, as you hear 12 powerful speakers of diverse background from across India, share their thoughts… including Dr. P.K. Tewari - renowned scientists, Deepti Zachariah - an architect, Manu Joseph - author, Kirthi Jayakumar - activist, writer, peace educator, Pradeep Chakravarthy has worked in the HR function at TVS, Cognizant , Infosys and McKinsey

Come join us on 23^rd Oct, 2016 for a day full of ideas and inspiration at Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, Chennai. (Registration at 9 AM)

To buy the tickets, please log on to the following link and use Reference code ‘SHASHI’ to buy…

Eventjini - http://eventjini.com/tedxchennai

BookMyShow - https://in.bookmyshow.com/conference/tedx-chennai

Explara - https://in.explara.com/e/tedxchennai

We have many things to share with you this time… JOIN IN 

WE WILL LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE…

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Curtain Raiser Hindu Lit for Life 2017                                  

Chennai Colors: N Lingusamy - Haiku Writer, Director and Producer of Tamil Movies

(Chennai Colors is a section of my blog in which I share the colors and hues of creativity from the thought leaders of the city who make our Chennai, a beautiful place to live in.)

 

Digital Art by Lingusamy

Pebbles reflect

The cutting edge power

Of the stream

 - A Haiku by Lingusamy

When the famous Tamil Movies director, producer and scriptwriter N Lingusamy called me to meet, I was sure that it would be a short curtsy visit to discuss our mutual passion of writing Haiku. But as the day went by, I realised that its going to take some time. He has a disarming charm that makes the words flow and time moved on swiftly. Our interaction went on like his words above, which some times floods the banks with its powerful surge and some times shape large boulders into beautiful sculptures. In the end, it proved out to be a wonderful sharing of thoughts with one of the creative personalities of Chennai. 

Few days earlier, I had received Director Lingusamy's call. He had heard about my own passion for Haiku from our mutual friend Ashwin of Odyssey Book Store. He wanted to have some views on his Tamil Haiku, which was translated into English by one of his friends. After the call, he sent me some of his Haiku and as I liked most of them, I was looking forward to meet him.

As we sat down to share our mutual experience on writing Haiku and discuss the beauty of world’s shortest poetry form, I could feel Director Lingusamy’s enthusiasm and focus on all things creative. He had also  called some of his colleagues and a little later his fellow Director, scriptwriter and poet - Brindha Saarthy also joined in, which made it more like a poetry session.

But before I go further, here is a little information about this very creative Chennai personality - N Lingusamy. Personally, I believe he has added a spark to the Chennai city with his smart, action oriented, story based movies which has captured the imagination of movie goers across the state.

A Brief Note about Director N Lingusamy

Narain Linguswamy made his directorial debut with the Mammootty starrer family-drama Aanandham in 2001 and followed it up with films Run (2002), Sandakozhi (2005), Paiyaa (2010) and Vettai (2012). He and his brother N. Subash Chandrabose have also produced films through his production company, Thirupathi Brothers.

Lingusamy hails from a village Lakshmipuram in Tamil Nadu. He joined as an assistant director to director A. Venkatesh for his Tamil film Mahaprabhu and followed in his next film Selva. He had also assisted Vikraman in Vaanathaippola, a family drama on brothers.

Although Lingusamy has worked in Tamil only, his films have been dubbed or been remade in other languages too. Dubbed Telugu versions of Run, Sandakozhi and Paiyaa, titled Run, Pandem Kodi and Awara, respectively, were released in Andhra Pradesh and also became commercially successful.[33][34] Aanandham was remade in 2005 as Sankranti by Muppalaneni Shiva in Telugu, while Jeeva remade Run in Hindi under the same title in 2004. His Paiyaa was remade in Bengali in 2012 as Jaaneman, while in 2013, a Telugu remake of his Vettai titled Tadakha was released.
- From Wikipedia

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As the morning progressed, I noticed the subdued beauty of the living room. Dir Lingusamy usually has his creative sessions with his team and informal discussion with his friends in this room, where many of his digital paintings added to the color. The little butterflies on the French window, opening out to the little ‘Buddha’ kind of garden gave a feeling of serenity. As an interior design professional I liked the place. I could also feel the inherent energy of the room, which I am sure added to his creative out put.

Director Lingusamy started writing his poetry from college days and without realizing that he is writing world’s most popular form of poetry -Haiku, he stuck to the style. His first Haiku, which is reproduced below, was published in a famous Tamil Magazine as well.

 

Digital Art by Lingusamy

To the Man

Ironing the cloth

Wrinkles in his belly

This Haiku was inspired by watching an old person, who was ironing shirt in the by lanes, around his college. He still remembers the day clearly, as he was spending some free time with his college friends. The image stuck in his thoughts as he realised that the old man was in the process of removing wrinkles from the clothes of others, while incapable of removing creases of poverty and deprivation from his own life.

 

An English translation of Lingusamy's Haiku is going to be published
shortly by one of the new and upcoming publisher from North Indian
"Story Mirror"

Writing Haiku is meditation for me and that’s what comes across from Lingusamy thoughts as well. During our discussion, as we shared our Haiku and creativity in general, it was quite clear that in those inspired moments of creativity, he needs to be alone. With the seed of a thought growing into a sapling of creativity, he shuts himself away from the entire hustle bustle around. He likes to be alone to focus on capturing those  images of life within his words.

 

Some of the Tamil Haiku - Translated into English

Over the years, Lingusamy has written 100s of verses and shared with me a beautiful Haiku, which was an outcome of a particular moment while he was constructing his house.

He told me that as soon as he entered the half constructed house, few of the sparrows who had made it their home, flew off in a flutter of activity…

 

Digital Art by Lingusamy

Still unfinished

Building my home

Sparrows already moved in

As the day moved on, we had a beautiful connection through our own mutual passion. Brenda Sarathy also shared some of his poems as well as explained in detail what he thought of Director Lingusamy's Tamil Haiku. After a while, I realised that Lingusamy was like a friend, with whom one can go on talking and sharing thoughts to understand our own expressions in deeper way. He was like a friend, who instinctively understands and appreciate the subtleties and depths of one's creative outpouring. Looking forward to many more such sessions of creative discussions and sharing of thoughts.

As I prepared to move on, he presented his special Edition of Haiku, to remember the lovely day spent with him. I look forward to the English Edition of his verses - Linku II.

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Some of the personalities featured in Chennai Colors section of the blog...
Dr. Anita Ratnam
Dr. Chithra Madhavan
Anitha Guha
Renie Ravin

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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IndiBlogger's Renie Ravin