"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.

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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On Writing Fiction                  

WRITER'S LIFE: "Being Sattvaa" - What to look for if you are planning A Writer's Retreat

Being Sattvaa - An Idyllic Resort ensconced in Nature's lap

“… when I ask you to have a room of your own, I am asking you to live in the presence of reality, an invigorating life..” Virginia Woolf in “A Room of One’s Own".

And then she goes on to add in the later part of the book, “For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the out come of many years of thinking....” and in my opinion, to put that body of thinking, in a common voice, one needs a space where the thoughts and ideas can freely flow...

 

A retreat group at the resort

That’s what was going on in my mind, as I had write and re-write my own second part of The Monk Key series, when I met Renuka Vaidyanathan, owner of a lovely retreat “Being Sattvaa” in Bali.

The underlying flow of nature surrounding you sounded perfect for a writer’s retreat that I have had been thinking about for some time. So I did some research and fixed up to meet Renuka, to understand what 'goes on' to make a worthwhile space for oneself within the nature’s beauty.

As we sat down for lunch, I asked one question that was foremost in my mind, why she - a banker, without any experience to manage a property in hospitality sector, decided to open a resort in Bali. And how did she nurture it into becoming a beautiful and popular resort?

She said that it was difficult in the beginning. But after moving to Singapore, where she worked with Singapore Fine Arts Society, she developed a strong interest in fine arts. Slowly this interest changed into an obsession to create something that holds nature and aesthetics together. A place that can provide a natural surrounding, which will help creative people to open up. And the result is the beautiful and serene retreat “Being Sattvaa” located in one of the finest spots of Bali.

Renuka and her husband 'zeroed in' to a property in Bangalore as well as in Bali, in year 2011. But things moved faster on foreign shores. The 3-acre site in Bali, which was mainly designed by Renuka, took shape while the one in Bengaluru was still on the papers. By August 2014, she launched her retreat, which now caters to worldwide customers.

 

Yoga Pavellion

She says, “Literature and art is healing”, so she consciously works around the theme. Her aim is to provide the visitors an avenue to heal themselves through nature, serene surroundings and healthy living. She runs various programs at her retreat. Subba Vaidyanathan even conducts an annual program on corporate leadership with spiritual content. At 'Being Sattvaa' there are annual Yoga Retreats, Organic Food Festivals and Culinary Retreats. From Chicago, Sunita - a famous raw food Chef organizes a retreat focused on non - cooked food. Her retreat program uses the homegrown food products and vegetables from the resort.

 

October Culinary Retreat

At the end of a very nice and interesting talk with Renuka, I had realised that to really bring out something good and beautiful creatively, you do need a space where the daily hustle bustle of life takes a back seat. It should not interrupt the free flow of your thoughts, ideas and emotions. And with a professional team to ‘day to day’ manage the resort, ‘Being Sattvaa’ can be the place to assimilate your thoughts to bring the story you always wanted to share with the World. Another thing that made me decide on the resort for my own Writer’s Retreat is its location. It is easily accessible to many of the spiritual sites around the country and then there is added charm of three beautiful lakes that dot the surroundings with its own serenity and peace.

Looking forward to organizing 'A Writer's Retreat' in the year 2017 at the place. So, if the author in you wants to join in with me, please drop in a comment or email. My first book “Songs of the Mist” has already reached there, looking for the time when my second book gets completed there...

My book "Songs of the Mist" with one of the Reader at the Resort

 Leaving you with some of the images from the resort... hope it will interest you to join me there on my next writer's Retreat... 

Lotus Pond

Silence...

And the Sunrise

The First Retreat...

Govind Das - Leader of Yoga Retreat from California...

...and the Yoga Session

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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10 Tips of Writing                  

10 Tips on Writing Haiku - Story Mirror Creativity Workshop

I have had recently shared my “Ten Tips on Writing Haiku” in Story Mirror Creativity Workshop which was organized in association with Story Mirror, Apparao Galleries and Aspiring Authors Group along with the famous Author, Timeri N Murari, who shared his insights on Writing for Plays. As many of aspiring authors and writers present in the workshop asked me to share my thoughts and tips on Haiku, I am writing this one post so that it is convenient for all to read and share.

Poster : Story Mirror, Haiku by Shashi

What Haiku means to me...?

I have been reading and writing Haiku for a long time and over the period, I have realised that it has more depth than some interplay of words, seasons or cutting words known as Kigo etc. For me…

It is painting pictures with words…

It is also a way of living with awareness…

It is also a kind of Meditation for me….

But before I go on to elaborate the above statements, let me give you a brief historical perspective on Haiku. It will help you to appreciate the beauty of the world’s most popular poetic form.

Haiku - A Brief Introduction

(For a detailed discussion, please read ‘UnderstandingHaiku - A Beginner’s Guide’)

As per The Haiku Society of America, a dictionary definition for Haiku is that these are the world’s smallest poems, consisting of 17 syllables arranged in sequence of 5-7-5. 

The classical poems were known as Waka meaning ‘Japanese poem or song’ in the 9th century which were mainly of two types – a long form called Choka and a short form known as Tanka. The opening 17 syllable stanza of Renga Session was known as Hokku which, later19th Century poet, Shiki gave the name as Haiku.

Basho - acknowledged as the supreme master of Haiku, believed to have said to his Zen Teacher that “Haiku are description of what is happening at a particular ‘haiku moment’.

Finer Points…

There are many elements that are intertwined within the verse to create a beautiful haiku. Some of the them are… 

Mystery and elegance (Yugen)

Stillness and solitude –

Sinking into stones,

The trill of cicadas

- Basho

Melancholy sadness and tranquility (Sabi and Shori)

On a withered branch

A crow has settled.

Nightfall in autumn.

- Basho

Or in the spirit of poetic madness (Fukyo)

Let me show you,

You market people,

This hat filled with snow.

- Basho

After Basho, there have been many great poets who took Haiku to the greater heights …

Buson

The bite of my axe.

Sudden revelation –

There is life in this tree!

As Buson accepts his death quietly in this farewell poem

White plum blossoms,

Night turns to dawn –

The time has come

Masaoka Shiki

A river in summer

There’s a bridge here, but

My horse prefers water

Now coming back to what Haiku means to me…

I believe that everything that comes in a flash of insight is potential Haiku. Holding on to that seed and then putting words around it in order to paint a picture; to make it a complete thought which forces a reader to reflect upon it, is what I feel ‘writing’ a Haiku is.

Here is a Haiku that I have had written years back, when in the backwaters on the outskirts of Chennai, I saw Herons, standing for hours together…

Under my feet

Path disappeared

Am I the destination?

Painting pictures with words…

Pain is

When you feel like

Stopping the sunrise

-This is the first line from my book “Songs of the Mist”, where Ashutosh, having lost his brother’s entire family to an epidemic, went deeper into despair. And one night, love of his life also leaves him sinking into hopelessness on the banks of Ganges. And as he opened his eyes, half submerged in the sand and silt of the the river, he felt that this dark night should not come to an end…

Living with awareness…

Over a period of time, Writing Haiku changed me; it gave me a deeper sense of things all around…

Meditation…

In the process of writing Haiku, I move into a deeper level of awareness, just like in Zen Meditation or by Mantra chanting

TEN TIPS ON WRITING HAIKU …

TIP 1: Be aware of your surroundings and the little happiness’s in life. Experience it fully and then the words would form automatically.

TIP 2: Look deeply and then with what you see as well as feel within, you should find words to paint a vivid imagery.

TIP 3: A Haiku becomes more powerful if it contrasts or aligns the nature with your own thoughts and feelings.

TIP 4: Use simple words. Words those come naturally to you. A haiku reflects your own personality in a vivid way.

TIP 5: Write, whenever a thought or words come to you as you are going about your daily life.

TIP 6: Write daily. Haiku for me works like a mantra chanting. Over the years it has slowly transformed me. So I write daily.

TIP 7: Try to write haiku in 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllable forms as it is generally accepted as the norm.

TIP 8: Count your syllables; there are many sites that will count the same for you.

TIP 9: There is a list of Kigo, known as Cutting word as well as seasonal words to be used in classical Haiku, available on the net. Use them as often as you can.

TIP 10: In the beginning, write with a picture. Try to capture the essence of it in words as I usually do. It helps.

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Understanding Haiku - A Beginner's Guide              Writing Fiction - Workshop II