Just how dispensable chief editors can be has just been proved by one proprietor-driven publishing house, Rupa. Three months ago R.K. Mehra grabbed the manuscript of a debut novel by an investment banker. Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone—What not to do at IIT opened to lukewarm reviews but has sold over 50,000 copies already. Both Mehra and Bhagat (anIIT-IIM alumnus) put their heads together to come up with winning marketing ploys including tapping into alumni lists, pinning posters on collegenoticeboards, etc. What really did the trick, according to Mehra, was the price: Rs 95. Nine years ago, he had published Anurag Mathur's Inscrutable Americans at an equally irresistible Rs 45. The book's crossed the 1,00,000 copies mark.
Next time you visit AIIMS, go visit the toilet on the eighth floor. According to P.C. Alexander, whose 485-page controversial autobiography, Through the Corridors of Power, will hit the stands on September 17, this was the unlikely venue of a dramatic series of hushed talks that led to Rajiv Gandhi being sworn in as PM. The author insists Rajiv had to walk in there to consult colleagues and bureaucrats, not once but three times in a row.
