It's the done thing in the West where a publisher thinks the only way to get attention for a debut book is to get it endorsed by a celebrity author. Here in India the onus for finding a celebrity blurb falls squarely on the first-timer himself. Authors like Khushwant Singh and Ruskin Bond, too established to care about risking their credibility, routinely oblige aspirants with a sentence or two of unguarded praise. Others, despite their vanity being tickled, are not so generous. Says Dalrymple: "I limit myself to not more than five endorsements a year."
When Nobel winner V.S. Naipaul agrees to launch his latest book, Magic Seeds, in Delhi, one would've expected the hosts to go to town with it. But British Council or publisher Picador India don't seem unduly anxious. Invites for the first time in Delhi's exuberant book-party culture are limited to just 150 instead of the usual 500-700. Perhaps the card should have also carried a statutory warning: Ask questions at your own risk.
