Rather than gambling on dark horse authors, publishers here are forever finding inventive ways to repackage bestselling authors in new jackets. After his triumph with Khushwant Singh's collection of obits, Death At My Doorstep—in its third edition within six months of release—Roli's publisher Pramod Kapoor has hit upon yet another way to hijack Khushwant Singh's books away from his original publishers. He has signed him on for an illustrated Train to Pakistan, to be brought out on the 50th anniversary of the novel's publication next year. His "discovery" lies in a collection of rare photographs of Partition which he found in London and now wants to use with Train....
Most editors privately confess their most tedious work is to balance authors' egos. With authors jealously measuring their writerly worth by the size of their book launch party, the positioning in the publisher's newsletter and even column space in newspaper reviews, editors rarely end up as authors' best friends.
