Advance Party
What does it take to earn a six-figure advance for a first novel these days? You have to be young, of course, and good-looking, but what helps most is to have an Asian name, even if it's the only Asian thing you have. The latest Brit-Asian sensation is Gautam Malkani whose Londonstani is being currently mauled by UK critics for its fat advance: there was a bidding war for his manuscript at the Frankfurt book fair last year and he bagged a £300,000 advance. So, is there hope for the advance-aspiring writers in our part of the world? Not really, because what the West needs just now is young, immigrant voices that will help shed light on what's so far been a closed door: what it's like to be Asian in UK, US or wherever.
Fable of a Wise Man
No one remembers V.D. Trivedi any more but he'll go down in publishing history as India's first literary agent who set up shop briefly in the mid-'60s. In an industry where authors still complain of publishers who don't pay a rupee in royalty, Trivedi discovered almost immediately that there was no money in this career. And 40 years later, the only literary agents we have are the publishers themselves, who're more than willing to sell your book to publishers abroad so long as you don't ask for a share of the profits.
Building On Repute
It pays to be an Ansal bahu. Kusum Ansal's new book, Discovering LatinAmerica, may go unnoticed but not its launch. All of five ambassadors—of Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru—have been roped in, as also veteran book-launcher, Pavan Varma.
