BENGALURU : Twenty-five-year-old Savi Sharma self-published her debut novel, Everyone has a Story, this was later followed by her second novel, This is Not Your Story, which became an instant best seller, with over 1,50,000 copies sold.
She is now out with her latest novel, Everyone Has a Story-2, which is a sequel to her first novel, Everyone has a Story.
Excerpts:
What was your trigger for writing the book Everyone Has a Story - 2?
I always had an instinct to write the sequel of Everyone has a Story-2, because I felt there’s more to explore with the characters and the story was very close to me. I had a couple of plots in my mind when I was working on my third story.
The sequel being one of them. The incidents I experienced in my life since the launch of my first book and those which I observed in the lives of people in my life, gave me the idea for the sequel. It truly was challenging to write a sequel of the book, which had been loved and praised by readers and in the process had set a benchmark for itself.
So I had to meet those expectations but at the same time, stay true to what story my heart wanted to tell. And I am very happy with the end result. The sequel is perhaps my best work till now.
Have you always seen yourself as a writer?
Writing was always the end plan but how, that was not final. In my school times, I even thought of being a journalist, a radio jockey and being in other such fields, which included writing or more precisely, storytelling.
It was during the first year of my college when I started reading lots of novels and I got a clear picture towards my dreams. It was after reading the first ten novels of my life that I realised that I want to write stories, books and inspire millions of people.
What has been your inspiration as a writer?
The stories around and in my life was my inspiration for writing. I always had the urge to share the things which I experience in my life. The books I read, the movies I watch,
inspires me.
Does your writing draw influence from vernacular books?
Not really. But yes, your writings are always influenced by things you read, watch or
experience.
With the digitisation of books, have you moved to reading books on screen or do you prefer the old-fashioned books?
Paperback will always be my preference. I believe that the story comes alive when it’s on paper, when you can touch and feel the words.
What is the process you undergo while writing? When do you write? Do you follow a particular schedule? How do you deal with writer’s block?
I can write anytime, anywhere. But when it comes to writing the final draft of my book, I prefer to write during night because that is the time when the world is silent and I can hear my heart and soul’s voice. I prefer writing the first draft of my book in a diary.
I think every writer goes through a phase where he or she can’t do justice to what they are feeling. Call it a writer’s block or anything else. Whenever I go through such phase, I just take a break, explore new places, listen to relaxing music and start reading different books on different themes or watch movies. This has really worked for me.
Do you go back to your old writings? How does it feel to re-read what you had written years back?
Yes, I do that often. It is a surprising journey to dwell in your past writings. Sometimes you can’t believe that you wrote something so beautiful and sometimes it’s a fun experience.
How difficult or easy is it to get published? Have you had to modify or change the content of your book for it to get published?
I had self-published my first book. Apparently, I chose the difficult way which was never done before at this scale. Along with my mentor and friend, Ashish Bagrecha, we got thousands of copies of my book printed by top printers in Delhi, opened seller accounts on Amazon, sent stock to their warehouses and started selling books on their platform.
It surely was a tough task because we had to do everything on our own without a team of experts. But when you truly want something and you work hard for it, it pays off. As far as modifying the content is concerned, I was not required to do it for any of my books as yet.
Do you think marketing plays an integral role in the success of a book?
here is lot of content available to people on social media, Netflix, Amazon Prime and other platforms which doesn’t require much effort to consume. So, in this world full of content, an author needs to promote his work to reach the audience and make them aware about the stories he or she has for them. Out of sight is clearly out of mind.