Unveiling the Secrets: My Writing Journey

My journey as a story-writer began during my undergraduate days at IIT Delhi, where I started writing short stories. Initially those stories had my friends as the main characters, and were written in fictional settings. I'd written stories across romance, crime, horror, time-travel and many other genres, most of them still lying somewhere on my Google Drive.

Little did I know that these stories would become the foundation for my future path. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that I decided to write an anthology comprising four short stories. I took almost 6 months and wrote some interesting stories, after which I decided to approach the publishers and literary agents.

I loved to hear back from Suhail Mathur, who runs The Book Bakers literary agency, whose initial suggestion was to write a full-length novel from any of those short-stories. After a quick discussion, we zeroed-down on the crime story. Suhail suggested some modifications to the story, but assured me that it can make the cut, if I write it well enough.

It was now on me to add depth to few more character arcs, and extend the plot to make it more realistic. I also added a major character in the story at this stage. Writing settings and anecdotes are fairly easy for me, since I base most of them from my own experiences. After working for around 4 more months, I was able to complete the first draft and share with Suhail. We got the raw manuscript edited before submissions, and Suhail started with his pitchings.

I got into ISB soon after and was too indulged in the hectic curriculum and making new friends, that I hardly had time to check on the progress. It was over 6 months (and ISB placements) later when I started getting restless, but Suhail shared the happy news of my book receiving 4 publisher contracts. I took some time for my due diligence, and finally trusted Petals Publishers based on my research and discussions with others in this field.

Harpreet, who runs Petals business, kept me updated with the next steps in the process, while Suhail got the cover made by The Book Bakers team. And finally, after a long wait, it was finally time for me to see the book listed on Amazon. I remember sharing the exciting news with all my friends, and getting pre-order screenshots from them. I'd already shared the advance review copies with a few of them, and heard encouraging things about the story.

At each step in my publishing journey, I've been extremely fortunate to receive help from the right people who've lived through that journey. You can't navigate through a tide without a compass. I also realised that candid conversations with people helped me greatly in writing the story and also in finding readers.