Writer to Author — The Transition event @ Chennai

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  On September 05,  ’15, a few of us authors and a few more writers & authors in the making got together for an informative event on the craft and business of writing and selling books. It was more of an informal event where we spoke about various aspects of publishing we knew about, in order to guide and encourage new authors on the publishing and e-publishing process.
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Some of the attendees in rapt attention!

What happened, we authors decided to meet at 12 PM, 3 hours before the event was scheduled to start, in order to plan. I myself went there by 1:10 PM and had to wait for another 40 minutes for the second person to come! After that, both authors and attendees started coming and we started chatting. I had jotted down some points to speak, and other authors also had planned for their respective parts. So it was fine 🙂

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This was the rough agenda for the day. First Kavipriya, the main organizer and the most enthusiastic person among us all, spoke about the craft of writing. Then Harika, an editor from Hyderabad who came just for this event, in addition to a trip to Munnar, spoke about editing and structuring of a novel. Between them I think they spoke for almost an hour! 🙂
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I don’t remember who spoke afterwards and in which order, but I do remember that Sashi spoke about Haiku poetry, Ishwar spoke about spoken poetry, Ganga spoke about traditional publishing, I spoke about Print on Demand and eBook publishing, VJ Eshwar spoke about experiences with his traditional publishing firm, Dhasa Sathyan spoke about the craft of writing short stories. Someone else spoke passionately in an American accent on why authors need to leave their comfort zone, set their stories outside India, and write for a different audience, etc. I forgot his name!

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We had displayed all our books there. I bought 8 of my own books for this event and 6 of them sold off! There are two more remaining, if any of you want let me know 🙂 I made many new friends and was glad to meet many of my old blogger/writer friends.

The ambiance at House #22 cafe was good, especially the outdoor lawn. Actually they gave us the space for free, and took only the money that came via selling beverages. So thanks to them. We also did not charge anything to the attendees. People just had to pay for their own beverages.

Altogether, an afternoon/evening well spent. It was an excellent event that enabled us to network with fellow authors and learn about different aspects of book publishing. I think Chennai needs more informal events like these to foster a good culture of literary writing.

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10 thoughts on “Writer to Author — The Transition event @ Chennai

  1. Rachna Chhabria

    It must have been nice to meet other writers and discuss all writerly things with them 🙂

    1. Rajesh K

      Yes, I’ve been wanting to attend such events in Chennai for sometime, fortunately it happened sooner.

      Destination Infinity

  2. Priyanka Lal

    It would be so good if these talents could mingle with us here in Bangalore aswell

    1. Rajesh K

      I once went to a writers’ meet up in Bangalore organized via a meetup.com group, by popular author Sharath Kommarraju. Many would-be authors turned up and they meet every week it seems. You can also try to join this group via meetup.com

      Destination Infinity

  3. SG

    I am glad authors and writers & authors in Chennai had a great and informative session.

    You decided to meet at 12 PM in order to plan. You were the first person to show up at 1:10 PM. The second person showed up 40 minutes later. Romba nalla irukku!

    1. Rajesh K

      🙂 😛 🙂

      Destination Infinity

  4. Jeevan

    Good initiative by you all to encourage each other! Hope it was a nice experience sharing ideas with other 🙂

    1. Rajesh K

      Yes 🙂

      Destination Infinity

  5. sm

    Great experience.
    Next time if possible record it and upload here on site so we can also learn few things.

    1. Rajesh K

      Good idea. I’ll try to a summary post of my speech there.

      Destination Infinity

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