Could you share a little about yourself and
what led you to become a writer?
Back when we lived in
the San Francisco Bay Area I worked in IT. Then, ten years ago, we decided to
move back to India. I had two kids under the age of three so an IT job was out of
the question. In my kind of work, if the network goes down at 3:00 in the
morning, you had better be at work at 3:00 in the morning. With little kids
that wasn’t something I could do so I was forced to rethink my options. I’d
always loved writing so I figured it was as good a time as any to switch
careers.
Do you write full time? How much of your life
is set aside for writing?
Could you tell us a little about your novel?
I have written two
novels and one novella. The manuscript of my first novel, Tell A Thousand Lies, was shortlisted for the 2012 Tibor Jones South Asia prize.
UK’s Glam magazine calls it one of
their five favourite tales from India. I had a traditional publication contract
for this novel but I chose to decline it in order to self-publish. I have no
regrets because it has been such an amazing experience. Because I was one of
the first people to self-publish in India, I get a lot of media attention. And,
when Amazon set up operations in India, they flew me to New Delhi to be part of
that launch, which was pretty cool. Wow! That's so great. Good for you :o)
Back to Tell A Thousand Lies. This novel deals
with superstition in rural India. Most of my writing deals with issues related
to women so if I had to pick a genre, I’d say Women’s Fiction set in India,
though I do have some elements of comedy in most of my writing.
My novella, The Temple Is Not My Father, is about
temple prostitution in India. Though the practice is officially banned, young
girls are still dedicated to the Goddess, which often leads to sexual
exploitation of these girls. This novella is also available is an audiobook
now.
My novel, 28 Years A Bachelor, is also women’s
fiction set in India (in that it deals with in-laws’ control over the lives of
their daughters-in-law, arranged marriages etc.), but there is also lot of
comedy in it. From what readers tell me, the comedy seems to work for them. Personally I am glad you added some humor, I can imagine the topic would be too heavy otherwise.
Where does the inspiration for you main
character and story come from?
I happened to read two
unrelated articles in the newspaper here in India – one relating to living
Goddesses and the other to do with witches. The second article talked about a
woman who was stoned to death for being a witch and I was like, oh my god! – in
this day and age? Sadly the media is still guilty of fear-mongering today.
India is a land of
crazy contrasts – extreme poverty and extreme wealth; female infanticide
(babies killed at birth for being the wrong gender) and female engineers (I
have a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering); our ancient philosophy
teaches us tolerance but we also have honour killings (women killed for
marrying without the approval of their parents). I am one of the lucky ones in
that I’ve had all the opportunities a women could ever want, so I choose to
write about the less fortunate. That’s how Tell
A Thousand Lies came about.
What is the message behind the story? Was it
something you specifically wrote a story around or did it develop as your
characters came to life?
My message is always
empowerment of women but I don’t want to come across as preachy. I try to focus
on the story and hope the message comes through.
Do you work from an outline or just go with the
flow? If you use an outline, how detailed is it?
Like I said
previously, I’m disorganized. Which also means I’m a pantster (one who writers
by the
What is the time span in your novel, weeks,
months, years? How much research went into it?
In Tell A Thousand Lies, the timespan is
16 years, less in the other two.
I had to do some
research for The Temple Is Not My Father
because I had no idea about temple prostitution. In all my other books I have a
lot of cultural detail. My source is my mother-in-law who, happily enough, is
an acknowledged expert in this area.
How have the changes in present day publishing
impacted your schedule as a writer?
One oft-repeated
advice to be successful writers is to have a large body of work. While I admire
writers who can put out a book every three months, that isn’t me. It took me
seven years to write and publish two novels and a novella. Still, I want to see
if I can cut down on marketing and promotion and pick up pace, writing-wise. I’m
also experimenting with audiobooks. I commissioned someone to make The Temple Is Not My Father into an
audiobook but I might try my hand at doing one of the other novels myself.
How do you handle marketing? Do you have a
plan, a publicist or just take one day at a time?
I’m the kind of person
who likes to be in charge, so I do everything myself. I watch trends and try to
make them work for me. Bookbub is this mega-marketing plan everyone swears by,
but I wasn’t sure I could make it for me; after all how many people would be
interested in reading about three sisters in rural India? Turns out, plenty
were. Despite the hefty amount Bookbub charges for promoting your book, I was
able to make my money back, and more. I have diversified, putting my book up on
multiple platforms. I’m also a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. I
think of this as a wonderful professional investment because I have learned so
much there. This is good information for our fellow authors, thank you!
I’m one of the most
visible faces in self-publishing in India; as a result I get a lot of media
attention. This has resulted in a lot of opportunities for me. Despite this 95%
of my sales come from the US/UK markets. This is because ebooks still haven’t
picked up in India. My next goal is to work on paperbacks for my novels. I’m in
talks with a distributer regarding this. Couldn't you just go through Createspace? If Amazon is now in India, you must have access to it, providing you have an ITIN number.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Don’t rush to publish.
Have beta-readers read your book to fix issues, then hire an editor. After the
editor is done, also get people to proofread your book.
Could you tell us what you’re working on now?
I’m working on a story
on ‘honour killing.’
Bio:
Rasana is
the author of Amazon bestseller Tell A Thousand Lies,
which was also shortlisted for the 2012
Tibor
Jones South Asia award.
UK’s Glam magazine calls this novel one of their five
favourite tales from India (June 2014). Her other works
are The Temple Is Not My Father and 28 Years
A Bachelor.
Now on to
more personal stuff – Rasana would like to be able to tell her readers that she
once stopped a robbery single-handedly, except she’s terrified of robbers. And
geckos. And two-year-olds who throw tantrums. When she’s not running scared,
she’s mother to a girl and a boy who were respectively six and eleven years-old
when they wrote and illustrated The Mosquito and the Teapot.
She lives with her husband and children in Hyderabad, India, where a lot of her
stories are set.
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