Category: BLF 2017

Good writing or Good marketing? Ask Savi Sharma & Varun Agarwal.The session had both Savi Sharma and Varun Agarwal and was a treat not to be missed. Ying and Yang, they definitely do not fall under the same stars. Savi Sharma, India’s first successful female self-published author navigated the audience through the journey of her success. It was astonishing to hear about her writing flight which started through Facebook and ended in Amazon.

Her love of writing took Savi Sharma from her C.A. pursuit. The first novel she wrote took about 4 years to complete and was discarded by her as it did not feel right. Ironically. her second book, ‘Everyone has a story’ took about just 3 months, and that is now the sensation. In the session, Savi Sharma’s love for writing and her belief that good content can always garner an audience was evident. It was a juxtaposition to what Mr Varun Agarwal of Anu Aunty fame felt.

Varun Agarwal’s claim that anyone can become an author if they can pen down 60,000 words might have raised some eyebrows in the audience. But he charmed the audience when he himself admitted that his debut novel, How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-founded a Million Dollar Company’ required quite many spell checks and was grammatically wailing. After all, who doesn’t love self- depreciation?

The importance of marketing was stressed upon by both the authors. However both the authors had different views on the same. While Savi Sharma admits that it is a necessary evil, Varun Agarwal expressed that marketing is what that can make or break a book. It was quite inspiring to hear how Savi Sharma used social media to market her book by posting quotes and extracts from her book. This eventually garnered her enough audience that she felt quite confident to sell her books on Amazon.

The session thus provided the aspiring authors’ different takes on the path to success.

About the Author – Vibhuthi Viswanathan is a Potterhead and chocoholic.Curling up with the ‘Balabhumi’ and spinning out tales from its illustrations to her little brother was her first interactions with a book. Although she has moved on from good old BalaBhumi, she still hasn’t stopped twirling words and pauses. She currently writes for Bookstalkist.