Meet Ms. Meena Mishra, the author who sold 1000 copies of her latest book ‘The Impish Lass- Book 2 ‘without spending a penny on any sales, promotion or advertisement, in less than 2 months, in this pandemic.
Meet Ms. Meena Mishra, the author who sold 1000 copies of her latest book ‘The Impish Lass- Book 2 ‘without spending a penny on any sales, promotion or advertisement, in less than 2 months, in this pandemic.
– Meena Mishra
What is more challenging – writing a book successfully or selling it?
Writing a book is easier than selling it. You have control over your writing, but you have no control over the sales of the book. If you have lots of money to spend on marketing and advertisement, the visibility of your book helps you reach out to the readers. If you are already famous with a big sales record you don’t have to put in efforts for these things but if you are a beginner like me who is beginning from the scratch with no support from any big name in the industry, it’s very difficult to sell your book.
- Ma’am, your book has got 5-star ratings on amazon.in and kindle apart from receiving raving reviews from the readers including the greatest nuclear scientist of this country Padma Vibhushan Dr. R. Chidambaram. How are you feeling as an author?
I am glad ‘The Impish Lass- Part 2’ has been well received by the readers. Actually at the end of the day you feel delighted as an author if your readers value and appreciate your efforts. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have been a part of my editing team.
(The participants of ‘Be an Editor for a Day,’ contest, Yutika Bhansali for handling this contest. Core editing and proofreading team – Praniti Gulyani, Ishani Behari, Kirthika Jayakumar, Sheila Bhattacharya, Shruti Bhardwaj, Anamika Kundu and Aparna Bhat for editing and proofreading all the stories at least 5 times. I am so very grateful to my self-motivated team.
Of course, I would like to express my infinite gratitude towards Dr. R. Chidambaram for being kind enough to accept my invitation of writing the foreword for this book. The official letter sent by him is like ‘Bharat Ratna’ for me. Something I would like to treasure for lifetime.
- How did you manage to sell 1000 copies within two months in this pandemic and lockdown without any marketing or advertisement?
I do have my personal contacts that includes my friends, colleagues, poets, writers, editors, relatives, and ex-students. I received an overwhelming response from all of them. I would send them personal messages asking them to support me by buying my book and they would oblige me. There have been writers and friends who were either hospitalized or quarantined due to Covid, still they bought my book to show their love and support towards me. My friends from Mumbai English Educators’ Team and Asian Literary Society also came forward to support me despite their personal struggles. My colleagues who had never ever read a story or poem of mine before, also came forward to support me wholeheartedly. I am so very grateful to each one of them.
- Is it right that you discouraged the readers to buy the book from different online platforms and encouraged them to buy directly from the publishing house? Don’t you think it would have added to your book coming up in ranking of bestsellers?
Yes, I did. I am not only an author but the CEO of The Impish Lass Publishing House too. Why should I encourage the people to buy from online platforms? I don’t believe in this bestseller ranking and all. For me, It reached my readers and they could resonate with the stories, nothing else is more important than that.
- Which is your favourite story in this book?
‘How I Spent My First Earning ‘is my personal favourite as it portrays my love towards my mother.
- Who inspires you to write?
I have been living in an imaginary world with my secret muse. It’s my world where there is love, fancy, imagination, drama and much more. Whenever I am happy, sad, mad, upset, I share my feelings with him. He is a patient listener and always gives me right suggestions. Whenever I write something, first I seek his opinion on it and then proceed further. The last chapter of this book, ‘A Letter to My Muse,’ is dedicated to him.
- What would be your next step after this? I mean any other book in line.
I would like to rework upon my novel ‘Within the Cocoon of Love,’ co-authored by Vishwas Vaidya, a poet cum scientist from Pune.
- What is your message for the budding writers?
Don’t consider your first draft as your final draft. Work and re-work upon it. Get it edited, re-edited and proofread before your work goes for final printing. Be patient. There’s no short-cut to success. You never know whether your book would get buyers or not. Have faith on your skills and keep on honing them.
- You have done so many anthologies. Which is your favourite anthology and why ?
The Bitter Almonds conceptualised and edited by Najeeb S A is my favourite anthology due to many reasons. First of all, the theme’ magical realism,’ was too difficult to understand. The editor was patient enough to give so many examples so that we could understand what to write. Secondly, the editor had not only done an honorary job but ensured that almost 50-60 copies were bought by him and his friends. As a publisher this was the first anthology with zero investment and lots of profits in terms of reaching out to the elite readers and sales as well.
