My Publishing Experience with the BookMedia Publishing Company

 

I have had always lived under the impression that writing a book is enough. I would be getting media attention and will find my book in any random book store of India. But the reality is way different than dreams. And authors are no exception to this. Immediate fame and instant bestsellers – all these feats are real – but it happens only with a handful of authors in a decade or so. The last two authors who got this feat in the last decade in India are, I think everyone knows them, Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi.

The list is fairly long enough to do some research on this topic i.e. how to become a national bestseller author. Well, I did some terrific research and found out that those who are writing books/novels consistently are now giving tough competition to Chetan Bhagat books. For example Preeti Shenoy, Durjoy Datta, Nikita Singh, Ravinder Singh, Ajay Pandey, and some more names.

Consistent authors with remarkable success are igniting hopes in millions of struggling and new and aspiring authors like me. So, the point is not to lose hope and keep writing good books.

So the journey began! I wrote a book! A fiction–novel. I prepared synopsis and blurb for the back cover. Also wrote an author bio. Polished first 3 chapters. Next, I made a list of traditional publishers of India. I sent them email, with valid attachments. It’s a history now. I never got reply and I couldn’t find a literary agent as well. As an author, I felt I am too lonely to get published via a right and traditional method.

Another side of the publishing industry is seeking best and trustable self-publishing companies. As soon as I Googled best self-publishing companies in India, I got to see only sponsored company names like Notion Press, White Falcon Publishing, Blue Rose Publishers, and a few more. I browsed their websites, one by one. Their offered packages were higher for my set budget. I emailed them but did not get proper response. But one thing was common, all these companies asked me to take their premium package for a gamut of facilities and good sales record. I took my time and did some research on each one of them. I found something startling – these companies were not marketing their books properly. I could hardly find blog reviews or coverage on Goodreads or Quora. On the name of book marketing, I found some coming soon/released now book posters and teasers on YouTube. I was not convinced. I tried Pothi…but their paper quality was too bad…they just printed books on bond paper, in addition to that they offered around 5 rupees royalty on a book priced at INR 150.

I made a list of self-publishing companies in India and browsed their websites and social media accounts. Checked some reviews on Google. All these companies were forcing me to opt for premium packages. I gave up on these big names. My next search option was Quora. I did extensive research and stumbled upon BookMedia Publishing Company, to my surprise it has many offices in India. I checked some of the books published by them have substantial social media coverage with relevant #hashtags and blog reviews were cool.

From the website, I got the number. I called and explained my motive. Immediately, I got response on WhatsApp. I chose to pick up a starter package due to my budget constraint. They had no problem, rather encouraged me to take that. First thing I realized that they are here for longer duration and are not greedy. My basic concern with them was book marketing support and publishing assistance. They happily provided me the following things:

·         Cover design and typesetting with ISBN number.

·         They provided two rounds of copy editing.

·         My royalty was set 80 percent. So, on a Kindle when my book was priced as 100. Amazon took 30 rupees. From the 70 rupees, I got my royalty as 56 INR. It was fair enough.

·         For the book marketing, they did cover my book on Amazon, Goodreads, Instagram, Book Review Blogs, Press Release and Author Interview on a news portal website, with YouTube teaser video. In addition, they did promote my book on more than 50 Facebook groups with relevant keywords. My book had healthy sales.

·         Their distribution is great! I never saw my book getting out of stock on Amazon. Whenever my friends ordered, they get it on time. It means they maintain a strong inventory of books.

I personally liked their response or TAT (turn around time).

Overall, I fairly had a good time with BookMedia publishing company. Now I am about to finish my next book and will go with them once again. Anyone looking for an honest publishing deal can definitely pick them up. You can know more about them at their website: https://bookmedia.co/