The self-publishing story of dust and dreams
The success of Rana Ayyub’s book, ‘Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up’, is the result of single-minded determination
All the angst fades
when you’re the country’s latest self-publishing sensation who has,
pretty much single-handedly, managed to sell 32,000 copies of a book
nobody would touch. It also feels nice to be on the verge of paying back
the Rs.5
lakh bank loan you took to do this. To go from new author with no
credit line to favourite customer at the country’s largest commercial
printer in a couple of months. It’s great when the country’s biggest
English language book distributor takes you on board because they know
it makes commercial sense, political affiliations be damned.
Along the way, independent journalist Rana Ayyub was called a jihadi on Zee News; Newslaundry’s Madhu Trehan asked her in an interview, that aired live on Facebook, if she wrote her book because she was a Muslim.
One reviewer of Gujarat Files: Anatomy Of A Cover Up said Ayyub’s claim that the mainstream media was ignoring her book because it was scared of the ruling establishment was simply a “marketing” or “positioning” device. That’s not entirely true.
While the book has been reviewed by most print publications, television has largely ignored it (it’s easier to air the Sheena Bora tapes than Ayyub’s Gujarat tapes). Newspapers and magazines have been reluctant to carry excerpts—monthly journal The Caravan and digital media start-ups such as Scroll.in and The Wire were the exceptions. While the regional media have been extremely supportive of the book, even exhorting readers to buy a copy, only one English language publication, Frontline, interviewed Ayyub. That’s probably because she rarely thinks before speaking.
It’s this couldn’t-care-less attitude that makes Ayyub a hit at college campuses like Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she spoke to students from midnight to early morning in June. The audience included student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid. So many students tell her they want to be journalists, she says.
Even the relatively sophisticated crowd at the Bangalore International Centre, where she launched her book last month, seemed impressed by the resolve of the then 26-year-old reporter who went undercover as film-maker Maithili Tyagi for eight months in 2011 to investigate the riots, custody killings and 2003 murder of Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya. The investigation, originally commissioned by news magazine Tehelka, was never published. Several years later, Ayyub has self-published it as The Gujarat Files. It takes a single-minded madness to do what she did.
“Don’t you ever feel scared?” philanthropist Rohini Nilekani asked Ayyub that evening. Well she did get addicted to sleeping pills while she was undercover in Gujarat (because she was too scared to sleep at night and had to pop pills to sleep during the day) and she does see a therapist regularly but she says she worries more about her dad (a prolific Urdu writer) falling ill than anyone trying to get back at her for her work. The 60 copies Ayyub carried to the Bengaluru event sold out fast.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have ignored the book (its revelations are uncomfortable for both political parties), hoping it will quietly disappear off the shelves. That it’s not been debated to death on prime time by rival politicians may have actually contributed to its success. In an age where news is noise, surely readers wonder about the silence?
The abuses from the paid foot soldiers on Twitter bounce off her spiral curls smoothly. When some people tweeted images of her book in the toilet, saying there was only one use for it, she responded: “Thank you for buying my book in huge numbers to use it as toilet paper. It’s boosting sales each day. Gratitude.”
That nobody has denied anything that appears in the book or filed any lawsuits against her in the three months since its release has also worked in Ayyub’s favour.
In fact the biggest criticism has been that the book is shoddily edited and lacking in context—nobody has criticized its content. It certainly seems to have whetted the taste buds of Masala Nation. Ayyub is currently in the process of translating the book into several languages. The Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Punjabi editions will be out by November.
Her former editor Tarun Tejpal, whom the author alleges refused to publish the sensational series of interviews she recorded in the elaborate sting operation, said he didn’t carry her story because it was “simply incomplete”. Why didn’t the veteran of so many hard-hitting investigations help her complete it, I can’t help wonder.
Ayyub says publishers refused to touch her book because it was controversial. Publishing industry sources say Ayyub was unwilling to provide additional narrative context to the interviews that appear in the book. Personally, I think readers are relieved that Ayyub doesn’t analyse the riots, or tell us what she thinks about the main players. We created our contexts and wildly differing perspectives about 2002 a long time ago. Fourteen years later, we don’t need anyone to tell us how to view that time.
But all this is moot when you have self-published (and self-promoted) successfully in a country where readers love Chetan Bhagat (and not much else) and where 2,000 books sold is considered a job well done.
Not bad for a book that was never going to be a book.
Priya Ramani shares what’s making her feel angsty/agreeable every fortnight. She tweets at @priyaramani and posts on Instagram as babyjaanramani.
Along the way, independent journalist Rana Ayyub was called a jihadi on Zee News; Newslaundry’s Madhu Trehan asked her in an interview, that aired live on Facebook, if she wrote her book because she was a Muslim.
One reviewer of Gujarat Files: Anatomy Of A Cover Up said Ayyub’s claim that the mainstream media was ignoring her book because it was scared of the ruling establishment was simply a “marketing” or “positioning” device. That’s not entirely true.
While the book has been reviewed by most print publications, television has largely ignored it (it’s easier to air the Sheena Bora tapes than Ayyub’s Gujarat tapes). Newspapers and magazines have been reluctant to carry excerpts—monthly journal The Caravan and digital media start-ups such as Scroll.in and The Wire were the exceptions. While the regional media have been extremely supportive of the book, even exhorting readers to buy a copy, only one English language publication, Frontline, interviewed Ayyub. That’s probably because she rarely thinks before speaking.
It’s this couldn’t-care-less attitude that makes Ayyub a hit at college campuses like Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she spoke to students from midnight to early morning in June. The audience included student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid. So many students tell her they want to be journalists, she says.
Even the relatively sophisticated crowd at the Bangalore International Centre, where she launched her book last month, seemed impressed by the resolve of the then 26-year-old reporter who went undercover as film-maker Maithili Tyagi for eight months in 2011 to investigate the riots, custody killings and 2003 murder of Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya. The investigation, originally commissioned by news magazine Tehelka, was never published. Several years later, Ayyub has self-published it as The Gujarat Files. It takes a single-minded madness to do what she did.
“Don’t you ever feel scared?” philanthropist Rohini Nilekani asked Ayyub that evening. Well she did get addicted to sleeping pills while she was undercover in Gujarat (because she was too scared to sleep at night and had to pop pills to sleep during the day) and she does see a therapist regularly but she says she worries more about her dad (a prolific Urdu writer) falling ill than anyone trying to get back at her for her work. The 60 copies Ayyub carried to the Bengaluru event sold out fast.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have ignored the book (its revelations are uncomfortable for both political parties), hoping it will quietly disappear off the shelves. That it’s not been debated to death on prime time by rival politicians may have actually contributed to its success. In an age where news is noise, surely readers wonder about the silence?
The abuses from the paid foot soldiers on Twitter bounce off her spiral curls smoothly. When some people tweeted images of her book in the toilet, saying there was only one use for it, she responded: “Thank you for buying my book in huge numbers to use it as toilet paper. It’s boosting sales each day. Gratitude.”
That nobody has denied anything that appears in the book or filed any lawsuits against her in the three months since its release has also worked in Ayyub’s favour.
In fact the biggest criticism has been that the book is shoddily edited and lacking in context—nobody has criticized its content. It certainly seems to have whetted the taste buds of Masala Nation. Ayyub is currently in the process of translating the book into several languages. The Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Punjabi editions will be out by November.
Her former editor Tarun Tejpal, whom the author alleges refused to publish the sensational series of interviews she recorded in the elaborate sting operation, said he didn’t carry her story because it was “simply incomplete”. Why didn’t the veteran of so many hard-hitting investigations help her complete it, I can’t help wonder.
Ayyub says publishers refused to touch her book because it was controversial. Publishing industry sources say Ayyub was unwilling to provide additional narrative context to the interviews that appear in the book. Personally, I think readers are relieved that Ayyub doesn’t analyse the riots, or tell us what she thinks about the main players. We created our contexts and wildly differing perspectives about 2002 a long time ago. Fourteen years later, we don’t need anyone to tell us how to view that time.
But all this is moot when you have self-published (and self-promoted) successfully in a country where readers love Chetan Bhagat (and not much else) and where 2,000 books sold is considered a job well done.
Last month,
India Book Distributors (IBD) jumped on board to distribute the book and
they have already sold around 8,000 copies. “I thought it was a
controversial book, why not distribute it,” says Harkin Chatlani,
chairman and managing director of IBD, whose political views differ
dramatically from Ayyub’s. That doesn’t matter—commerce comes first.
Not bad for an author who set aside a mere 350 copies of her book to
sell on Amazon (and 500 copies for the launch), right? Within days,
supply couldn’t keep pace with demand. Amazon was taking 20 days to
deliver the book. The small distributors from Ansari Road in Old Delhi
demanded copies. Mumbai’s Kitab Khana bookshop wanted to know how to get
its hands on the book. Khan Market’s Bahrisons Booksellers decided to
stock it. Bookshop owner and literary agent Anuj Bahri, who believes
he’s got another Amish Tripathi on his hands (he helped Tripathi, one of
India’s most successful authors, self-publish), appointed himself
Ayyub’s literary agent. “I’m so tired,” says Ayyub. “My dad says beta
don’t stop the push to promote, publish, distribute and get it
reviewed. I’ve given myself till December—my life is a hashtag
#GujaratFiles.”Not bad for a book that was never going to be a book.
Priya Ramani shares what’s making her feel angsty/agreeable every fortnight. She tweets at @priyaramani and posts on Instagram as babyjaanramani.
