Anthologies- Toast of time

Gone are the days when getting published was a Dream Come True, today every other engineering student with a keen appetite for Green John’s book and a free blog hosted on BlogSpot is a published Author.

I got the privilege of getting published in the first quarter of this Year! No, No not a full-fledged book, I am yet to go that mile and become a Real Writer but for now you can call me a Published Writer.

Anthology is the anecdote for the desperate bug inside amateur authors coaxing them to become a published author. The advent of anthologies is the second thing that has the changed the course of publishing Industry in India, first was the Five Point Someone from Chetan Bhagat.  The Industry is now a much happier place for Publishers. They are happy with the pre-orders coming in bulk and they are tremendously in love with the way Dollars are pouring in their satchel.

Well! If you see it from the eyes of an amateur writer, it’s a good thing, in my opinion it is okay till the time the Publisher promises to serve with Quality. The first time I got published, I was ashamed of the book I received from the so-called quality oriented publisher, I remember they had declared the result 0n 28^th February and the book was in my hand on 8^th of March. In a short epoch of 8 days, my designation from an aspiring author changed to Published author but I was ashamed of taking it people. The book was not even edited, there were minor mistakes like ‘misuse of apostrophe’ and nobody cared to edit it, neither the so-called compiler/editor nor the so called quality oriented publisher.

Well! That day I decided to send my entries only for reputed authors, today my second anthology (as a contributor writer) is all set to undergo printing and I am confident that the book is going to be an epitome of quality.

To everyone spending time and money on books while people are saving for tomorrow land, keep yourself safe and your stories safer from these innocuous publishers, all they are looking forward to earn some quick buck but in the process you will be losing your name. A mistake in your story will make you fall in the list of just-another-clichéd-Indian-writer.

Things to look before you apply for any contemporary anthology contest: -

·         A profound research about the publisher will help. Getting published with a bad publisher is demoralizing—in a long run—while getting published with publishers who work hard on their manuscripts will boost your confidence like never before.

·         Save yourself from getting published with publishers who are busy publishing rom-com fictions. Go with a publisher who cares for the reading section of our country and is working incessantly to serve them with something new and unique every time.

·         If the publisher is asking for money as a contributor fees then do not hesitate, contribute but make sure that the monetary fund is used for the shaping of the book. If the publisher is taking time, be patient and hope for the best.

Pranav