Publishing of a novel

Serendipity and after/1

So here’s a publisher who wants to publish my novel and make it a fine and flawless product, aesthetically and otherwise, complete with best quality of paper, printing, cover art and board paper.

As a writer of the novel, I should be flattered by all of this, but I’m a bit sceptic and don’t take anything on face value. Besides, it’s a bit too much for someone who had started believing himself as a failed writer. I wrote this novel in 2000, and tried to sell it for 5–6 years actively, but despite some excellent feedback from top literary agents, I found no taker for it. And now this serendipity! The publisher practically has walked on into my apartment and declares that he would like to publish my novel. He also says that he mainly publishes high-quality non-fiction and is taking on a novel for the first time in a decade.

“How come you want to buy this novel? Did you read it?” I ask him.

“I read an excerpt from it in Pedestal magazine.”

“But that was published a long time ago,” I tell him.

“I read it only just week.”

“That was the last chapter as far as I can remember. John Amen selected it.”

“ And I have got a recommendation from one of your readers, a great lady with high intellect and integrity, who lives in Delhi. She says she read through the book an entire day and didn’t do a thing until she was done with it. I’ll publish this letter as a blurb.”

“Does she know me?”

“No.”

I should have been thrilled. Instead I feel myself slipping in a depressive mode.

….

Exactly two days later, the publisher called me and said, “ Our Proof is ready. It’s going to be a 250 page book. Where’ll I send the proof?”

At this point I e-mail my friend V Ramaswamy who has been my editor and friend for a long time. Ramaswamy is oddly a business executive(CEO) and is always flying across the world, but he is actually a literary fellow, himself a translator of repute and associated with a wide range of cultural activities. We meet two or three times a year.

He sends me a reply immediately. I can see him wildly excited at the news. Subsequently we have this chat:

“Ask your publisher to send proofs to my office. I would be correcting them on your behalf.”

“So kind of you. But have you got that much time?”

“I’ll make it anyway.”

“Do you remember you edited it and gave the novel its title?”

“Yes, of course. It was 2006. Before I started translating Subimal Misra’s work according to your suggestion. I’m so glad Shadowland is being published now -after so many years.”

“You also trimmed it down from a 83,000-odd length to just 63,000 words, and I didn’t say a word by way of a protest. You’re such a fine literary taster. I’ve yet to see any one like you.’

“So it’s final: I’m seeing your proof. I’m on a high and feel like celebrating our long literary partnership.”

So ,as of now, Ramaswamy is with the proof. He has already corrected it in flat-out two days’ time. But in the process of doing it, he finds out that he didn’t do it right deleting so many chapters to just make the novel tight and smooth flowing. The novel looks lacking. So he fishes out the original version from his laptop(he’s so organized -just my opposite) and badly wants to add some chapters to the final version. He’s that serious and meticulous!

But I foresee a problem. Would the publisher accept any new change in my novel at this stage?