Author Breakdown for Amish Tripathi — creating a successful self-published bestseller
Originally Published on Merrative.com
A banker who spent 14 years in the financial service industry, an MBA degree holder from IIM Calcutta, a non-believer in the caste system, a Shiva fanboy, and someone who returned to faith after being an atheist for over 12 years, Amish Tripathi is a household name we proudly take.
In various places, Amish has mentioned that his personality took quite a U-turn when he started writing his books. He was never as creative as a child. He was good in academics, quite sporty — he tried his hands in boxing and gymnastics, but he wasn’t really a creative child. He had the habit of reading but he never explored it beyond that and never attempted writing. So much so that when he meets his school friends, they joke if he has paid someone to write books under his name as he wasn’t really a writer when he was young.
But that’s the thing about passion. It doesn’t matter when you discover it as long as you do. Today, I’ll discuss the journey of the man who made readers fall in love with mythology again and understand various facets of a tour-de-force named Amish.
Early life
Amish’s grandfather was a ‘pandit’ and a Sanskrit scholar in Banaras and his parents were avid readers. He always says that children end up doing what they see their parents doing instead of what their parents ask them to do. So, he and his siblings would see their parents read a lot thus making him a kid who used to read at least 5–6 books per month and he has been reading at the same pace since then.
As a kid, Amish was quite religious, another thing which he picked up from his parents but later in life, he gave up on his faith and became an atheist. However, he returned to his faith once he started writing mythology. A lot of the Hindu mythology influence has been picked from his grandfather as he would be fascinated with the world of mythology.
Amish’s journey to becoming a writer wasn’t easy. His family and the society around him also expected him to go the traditional route of either studying engineering, medicine, or an MBA. He succumbed to this societal pressure and spent many years working in the banking sector. He only left his job when his second book was published or he likes to say ‘when his royalty became bigger than his paycheck.’ Goes on to show that he has had his fair share of struggle.
Ideologies
Amish’s ideologies are fresh and thoughts clear. He believes that Indian society has been the most liberal for a very long time. It’s the influences in between that have marred the modern outlook.
Amish says that Indian society has always been a very progressive place where equal respect has been given to women, transgenders, and various minorities. So much so that the ‘Chandravanshi’ clan which Lord Ram was a part of was started by a transgender woman named Eela. So, our roots and base are very much about diversity and inclusion. It’s only recently that we like to ‘westernize’ ourselves whereas many years ago, people from different cultures would ape the Indian society and would consider that cool.
He also believes that India was a superpower until something went wrong. India has been invaded by the Turks (or Mughals like we like to call them) from Central Asia or the British. But before the 11th century, we were that country that was the wealthiest, had great trade going on, and contributed to about 35% of the world’s GDP. According to him, the major reason why we started losing was because of internal issues. We haven’t really helped our own countrymen when we needed to and looked at short-term gains which led to the downfall of a country that had the power to remain the richest in the world. Sadly, he says it’s happening even today.
Amish’s India — Past & Future
Amish is also a patriot, a lover of our wonderful past but also a pragmatic individual. He doesn’t like people crying over the situation in the country without providing notable solutions.
Ancient India is his area of strength. Education and literacy are definitely points he strongly believes India had the upper hand on. India was full of universities like Takshashila or Nalanda which are over 2,500 years old and had huge scope for students to explore different facets of education. India had small schools or Dharamshala in all its small villages which promoted education. To look back, a society’s intellect can be judged a lot by understanding the number of tabulated scriptures it has. While Greece, which is like the mother society for Europe has around 20,000 to 30,000 tabulated scriptures, India has a whopping 3 million which is higher than other societies combined.
He also believes in talking about the future as dwelling in the past hasn’t really put food to the table for anyone. He is a huge believer that no force can stop us from becoming a superpower in 2050. According to him, we will have to screw it up real bad to stop that from happening. That’s what is so different about Amish. He is the rare author who writes about the past but also is equally concerned about the future.
So, what’s the secret recipe?
Amish’s journey of ups and downs has been frequently compared with that of JK Rowling’s. Both had their barrage of rejections until they made it big. Though Amish had a job and a steady career to fall back on, his dream of making it as a writer would have not been successful had he gave up. His mantra to success is to give it a shot. If you’re not willing to fail, then you cannot expect success. Just believe in your craft, in your skills, and stay chin up — success should follow.
Today, Amish has written 8 books that have sold over 5.5 million copies in the Indian subcontinent. Amish’s books saw the success that was pretty much unheard of for an Indian author. His work is also translated into 19 languages. After the success of the Shiva trilogy, he was signed up for $1 million for his next unthought of, unwritten book. According to him, one of the things that worked for him was his complete control over his books. He compares the relationship of an author with his/her book with that of a parent and a child where you can’t just hand it over and walk away, you must be present in all decisions taken for it.
Amish once said — “It’s a fallacy to think that a good book sells itself. I can give you a long list of books that I think should have been bestsellers, but nobody’s ever heard of them. My management background and marketing experience helped me devise effective strategies for promoting my book.”
He also mentioned that a book has to grow by itself due to its content. Yes, social media promotions and spreading the word online will definitely boost its reach, but it’s ultimately the book that will take its own course. People in non-urban India are finally reading thanks to authors like Amish. It’s not just the Anglicised elite who are reading anymore. The reason behind having better reach now is simply because of the relatable stories and the authors’ honesty towards the subject. Amish has these things aplenty. That’s exactly why there is a sense of modesty around him that brings his readers to draw to him more and those who haven’t read his thoughts become interested in doing so.
Amish’s writing tips
In an interview that Amish did with writingtipsoasis.com, Amish revealed 5 tips for budding authors that he himself follows.
- Stories are all around you — Amish’s biggest lessons in life have come from dinner table conversations when he and his family would discuss Indian mythology. The inspirations and ideas that he got then are like a reservoir that he still uses. Stories that you want to write can be hidden anywhere, just listen carefully.
- Never give up — Believe in your work and never give up on it. No one can advise you about a perfect book because there isn’t any.
3. Allow Your Characters to Develop Themselves — Instead of being a creator of those characters, be a spectator and allow them to manifest naturally.
4. Realise the audience you write for — It’s always important to understand who are you writing the book for. Sometimes, the layman is not able to understand the Victorian English we tend to fall back on.
5. Learn how to market yourself and your books — After the numerous rejections Amish had initially got from publishers, he decided to self-publish. It was at this time that the business skills gained from his MBA came to the fore, along with marketing support from his wife.
Amish’s top picks
Amish is not just a writer but a voracious reader too. He developed the habit of reading really early as a kid mostly inspired by his parents.
When asked by The Times of India, he revealed some of his recent favourites that you might want to check out as well.
- The Vault of Vishnu — Ashwin Sanghi
Welcome to the exciting and shadowy world of Ashwin Sanghi, where myth and history blend into edge-of-the-seat action.
2. The Greatest Ode to Lord Ram: Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas; Selections & Commentaries — Pavan K. Varma
Varma combes the aesthetics, romance, and imagery of the original work with the unadulterated spirituality that sparkles through the conduct of a great God.
3. 16 stormy days — Tripurdaman Singh
Sixteen Stormy Days narrates the riveting story of the First Amendment to the Constitution of India-one of the pivotal events in Indian political and constitutional history and its first great battle of ideas.
4. The cases that India forgot — Chintan Chandrachud
Taking up 10 forgotten cases, a writer explains how the judiciary in India has at times been ‘more executive-minded than the executive’
..Truly Amish!
Sandipan Deb, former Executive Editor of Outlook and Editor of Financial Express, writes of the philosophical depth of Amish’s books: “Through all Amish’s books flows a current of liberal progressive ideology: about gender, about caste, about discrimination of any kind. And what I believe separates him from the horde of Indian writers who have jumped on to the mythology bandwagon after Shiva’s (Shiva Trilogy’s) success, is his historical research.
That also kind of sums up Amish and his work. It’s not stuck up in the past, it’s not futuristic for the sake of it, it is like it is supposed to be — as a story. His stories are visual as if you’re watching a movie. No wonder Amish himself mentioned that he doesn’t write his stories, his stories write themselves. All he does is that he switches his laptop on and pens some words down.
To conclude here are some golden words on accountability from the man himself which every budding author should take note on —
“I don’t believe that the author can take a back seat once the book is printed. I don’t believe in the concept where the author simply hands over his book to the publisher and doesn’t get involved with it. I know some authors even refuse to go on promotion tours of the book. But you have to be the CEO of your book.”
Here’s hoping his stories continue to weave the same amount of magic as they have been doing thus far. ‘Amishthology’ forever!
