When A 14 Year Old Gatecrashes A Roomful of Publishers

A masterclass in sneaking past security guards, and asking questions.

So imagine you’re a writer, a kid writer with no published novels. You are about to enter a smooth curtained room full of tall adults; distinguished publishers, authors, people from Harper’s, people from Penguin’s and all kinds of humans you’d never see walking around in your normal life. Naturally, your pulse threatens to strangle you. If you’re a gatecrasher, the whole thing just worsens.

Is this what it feels like to be James Bond, an investigative spy? You turn your Participant card over & whisper intelligently at the entrance.Guarded gates to the JBM Lounge. With a big scary watchman you manage to convince. Walk up the stairs and people are milling about. Clear literary superheroes. People in the thick of it. But no socialising for you, you don’t dare to glean off them. For God’s sake, stay calm. No eye contact. Breathe.

Sometimes I wonder why kids have such big, throbbing hearts we can’t control. It’s just not fair.

As I was sitting down to get a chair, someone dropped in the seat next to me. He noticed my diary and pen. ‘Already at the ready, huh?’ A suave young person in all black. Glasses. He wore his sarcasm like a well fitted coat. Safe bet he ain’t a big ol’ publisher. Jash. 19 years old & he’d tell me he was already on his way to a first publishing contract. More of us exist, I thought gleefully.

‘So you’re 18, Vandini?’

‘I’ll tell you when we get out,’ I said.

Just as the panelists began sitting down around a sofa roundtable, four publishers in conversation with mediater Amrita Tripathi. They said that digitalisation changed them all, however— the actual book was irreplaceable.

‘I mean firstly, your cover on a Kindle looks pint sized,’ said Urvashi Butalia. She was an eminent Indian publisher, running a publishing house of her own. ‘That same beautiful cover a designer spent months on. And your paper material, the smell of that book, all that dissapears. Your reading experience is half lost on a screen.’

But another speaker had quite a different experience to share.

‘When we got J.K. Rowling to agree to it, we got our team together. And with those headsets, wands, we developed a virtual reality. Kids could go inside the pages of a book & cast spells & spells would sparkle if cast right, or wane if you messed up. They could advance into the castle, solve more mysteries, and all the while they’re reading this story. It was a whole experience,’ said Charlie Redmayne, a dark haired Englishman. And as he said it, the whole thing made about a bit (chunk? big pizza slice?) of money too.

The publishers were intent that us understanding this wasn’t snobbish literary ranting. They weren’t some cold big leagues bolting their doors on newcomers, as many people assume. Rather, and quite reasonably, they wanted something worth its money. Quality writing.

‘The publishing industry isn’t the richest in the world. Mostly, we’re a group of hard working, principled people who love to read. We love bringing the next great books to the world. Editing, compiling, illustrating, funding — a book is a enormous investment,’ said Urvashi.

‘Writers, especially new writers, can be rather petty about their books,’ said Fiona Henderson. ‘We require our authors to understand SEO, marketing, and really just lay back and let the professionals do their job. It’s a serious business. At the end of the day, you’ve got to write a book a publisher can acually sell.’

Finally, questions opened to the audience, and people began getting up around me but my throat had closed up for some unknown reason. Even the cool guy, Jash got up to ask a pretty detailed question. Then he turned to me and said, ‘Go on, really. Catch the blonde with the mike. It’ll be fine.’

I got up, floundered a bit. I don’t know if I imagined it, but it seemed like their expressions softened a bit when they looked at me. Did they know I was a child? Sometimes I didn’t look it.

‘The social media craze is massive among writers,’ I said. ‘Everyone is trying to create their audience because, the idea is, when people visit Amazon or a bookstore — they are going to take your book, if the name on the spine is one they recognize and care about. But in the actual publishing world, do publishers care about your influence?’

‘That wasn’t bad,’ Jash whispered.

Charlie Redmayne was the first person to pick up the mike. ‘Okay. Definitely, it counts for something. Your personal influence would help sales, & that’s actually a reason why you see all these ‘Youtuber’ books going round these days. Their fanbases are so big, people buy their stuff. But truthfully speaking in the end, no. Your popularity isn’t even close to the main thing.’

‘You could have a million Twitter followers, or 10,000 blog readers — bit as a publisher I wouldn’t care about any of that unless you’ve got a really good book for me. It has to stand on its merit. It has to be good enough to sell. It has to have a good heart.’

He smiled kindly. ‘At least as far as my publishing house is concerned, you could be a nobody but if you’re good, we would do our best to give your book a look.’

I nodded gratefully, and sat down. The session ended. As we began filtering out of the room, Jash turned to me.

‘So you’re 16?’

‘You know, they’d probably not let me in here if they knew.’

‘We had a bet.’

‘14.’

‘Are you kidding me?’

There’s something particularly nice, I’d tell him, about looking like you’re 18, because no body really stops you at the doorway. Not even scary big watchmen.

Looking older is a big win. Ha — schoolmates take that. Double ha! I ended up walking out of there with a light heart and a lot of hopes. Everyone has dreams, don’t they? But listening to the people who actually exist to make them come true and knowing such support is overwhelming.