Ask An Author | Smita Bhattacharya talks about her latest novel & going the self-publishing way.
Author Smita Bhattacharya writes atmospheric, cozy and psychological mystery fiction. Strong female protagonists and twisty whodunnits are her forte. Her thriller novel, Dead to Them, was amongst the top crime thriller and mystery books of Amazon India in 2022. It's even been optioned for a movie. She is also authored a popular detective series, the Darya Nandkarni Misadventure series
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 0:21
You. Hello, Smita. Excited to hear your responses on Swell. I have a question for you. Can marketing be a challenge when it comes to selfpublishing? Based on your experience, could you share some tips on marketing a selfpublished book? Thank you. Look forward to your response
Smita Bhattacharya
@SmitaBe · 1:33
And I was sitting in my apartment, the whole world it felt like the whole world was dark and silent, and there were so many ideas forming in my head, and that's exactly what happened. The good thing was I had time now to put all these ideas, these dark thoughts, onto paper. And so this gray family, this family with so much secrets and internal strife, came to life in front of me, and the suspense actually built
Smita Bhattacharya
@SmitaBe · 2:16
It requires investment but the returns also are quite large and I think the best way, best marketing tip I can give is write a strong book and write more books so that gradually not only your author platform builds but the word gets around and you get read. So many of the successful authors around the world today started as self publishers, self published authors rather and they wrote strong books and got picked up and became famous
Smita Bhattacharya
@SmitaBe · 3:08
But often I feel many of the exciting new ideas were missed by traditional houses that could be one of yours if you really believe in it, if you are willing to put the work, have hustle and wait. It is a time game as well. If you can do that, then go the self publishing way. I feel I'm a hybrid author and I think it's the best way to be
Thank you for that. You talk about how your stories are heavily inspired by your travels and the people you meet. Of course, it's a fact that personal experiences have a way of creeping into our manuscripts whether we wanted to or not. And while I was on your website, I was really fascinated by the fact that you worked in a vineyard, a newsroom, a school, a library, a bank, an advisory firm, and a tech startup
Smita Bhattacharya
@SmitaBe · 2:31
You. I think one of the issues I have with myself is that I get bored very easily. So I can never be still and do one thing for long, or stay in one place for long, or even be in one job for long. And that's why I continuously need to keep having different experiences and ramya, like you rightly said, you like it or not, experiences will drill down and affect all aspects of your life. And writing is no different
I'd like to ask you a question about your writing process, Smita..do you write every day or only on certain days and at certain hours? And when you do write, do you always have a set task or something specific that you decide to work on, or do you have various things going on at once, like several stories or several projects that you tend to switch between?
Smita Bhattacharya
@SmitaBe · 2:58
But if a magazine asks me to write something, or I would pen down a short story in between or use an extract from my book as a short story. But writing is like running or exercising. You feel so lethargic to actually go to the gym or wear your sneakers and go for the run. But after you finish it, you feel like, why don't you do it more often? And you feel so good after doing it. And writing just puts me in a flow
Thank you. Smith, I totally relate with what you just said about writing being like exercising where you need that push to get started, but then once you get into it, you are like, oh, why don't I do this more often? Right? So it's the same with me. It's just that initial nudge that to get into that mode or get into that zone is a bit difficult to latch on to. Thank you for sharing that. This has been such fun, really