From being a person who admittedly couldn't write too creative sentences to save her life to being a bestselling indie author of over 50 books, Sundari Wangtha Ramya has blazed her a trail in the literary world, conquering the best seller list in India, the US, Australia and the UK. Her titles have sold more than two point 25 lakh copies. Her latest novels have all been on the number one best seller slot in Amazon, India for over a month
Sundari. Let me try and start at the start. Hitting the publish button on your first novel, Double Jeopardy, is probably what started this literary journey of your was culminating in a career of being a successful self published author. But I'm curious to know why you chose to going the selfpublishing way way back at a going going the selfpublishing way wasn't even a thing. So over to you
Hi, Ramya. It's lovely being here. Thank you so much for inviting me
Doubleja Body was not my first published author. That is another fiasco I signed up with regular publisher was doing only ebooks, and I pulled out of the contract as soon as I could do it because I was not making any me money out of it. But that's when I came across books for the first time in my life
Adding a little bit to that double Japanese available in a different author. It is called Twenterment, which has self published also on Amazon, Kindle Direct publish
Oh, my bad Sundari. I somehow assumed that Double Jeopardy was the first novel that you published on KDP. Thanks for clarifying that. Moving on rejection. They are an enormous part of a writer's life, and there's no getting around it. If you want to get your work published eventually, you'll have to show it to other people. And those people may or may not tell you what you really want to hear
It was a lot of waiting, and like a couple of times it crossed over the first one or two thresholds and it got a little ahead. And I was feeling very confident. But after that I was told firm no, and I'm not clear how many publishers I applied to, but I definitely remember receiving at least 28 rejections. Yes, I was heartbroken and I used to cry. I made my pillow wet with tears
Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Sundari. It really was inspiring. And it reminded me of the saying that, you know, one must never give up on one dreams because you never really know how close to success as you are. And I think your personal experience clearly establishes that
Yes, I take proofing, guidance, but ultimate proofreading. I only do. This misconception of self publishing is like generally, there was a time like when I entered the self publishing market. What happened was there were a few autos in India, but they were being tackled upon by the world because everybody kept saying that these people are self published because they have been rejected by traditional published. But I can say that is the truth, because I have been rejected. I took this path
Oh, it absolutely does, Sundari. Thanks for that. Especially the part where you talk about the writers having to do all the heavy lifting of not just penning down the novel, but also taking care of the editing, the formatting, the tech aspect of publishing it and then going one step further and even promoting the book, which leads me to my next goal. Westin, how important is marketing yourself in the early stages of your self publishing career?
And I don't know how the audience built. It just happened because I never thought too much into it. I had not invested any money except for making the book covers. And I did all the work myself. And I was thrilled when it was showing the results were showing people were buying my books. So it built organically, step by step. The fun was I could write. And I knew there was a platform like when you put it on a blog, people are reading it for free
And if I don't write for ten or 15 days, I find it difficult to begin getting back to the story. Even if the story is half finished, it's very difficult to get back to it. It's kind of rise up my imagination that the flow stops. And that is a major advantage of self publishing. So yeah, then the responsibility yes, of the formatting and insuring is properly approved
For a self published auto, you just open the Amazon page. It's one big mass of books out there. What will catch your eyes? It's a cover. The blurb comes next, personally is the cover. It has to imagine a white background, something which is set it off. If I have a pastel shade or if I have something looking dull or something books very unnatural. It will not catch people's life, especially romances. I as a romance breeder
I'm going to be going ahead and sharing the link to preorder the book right below this. Well, for our readers to check out, but do tell us about the 68 60 challenge that you're working towards. I think it's a brilliant idea, but I would love to know what's the story behind that. And how did that come about
I had just published my 50th book on last Devalue release. It was. And so she came up with the suggestion. I thought, okay, why not give it a try? Because sometime in October, book number 50 came. So she had given me about eleven months to come up with the next ten books. I said, It's okay. It's a challenge. I can just write out because I also write short books
You're welcome, Ramya. And thank you so much, Alexi. I never knew there was an app called you introduced me to something new. I'm really loving it here. And yes, everybody is welcome to ask whatever questions will answer, as many as possible. Thank you. I really enjoyed myself this evening. Thank you so much. Bye. Have a great day, all of you. Bye
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 0:40
Sundariji I have been listening into this interview and have many answers to the questions that popped into my head as I read your books over the years, I want to congratulate you first on embracing this genre, adopting a novel approach to treating your plot characters and also publishing you chose online going, going, going, going the selfpublishing way have gone against the tide in many ways and established yourself as a successful author. Did you face any resistance when you first decided to be in this space?
I love reading romances, and I feel because I thought there might be a lot of people like me out there in the world who will want to read it. And that kept me going throughout. And yes, I am in a really happy space now telling the stories, which I want to say exactly the way I want to say that. Thank you so much for your question. I hope I answered well
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 0:54
Thank you so much for applying. And yes, you've answered my question beautifully. And I'm glad that you have not let any of those comments or remarks affect you in any way. And I look forward to your books. It's sad that there is a huge denial from some quarters of the kind of popularity that the romance genre enjoys. There is a huge chunk of readers who do read romance and especially qualitative beautiful stories with layers to it like yours
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 2:49
And at what point do you get into line edits and word edits? I'm guessing that's towards the end. So, yeah, basically, this long winded question is, what is your sequence? And what do you believe would be an effective sequence for a newbie author? Thank you
Hi, Shanas. Thank you very much. I'm glad you liked this. Q and A. Your question is pretty long and pretty long. Winded not an issue. I'll just tell you how I do what? First of all, I think the writer is the creator of the story, especially when it's a fiction. The book is a fiction and not a nonfiction, and the writer knows best. Yes, if the writer is confused, then yes, you seek expert advice
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 0:17
Sundari thank you so much for answering the question. I know I talk long winded, but thank you. That really helps me. I mean, ultimately, I know everybody has a different process, and I love what you said. It's what the writer wants. And I like that. So thank you so much. Bye