Kiran Manral's Blog, page 47
July 6, 2015
July 5, 2015
When authors get roasted live – Bangalore Mirror
By SOWMYA RAJARAM, Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Jul 5, 2015, 04.00 AM IST
EJ James got trolled by readers questioning her writing skills and the content of Fifty Shades of Grey when she took to a publisher-mandated live Twitter chat. Indian authors and publishers discuss the joy and folly of participating in these interactions on the Internet
Various shades of vitriol. That could well have been the name of author EL James’ live Twitter chat this week. The Fifty Shades of Grey author certainly wouldn’t have anticipated the way she would be trolled when she took to the microblogging site in an exercise in fan engagement. Live Twitter chats are one way of interacting with readers who otherwise never get to ‘talk’ to their authors. Avanija Sundaramurti, Head – Marketing and Consumer Insight, Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt Ltd, calls them “the new marketing arsenal with social media becoming so key in getting the word out about new books”. But what happens when things get ugly as happened in the case of James?
Krishna Udayasankar, who has had Twitter chats — one for each of the three books of The Aryavarta Chronicles — says it would be a lie to say she doesn’t get affected by the not-so-great remarks. She does, however, try her best to address every question, no matter how negative the tone, “since I believe that being able to stand by one’s work is important to the integrity of a writer”. Believing that not answering a direct question on her work is “not an option”, she believes that “responding only to pleasant comments and questions” would be little more than a PR exercise.
James, on the other hand, took the opposite route, choosing to answer mainly ‘safe’ questions (about her favourite characters and such), and ignoring the attacks on her writing (“Do you get paid per adjective”).
It’s a tightrope walk for the publishers, often the facilitators of these chats. Priyanka Sabarwal, Digital Marketing Manager, Penguin Random House India, who ran a successful live Twitter chat with Amitav Ghosh around the release of his book The Flood of Fire last month, says they do a lot of chats on Facebook and Twitter. Other authors they have organised chats with include Shobhaa De, Vikas Khanna, Karan Bajaj, Nikita Singh and Durjoy Dutta.
Chats are also organised in conjunction with retailers – the Amazon.in Twitter handle in the case of Durjoy Dutta – and blogs such as Miss Malini for Vikas Khanna. But not everybody gets a live chat. “We look at how the author is faring on Twitter, and their existing engagement with fans. It also depends on the pre-release buzz for a book – is it getting any interest of queries?” she explains.
Sundaramurti says the chats are usually “a collaboration between the author, the publishers and often a third party that can help drive traffic to the chat itself”. In the last year, there have been four Twitter Chats with Hachette’s authors – Vimal Kumar (The Cricket Fanatic’s Essential Guide), Krishna Udayasankar (The Aryavarta Chronicles), Vivek Menon (Indian Mammals) and Sreemoyee Piu Kundu (Sita’s Curse). “Often publishers have a far wider reach and are followed by more people on Twitter than a debut author so that’s the platform the author is playing on. If your author is a Twitter celebrity with a huge following, then yes, the chat is obviously not as dependent on the publishers or partners reach”. Sabarwal adds: “The announcement about the chat is made on the publisher’s handle, using a hashtag. The author will continue to answer questions while tagging the publisher and using the hashtag.
And as the publisher, we retweet interesting questions and responses.”
VarshaVenugopal, Head of Social media and Online Marketing, Westland, says they have organised roughly fivechats on Twitter. Some were organised with a new book in focus (eg, Scion of Ikshvaku, Tripathi’s latest), but some of them also put the author in focus (eg, Preeti Shenoy). Westland moderates and if they find that one particular user feels a little left out (which can happen when the author rapidly receives a large number of questions!) “we let the author know so they can respond”, Venugopal says. “It is a super way for publishers and authors to reach out to readers. Quite a few of the participants tweet back later, saying they have pre-ordered or ordered the book. We also keep an eye on specific feedback (eg, the book is not available on so-and-so website, or when will the eBook version be available,etc) to ensure that we provide proactive customer service.”
Kiran Manral, who has done about eight chats on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and some facilitated by retailers such as Infibeam, says as an active Twitter user, she’s used to being trolled for her political views and such. She believes most trolls – the likes that James was subjected to – are there for little more than the attention. “But it’s lovely to be able to interact with readers in such an immediate fashion. Where else will you get feedback in real-time and at such a large scale?” asks the author of The Reluctant Detective and Once Upon a Crush. “Twitter is a medium I’m comfortable with. Having said that, I’m not there to take abuse. So I know what I can take, respond to, hit or block. It’s really my choice and prerogative,” she believes.
Twitter chats are usually centered around book releases. In the case of Ghosh, for instance, the chat was a way for readers to know more about an eagerly-awaited trilogy. A look at his Twitter feed on the day reveals the questions centered around his writing process, inspirations, the characters, and his personal reading and writing tastes. Similarly, for Udayasankar, the “nice” ones have been about queries and doubts on the content of the book, the publication process, specific scenes and characters and opinions on other books and writers, particularly on the Indian mytho-fiction scene. “I remember being asked once whether the character of Govinda Shauri was inspired by Narendra Modi. Other interesting questions included technical details on the war scenes,” she recalls.
But not everyone is that nice. Ashwin Sanghi, bestselling author of The Rozabal Line, Chanakya’s Chant and The Krishna Key, (he has had Twitter chats after the release of each of his books) says, “One person kept asking me about my religious views. I am one of those who believes in ‘Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava’ and this was my standard response to each and every tweet that came from that particular handle,” he says. In any case, he doesn’t let himself get too worked up over such behaviour. “I have found that a simple solution to rude behaviour is to simply retweet the offending tweet. Most of my fans and followers immediately jump in to set the offender straight. But these situations have been few.”
Udayasankar believes every person is entitled to their opinion on her work. “But when the colourful expletives start coming out, I refuse to engage till they retract their comment, and tell them as much,” she says. Calling the “not-so-nice tweets” she has received “unsuitable for print”, she says they are never about “valid critiques” of her writing, choosing instead to “suggest improper relationships with family members”.
The trick is to not get too offended by each uncomplimentary comment. And it helps if the chat can be moderated or if the publisher is at hand to keep offenders at bay – although that is not always possible in a live Twitter chat. “On a Twitter chat I haven’t really faced too much rudeness – and know I can take care of myself if it happens. But at the same time you have to understand that if you agree to be there, you have opened yourself to snarky comments,” Manral says. ‘It comes with the territory’ is an attitude also adopted by Amish Tripathi, bestselling author of The Shiva Trilogy. Recalling a time when an atheist got “aggressive” with him on a chat and accused him of misleading youngsters by talking about religion in my books, he says, “I just told him that you have your point of view and I have mine.” Uncomplimentary comments about his writing style have also been dealt with summarily. “I always say that your interest may be the English language, but mine is philosophy and the Vedas. Language to me is a means to an end, not an end in itself. And you may feel differently but that’s fine.”
Moderation and preparation is key, according to Sanghi. “Twitter chats are not a good idea without preparation. It’s the equivalent of going on a talk show without homework,” he says.
Sundaramurti says the marketing team works closely to monitor the chat. “As far as picking the tweets to respond to goes, it’s totally up to the author who they choose to respond to. I would advise my author to ignore the trolls while the chat is progressing.” Similarly, at Penguin Random House, a team works in real-time with the author to monitor the proceedings, whether on Facebook or Twitter. On Facebook, the chat will be conducted on Penguin’s page, not the author’s. “If someone is being abusive, the Facebook filter itself is pretty good and won’t allow the comment to get published. If people begin soliciting – asking a writer to read their book and help them publish this – we tell them this is not the right forum for it and move on,” says Sabarwal. Like Sundaramurti, she points out that having a social media team that can respond on its feet is the only way to deal, because it’s very hard to have ethodologies or plan and predict responses.
At the end of the day, a phenomenon like social media “has democratised the world for non-Lutyens Delhi authors like us who wouldn’t otherwise get reviewed and published”, believes Tripathi. And that comes with its downside – where people can say what they want to him. But he believes it’s still a good medium and a great way to shore up publicity for the book, or, as Sanghi says, “engage and also open up the conversation with a wider audience”. Using a bit of philosophy to explain himself, Tripathi concludes: “Everything has a positive and negative. So you’ve just got to take the good with the bad.” Someone tell EL James that.
Read the original here
June 29, 2015
Indiblogger’s Word Up 2015, 11th July, Gurgaon.
Will be a speaker at the Indiblogger Word Up 2015 at Gurgaon on 11th July. If you are into blogging and content creation, this might be interesting to attend.
https://www.indiblogger.in/bloggermeet.php?id=291
June 28, 2015
Some pics from #CareerKonnect2015 yesterday
I spent the better part of the day yesterday at Phoenix Market City in Kurla, where the very wonderful Anjali Gulati of Back to the Front had organised a two day mega event reaching out to women looking to either re-enter the workforce or women who wanted to explore entrepreneurship.
I was on the stage for two separate events–the first was a discussion with the very glam Tisca Chopra (In Zara, Kurt Geiger nude pumps and the most divine Bulgari sling, which sadly didn’t get into the pics I have), on how women can look the part–precious little tips from this session, get fitted for the right bra, invest in shape wear, wear a light colour on top to throw light onto your face, line the inner rims of your upper eyelids, as well as life advice, do something everyday that makes you happy, were wonderful takeaways for me from that session.
The second was meant to be a panel discussion with Amrita Singh of TLC, Ruchita Dar Shah of Firstmoms.in and Mansi Zaveri of Kidsstoppress.com on giving birth to new ideas but we decided to turn it around and have a discussion with the audience where they came up with the questions and we did our best to answer them as honestly as we could. It was an absolute cracker of a session.
I don’t have great pictures from the event, but here are the ones I have. And yes, that’s me in one of those rare long dress appearances. I love the Ritu Kumar Label Kaatha Long sleeved maxi dress I had on, it fell beautifully on the body and was most comfortable.
My Parent Quotient post from last week: How to teach your child to handle money
In a world where children get what they want, and are at the risk of not realizing the value of money, how can we as parents teach them how to handle money and how to have good saving and spending habits? If you’ve ever been tempted to ask your kids if they thought money grows on trees, perhaps the best thing to do would be to take a deep breath, step back and think about how you could inculcate good money habits in them.
Read the rest of the post here.
My Parent Quotient post for the week: How to keep your child healthy through the monsoons
With the first rains come a slew of dratted illnesses that have most parents on tenterhooks through the entire three months that make the monsoon in India. The change in temperature, the increased likelihood of waterborne diseases and not to mention the runny noses and deep rumbling coughs that plague little ones who’ve been reveling in the rains, this season can be a nightmare for parents.
There are some things you can do to ensure that you minimise the risk your child faces of falling ill during the monsoons. Here are some tips:
Read the rest of the post here.
June 25, 2015
Of the dreaded call for ‘Mom’
(This was written for Yowoto, but since they’ve moved to an app format, am posting this here. After yonks, an offspring post on the blog. Would love to have comments on the post.)
Once upon a time there was a baby, and he was cute and it was good. Then the baby grew and began crawling, and pulling table cloths off tables with the crockery included as a package deal, but he was learning to stand, and it was good. Then the baby became a toddler and took his first shaky steps through the house, and discovered speed, not of the narcotic version thank you very much, and couldn’t yet apply the brakes to himself when at top speed, and there were banged noses and it was good.
And there was a mother who was waiting and waiting for the baby to start talking and call her Mamma and one day he turned to her with his big, big long lashed eyes and lisped Mummumummum and she was so overjoyed she turned cartwheels and it was good.
The Mummummummum gradually got refined to Mamma and this mother was overjoyed at hearing her offspring call her thus. It was all good.
Cut to 11 years later.
“MOM,” comes the call, echoing through sturdy cement and concrete walls, shaking the plaster off the ceiling, as I hide in a corner of the house, pretending not to have heard the definite demand in that tone of voice.
It may be appropriate to insert here that this clarion call for immediate attention will often come just when I have drawn the drapes, unfurled the comforter, tucked myself into it, and put the eye mask on in the ambitious hope of being able to grab approximately 30 minutes of shut eye of an afternoon nap given the wake up time that morning had been 4.30 am after a night punctuated by nightmares primarily concerning missing a flight or being chased by ghoulish creatures wearing tutus.
I ignored the call, which was now being repeated on a loop, worse than a really efficient alarm on a ten second snooze setting. I pulled the sheet over my head and buried my head further down into the pillow hoping against hope that the calling would stop.
It did. And ten seconds later, which an explosion that could only mean the building had collapsed or a runaway elephant had crashed the bedroom door, the door burst open and an irate offspring parked himself on my stomach.
“Mom,” he called, opening my eyes with his fingers. I realised that I have brought up a brave child who takes wild risks with no thought for life or limb. He could go into hedge fund management without a quaver. “Give me something to eat.”
I play dead. If he was a right thinking bear or other wild animal this might have worked, but being a human child with a growling stomach, it didn’t. He prodded me in the ribcage. “MOM!” he said again, louder and more insistent, and all letters capitalised.
What hope do I, a hapless mom, have against this monster called GrowingTeenChildAppetite? I gave up the unequal fight and rose like the dead, to get into the kitchen and source nourishment for this, my offspring, who could also go by the monicker The Bottomless Pit, if I was pressed for an option to the perfectly nice and misleading name we gave him on his birth certificate.
If you had told me 11 years ago I would dread the call of ‘Mom’ reverberating through the premises I would have laughed at you and asked you what potent stuff you were smoking. Today I quail at the cry of ‘Mom,’ I hide behind newspapers, I take myself into the bathroom for mysterious personal maintenance purposes, I tremble.
Once upon a time this very same clarion call for me would have me drop whatever it was I was doing, regardless of whether it involved iron pans and would lead to disastrous consequence for the toe it fell on, and rush to see what it was the child needed. The mind, of course, would always conjure up an emergency of proportions that involved blood and a visit to the casualty department but more often than not it would be nothing more gruesome than the head of a WWE action figure needing to be jammed back on again after much energetic twisting had detached it from the torso. (Full movable parts for lifelike action being our motto when we bought these.) As he grew older the “Mom”s got rarer when called out from a distance, he was learning to get himself things he wanted, solve disputes on his own and knew he was to come to me only when blood was spilt.
He’s been taught how to forage in the kitchen when his survival depends on it, how to look to the fruit basket for immediate nutrition when there seems nothing handy in the snacking department and how cheese slices, bread and sandwich spread and jam can always save the day. I’m not even going to talk about microwaveable popcorn packets and how the yellow side goes down has been demonstrated over and over again, to the threat stated with as much sternness as I can muster at the conclusion, “And don’t wake me up again from my nap…”
“Mom,” he calls. The maternal heart quivers. Should I respond? Should I call him to the room I am at to elaborate? Should I rush to his side, gather him to my bosom and plant a kiss on his forehead, all sweaty and tousled from making WWE action figures battle ferociously. “What?” I reply, without the courteous addition of “…is it?”
“Come here,” the strident demand floats back in reply. “What is it?” I call back. “I’m busy eating/cooking/sleeping/reading,” I reply, as might be applicable. There will be silence for approximately ten seconds and then the child will call through the walls again, “MOM,” at decibel levels which could have the neighbours come across and enquire politely about whether they needed to report me for parental neglect. I give up all pretence at holding out and go forth to investigate. “What is it?” I say, wearing my best surly ThisHadBetterBeSomethingImportant expression. “Gimme a hug, gimme a kichu,” he says, reaching his arms out. I melt, do as requested, knowing in my heart, what his next sentence would be.
“Mom, gimme something to eat.”
June 23, 2015
At Career Konnekt 2015, Phoenix Market City Kurla, Sunday 28th.
Will be on a panel discussing reinventing careers with Mansi Zaveri Ruchita Dar Shah and Amrita Singh of TLC, on Sunday, 28th June, 3.30pm, at the Career Konnekt 2015 event at Phoenix Market City Kurla.
Registrations here.
http://www.meraevents.com/event/career-konnect-2015-opportunities-fair-for-women
Never thought I’d make it to a best dressed list
Somya Suresh
Jun 23, 2015, 14:30 PM IST
Jhumpa Lahiri
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Do you picture authors as those serious types who don’t give a damn about the way they dress? Do you think they can only create magic with books? Wait, some authors can even create magic with their looks! From being designer favourites to the coolest looking writers on the block, each of them has a unique flair when it comes to their wardrobe choices. We love how they’re upping their style game and making an effort to look good at all times. Here are India’s best dressed authors!
Jhumpa Lahiri: This Pulitzer Prize winner author is also a red carpet favourite. Her mystical eyes combined with her effortless and crisp dress sense makes her a glitterati regular. Classic silhouettes and classy formals along with delicate trinkets makes Lahiri a match made in fashion heaven.
Durujoy Datta
Durujoy Datta: The contemporary author and script writer is not just loved by Bollywood, but also by the fashion circle. Datta won the hearts of millions with his killer looks and relatable novels. The writer keeps his ensemble simple, but experiments with colours and fabrics. We really heart how he keeps his clothes basic, but accessorizes just right to go with his vibe.
Shobhaa De
Shobhaa De: Sexy at 60, this controversy queen is a model turned novelist. We must say, the author has a pretty good dress sense and flaunts her saris elegantly with interesting blouses. Shobhaa De is the best advertisement for her books, and definitely stands apart in the author circle.
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi: Shanghvi has been compared to authors such as Salman Rushdie for his writing style. Shanghvi’s works are classics and so are his styling choices. He keeps his look royal, mostly wearing Bandhgalas and Nehru jackets. The novelist loves dressing up inIndian formals and looks absolutely stunning in all.
Ira Trivedi: She’s a novelist, entrepreneur and speaker. She’s also a yoga teacher which makes her figure quite enviable. Trivedi has been an active part of the modeling industry, and hence, style comes to her naturally. Her petite figure and tendency to make the most of basic pieces makes her one of India’s best dressed authors.
Kiran Manral
Kiran Manral: Former journalist and full time mom, Manral is a clear winner in the best dressed race. The author of books such as ‘The Reluctant Detective’ and ‘Once Upon A Crush’dresses to her age. She looks elegant and switches between formals and traditional Indian wear easily.
http://english.fashion101.in/news/FAS-FTR-TFE-these-authors-have-style-written-all-over-them-5030849.html?9
