Friday, January 4, 2013

Bangalore Literature Festival


Last month I attended my first Lit Fest. The Bangalore Literature Festival was also the first time Bangalore was hosting such a festival. Usually these festivals are held in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur. I was thrilled to see a decent crowd (I had expected a smaller crowd as we keep hearing about the dwindling number of book readers). It felt great to be in the company of like- minded people and surrounded by lots of books.

I especially enjoyed the discussion ‘Business of Books’ moderated by my publisher Annie Chandy Mathew (Unisun Publication). V.K Karthika's ( the editor of Harper Collins India), discussion was informative as well as enlightening. She said that writers should stop seeing editors as monsters who prevent their books from being published. Infact, it was the opposite. Editors are eager to see manuscripts. She urged writers to simultaneously submit to several publishers to better their chances of getting published.

One of the things I liked in her discussion was the reason publishers turn down collection of stories. She said that she has seen that in collection of stories submitted, one or two of the stories are great, the rest don’t match up. So the publishers pick the good ones and ask the writers if they can use it for their anthologies.

The editors participating in the discussion mentioned that many times they turned down manuscripts on the basis of the cover letter. If the letter was full of grammatical errors and not well written, it showed that the manuscript too would suffer from the same flaw.

How about you all? Have you attended a lit fest? If yes, what did you think of it? If no, would you like to attend one? I would love to hear your views on it.

26 comments:

  1. Well done you! Something I'd like to do.

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  2. Sounds like an awesome literary festival. We don't have many in Ann Arbor. I do try to attend when I can. Happy New Year!

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  3. That sounds like it was wonderful! I've never been to a lit fest. I should look into it and see if there's one near me soon!

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  4. I've never been to one but would like to. I think India is one of the places still growing in the book markets so lots of possibilities.

    mood

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  5. I've never attended one, but glad the one there was a big hit.

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  6. A great start to a New Year Rachna! Thanks for getting first hand insight from publishers and sharing with us:)

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  7. I haven't been to one yet, but it is on my to do list for this year. Glad you got a great pump up for the new year!

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  8. Sounds like you had fun and soaked up some great advice. I'd love to go to a literary festival.

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  9. I haven't been to one. I used to go to similar events, but haven't in a few years.

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  10. No, I've never been to one. Thanks for sharing your experience, Rachna.

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  11. No, never been to a lit festival. Interesting point re the cover letter, though.

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  12. Happy New Year, Rachna. Wow, I've been to writing conferences, but never to a literary festival. This one sound wonderful. That was such an interesting tip about why editors aren't fond of story collections. I knew they weren't but wondered why. It makes sense, for sure.

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  13. I haven't attended a Lit Fest, though it sounds like a Writer's Conference, which I have attended. You can get such great information at them! I completely understand the anthology note, considering I've read self-pubbed anthologies that had some great stories and some less-than-great stories.

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse

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  14. Happy New Year!

    I've never attended a Lit Fest but would like to do so one day. I'm thrilled you had a great time.

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  15. No I haven't but I definitely want to.

    Maybe I should make a plan for this year. :-D

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  16. I haven't! But I would like to. :)

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  17. Hi Friends, from the comments I realize that all of you want to attend a Lit Fest. It was wonderful and a super learning experience, though I could attend just one day.

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  18. That's awesome! I've never been to a book festival or conference, but it sure does sound fun!

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  19. I love attending lit festivals and I'm so pleased you managed to go to one. There is something special about being surrounded by like-minded people... and lets not forget the books! So much fun!

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  20. The lit fest sounds fantastic! I've attended writers' conferences before but not a lit fest yet.

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  21. I've attended book fairs and conferences before. Sounds like this was great event.

    I've read short story collections in which the stories don't all match up in quality. I'd rather read an anthology.

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  22. Sounds great! I've attended a couple conferences. I love going.

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  23. I have never attended a conference, but your lessons learned makes sense. Good advice.

    The same rejection follows when submitting a cover letter for a job that contains grammatical errors. I used to interview lots of folks and did I see some lousy letters.

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  24. Sounds like a great event! Glad you enjoyed it. I've never been to a lit fest, but have attended writing conferences and always come away inspired.

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  25. I haven't been a to lit. festival in ages but I'm glad you hear you enjoyed this one. It sounds like you had a productive time.

    Jai

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