Friday, May 17, 2013

Not a rupee more, Not a rupee less.

A friend of mine told me "The books are too costly of some XYZ publication house."  I on the other hand asked him, "what is a fair price?".

He aptly replied "100 Rupees"

From this I understood somehow the content, blurb, pages or story. None of this matters. This brought me to my  dilemma, a hundred rupee one.  You ask people, what is the motivating  factor for you to buy a book and they always come up with a answer "#Price"

I am not sure how to change that perception that people can spend thousand bucks on a movie but can't do the same for a book. It is like we can read crap, if it is priced less.

So, a writer like me, who spends days trying to write a story that will create history and some money (*sigh*), is dumbfounded when they get to know, people might never buy their books simply because they are costly.

Then  what is left for me, write 5 books in 3 years, publish them with a pathetic publication house and read tons of grammatical mistakes, as me and him both didn't want to spend extra bucks, just to end up having badly written #books. I am having none of that.

I can't do it. Not because I am above it, but i will make no money in that too. We are the people who are trying to make a living but no one supports us. Spend thousands on entrance exams' books, guides, textbooks. When it comes to novel "#Mehanga Hai".

Is good writing that cheap? As I write this post, I feel it is. We will want to spend less money on novels, than for any other entertainment form. It is a culture thing. Novels are cool as long as they are in a budget.

I wish it was a story, a story so compelling that you had to buy a book. I know a few people who bought Harry Potter on the very first day. They are the rare community. :(

I am not against the 100 Rupee concept but it has commercialised the way we treat writing books. It is no longer a profession  of elite but of bored kids, who had a story.

I wish people were more interested in the release of "And the mountains echoed and Inferno" than they are for "yeh Jawani hai deewani".


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