Kanishka Gupta, founder of Writers Side, Asia’s largest literary agency based in India, and some of the authors he represents have been at the forefront of literary conversations in recent years, his and their work having taken South Asian literature to a global stage.

Kanishka Gupta curated the globally acclaimed Scroll.in series, Publishing and the Pandemic, one of the most comprehensive series of reports, commentaries, and first-person accounts of the impact of the Pandemic on publishing in the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere.

{If you are not sure what a literary agent can do for you, check out our blog post about it HERE.}

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Team HWR: What are the three things in a submission that really bug you?

Kanishka Gupta: Submission hygiene is very important. There are authors who just, you know, WhatsApp me and they want to have a call without even sharing any material with me Some of them will share the links to the random write ups and blog posts and they are like do you see a book in this? So that is a strict no. All right, even if you’re well known, even if you have published successfully in the past, you must follow submission guidelines of an agent. So, for fiction we look at the Synopsis of three chapters, and if we are interested in reading more, we’ll call for the entire manuscript. In non-fiction, it depends on your expertise and how well known you are as a journalist or anyone who has written about the subject. You know, right? That is part of the book. And I normally send non-fiction on proposal. So that is the biggest, biggest turn off for me.

Number two, I would say that some authors are debut writers who think they have written the next big thing. And they feel like this is unlike anything we have read in the past, anything that had been published by Indian publishers. I know this sounds cliche because a lot of publishing professionals keep complaining about this, but it keeps happening. It is happening to me even now after putting in more than eleven years in publishing. So, the third big turn off for me is that a lot of people think that their story, their personal life is interesting or big enough to be shared with the readers, whether it is in the form of a memoir or a fictionalized sort of a version. So, I think that is something which is very off putting, you know, like so many people wrote to me during pandemic with their proposals for their experiences with the pandemic. So, I think authors should do some research on the kind of books that have already been published in the genre or in the space they are trying to write a book in and not feel that everything that they do or everything that they experience has to be turned into a book or a novel or a work of non-fiction. 

So, these are the three things that bug me the most.

Team HWR: The flip side to that, has it ever happened that a submission was so compelling that you dropped everything for it and you just wanted to be free to read it?

Kanishka Gupta: There is no dropping everything, I mean one has to do the regular mails, follow-ups, and calls. But yeah, when Avni’s draft came to me, I made sure that we read it overnight because we are also insecure, you know because I am competing with the Godwins of the world and big agencies in the UK and US and there are thousands, hundreds of very reputed agencies and now the scene is quite competitive in India also. You have some new agencies, very dynamic, very aggressive. So, I mean at the end of the day we deal with the same set of people you know. So, it is about how fast to get back to an author and how aggressively you pursue them and pitch yourself and your services to them. So yes, we do leave everything aside in terms of like submissions and reading material. Like I did the same thing with the “Babu Bangladesh”, late Numair Atif Choudhury’s novel. And there are several works of fiction and sometimes authors impose deadline on agents because the manuscript is with other agents as well.
So, they want us to get back to them in a week or two. And it is very easy to gauge from like maybe a para or even one line in an e-mail if an author can write or not. So yes, we do that. I’ve gotten back to authors overnight, in two days, and in three days and it has worked in my favor and sometimes it doesn’t work, you know. I mean sometimes they are very grateful. They’ll talk to you, but then they will also talk to five hundred other agents and then they will get back six months down the line saying that, oh, you know, but we found someone else. And then those usual responses, thank you for your consideration, this and that. But even with Rijula’s book A Death in Shonagachhi, I was nervous because these writers and novelists have access, you know, they’ve studied creative writing internationally. Their mentors are well known authors. They know people. They know publishers. So, one has to be prompt with them and also give some feedback and pitch oneself to them effectively. So yeah, but regular work keeps happening. You can’t stop working on the books you have already kind of agreed to represent authors who are publishing.

Team HWR: It is really refreshing to hear this because we just feel that literary agents are like demigods who are sitting on their pedestals.

Kanishka Gupta: I look at everything, and if I see potential, I will get back immediately, even if there is nothing in the body of the mail. In fact, Parimal Bhattacharya, who has now published three or four successful books, he’s moved his backlist from Speaking Tiger to Harper Collins and his latest work of non-fiction, he’s unsung but he’s brilliant, this book Field notes from a Waterborne land with the blurbs from Ramchandra Guha and Jairam Ramesh. He is really good. So, his first book on Darjeeling came to me like, “Please find attached to my proposal.” There was nothing in the body of the mail but 2-3 attachments and I ignored that submission for seven months. And then one day, I just happened to open the attachment and started reading it and I was like this guy is very talented. So sometimes we go back to badly put together submissions, query letters but one has to follow some sort of guidelines and try to share a compelling query note.

{Looking for a Literary Agent? Meet the Top 13 Literary Agents in India}

Team HWR: Is a literary agent expected to help you market your book?

Kanishka Gupta: I can’t really share the exact job description of the literary agent you know because if someone is very well known, and if someone has published previously and if they have access to publishers directly, then they will put pressure on you to do all these things you know? You had promised me JLF. You had promised me this review, that review, and to get me this podcast, get me that podcast. But the sad thing is that as agents, as legit agents, we cannot charge commission for that. So, what I have started doing is that if I feel an author is too high maintenance and they will expect a lot of publicity and if they also have funds at their disposal, then I introduce them to a freelance publicist. There are some very good freelance publicists in India.

Rachna Kalra is one of them. Then Atika Gupta and Tannu Dogra, they are part of the same team. And then there is another one who used to be at Harper Collins. And then you know, there are some digital firms also like Rachna Kalra who has headed the marketing divisions of major publishing houses like Pan McMillan and Oxford. Now she has her own firm, but she also ties up with Pragya Tiwari and her firm for social media. So, in that case, I introduce authors to freelance publicists and they are very good. And then they also have an existing relationship with marketing teams of publishing houses. Because no matter how much effort a publisher puts in, sometimes it’s just not enough for authors, especially if the author is not big enough an author for the publisher. You know Lakhs and Lakhs unearned advance is not writing on the book but sometimes if the author doesn’t have the money and if they are getting very disillusioned with the way the book is getting promoted or not promoted then I step in and I use my network and contact because I have also done a lot of journalism. I have been writing since school for, I don’t know how many years. I did some pieces for First Post also. And then, you know, I represent a lot of writers, like maybe close to 500 journalists. Many of them are doing reviews, freelance reviews, or they are part of teams, literary divisions.


Team HWR: How different is it to deal with fiction and nonfiction writers?

Kanishka Gupta:  I think debut writers of fiction are very anxious. They are sometimes bordering neurotic because you know the fiction market is very difficult. It is very difficult to get a debut novel, collection of stories or poetry noticed in India, let alone UK, US. So, they are always on the edge and the very good ones, they would like the books to be published by the premier literary imprints of MNC’s like Fourth Estate and Hamish Hamilton.

So, they are quite anxious literary writers. The nonfiction writers worry about costs and the money involved in putting together their books. You know because some books require a lot of travel, research, overseas travel also and access to libraries, documents, and papers that entails cost. So, they have their own sets of problems and consideration. But I feel that fiction writers are harder to deal with.

Team HWR: Do you still take up fiction work? 

Kanishka Gupta: Yeah, we are open to fiction submissions. We are always.

Team HWR: OK, then you had made a statement which was very interesting, where you said that sometimes one paragraph or even one sentence is enough for you to know that a person writes well. And I’m relating that to this next question where Renu has asked that it seems like you don’t encourage debut authors. That sounds like a contradiction to me. So how do you see that?

Kanishka Gupta: No, we encourage debut writers but earlier like 3-4 years ago I used to get back to everyone and now we have a new response policy in place which clearly mentions that if the author doesn’t get a response from us in three months’ time, then they should consider the submission as rejected. So, we do encourage writer but it is humanly not possible for me to read everything and to give feedback. Yeah, I mean even if we feel that the submission is not well written and if we gauge that from the query letter, we read 2-3 pages or maybe 4-5 pages. I can share instances and would like to know your response as well.

It is really difficult because we are working on commission, fifteen percent commission or sometimes twenty at the most on the advances which are paid in tranches, say, then those tranches have become way, way more lopsided after COVID. So, you know, we get in thousands per book. Even if it’s a big advance, it will not be paid on signing. It will be spread over signing, delivery, publication. Some publishers are even paying one year after publishing and they are calling it an advance. This happens when the advance is like really big and then it is linked to the paperback publication of the book, you know, so you get a certain sum on signing, delivery, publication. And then one year after the publication of the hardback edition or the paperback edition whichever comes first because you know they can’t publish the paperback edition if the hardback edition doesn’t sell out, if there are thousands and thousands of hardback editions in stock. So, it’s very difficult and I live off royalty income. I mean we are open to editorial provided authors make the first approach and sometimes if I see a lot of promise in a book, like I’m working on three or four books, but the submission is not good enough for representation or immediate pitching. Then I introduce them to a freelancer. We also have people on my team who work as ghost writers. So, it works because I find a ghost writer for someone whom I plan to take on as an author. So, no, it’s not being condescending or being contradictory. I mean some submissions are so badly put that one just cannot go through them, it’s not possible.


Team HWR: Fair enough. And just to give us a rough idea, how many submissions are we talking about in a month?

Kanishka Gupta: To be honest, I don’t get many unsolicited submissions these days. My website is getting redesigned and is going to be live in less than a week. But I have given all my details like e-mail on my Twitter and Instagram handle

Team HWR: How do I get your attention if I have written a nonfiction book in which I have expertise but I am not well known?

Kanishka Gupta: That’s fine, I mean I will go by the proposal and sample chapters. Also, there is this first problem of first mover advantage in nonfiction. So, I would encourage Ram to maybe do some research and see if there are any existing books on the subject.
But yeah, it doesn’t matter if you are not well known or don’t have lakhs of followers. We represent debut nonfiction all the time and it says more than debut fiction. I’ll show you some of the books. There is this debut nonfiction book by M.R. Sharan. It’s doing very well. I mean he’s not famous, yet he is hugely respected by his peers in this space. You know, he has been doing field work in Bihar for over 10 years. He has a PhD from an Ivy League university. He is a good writer. He has also published a fiction with me long ago in 2012.

Team HWR: Do agents take up works only for translation of screen adaptation rights as well. I have traditionally published a book that released recently, unagented submission. I hold the rights to these. Can I pitch this to literary agents?

Kanishka Gupta: Yeah, if you are looking to pitch to Film Agents, you should reach out to Sidharth Jain of Story Ink story. There are other agents also like Tulsea, Kwan. 

Kwan represent a lot of directors, actors, screenwriters. So, if a director, actor, or screenwriter is interested in commissioning a book, then they will reach out to the publisher. And if they get to know from the publisher that the rights are not with them, then they will reach out to the author’s agent. And if there is no agent, then they will reach out to the author directly. So yeah, translation is very difficult unless you have written a book which has sold over 50,000 copies. The Indian language market is very brutal. They don’t take on fiction. I mean even Avni Doshi has only been translated into Marathi and Harper is publishing the Hindi edition on their own. So, a Booker shortlisted author doesn’t have a Malayalam or a Gujarati edition. Same applies to a lot of other books. Unless you are Arundhati Roy and then you get published in 25 languages in India also.

Team HWR: How much of a part does vocabulary play in decision taking for a literary agent or a publisher?

Kanishka Gupta: You need to say grammar as well. Ideally the submission should not be too verbose and the basics of writing should be in place, but I will not reject the book if there are typos in it or if it’s badly formatted. If it’s brilliant writing, good writing and if it’s good storytelling, if it’s an important work of nonfiction, something that has not been written before, something that shines a light on some historical aspect that has not been written about, then I will ignore typos and grammatical errors.

Team HWR: Sure. What is your take on genre fiction currently? Fantasy, sci-fi or mystery specifically to India?

Kanishka Gupta: Zero! Everyone is interested in UK, US, international writers in these genres. But then there are exceptions. But those books don’t do well in India, despite the authors winning awards. I discovered a science fiction writer two years ago, Lavanya Lakshmi Narayanan. She is all over the place now. She was shortlisted for the Locust Prize. Now she is represented internationally by a very major agency specializing in sci-fi. I retain the South Asia rights for the new works also, you know, these big deals, translations in French and all, but has the editions been sold? Not that much. She won two prizes. She won the TOI Author award, fiction of the year. She shared it with Megha Majumdar.
And then she won the Wow prize for the best fiction. But no horror, fantasy. Not even young adult and children category. Everyone wants to read Stephen King, John Green, and Dan Brown.
I don’t know if any successful fantasy novel has been written by an Indian writer. But there are some very good sci-fi writers, Samit Basu, Pramit Das, Lavanya Lakshmi Narayan. There are many, even Gautam Bhatia who is also a very well-known lawyer.

There is a horror novel by Nidhi Upadhyaya that Penguin published last year which has done very well. It has sold thousands and thousands of copies, so that is probably the first success story in the genre.

Team HWR: Do you accept proposals for novellas and children’s chapter book stories?

Kanishka Gupta: Yeah. Children’s books are very hard to sell. Very, very hard. Anything in the children’s space is very hard to sell. But yeah, we are open to it.
But after COVID, and because of, you know, paper shortage and rising costs of GST on paper, ink and whatnot, publishers also have to bear the GST on royalties. So, it is difficult to place books that have a very strong visual element. But yeah, if it is exceptional, we are open to everything. We are genre agnostic.

Team HWR: Is it possible to have an Indian literary agent and a foreign literary agent? And how does it work? 

Kanishka Gupta: Yeah, it happens all the time. I discovered Avni and sold the India rights, South Asia rights, but she’s represented globally by Pontas agency. In Daisy’s case, I represented globally. So yeah, I mean in fact authors can have three or four different agents. They can have an agent for South Asia, they can have an agent for UK, US. But sometimes the problem occurs when the UK agent or the international agents are adamant on keeping world rights because a lot of international publishers especially UK publishers like to retain Commonwealth rights which includes South Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. US publishers are more open. They frankly don’t care about the Indian market. So, if you have a US agent then they will be very open to splitting rights. And if the book has originated in India or was first discovered and pitched by an Indian agent, then I would recommend going with one agency in UK, US because these agents also have their own sub agents. So, US agent will be working with a well-known sub agent for the UK markets and vice versa.
The agencies work with a lot of sub agents. So, they have sub agents in different countries for different countries including, France, Germany, Japan, China and many other countries.

Team HWR: Cool. What are some of the reasons that previously published and unagented authors sign up with a literary agent later.

Kanishka Gupta: So initially nobody well known or someone very talented came to me. You know Anees Salim was like a sort of a fluke but as I started growing in stature and developing my contacts in the media and festival circuit, and getting more well known and accomplished editors on my team. I started getting a lot of editors, started getting a lot of queries and interests from published, well known writers. So, I think there can be many reasons debut writers would like to come to agents. But, with well-known writers, if they have had a bad experience with publishing their previous books, or if some really well-known writers or public figures feel embarrassed to discuss money with publishers. So, they want someone to handle the negotiation part. So, there are many a times when I am approached by public figures after they have said yes to an offer and they want me to be involved in negotiations. Many of them are approached by publishing houses, but they would like to hire the services of an agent to get the best possible deal and also to get advice from them on which publisher and editor to go with.

Team HWR: Right. Which is the most popular genre right now according to you? I know it’ll be nonfiction, but within nonfiction, anything?

Kanishka Gupta: Yeah! Non-fiction, business mind, body, spirit, self-help, the political biographies. And then there are these books which are unexpected and also very well done and well researched. This book on single women desperately seeking Shahrukh by Shrayana Bhattacharya which is selling like hotcakes. It will find takers.
Normally I see that political biographies and books that have an element of self-help do very well.

{Check out our post on How to pick the right literary agent and approach one.}

Team HWR: Would you recommend the manuscript be edited by a freelance editor before it is pitched to you? If yes, can you recommend some freelance editors?

Kanishka Gupta: I would recommend a freelance editor only if an agent has shown some interest in the book, because otherwise they charge a lot. I mean a good freelance editor will charge a lot. They can charge one or one and a half lakhs for the work of fiction and it can go up to two lakhs.
So I think if an agent has shown interest, then you can consider hiring the freelance editor. Like I said, I connect a lot of my authors to a freelance editor if I feel that the book needs a lot of work.

But if you if you’re looking at sci-fi, I think you should approach Poulomi Chatterjee, who used to be at Hachette. Now she has moved to Harper Collins. She is very interested in building a sci-fi list. Poulomi Chatterjee is now at Harper Collins. There is another editor who is very, very interested in Sci-Fi horror genre fiction. Her name is Prerna Gill. She is also at Harper Collins. Hachette, of course, publishes the Gollancz Anthology of Science Fiction Writings edited by Tarun Saint. So, you can approach Hachette also and these books will get picked up. Your question was about having big bona fide at bestsellers in these categories, so we don’t have those.

For crime genre, you can approach everyone. If it is a very well-done crime novel, publishers will be interested. But again, they haven’t done very well in India.

Team HWR: How do you find an authentic literary agent in the US?

Kanishka Gupta: There are so many well-known agents in the US, but there’s a book titled ‘Writer’s Handbook’ which has a list of literary agents, so you can definitely get something there. And that book is updated every year. Otherwise, publishers’ marketplace is where you can find the names and contact because of all the agents, but that’s what trade people know. I mean, they announce deals, then it comes with a huge cost. I mean, the membership itself is quite expensive.

Team HWR: What is the scope for ESG related nonfiction books in India?

Kaniska Gupta: Very difficult. Yeah. Unless you’re translating a very famous classical poet. I know that there are publishing houses which publish poetry. But debut poetry is very, very difficult. Anthologies may do well. There is this new anthology of Indian poets that has been doing really well. I’m told that it has sold close to 5000 copies and it’s a high end, high-priced book. But debut poetry is next to impossible. So, I would say that someone like Karthika VK, she is big on poetry. She has discovered and published some of the best poets, contemporary poets. They are allowed to publish only one poetry book in a year. And there is a huge competition because the well-known poets who have published successfully in the past come to them with the new books. But you can reach out to the independent publishing houses. I have many names actually including, Hawakal, Red River, Paperwall Publishing which is run by Hemant Divate, and Copper Coin publishing, which is again well-known. I would personally choose Paperwall over Hawakal. So, the advantage of working with some of them is that most of them are poets and publishing entrepreneurs. Then there is Yoda Press which is run by Arpita Das. She’s open to publishing debut poetry and she’s a good editor as well. There is a new poetry publishing house that has come up in Chennai and KC Lata is part of the team. She’s part of the editorial team. I am forgetting the name of the publishing house.
So all of them will be open to books in that genre. If it is fun, well written and an important book, all of them would be interested in publishing it. You should try contacting Ajitha GS of Context, at Westland, you know, because they’re back in business after you know getting funding from Pratilippi. You can connect with Swati Chopra of Harper Collins too. I will be interested in books in all of these genres. R. Sivapriya from Bloomsbury is acquiring both fiction and nonfiction in all these genres.

Team HWR: How do you judge the credibility or authenticity of a literary agent? Because we repeatedly hear instances where a literary agent asks for money when people approach them with a manuscript. What is your take on that?

Kanishka Gupta: Big red flag. I know who you’re talking about. I mean it’s common knowledge in the industry but I don’t want to get into name calling. They also charge a fee just to represent you. They charge a fee to pitch you to publishers and then on top of that some of these agencies are charging 20% Commission, you know and while the fee is very nominal, I’ve seen these contracts, they charge around 10-15 thousand but no, you cannot charge because an agent makes his living off the commission.

They make money only if the author gets a deal from a publisher and the author is happy enough with the deal to take things forward. I’m open to the idea of varying your Commission, if the book needs a lot of work and the agent has put in the work. So, if the author is willing to make 25% commission, even though it’s not the norm, but it’s fine. But it has to be linked to the Commission. It ranges from 10 to 20 percent. I still agree to 10%. 

The biggest red flag is asking for a fee to pitch you to a publisher. What you can do is research the past works of an agent or you can just Google the name of the agent and look for the books they have been acknowledged in. You know, because this is a reputational driven business. I mean, even if I get a funding of $1,000,000 or maybe $5,000,000, and if publishers make fun of me, they don’t believe in me, then nothing’s going to happen. You can’t do anything.
You earn reputation by supplying good books and authors to publishers over a long period of time.

Team HWR: What are the five things that make you pick a submission?

Kanishka Gupta: It is very subjective, but I mean that the basics have to be in place and obviously storytelling, the writing, the subject, it can be a very basic story, but brilliantly told. Then we’ll be sold. And the other way around also that if it is a very new kind of writing, new kind of space. In nonfiction a lot depends on the author’s credentials, their research, their following, and their credibility Like for instance one of the reasons why Vinay Sitapati’s Half-Lion did so well and sold thousands and thousands of copies is because you know he had access to Narasimha Rao’s papers. You know. So, there’s so many things that make works of fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is also subjective, but in my agenting career, I’ve been able to pitch 95% of the works of fiction. I’ve taken on like maybe close to 100 only. I mean, we fail two or three times in a year, like 2 times with fiction and maybe one or two times with non-fiction. 

It is very, very difficult to sell short story collections. I would say selling short story collections is as difficult as selling poetry. So, I do only one short story collection in a year. 

Team HWR: How many copies sold as a publisher considered to be a successful book?

Kanishka Gupta: it also depends on the kind of money they paid the author. For instance, if they have paid someone like 50,00,000, which they usually do for really big books, and the book has managed to sell only 20,000 copies, then it is dud. But if they’ve paid someone 2,00,000 or 3,00,000 and if it has sold 10,000 copies in hardback priced at 699-799, It’s a success. It’s subjective, but I would say fiction selling over 3000-5000 copies is considered good. I won’t call it a bestseller though. For bestseller status, it has to sell 10,000 copies. I’m talking about literary fiction here.

For non-fiction, it has to sell 10,000-15,000 copies or maybe 20,000. For mass market commercial fiction, I would say 30,000-40,000 copies. A lot of it is a function of price point and the advances. For poetry, selling even 750-1000 copies is fabulous. It is a lot, yeah.

Team HWR: OK, I guess it would be genre dependent. Will a literary agent show a manuscript to his/her close publishing contacts before replying to an author regarding representation?

Kanishka Gupta: But that’s very unethical. This means that they don’t have faith in their own agenting abilities. Some of my closest friends are like top publishing professional. I’ll never do that. I mean, I start with discussing the books with them, and sharing interesting submissions with them. I tell them that I’ll be sending them something very exciting. 

But if agents are showing the manuscripts to editors and publishers, then they are getting these publishers to do their jobs. You know they are the literary agent at the first reader.

Team HWR: Do you always need to complete the manuscript to place a fiction title?

Kanishka Gupta: Fiction. Yeah, mostly complete manuscript. Unless the author is obscenely well known. So, I placed Anees Salim’s Sahitya Akademi Award winning book, The Blind Lady’s Descendants to Penguin. And then Penguin did a two-book deal with him. And then he wrote The Small-Town Seas, which did considerably well.

But sometimes it is counterproductive for the author. You know, like I have pitched fiction on the basis of chapters and I was on the verge of failing completely. Because some editors, they show interest, but they ask for complete manuscript. Some of them cannot convince the larger team, which includes, you know, sales people, CEOs and marketing people, to make an offer and then they are forced to reject it. So, once you’ve pitched a manuscript, then you cannot just go back and redo the whole thing. So, for fiction, I would say, you need to finish the whole thing.

Team HWR: I know that for Arjun Raj Gaind, you got him a three-book deal both in India and the US.

Kanishka Gupta: Yeah, because it was a trilogy. So, we got him a three-book deal on the basis of the first book. And there was a multi book, US deal with a very well-known crime publisher that’s now part of source books. But I don’t know how that happened.

Team HWR: Any indication on time frame from approaching a literary agent to getting published?

Kanishka Gupta: I’ve already said that if you send me something and if I’m not interested, then I will not respond. If you haven’t heard back in three months even after sending reminders, then it’s a rejection. But assuming that I decide to go with it, in that case also, it varies. So, like sometimes I can sell a book in two days, but sometimes it takes me months. And that’s because we want to try and get the best possibility. So, if I send out a very promising book to 7 or 8 publishers and if I get an offer from one publisher within a day, it may not be possible for the other publishers to get back immediately. But I need to wait because you know, you need to hear back from everyone. Sometimes we are waiting for the UK, US counterparts of an Indian publishing house to get back, you know, to see if they can convince UK to do a joint thing. In that case the wait can go on for like months. So last year I sold a very famous writer’s short story collection and unwritten novel to Hachette UK and India. But we made the other publishers wait for months on end because the UK publisher had shown interest. His name is Shehan Karunatilaka, the Sri Lankan writer. He wrote the Chinaman. So, the process took a very long time. It also depends on what the other editors are doing, how does the schedule look like? What if someone is on leave or if someone is busy editing a very, very important book. So, it varies. I would say debut non-fiction will take less time, but for debut fiction, if it’s a very promising fiction, then it can take anywhere from three to four weeks to maybe three months. And I would encourage authors to let their agents take all the time if they get interest from a lot of publishers.

Team HWR: What is the sweet spot pricing for fiction book of 60,000-70,000 words? Is there an answer to that?

Kanishka Gupta: The thing is publishers are now moving to paperbacks, even for the big literary fiction titles, because it’s impossible to publish hardback in this scenario due to shortage of paper and printing costs going up. Why would you want a book to be priced at 799-899 rupees and then get priced out of the market? 

So, I would say for a 60-70 thousand word, depending on the genre, for commercial fiction, even 350 rupees is fine, 399 rupees is also fine if it’s one of those well written commercial novels. For literary fiction, I would say paperback be priced at 499 rupees and hardback at 599 rupees is also fine.

{Check out the Cost of Publishing a Book in India.}

Team HWR: Can blogs be converted to books in non-fiction and self-help genre?

Kanishka Gupta: Yeah, I think I have done that in the past. I mean, books can emerge from blogs, there has to be a narrative in place. If your blog has an overarching team and if it has a good readership, then it can be converted into a book. But there has to be some sort of narrative coherence and continuity.

Team HWR: What is the difference between the way a publisher looks at a manuscript from a writer versus from an agent? Because you can also do direct submissions in India. So, what changes?

Kanishka Gupta: So, a publisher will be more open to raw manuscript than an agent. Because publishers have their editorial teams and they can even get someone to rewrite it, you know? But I, as an agent, have to keep in mind a lot of things. How much work does it involve for me as an agent and for my editorial team? Does it need a freelance editor? Will an author be open to spending so much money? Because not everybody has the capacity to spend fifty thousand or one lakh or even twenty-five thousand. Will I be able to place the book even after it is edited? Because it is a lot of pressure on us to pay the money and then what if nothing happens. 

So, I would say a publisher will be more open to signing on the base of nothing. You know, we may end up meeting a publisher somewhere for coffee, then suggest an idea, you send them a link and then they may offer you a contract right there. So, we can’t do that because we are not so high up in this whole ecosystem. We need stuff which is good because we have to convince someone else. So, I expect a good standard of writing submission, even though we edit a lot sometimes.

Team HWR: Thank you so much. This has been fantastic. I think we’ve gained, gained a lot from your insight. So, thank you so much.

Kanishka Gupta: I hope so and thank you so much for having me here.