My Smashwords interview published on 29 September 2013

How did your writing journey begin?

I started my career at a law firm as a corporate lawyer. I spent two years there and then a few months more with another Company as their in-house legal counsel. Legal work by definition involves the churning out of long, almost unintelligible pages of prose, day in and day out but that kind of writing can leave you somewhat burnt out. Even though I was quite enthusiastic in the beginning but working gruelling long hours and that too on very dry commercial matters left me unsatisfied and insatiate. I realised that despite being well-paid, this couldn’t be the end all and be all of my life. I considered myself to be a creative person. I used to enjoy writing short stories and participating in theatre in my college days which I certainly missed now. So, I decided to take a break from my job in search of a journey of writing and self-discovery. And I’m glad I have made that decision.

Describe your writing process?

Every day (even on Saturdays and most Sundays), I start my day at around 9:30 a.m. after my breakfast as if I’m going to work. I work on my laptop. I spend a lot of time creating a structure for my book, which consists of short chapter headings, before writing the actual chapters. My family members have been very helpful in supporting my decision to work from home and in giving me useful advice, whenever I ask for the same, relating to the structure, language or the general outlay of my book. I find coming out of the “writer’s block” every day in the morning to be the most difficult part of writing. When you start writing a book, you are not sure how to start, what to write and when to write. I start writing whatever comes to my mind first and then proof read and structure the sentences or paragraphs later.

What are your other interests apart from writing?

In the evenings, I usually take a break and spend time on working out for almost 50 minutes. I love cardio exercises, Latin dance, Yoga and Pilates (which is my favourite). I feel tired if I don’t work out! I also love gourmet food, music, films, golf and travelling. In fact I have already covered sixteen countries including Canada, China, Denmark, Dubai, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Sharjah, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, Uzbekistan, and the USA.

Acting is another hobby. I participated in two plays-“The Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and “The Government Inspector” by Nikolai Gogol at Netherhall House which is a Hall of residence located in the most beautiful part of London known as Hampstead. This was when I was studying in London from 2005-2009. The parts that I played were very well received. If not a writer, I would definitely be an Actor!

Isn’t it unusual for a 28 year old man to write a cookbook?

I believe it is. Sadly, we still live in a world where cooking is considered as a woman’s job. Most cookbooks are addressed to women and I find that on many discussion forums on cooking on various social networking sites I would be the only man participating (which is perhaps a slight exaggeration)! My first stint with cooking began when I had to go to London to pursue a Law degree from University College London. I was living in a Hall of residence in my first year which did not serve any meals during weekends. I was 20 years old then and like any other happy go lucky man, I didn’t know any cooking. However, I had to experiment and learn cooking quite the hard way as simply surviving on salads and sandwiches from supermarkets left me pale, skinny, and quite undernourished. The surprising part was that when I finally learnt cooking, I started enjoying it. You can find more about my story of “bumbling about in the wonderlands of cooking” in the sample pages of my e-Book or on my website www.cookinginajiffy.com.

In writing this e-Book, the audience I had in my mind were those countless students, newly employed people, single moms or dads who were, quite like me, didn’t know how to boil (and peel) an egg properly and genuinely needed to learn cooking from scratch. I strongly believe that you are doing a great disservice to your body if you don’t cook, and instead try to survive on takeaways, factory-made sandwiches or instant noodles (including the ones that you don’t even need to boil). As the title and the sub-title of my e-Book suggests, this book is for anyone and everyone who wishes to learn about the magical art of cooking even if he or she has never boiled an egg before.

There are so many “student cookbooks” around, how is yours different?

While most student cookbooks that I have come across are very well written and indeed helpful, the places where my book scores over other “How To” cookbooks, I think, is first, the perspective of the bumbling and harassed student that I bring forth based on my own first-hand experiences of surviving in London for over four years. The second is the manner in which I describe a step by step “graduation” process where you start with some very basic cooking techniques such as how to break, poach, fry, boil (and peel) an egg, then learn how to handle chicken, vegetables and fish and only after that “graduate” to making such “complicated” recipes as cheese omelette, vegetables au gratin, baked chicken or French Onion Soup.

I have yet to come across a student cookbook that addresses the issue of creating a full meal in a short span of time (at least to my knowledge). So, the third USP (unique selling proposition) of my book is that it teaches the concept of “sequencing and parallel processing” in cooking that should enable busy people to create a 3-4 course meal in less than 30 minutes.

Any other details you would like to share about your cookbook?

Yes, it took me nearly three months to complete this e-Book. A lot of people spend money on editing, proof reading, formatting and cover designing. I, however, decided to be very frugal for this first venture of mine and relied on my friends, family members and some freely available online resources for all these “chores”. There are, for example, a number of YouTube video tutorials that can provide you with some extremely useful information regarding e-Book formatting and uploading your e-Book on various platforms. Learning e-Book formatting does take some time but after that the actual formatting process was quite a breeze. For the cover page, I’m grateful to William King’s blog (he too is an author and you may want to google him) who gives some excellent tips on how to create a beautiful cover art using Microsoft’s Power Point that at least I was quite familiar with in my earlier corporate avatar. In my limited experience, therefore, if you are an author and on a tight budget, you don’t really need to spend too much money on editing, formatting, proof reading and cover designing. You can easily learn and overcome all these “hurdles”. It may be a little time consuming but an Author already spends a lot of time creating an e-Book, so why not make a little more effort to learn formatting and cover designing! You only need to learn these skills once.

Any new projects you are thinking of working on?

I actually wish to create a whole series under my “How To Cook Everything In A Jiffy” repertoire. My maiden e-Book was written from an international perspective where I have deliberately omitted Indian cooking as Indian cuisine, with its mind boggling use of spices, can be a little overwhelming for a student newbie. However, I would very much like to write a basic cookbook for Indians, and those interested in Indian cooking, who would like to learn to make Indian home food absolutely from scratch. This is the second book I should be writing. Next, I may consider writing a gourmet cookbook for more experienced cooks. May be I’d even try my hands on fiction which would be a completely new genre for me. I used to write stories in my school days but I would certainly want to acquire some more skills in novel writing before I dive straight into fiction.

Which marketing strategy has been the most effective for you?

Currently, I’m struggling with marketing myself, so I cannot give many tips. There are a lot of ways you can promote your book without spending any money and I would strongly recommend exhausting all such free options before venturing out for paid advertisements. I have read about the tremendous benefits that Goodreads (a social networking site like Facebook for readers and authors) has to offer. I’m also experimenting with pricing. The most I can suggest is to never ever give up on your dreams and remain persistent even if your initial marketing strategies do not yield any positive results.

Any other author/s whose writing style you really like?

I think Stephen King does a great job of character building. From the books I’ve read, Stephen King, made me fall in love with his main characters despite their so many negative traits. He always made me sad by killing his main character in most of his novels in the end, but that never harmed his sales! I am also a great fan of Dan Brown (despite the controversies associated with Da Vinci Code). Dan Brown is a great story teller and he hooks you up in his novels. I also admire J.R.R. Tolkien (Author of the Lord of the Rings series) for his breathtaking vision and exquisite narration.

What is the greatest struggle for indie authors these days?

Self-publishing has empowered many authors. Publishing a book has become very easy but the three biggest hurdles that an indie author faces are: discoverability, getting reviews and establishing credibility. There are thousands of e-books being published every month and so it is very easy for your book to get “drowned”. And if your book is less discoverable, the less would be its chances of getting reviews from readers. But if your book does not get any reviews, search engines of various book retailers would not recommend your book to prospective readers. Readers too would be hesitant to be the first to try out your book. And all these factors may negatively impact your reputation and credibility. Sometimes I feel that this is quite a Catch-22 situation.

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