Aditya Bikram Singh's Blog: The Unturned Pages

I am a regular visitor of book fairs. I make it a point to visit one happening in the locality anyhow. Even if I don’t end up buying any books, I just like to get lost in the ambience of the place with myriads of books and their pretty covers to see, the decorations of book stalls to make it eye-catching for potential customers, the food stalls for a short break before resuming your parade of browsing books.

Seeing all the books engendered a dream subconsciously within me that I would like to have my own book one day. And it will be displayed in one of these stalls, people will come and read it. To buy or not to buy is a different matter, but they would just read it once. And that would be enough for me.

The things that you want will come to you. I was able to write a short book which got published just in time to make it to the World Book Fair in Delhi and I was invited by the publishers to visit their stall. It was my first time coming to the Delhi Book Fair now and that too as a published author. I was excited to go and booked my tickets. The heaps of praise from friends, relatives and associates had hyped me up a lot and I was looking forward to the experience of going as an author.

But I was humbled when I entered the fair. Not by people because I have been in huge crowds. But by looking at the sheer number of books on display. I never thought that I would feel this insignificant standing amidst this huge crowd. Though no one said it, I could feel it, “Hey I am an author! Big deal, get in line!”

After being humbled, I went to the stall, eager to see where my book was. I was disappointed to see it tucked away on a shelf in a far corner. Being a reserved guy throughout my childhood, I did not protest and stood near my bookshelf, waiting for that author moment of signing a book to an interested reader. But not many seemed interested at all. Honestly, why will they? In such a large book fair, why would anyone be interested to check out a thin new book written by an unknown author? However, I persisted.

I faced little success and a lot more embarrassment but I was prepared for it. Some of the funny incidents home approaching a couple of girls but the moment I just waved and said “hello” they ran away. Another involved me asking a group of students to take a look at my book and they asked me what it was about. When I elaborated that it deals with overcoming the hesitation that we face when beginning a new venture, one of the girls just turned around and asked each of her friends turn by turn “Are you having any hesitation in life?” When each one of them had said no, she turned to me and plainly said “None of us are having any kind of hesitation… so, sorry.” And then she walked away with a smirk on her face.

I bore the embarrassment because I cannot let the opinions of a few discourage me from moving forward. I kept trying to sell my books but I found success only in the last day.

The last day of the book fair was a stampede. People flocked like it was a religious gathering. Even the stall keepers had a hard time managing people and large book stalls like Penguin and Hachette were having huge queues of their own! The Notionpress stall was packed too. Since it was the last day, many authors had come to market and sell their books so I felt even more insignificant. However, this time, I decided to do things differently. My shelf wasn’t doing well on its own so I picked up a couple of books, went to an empty desk, and arranged them like a deck of cards.

The cover is pretty enough, the title catchy and the book is thin so people generally were curious to pick it up and see what the book was all about. I waited in a corner, and when I felt the reader was hooked, I approached them and revealed that I was the author of the book and would very much appreciate it if they would give me feedback after having an overview. That worked with my target audience, whenever one belonging from that pool approached and slowly, I was able to sell the entire bookshelf that day.

I was elated. Even though, it was my first book. Even though it wasn’t really that charming and even though I am just beginning in this world of countless authors and poets, I was able to sell a dozen copies of my own book by just being present there. The day ended in a high for me and I went back cherishing a very fond memory that I made here, visiting a book fair for the first time as an author.