India Public Domain 2014: 22 Indian authors whose works entered public domain in 2014

copyright-leaf
Copyright Leaf logo courtesy http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/

Continuing our tradition from previous years (2012 & 2013), we have compiled a list of Indian authors whose work has entered public domain at the beginning of this year. The criteria for a particular work to enter public domain this year is for the author to have died in calendar year 1953 and the work to have been published before his death. If the work was published after the author’s death, it will only come out of copyright after 60 years from date of publication.

We collected the data from variety of sources including Wikipedia, books brought out by Sahitya Academy on history of Indian literature and other online sources. While the sources for individual photos and pieces of information have not been attributed, we would like to acknowledge all these sources here. Many of the sources are linked below.

There are bound to be mistakes in this data. So please point out anything you notice. If you know of more Indian authors who died in 1953 and hence have entered public domain this year, do let us know and we will add it to the list with your reference.

Why should you as a writer or someone who loves books care? An author entering public domain means that most of his works are now free to be republished, translated, converted to different format and to be introduced to a new audience in any way you can imagine. It is possible to digitize them and conserve them forever. So dig into the list and find out some gems. And when you find one, let the whole world know.

Akhoy Kumar Mozumdar (1864-1953)

AKM_1934An Indian lecturer and writer of the New Thought Movement in the United States during the first half of 20th-century.

Many of his works are available online.

Akali Kaur Singh (1890-1953)

akali kaur singhA Sikh scholar and religious preacher. “Besides the Guru Shabad Ratan Prakash (1923), Akali Kaur Singh published in 1929 an index of Bhai Gurdas’s works. Among his other publications were Kavi Sainapati’s Sri Gur Sobha (1925) and a standard breviary or missal of daily Sikh prayers, Gutkta Pramanik Nitnem (1927)., His Buddhibaridh Hitopadesh Ratnakar was a Gurmukhi transcript of Panchtantra, a Sanskrit classic. His original works include Sukh Sagar arthat Ghar da Vaid, a treatise on Ayurvedic system of medicine and Istri Sankat Mochan, a forceful plea for the social uplift of women (1925).” Source

Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872-1953)

Yusuf_aliAn Indian Islamic scholar who translated the Qur’an into English. His translation of the Qur’an is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world.

Translation & Commentary of Holy Qur’an

Balijepalli Lakshmikantham (1881-1953)

BLKaviA famous Telugu dramatist, actor and freedom fighter. Famous work is Harischandra (Satya Hariscandriyamu, 1924).

Girindrasekhar Bose (1887-1953)

girindrasekharAn early 20th-century psychoanalyst, the first president (1922–1953) of the Indian Psychoanalytic Society. Some of his works are on Google Books.

Ghulam Ali Rahim Bakhsh Masroor (1892-1953)

faqir_ghulam_ali_masroor__babaPopularly known as Faqir Ghulam Ali Masroor, he was a famous Sindhi poet. Heer Ranjha contains his poems in masnavi form.

Hakim Syed Karam Husain (1870-1953)

Hakim_Syed_Karam_HusainA prominent Unani practitioner from Tijara, Alwar and an Urdu poet. His pen name was Natiq. He wrote many books on Unani medicine.

Halasangi Chennamallappa (1903-1953)

madhura chennaAlso known as Madhura Chenna. A major Kannada poet of navodaya school. Collection of poems: Nanna Nalla, 1933 . Some of his books were also made available in Braille by Kannada Book Authority.

K. N. Kesari (1875-1953)

kn_kesariStarted Grahalakshami, a monthly magazine for women. He wrote his memoirs in Telugu titled Chinnanati Mutchatlu.

Lakshmikant Mohapatra (1888-1953)

An oriya writer known for his lyrical poems and balles-letters. Jivana Sangita is a collection of meta physical poems and Kanamamun is a novel. He wrote the famous hymn to Orissa, ‘Bande Utkal Janani’. He also wrote satirical parodies of poems.

M R Srinivasamurthy (1892-1953)

m-r-sreenivasaramurthiKannada scholar, novelist and playwright. Rangannana Kanasina Dinagalu 1949

Pharamaji Khabarada (-1953)

Parsi poet. Wrote in narrative poetry and sonnets in Gujarati.

Ram Narayan Mishra (-1953)

Hindi Poet. founder member of Nagari Pracharini Sabha. Works include Bhartiya Shishtachaar, Humaare Pramukh Sahityakaar.

Safia Akhtar (-1953)

Wife of Jan Nisar Akhtar and sister of Majaz. Her letters were published in 2 volumes in 1955, 2 years after her death. English translation of her last few letters.

Shahadat Hussain(1893-1953)

A Bengali poet and writer.

Suravaram Pratapa Reddy (1896-1953)

Suravaram_Pratap_ReddyA social historian from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. He wrote a social history of the Telugu people, Andhrula Saanghika Charitra, which was first published in 1949 and has since gone through many editions. It was the first Telugu language book that to win the best national book award (Kendra Sahitya Academy Puraskaram).

Syed Sulaiman Nadvi (1884-1953)

Iqbal_in_AfghanistanAn eminent Indian historian, biographer, littérateur and scholar of Islam. Some of his works are available online.

Tiruvengimalai Sesha Sundara Rajan (1880-1953)

tssRajanAn Indian doctor, politician and freedom-fighter. His autobiography is available online.

Thakurjoo Sapru (1878-1953)

A Kashmiri shivabhakt poet of Nirgunavad School.

Umesh Chandra Chaudhury (1898-1953)

Assamese poet. Pratidhvani, 1939 is collection of poems.

V. Kalyanasundaram (1883-1953)

KalyanasundaramA Tamil scholar, essayist and activist. He is esteemed for the strong humanism of his essays, the analytical depth of his commentaries on classical Tamil literature and philosophy, and the clear, fluid style of his prose.

V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar (1896-1953)

91px-Vishnampet_R._Ramachandra_DikshitarA historian, Indologist and Dravidologist from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He wrote many standard textbooks. Scanned copy of War in Ancient India is available online. Other books are also available.

Last date for Your Lover’s Diary writing contest extended to 17th Feb

valentineWe realized that by putting the last date for submissions on 14th Feb, we came into conflict with the very thing that we are celebrating. While we consider scribbling a lovely little tale of hearts while sipping a warm cup of coffee as a perfect way of celebrating Valentine’s day, you may have significant others who would prefer a candle light dinner or some such regular boring activity by way of celebration. 😉

To save you from the dilemma and your significant other from a heart-break, we have extended the deadline for contest till the coming weekend i.e. 17th February. Enjoy the Valentine’s day and send in your entry as soon as you can. We are looking forward to it!

Image by Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ

Who can judge a diary?

The personal jotting of a heart struck by cupid, the hopes, the emotions, the euphoria! But in the cruel real world, someone has to. And this year, Chandrima Pal has graciously agreed to take upon the delicate task.

chandrimaChandrima Pal is a journalist, writer & editor based in Mumbai. She comes from a family of noted Indian classical music maestros.

After graduating from Presidency College, Calcutta, she started her career as a radio jockey, playing from AIR’s fabulous LP collection, covering everything from classical symphonies to pop, rock and soul. She took a break to pursue her Masters in English, before she became a full-time journalist and has been one for the last 15 years. Chandrima has headed teams of journalists, met world leaders, interviewed legends, travelled for hard news stories, been a gossip columnist and written on everything from fashion to food, wildlife to starvation.

Several of her short stories have been published in anthologies and e-magazines. A Song for I is her debut novel. Samit Basu, author of Simoqin Prophecies, has written that A Song For I is “a complex ragas-to-riffs tale which weaves a melody that will linger with you long after you turn the last page”. The book was recently unveiled with much fanfare by Bollywood director Imtiaz Ali at a Mumbai bookstore.

Chandrima is now working on her second book, which marries her experience as a tabloid journalist with her love for the macabre.

You can find out more about her and her book on www.chandrimapal.com

32 Indian authors coming out of copyright in 2013

Continuing our tradition from last year, we present the list of Indian authors whose work has entered public domain on 1st Jan, 2013. The criteria for entering public domain this year is for the author to have died in calendar year 1952.

The data has been collected from variety of sources including Wikipedia, books brought out by Sahitya Academy on history of Indian literature and other online sources. There are bound to be mistakes in this data. So please point out anything you notice. If you know of more Indian authors who died in 1952 and hence have entered public domain this year, do let us know and we will add it to the list with your reference.

Why should you as a writer or someone who loves books care? An author entering public domain means that most of his works are now free to be republished, translated, converted to different format and to be introduced to a new audience in any way you can imagine. It is possible to digitize them and conserve them forever. So dig into the list and find out some gems. And when you find one, let the whole world know.

Abdur Rahim (judge) (1867-1952)

A judge and politician in British India, and a leading member of the Muslim League.

Books

Accha Rai Rasik (1928-1952)

A noted writer of humorous prose from Darjeeling.

Books:

  • Saptakoshi (1955)
  • Rasik Rachnavali (1928)

220px-Balvantrai-ThakorBalwantrai Thakor (1869-1952)

Prof. Balwantrai Thakore is considered one of the greatest pioneers of the Pandit yug in Gujarati poetry. Some of his poetry is available online (in Gujarati script).

banikanta01Bani Kanta Kakoti (1894-1952)

A prominent literary figure, critic and scholar in Assamese language with his immense contribution to the language in terms of literature, linguistics, cultural anthropology and comparative religion. A profile of Banikanta Kakoti.

Books

  • Assamese: Its Formation and Development ( 1941)
  • Purani Axhomiya Xhahitya ( 1940)
  • Life and Teachings of Shankardeva
  • Vishnuite Myths and Legends ( 1952)
  • Kalita Jaatir Itibritta

Adavi BapirajuAdavi Bapi Raju (1895-1952)

A famous Telugu novelist, poet, playwright, painter and art director. A profile in the Hindu.

Books

  • Narayanarao (Novel)
  • Narudu
  • Gona Ganna Reddy (Novel)
  • Ansumathi

Some books are available here.

Beni Madhab Das (1866 – 1952)

An erudite Bengali scholar, a renowned teacher. He presided over the All-India Theistic Conference at Kakinada, now in Andhra Pradesh, in 1923. His presidential speech was later published in a booklet entitled Modern Theistic Movement in India. His collection of essays, Pilgrimage Through Prayers, was a critically acclaimed publication.

Brajendranath Banrejee

Bengali literary historiographer. His main contribution to Bengali literature is his biographies of Bengali writers who were involved in the social and literary movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Books available on Google Books.

Chelannat Achutha Menon (1894-1952)

A prolific Malayalam writer. He was the Head of the Malayalam Department in University of Madras. He wrote seven farces, two short story collections, a collection of poems, a novel and three collections of essays.

220px-Garimella_Satyanarayana1Garimella Satyanarayana (1893-1952)

A Poet and Freedom Fighter of Andhra Pradesh, India. He made Telugu song a powerful instrument of mass-movement. He also translated ‘Kural and Nalayiram from Tamil.

Books

  • Swaraajya geetamulu (1921)
  • Harijana paatalu (1923)
  • Khandakaavyalu, baalageetaalu (1926)
  • Telugu translation of the Economic Conquest of India by Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya.

Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor (1885-1952)Mahjoor2

A renowned poet of the J&K Kashmir Valley. He is especially noted for introducing a new style into Kashmiri poetry and for expanding Kashmiri poetry into previously unexplored thematic realms. In addition to his poems in Kashmiri, Mahjoor is also noted for his poetic compositions in Persian and Urdu. A profile and translation of many of his poems. English translations are not out of copyright.

220px-Syed_Ghulam_Bhik_NAIRANGGhulam Bhik Nairang (1876-1952)

Also known as Meer Nairang, was a distinguished lawyer, a poet and a prominent Indian Muslim leader. Migrated to Pakistan after partition.

mashruvalaKishorlal Mashruwala (Gujarati Wikipedia) (1890-1952)

An eminent Gandhian thinker who wrote in Gujarati. A biographer, essayist and translator.

Books:

  • Ram Ane Krsna (1923)
  • Isu Khrust (1925)
  • Buddha Ane Mahavir (1926)
  • Sahajanand Swami (1926)
  • Kelavanina Paya (1925)
  • Kelavnivivek (1949)

First_Chief_Minister_of_Bihar_yunusMohammad Yunus (1884-1952)

The first Prime Minister (Premier) of Bihar province in British India. After a heart attack on 29 December 1944 he started writing poetry during his illness, especially during his long stay in Mussoorie in 1945. Marsiya on the death of Birbal Lal Son of Justice Manohar Lal, Payam-e-Muhabbat on Hindu Muslim Unity and Kalam-e-Yunus which is his message to young generation are some of his famous poetical work.

kobi-mohitlalmajumderMohitlal Majumdar (1888-1952)

A renowned Bengali author, was born at Kanchrapara village in Nadia district, India. Mohitlal started as a poet, but later became better known as a literary critic. One of the first Bengali poets to pose a challenge to Tagore by criticizing his literary canons.  A profile and some poetry.

Books:

  • Svapan Pasari (1922)
  • Smara Garal (1936)

Paul_MPM. P. Paul (1904-1952)

A scholar and a well-known literary critic of Malayalam. He was among the torchbearers of the progressive literature movement (purogamanasaahitya prasthaanam) in Kerala.

chilkuriNarayana Rao Chilukuri (1890-1952)

Well-known lexicographer, historian and scholar. Published “aandhra Bhaashaa caritraM” (1937) and a revised version of Sankaranarayana’s English-Telugu Dictionary, etc.

Books listed on Google Books.

yogpParamahansa Yogananda (1893-1952)

Born Mukunda Lal Ghosh, an Indian yogi and guru who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi.

Rasheed JahanRashid Jahan (1905-1952)

An Urdu writer who inaugurated a new era of Urdu literature written by women. She wrote short-stories and plays and is perhaps best remembered for her involvement with the explosive Angarey (1931), a collection of groundbreaking and unconventional short stories written by young writers in Urdu like Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali.

surendranath_dasguptaSurendranath Dasgupta (1887-1952)

A scholar of Sanskrit and philosophy.

Amir Ahmad Alavi (1879-1952):

Urdu critic

  • Mathnaviyat (1936) – A discussion of Masnavis from 1857
  • Tadhkira-i-Rind – A biographical account of Rind

Charuchandra Datta

Principal of Visvabharati College. Retired from ICS. Books available on Google Books.

Jalandhar Deb

Kabiruddin ‘Kalim’ (1870-1952)
An Indian author, writer and social activist during the period of the Bhopal State.

Kartar Singh Kalaswalia (1882-1952)
Famous for his rendition of Sikh history in verse. Writer of many Kissas.

Kaveripatna Sidhanatha Venkataramani (1891-1952)
A novelist, short-story writer and essayist in English and Tamil.

Books:

  • Murugan The Tiller (1927)
  • Kundan The Patriot (1932)

Books available on Archive.org

K. Godavarma (1902-1952)
Linguist. Worked on Malayalam. Books listed on Google Books.

Maharaja Srischandra Nandy
Bengal Rivers and Our Economic Welfare

Mufti Kifayatullah Dehlavi (1875-1952)
A Muslim scholar of Islam.

Ramadhin Mishra
A well-known journalist, essayist and critic.

Shaikh Abdul Qadir Sarfaraz
An Urdu prose writer, biographer and educationist.

Sir Mahomed Khan Dehlavi

Vahengbam Yumjao Sinha
A Manipuri grammarian & author. Wrote Longi Vayel in 1949, a grammar of Manipuri.

Five Questions to Answer When Self-Publishing a Technical Book

We asked Gayle Laakmann McDowell, author of Cracking the Coding Interview, a bestselling book for technical interview preparation, for some advice for technical self publishers. Here she outlines the five essential questions one needs to consider when self publishing a technical book. We believe this is useful even for other non-fiction writers and self publishers.

The best advice for authors of a similar genre (anything in the business / technical type) is to think about your book as a business. Writers are entrepreneurs, and writing a book is a business. The same concepts apply to both.

Building a great product is important, but it’s not everything. You need to think about the following questions:

Is there a big market?
How many people want your book? Your book won’t sell well if it’s too “niche.”
Is there good demand in your market?
Just because people need your book doesn’t mean they actually want it. Is your book useful to your market? How useful? Are they already looking for something like yours?
There is a tradeoff between the size of the market and demand; the bigger your market, the less “perfectly suited” it is for any one person. My book, for instance, is only for software engineers and would be considered very “niche.” However, because it’s a small and focused market, it outsells any of the “general purpose” interview books out there.
How much competition is there?
You should be aware of the existing competition for your book. If there are a ton of other books out there, you need to hope that you’ve written a really, really good book (and that’s hard!).
Remember though that just as too much competition is bad, too little competition is bad too. There’s often a reason that there isn’t competition, and it may mean that there isn’t actually a big market out there.
How will you market / promote your book?
You can’t expect to just write a great book and suddenly have people desperate to buy it. You need to think about how you are going to promote it. Do you have a popular and relevant website or blog? Do you train people? There are many ways to promote a book or product, and you need to find one that works well for you and your market.
What is the minimal viable product?
In start-ups, there’s a concept of the “minimal viable product,” which is the quickest product that you can build that basically solves the customer’s needs. It might not be fully functional and do everything that they want, but it fulfills their most pressing demands. If you release with that first, it will help you get customers and to understand what customers really want.
The same concept applies to non-fiction / business / technical / reference books. The 5th edition of Cracking the Coding Interview is a 500 page paperback book. The 4th edition was “only” 300 pages. The first version? It was a 20 page PDF.
The first edition was the “minimal viable product.” It wasn’t perfect – in fact, it was far from perfect – but it was enough to establish that there was a good demand, a good market, and a good reason to continue to develop the book.
The wonderful thing about print-on-demand services like Pothi.com is that you don’t have to spend a lot of time writing the “perfect” book so that you can print 3000 copies of it. You can write the “minimal viable book,” and then write a bigger and better version once you figure out that lots of people want to read it.

Note 1: Read the interview with Gayle about her experiences of self-publishing and her book “Cracking the Coding Interview.

Note 2: We have extended the deadline for Tech Publishing Festival to August 5, 2012. If you are looking to self publish a technical title, make sure to submit your manuscript before the deadline to avail free design and distribution services.

[Author Interview] Gayle Laakmann McDowell, author of Cracking the Coding Interview

Gayle Laakmann McDowellGayle Laakmann McDowell is the author of Cracking the Coding Interview, a featured book in our Tech Publishing Festival. She used Pothi.com to bring out an Indian edition of her book which is available for sale on Pothi.com, Flipkart, IndiaPlaza and other Indian retailers. Cracking the Coding Interview is the #1 book for Software Engineering interviews preparation currently.

[Pothi.com] Please tell us about your book. What inspired you to write it?

[Gayle Laakmann McDowell] Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Answers is focused on helping software engineers prepare for technical interviews at top tech companies, like Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

It grew out of my company’s website, CareerCup.com. CareerCup offers thousands of free interview questions from tech firms added by users after their interviews.

I realized though that providing sample questions to practice on isn’t enough. Candidates also need to learn how to solve problems.

So, I took the best 150 of interview questions and wrote up thorough solutions for all of them. I showed multiple ways of solving problems, in a way that candidates can follow along with to improve their solutions, and offered concrete strategies to develop new algorithms. The book is now over 500 pages long!

[PC] Tell us about yourself. What is your background?

[GLM] I have worked as a software engineer for Google, Microsoft, and Apple, and I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Computer Science. In addition, while I was at Google, I became very involved in the hiring process. I was in the top 1% of interviewers at Google, and served on its hiring committee. In addition, I have interviewed with 12 of the top companies (including Amazon and IBM) and received offers from all of them.

In short, I know both sides of the software engineering hiring process thoroughly!

[PC] Have you written any other books? Tell us about those.

[GLM] I have written one other book, called The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any Top Tech Company.

Whereas Cracking the Coding Interview focuses just on software engineering interview prep, The Google Resume is a more comprehensive book that details the entire recruiting timeline, from college projects and majors to designing a resume, writing cover letters, and negotiating an offer.

Getting a great job starts well before the interview and continues long after, and The Google Resume shows candidates that process.

[PC] Why did you decide to self publish your book? Did you first try the traditional publishing channel or had you decided to self-publish from the beginning?

[GLM] Being an engineer, I took an “iterative” approach to writing. Actually, I really hadn’t intended to write a real “book” at all.

I wrote Cracking the Coding Interview as a PDF interview guide which I sold directly from CareerCup. Candidates loved it, so I continued to expand the contents. Pretty soon I had written a book – only it was a PDF instead of a physical book. Finding someone to print it was the next logical step, so that’s how I wound up self-publishing. It was mostly an accident!

I’ve since gotten a number of offers from publishing houses to publish my book for me, but there’s no reason for me to do that. With enough work, you can do almost everything that a traditional publishing house can do – and make far higher royalties in the process.

For my second book, The Google Resume, I did decide to publish with Wiley, which is one of the largest US publishers. The reason that I did that is that I knew that there was an awful lot I didn’t yet know about publishing, and I wanted to learn from how they did things.

[PC] How much time and work went into each revision?

[GLM] For the most recent edition, I worked on it for about nine months.

[PC] How is the book doing?

[GLM] It’s doing better than I ever expected! It’s currently Amazon’s #1 book in Interviewing, #1 in Software Development, and #361 out of all books. (PC: The Indian edition is also in the top 100 bestsellers across all categories on Flipkart for past 7-8 months.)

[PC] We recently saw a Russian version of your book. How did you decide which all markets to cover and how did you go about releasing the book there?

[GLM] The book is being translated and published in Russian, Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan), Simplified Chinese (China), Japanese, and Korean. I’m also working out some other deals right now. The publishing houses have all approached me. They are, presumably, finding me from my high sales rank on Amazon and picking my book based on the large technical audiences in those countries.

[PC] It is clear that writing a good book takes a lot of effort. Do you think it has been worth it? Has it helped you in advancing your career?

[GLM] I’m a bit unusual as compared to most non-fiction authors. I actually support myself from my book sales. So, yes, it has helped my career a lot!

My book has also landed me a number of speaking engagements at top schools around the US, a major conference in Canada, and an NIT and an IIT in India. And when I start my next venture, I’m sure the credibility and name recognition will be very valuable.

[PC] Do you get fan mail? 🙂 How does it feel when someone comes back and thanks you for writing the book?

[GLM] I get a number of emails, tweets (@gayle), or Facebook comments (http://www.facebook.com/gayle) from people thanking me for my book and telling me how it helped them land their dream job. I try to respond to all of them, and it always feels great to know that I helped someone.

[PC] Thanks a lot for talking to us! We wish you all the success and even more readers in time to come!

Note: We also asked Gayle for her advice to fellow authors in the technical genre. That will be coming up in the next post. Stay tuned!

Technical Books, Self Publishing and Print-on-Demand

TechnologyJuly 2012 is the Tech Publishing Festival at Pothi.com. You might be wondering why this special attention to tech publishing? There is a reason – actually multiple reasons. One of them we will explore in this blog post.

Increasing pace of technology change

As technologists, we live in an exciting world. The rate of evolution of software technologies is breathtaking. There was a time when it would take a new technology, a new programming language years to mature and become usable. Today that time period has come down to months. Consider how long it took Python and Ruby before they became mainstream and came into large-scale usage. Then consider CoffeeScript and Node.js that are already becoming part of many job descriptions. iPhone and Android appeared on the scene 3-4 years ago and the demand for expertise in those platforms is exploding through the roof.

Another aspect of the current technological scenario is the increasingly shortening iteration periods. Most modern browsers are now on monthly release cycles. Ubuntu, a popular Linux variant is on a six month release cycle. What this means is that a significant chunk of technical knowledge and information gets stale very fast. Even blog posts have a hard time keeping up with this. Traditionally published paper books with a publishing cycle of a year or longer don’t stand a chance here.

These two trends are fundamentally changing the tech publishing as well. It is no longer feasible to produce large tomes containing thousands of pages, covering something comprehensively, and expect it to be useful for several years to come. The short cycle of technology change is forcing a short cycle on the publishing as well. This means a move towards eBooks and print-on-demand which reduce the risk of stale inventory and offer much faster time to market.

That’s where the Pothi.com’s model comes into picture. Pick up on a technology on which information and education is needed today and now. Write a book and let us help you bring it to market quickly and professionally. If you haven’t already done so, you should check out the details of the Tech Publishing Festival now.

Happy Writing!

🙂

Blog is now Book!

With the advent of new year, we are starting out in a very exciting direction! After 6 months in closed beta, we have finally opened BookSmith, our blog2book tool, for everyone. If you have not tried it yet, convert your blog right away and be amazed :).

The tool is very simple. You just give it the blog url and then click along. In minutes, you have your beautiful ready to print book available for preview. If you like what you see, you can buy just as many copies as you want. As we say here at Pothi.com, print 1 for that special someone, 10 for the family, 100 for the friends and 1000 for the world :). For the digital junkies among you, it also creates a e-book out of the same content which you can download and distribute absolutely free.

Did I mention you can select which posts go into the book – latest n or by date range, leave out certain posts (we all make mistakes 😉 ) and also reorder them? So you can create a book out of your best posts till date and give it to the new readers coming to your blog or may be just collect all the posts from one category into a book. Tools are all there, you are only limited by your imagination (with a few exceptions which we are hard at work to remove as soon as possible)!

Here is wishing a very happy new year to everyone! Do give your feedback and suggestions by leaving a comment below, tweeting to @pothidotcom or by dropping us a mail.

Indibloggies and Pothi.com

Voting for the final round of Indibloggies 2008 is on till 10th Dec. With close to 150 nominations across 17 categories, you are sure to find many new and exciting bloggers. Go here to see the nominations for Indibloggies and cast your vote.

While there are many exciting prices for the winners – some from big name corporations and some from individuals – 13 lucky winners are also going to get a surprise gift from Pothi.com. While we are keeping our mouth shut about what it is going to be, you can be sure that it will be kick ass :). So go ahead, find your favorite blogger and help him win!

About Indibloggies:

Indibloggies are yearly awards, conferred on bloggers from India and Indian diaspora chosen through public voting. A jury goes through all the initial nominations and presents the final list on which anybody can come and vote. Started in 2003, Indibloggies have become increasingly popular. Last year’s winners include Great Bong, Atanu Dey and Amit Agarwal.

[BBF09] ‘Best of Pothi.com’ Cover Page!

‘Best of Pothi.com’ is a collection of excerpts from 15 of the titles published through Pothi.com. The titles come from all sorts of genres – there are short stories, poetry, novels, memoirs and it looks beautiful – at least to my biased eyes :).'Best of Pothi.com' cover

But you may ask why this collection. I quote from the preface:

In past one year, more than 150 authors have chosen Pothi.com as their partner in self-publishing. Through them, we have come to better understand the problems faced by independent authors. Since these individuals lack the marketing muscle of traditional publishing houses, more often than not they fail to get the kind of visibility that their works deserve. The books don’t get reviewed in mainstream media, they don’t get interviewed by journalists and only few readers get to see their work.

Through this collection, we have attempted to ameliorate the situation by choosing to showcase a few select works of self published authors which are available with us. The selection represents a diverse genre of books including fiction, humour, children’s book and self improvement. These authors have explored their creative side and have a charming tale or an important thought to share with you.

The collection is available on Pothi.com stall (#288) in Bangalore Book Festival, running till 15th Nov. It will also be available on the website shortly afterwards. Do grab a copy and let us know what you think. Your feedback will help us make it even more awesome! (If you still can’t tell, I am a big fan of How I met your Mother 🙂 )
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