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: Right from the time Jaishree Misra had signed her three-book deal with Avon HarperCollins, speculation had been rife about how ‘popular’ the content would be. And the guessing game has been justified as the first book, a 400 plus page Secret and Lies traces the livesof four women tied together by a death in high school. In a completely whodunit- commercial fiction style. Misra’s fifth novel is in contrast to her earlier ones, whether the first, part-autobiographical Ancient Promises or last released book, Rani, a historical fiction on Lakshmibai, which got mired in controversy. In an interview Misra explains how to write a commercial fiction novel to Suman Tarafdar. Excerpts:
This is your first book after you switched agents. How is this novel different from your previous ones?
David Godwin is literary book agent, and he told me not to straddle the two genres even when I wrote my first novel. I was feeling that I wasn’t writing my natural stuff, and my current agent, Judith Murdoch nudged me into commercial fiction. It was a bit of a gamble, but the publishers recognised there is a huge market for British Asian popular fiction. If written in a certain style, there is a target market everywhere. In India too, publishers are waking up to the fact that they need big sellers as well. While Khushwant Singh and Shobhaa De had been there, they were regarded as exceptions. Then Chetan Bhagat’s books woke up the potential. Avon sells aggressively, especially, at the airports, Tescos etc. They sell in the thousands, and the reach and visibility are very high.
What directives did the publishers provide?
Tasmina Perry has been very popular and they wanted something on her book’s lines. They wanted more of Manolo Blahniks, more high society. There are things I did not change of course. One of the four women in the book, Anita, is a journalist and not rich at all, which was felt could change, but I stuck to her. Also, the deadlines are tight. I am already finishing the next book, for which the deadline is September and then the next manuscript has to be given a year later. These are being done keeping in mind the summer market. There is feedback such as during recession, people read more of a certain kind of book, but that is hard to believe. One doesn’t change reading style due to the...
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