If you are a writer, editor, journalist, or academician, it is likely that you have had encountered the fateful publishing process in your career’s lifetime. Many a time, people ask what it takes to get their work published. The answer is, sadly, never straightforward. However, one can understand what will most likely happen to a manuscript when submitted to a publishing firm.

Editor’s Essentials organized Think Write 2019, an interactive one-day workshop providing authors, aspiring authors, and writers an opportunity to learn to distinguish themselves in a highly competitive market. Think Write 2019 was conceived from the recognition that there was a gap between writers and their understanding of the publishing market. Editor’s Essentials wanted to create a space where aspiring authors and writers can arm themselves with information about the industry, so that they are well informed before embarking on their journey to becoming a better writer or author. We teamed up with Notion Press (India’s largest self-publishing platform) and author Kavipriya Moorthy in order to dispel some myths about the content and publishing market.

Sanjana Keerthi started with a session urging the participants to share where they were on their writing journey followed by an interactive session on the content market. Participants were introduced to the complexities of distinguishing between good content and sellable content. She also briefly addressed the participants about the requirements for and challenges in pursuing traditional publishing avenues.

Notion Press provided valuable insights into what makes content sellable and why good content doesn’t always sell or get picked up by publishing houses. Notion Press discussed the success stories of some successful self-published authors, while revealing the techniques the authors used on their path to self-published success.

Finding one’s purpose as a writer is very important to withstand the harsh tides of one’s writing journey. Kavipriya Moorthy guided aspiring authors to find their voice and shared practical tips that writers can use to overcome challenges such as writer’s block and avoiding hiccups in word building.

Writers may underestimate the power and importance of understanding the basic copyediting skills to enhance the quality of writing. Moreover, India has been registering a 20% growth in terms of publishing content, with the majority being in English, making the need for authors and writers to understand the nuances of what makes English “Indian” inevitable. This understanding would help write precisely for the author’s target audience. As a first step, Murugaraj Shanmugam covered the inappropriate use of punctuation commonly seen. He went on to discuss the variations in English, given that most of the participants were writing in English.

The participants were enthused about what they learned in the workshop, describing the workshop as “fun”, “informative” and “very useful”. The participants were information-hungry and passionate, leading to interactive sessions. We look forward to conducting similar sessions and workshops in the future.

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For more information on conducting sessions, please write to us at learning@editorsessentials.com.