Sep 17
By Kanchana Banerjee
I’m fortunate that my publisher isn’t blatant about the economics of book selling. They are very polite, erudite, and yet clear. The author has to walk the long mile when it comes to marketing. Build an online profile. Focus on garnering a following through blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. QED: It’s not enough to just write a great story.
By Koshy A.V.
The changing marketplace affects us in that we are on a constant selling mode, which takes our mind away from the actual process of writing. This is because one keeps trying to be visible and popular and make an impact every day, rather than write. The writer has to be always in the news and keep churning out new stuff.
By Santosh Bakaya
Now, I realize that it is no use making haste. A manuscript should go to the publisher only when it is honed, polished, and scintillating. Bad proofreading and editing can kill a book. I have seen many an excellent book suffering dismally at the hands of self-publishing agencies that take exorbitant amounts from the writers, but do an extremely poor job.
By Namrata
The Indian literary industry is yet to warm to literary agents and, hence, most of the publishing houses are open to direct submissions and their requirements are very simple. Three sample chapters, author’s bio, and a synopsis about the story that you want to narrate. Sounds simple, right? Well, that is where the twist is.
Contents: Diasbility Arts and Culture (Issue 17)
By Shilpaa Anand & Nandini Ghosh
The aim of this issue was to present disabled artists’ conceptions of their art. This endeavour was undertaken keeping in mind that a disabled artist or a disabled writer’s work is received/ perceived in certain normative ways: in a paternalistic manner, the art may be attributed only to their disability; the Super Crip attitude that considers that the disabled artist has a talent using which he or she overcomes their disability; the artist’s disability may be hidden from the world under the assumption that they may not consider their disability as part of their individual identity.
By Partho Bhowmick
Photography by the blind is a social equaliser: it challenges perception and inspires social change. Many of the participants in the Blind with Camera project have expressed delight in the fact that they are doing something many people would not have thought possible. Blind with Camera is an ongoing project of creation, expression, and communication that helps address feelings of isolation and provides a means to engage with society and create a forum for dialogue between the seeing and non-seeing world.
By Prateeksha Sharma
Recovery from mental illness is a difficult process for anyone. One of the key engagements that I have thereafter got into is to first consolidate my recovery, and second, to conduct an analysis of recovery, via research. Having ‘lost’ two decades of life, it has taken time to put the train back on track, and then to be certain what the track could be.
By Ankur Advocacy Group
This video narrative, made by the Ankur Advocacy Group is one of the first endeavours of the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy’s (IICP) media lab team. We started the media lab as a space for creative expression through experimentation with language, visuals and sounds. This video is totally an in-house production.
By Shefalee Jain
Much of my work is about the diseased body and how we look at it. I am intrigued by the discomfort, the horror, the disgust, and simultaneously the invasive curiosity that the sight of a diseased (especially a diseased skin) or disabled body, creates in us. Why do we react to it in such terror and with such violence? Why is it that despite advances in modern medicine, there has been no positive change in our ways of seeing and accepting the fact of disease?
By Jyothsna Phanija
Intentionally or unintentionally, as artists with disabilities, we become part of promotion of such stereotypical disability aesthetics, although we do our best to minimize their intensity. In this context, certain ideas can promote a better view of art and disability and this may include negating the idea that a disabled artist’s art is a “gift”or a “blessing” and instead promoting the idea that the art is a form of expression of the voice of the disabled person.
Contents: Muslim Women on Hijab/Veil (Issue 16)
By Jenny Rowena
Soon, I realized that feminism was not just excluding many women but it was also oppressing them. It was trying to wrench them out of their own sense of the world and their social locations that are closely tied to their communities and literally forcing them to convert into a liberal worldview in the name of ‘freedom’ and ‘choice.’
Café Dissensus 