Dear readers & bloggers,
I won’t say that I always wanted to be an author. To be honest, I was dragged into this whole write-a-novel thing. Well, it’s a long story and I don’t intend to pen down another book explaining how I became an author and Blah! Blah! Blah! So, I shall keep it short and try to explain the entire journey in a few simple words.
I was a crazy blogger (but I hardly
blog nowadays) and I’m an avid reader too. I love reading fantasy fictions and paranormals, and I also daydream a lot. Entrapped is just a product of those daydreams. I imagined a girl haunted by a dream and every-time she dreams, someone calls for her help, “We are trapped. Please, free us…” The idea intrigued me and I decided to spin a story around the same. I named the girl Myra Bose and penned down the prologue of Entrapped in no time. Few of my friends, who read it, encouraged me to continue. It took five months to finish the initial draft. After my exams, when I was waiting for the results, I got enough time to polish the initial draft. I prioritized Entrapped over other things and to be frank, at that moment, I didn’t have getting it published on my mind.
Halfway through my script, I came across this fantastic group,
Book Readers Lounge (BRL) on Facebook. It was a turning point for my book. I met many Indian authors on this online community and few of them even guided me on how to make a book proposal, how to approach publishers and so on. Until then, I knew nothing about publishers and publishing process but thanks to those who aided me, I got my book published. I owe those guys a lot.
Steadily, my network grew and I got acquainted with many great writers. However, I really doubted whether my manuscript would interest any publisher in India as it was a fantasy fiction; romance seemed to be publishers’ favorite genre. Nevertheless, I wanted to take a chance. Soon after my manuscript was completed, I sent the book proposal to as many publishers as I could. Many rejected saying that they don’t publish this genre and very few asked for the complete manuscript. This continued for awhile but finally, after three months of struggle, Cedar Books agreed to publish it.
Even the title of the book has an interesting story behind it. When I submitted my book’s proposal to publishers, I had named it as “In quest of dreams” but I wasn’t too happy with the title. I couldn’t come up with anything better either. I played with many options before deciding on “Entrapped”.
On the ending note, I’m glad that I got an opportunity to share my experience with you-readers and bloggers. Thanks to Nethra for inviting me to do a guest post on her blog!
Sneha Kedar
Author of the book "Entrapped"