'Lockdown helped professionals refocus on book projects'

New Delhi, June 12 During a time when creativity seemed to be at its peak across art forms, despite a medical crisis unfolding, an Indian self-publishing platform continues to churn out over 2,000 books a month, which is almost one book every twenty-five minutes. But, why are writers, especially first-timers, going the self-publishing way?

According to Notion Press, over 30,000 writers have published their books and sold books worth Rs 50 crore till date. Its authors range from the age of 7 to 94 giving life to their mission of putting the power of publishing into everyone's hands. These authors range from students to educators, entrepreneurs to bureaucrats, home makers to professionals all of them writing on topics of passion and expertise. Writers can publish their books in English, Hindi, Tamil and other Indian languages.

The platform provides an interface that enables writers to design their book and set it up for global distribution. It has 3,50,000 writers who are part of their community in various stages of writing their books. Notion Press also provides an ISBN for each version of the book and distributes books across the globe. Writers on Notion Press get instant access to their book sales data enabling them to understand who is buying their book and where it's popular, says the platform.

life speaks to Naveen Valsakumar, CEO and Co-Founder at Notion Press, for insights on self-publishing:

Q: The trends for self-publishing during lockdown are positive. Why do you think this is?

A: Writing a book is a long-term commitment and for most writers it takes a minimum of 3 months to complete. Over the years, we have observed that although there are tens of thousands of aspiring writers who start writing their books each month, they would not be able to complete as life/work takes over. The lockdown imposed due to Covid-19 helped a lot of professionals save time on commute and refocus on their book project, leading to a massive uptick in the number of books that were published on the Notion Press Platform.

Q: What are some key challenges of routing your book via a conventional publishing house?

A: You have to think of a conventional publishing house as an investor. They typically have a certain amount of funds set aside for acquiring new books and also a mandate for the kind

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