Build Your Brand As An Indie Author:
Bharat Krishnan, the author of five books, shares his strategies for success in Indie publishing.
Bharat Krishnan left a ten-year career in politics as a proud Democrat when Trump was elected to office and published his first book, a memoir, Confessions of a Campaign Manager. In the past five years, Bharat has written another four books. Oasis was his first novel, a desert fantasy. Most recently, he wrote the Privilege trilogy, an Own Voices political thriller about an Indian-American man, Rakshan’s mission to get hold of the supernatural drug, W.P., which is only allowed to be consumed by white people. We sat down to discuss his writing process and how to make a name for yourself in the crowded Indie market.
Having a Distinctive Voice is More Important Than Sticking to One Genre.
Nonfiction memoir, fantasy, dystopian/Sci-Fi political thriller, Bharat’s books cannot be categorized into one genre. “Being able to brand yourself is important for anyone who wants to be an author, particularly an Indie author,” but he doesn’t think this means you have to confine yourself to writing only one genre. “Don’t worry if your book doesn’t fit into a genre,” he advised aspiring writers, “create one to two sentences for your hook to market your book; it doesn’t have to be about genre. It can be about the character, an age, a particular setting.”
The through-line that he believes characterizes his work is “raw emotional honesty” portrayed within a political context; in reality, he doesn’t think there are non-political situations. All of his books are, in some way, inspired by his own life and experiences. “One of the hardest parts of being an author is that you have to take some kind of trauma in your life and be comfortable sharing it with the rest of the world,” he said.
Give Your Character Goals and Obstacles.
“A good main character always has elements of yourself,” he said. He typically chooses one of two core components of his personality or background to infuse into the character. Then from there, his rule of thumb is: “give your character a goal and decide what the absolute worst thing that can happen to them on their way to reaching the goal is.” In general, Bharat does not consider himself one of those people who can just sit down and write. Instead, he declares himself “obsessed with outlines.” He will spend months working on his outlines, breaking down the whole plot into beats, broken down into chapters and scenes. Typically he will assign estimated word counts to each scene. “I am not comfortable sitting down and saying to myself, ‘I wonder what will happen to the character next?’” he joked.
Privilege turned out to be the one exception to this rule where he wrote the first draft of it as a 20,000-word novella in two days! When his editor suggested that the story needed to be more than a novella, that was when he started extensively outlining the story, and it grew into a 160,000-word trilogy.
Allow Yourself To Suck In the First Draft.
“Creativity requires deep focus,” Bharat said, but he doesn’t claim to have any unique writing process. Instead, he locks himself in a room, turns off his phone, and writes. Ultimately he thinks the air of mystery around writing and publishing a book is manufactured by the publishing industry; the truth is he said, “it isn’t that exciting a process, you sit down, you write, you publish, and you promote.”
Bharat is not a believer in writer’s block. “Creativity can be squeezed out of people,” he said if you remove distractions and give yourself the time and space to focus. But, crucially, “you have to allow yourself to suck” when you are writing the first draft, he said, “you can have the most amazing idea in your head, but unless it is on paper, it doesn’t exist.” Equally important is finding the people you trust to read your early drafts and give you constructive feedback and motivation to continue. “Writing is a solitary exercise but very important to find your people; it is a demoralizing profession if you don’t find your support network,” he said.
You can purchase a copy of all of Bharat’s books on Amazon.
This blog aims to demystify the writing process and share my personal takeaways from conversations with authors. I would love to hear your thoughts and questions about writing in the comments. You can also follow @pollyturnsthepage on Instagram for more in-depth book reviews.
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