A small, fledgling women’s only publishing house, started four years back from a barsati in Connaught Circus, was doing well for itself, posting profits in the last three years. No mean feat this in the big bad world of multinational publishers and distributors.
Started by Arpita Das and Parul Nayyar, both of who spent several years in publishing working with multinational houses, Yoda Press had a dream debut and some amazing success with their rather eclectic non-fiction list that spanned history, art, urban studies, alternative sexuality, sports, graphic novels. More radical titles were forthcoming. But the news is that Das and Nayyar will no longer do it together. They have parted ways, amicably they say.
As is wont, tongues are wagging in the industry with the predictable “oh! women have to fight”, but the fact is Arpita is shifting out with her imprint to Shahpur Jat, an upcoming publishing hub in south Delhi. She will share quarters with Tulika for the time being. Parul is also ready to chart newer territories. Best of luck to both women. Did someone say déjà vu?
Raunchy first novel from 93-year-old
A raunchy novel by a 93-year-old first time author from a nursing home bed is leading to unusual ramifications. It was Lorna Page’s daughter-in-law who found the manuscript locked up in a suitcase and “could not put it down before finishing it”. She pushed her mom-in-law to publish it and the advance and sales of A Dangerous Weakness, a feminist thriller set in the Alps, has yielded a big detached country house for Lorna in her twilight years.
She’s going to move out of her one-bedroom flat in Surrey to her country house along with a few of her contemporaries. “Care homes can be such miserable places,” she said. “I thought it would be lovely to give a home and family life to one or two people who would otherwise be sitting around there.”
Page, who taught Morse code to the Air Training Corps during the Second World War, is working on a sequel collection of short stories.
He-story?
What on earth should a legitimate male counterpart to the hugely successful chick lit novels be called?
A book released last fall, Stuff to Die For by novelist Don Bruns, seems to have struck a chord with both readers and reviewers reacting to the novel’s protagonists, James Lessor and Skip Moore, 20-something slackers/would-be entrepreneurs/amateur sleuths. Some described them as the Hardy Boys grown up. Deadly Pleasures magazine said Stuff to Die For was “written with both the wit and the wisdom that seems to leave the actions, but not the minds, of most men once they hit 30”.
But Don is still waiting for a name for the genre. Male-o-drama? (Ugh.) Histery, which rhymes with mystery? (Double ugh).
If you got an idea for this unnamed genre, you could drop an email at namethegenre@oceanviewpub.com. If Don likes it, he will include you as a character in book three of the Stuff series. Entries to be accepted till August 31, 2008 .
