My publishing experience... in short... :-)

“Ten percent! You mean I get just ten rupees for each book sold,” I exclaimed.
“Welcome to the world of authors, publishers, distributors and retailers,” said Neetu without elaborating.
Ten percent! I was hoping for at least fifty percent!
But in one instant I understood that the profit from the book must be shared among so many people and the author is the only one getting money with almost no financial investment. The publishers get the books printed apart from editing etc, the distributors stock volumes of books in warehouses, the retailers provide customers a pleasant shopping experience, and the author, just for his imagination.
“Before your book goes for print there are certain steps to be taken as your manuscript is raw. We would like to professionally edit it, get an attractive cover page professionally designed and finally have the whole text professionally formatted and type set” said Neetu.
Why can’t they just get the book published instead of burying my originality in the name of professionalism?
I hate formal procedures. I hate them so much that one of the main reasons for me not going abroad for MS is the procedures involved. A billion steps to apply for universities, another million for the visa and getting myself settled there, another zillion each time I want to visit India. No thanks, I am a free bird.
“All this costs money and these days all publishers seek equal partnership with the authors until the stage of printing,” Neetu continued
"How much will it cost?" I asked, my heart sinking.
The author too is not spared the finances, maybe woes of a debut author.
"Sixty thousand, so your share will be thirty thousand," she said
Damn! I need to invest money after I had invested so much time and effort in writing the story. This is not fair!
I could feel beads of sweat on my forehead.
Thirty Thousand! I have to sweep all the Galleons out of Gringotts! With the remaining Sickles and Knuts I can barely manage to make ends meet. If the bank gobbles up what is left for having less than minimum balance, I am dead.
But perhaps the book is good enough for me to recover my investment within a month.
I started feeling hopeful.
“You might not be aware of this but all publishers follow a six months payment cycle, so you will be getting your cheque, if any, only after 6 months” she said and I stared at her.
This woman can read my mind and is determined to drain all the happiness out of me!
“Once published, you will get 300 copies out of the 1000 from the first print or alternatively you could choose that we sell all the books and you get just the royalty” she said.
300 books @ Rs100 = 30000 = my investment, yipee.
I looked at her to see if anything else was coming to squash my yupieness, but her posture indicated that she is done with the talking. The only problem was the thirty thousand rupees!

3 hours later
It was 6pm and I am out on streets, walking, thinking and calculating. Buses carrying Infy employees were zooming past, spraying me with dust and blurring my destination - the ICICI bank atm. I wanted to know exactly how much money I had, exact to the last paise.
But this is impossible! A deposit of Rs20,000 today?
“Dad, there is a deposit of Rs20,000 in my account, any idea who could it be?” I asked, calling him up.
“Yes, some xyz had to give me money and I gave him your account number, maybe you will need it” he said and I jumped with joy, but feeling a little guilty. No one except a few of my closest friends knew that I was going to publish my first novel.
Thanks Dad! I will pay you back very soon, err I hope.
Had it not been for such good reviews from friends, I would never have had the courage to invest so boldly.
Thanks guys! Life without you people would have been so dull.
Some friends become as important as parents, they become part of the family, and they become friends forever.

3 days later
“This agreement is between Jayanth Gurijala, herein referred to as the author and Rainbow Publishers…. the publishers assure the author that the book ‘Exotic Engineer Entrepreneur’ will be published within 45 days… the author will receive 300 books and he may distribute them as he sees fit… further, the author will receive a royalty… ”
I smiled, my first ever copyrighted work and my third agreement, first was an NDA with Microsoft for an internship, second was an NDA, with HCL – both guarantying a fixed monthly income. My third agreement made no such promise; I might become a prince or a pauper (Fingers crossed). Whatever it might be, the journey into an unknown territory was fun.