Before I present my case I am sure that everyone appreciates that I never exhibited gender bias. On the contrary as a father of two daughters I always championed women’s rights. I wrote a special blog praising Nirupama Subramaniam the intrepid lady who works as the correspondent for THE HINDU in Pakistan. I stand vindicated as she won the prestigious award of journalism very recently.

I have been trying to get my book published in India as the volume of sales will be high. Even if the margins are low the results would be better in a market which involves 200 Million readers and 50 Million serious readers.

I therefore tried to contact the publishers and the editors to send my book for their perusal and approval. Incidentally my book was published and appreciated by English ladies who were the editors and publishers and knew their English and cricket well.

The Indian publishing industry treats the new authors with great disdain. The best seller “English August” was rejected 18 times and the author was a lecturer in English at St Stephens Delhi before joining IAS.

The Indian publishing industry is heavily dominated by women and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these lady editors were the students of that   author.

As a first step I obtained the addresses and e-mail addresses of the editors of various publishing houses from the Internet and sent them my proposal on behalf of my publisher. I am sad to say that most of these publishers don’t even show the minimum courtesy of acknowledging an e-mail. They are at liberty to send a rejection slip for it is their inalienable right and not negotiable. But refusing even to acknowledge the presence of an author whose work was published abroad and not responding to an e-mail beats me. If my e-mail had gone to the wrong address I would have got a delivery failure notification, which I didn’t get.

I wanted to lodge a formal complaint with the Publishing and Printing Association of India. When I found their address and contact details by Google, Yahoo and other search engines and sent some mails they all bounced back. I wonder whether such an association exists and if so why is it hiding?

As some good luck have it I found three or four e-mails evincing interest in my book and asking me to send a copy of the book to the address furnished by them. After spending lot of money I sent the copy of the book by courier along with charges to return the book if it didn’t meet their approval. I expected the publisher to acknowledge receipt of the book. When I didn’t get it even after two weeks I found their telephone number after considerable effort, managed to contact them and finally got confirmation of the receipt of the book. The head of one publishing firm talked to me like a teacher wagging his finger at an errant student and talked me down for about ten minutes in a peremptory tone. Finally he asked me to wait for a couple of weeks.

I then received an e-mail from one lady whose name is immaterial to the effect that she found my book interesting and has good potential. What followed thereafter shook me out of my wits. It appears she took my book home for reading in the comfort of her home. She said that her puppy also found my book interesting and had the covers and few pages for a meal. Perhaps the lady was not feeding the dog. She apologised and wanted to know if it would be OK with me to return the book in that condition.

I then put my foot down. I told her in no uncertain terms that after long service in the Indian Navy chivalry was almost second nature to me and I would have accepted her apology without even a moment’s hesitation. But I refused to be intimidated by peremptory tones and longwinded classes from publishers how to send the books by courier and other things. I wrote back insisting on my rights. Since I had already sent the return charges they were duty bound to return my book in the same condition that I sent to them. I also added that some things look nice without covers off but those do not include new books. I stated unequivocally that I served in the Navy not for nothing and I would keep fighting till my book was returned in the same condition that I sent to them.

I am glad to inform them that the lady obtained a copy and sent a new book back all in good shape within two weeks.

This piece is written mainly for the benefit of the bloggers aspiring to be writers. It is perhaps easier to climb Mount Everest than to get an approval from the ladies who are controlling the Indian publishing Industry today. Some of them seem to be more English than their counterparts in England.

I am also aware that by writing this blog I am burning all my bridges with all  the Indian publishers( I have a feeling that these ladies form a close knit network) and losing all chances of getting published in India and making money. So be it. Nothing stands before self respect.