Amish Tripathi
The three books collectively comprise the Shiva Trilogy. THE IMMORTALS OF MEHULA was a surprise bestseller, breaking into the top seller charts within a week of its launch. The Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 1. 7 million copies in print and over Rs 40 crores in sales. Forbes, India has ranked him 85 in the 2012 Celebrity 100 list. Before being an author is journey was very different.
Amish tripathi had completed is MBA from IIM-Calcutta. He worked for 14 years in the financial services industry, in companies such as Standard Chartered, DBS Bank and IDBI Federal Life Insurance, before starting his writing career. He never wanted to be a writer which is very hard to believe. The Banker turned author of popular Shiva trilogy recently won a millon dollar for her books. The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas, the first two novels by Tripathi, have been commercial successes.
Amish’s books have sold a million copies in the p of two years with a gross retail sale of Rs 22 crores. The third installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras, was released on 27 February 2013. With The Oath of Vayuputras selling more than 400,000 copies even before its release, the trilogy has become a success. The Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 1. 7 million copies in print and over Rs 40 crores in sales.
In the Indian market where large sales volumes of books are rare, Tripathi’s books have been enormously successful. Tripathi’s marketing skills and strategies have been widely credited for the success of his novels. Tripathi himself says: “It’s a fallacy to think that a good book sells itself. I can give you a long list of books that I think should have been bestsellers but nobody’s heard of them. My management background along with marketing experience helped me devise effective strategies for promoting my book.
Weeks before The Immortals of Meluha hit the bookshops, Tripathi printed sample copies of the first chapter and persuaded bookshops and chains to give them away free to anyone who approached the cash counter, creating a buzz. It was an unprecedented move and gave the book very high visibility considering that at that time, Tripathi was an unknown author. He also made presentations to big retail chains, visited smaller retailers, met local distributors and regularly sent email updates to various stakeholders.
Tripathi targeted social media websites for promoting his debut novel, and made a trailer film with a background score reportedly by Taufiq Qureshi and uploaded it on YouTube. For promotion of his second book, Tripathi created video trailers and screened them at multiplexes. These trailers were of similar quality as movie trailers, complete with visual effects. They were released with the Shahrukh Khan starrer Ra. One. Tripathi believed that this would “work as the audience that visits theatres is the same that reads my books.
Three other trailers were released on YouTube. In 2013, a music album called Vayuputras, an original soundtrack based on The Oath of the Vayuputras, the final book of the Shiva Trilogy, was released. The album had songs by artists like Sonu Nigam, Taufiq Qureshi, Palash Sen, Bickram Ghosh amongst others working on this. This was the first time ever that an original soundtrack has been made for a book series. It was not just his writing skills but the marketing skills & techniques which made him a successful person.
