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Bibliofile

Trivia quiz: He confessed to surrendering to Penguin’s giant publicity machine "in fear and trembling" but is clearly enjoying the high celebrity life. Who?

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Bibliofile
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Cakes And Gale
The small publisher’s darling, Amitav Ghosh’s catapulting to high celebrity life was not as painful as he expected it to be. For someone who confessed to surrendering to Penguin’s giant publicity machine "in fear and trembling", Amitav was clearly enjoying himself, whether it was holding the nearly 300 guests at his Delhi launch in thrall with his words, or signing books (an unexpected 110 hardback copies sold at the launch, an achievement of sorts, considering how hard it is to get guests out of the line for booze and snacks and into the line to get their books signed by the author). But book tours are not all fun and five-star luxury, as Amitav will no doubt discover before his arduous six-city tour—a relentless drill of five-star parties, campus and bookstore appearances and interviews—ends a month from now.

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Prestige Tuckshop
Considering that even a modest tea party sets you back by a hefty Rs 50,000, publishers are naturally not too enthused by five-star launches, especially when it comes to their B- and C-list authors. But a launch with cocktails has become such a prestige issue today that we hear some authors are even prepared to pay the bill (running to several times what they can hope to earn in royalties from the book) if the publisher hosts a launch party for them. And we thought writing was such a high-minded occupation!

No Mistakes Here
It’s Diwali for Chetan Bhagat’s publisher. With The 3 Mistakes already at 5,00,000, the publisher has been sending a thank you note around to media offices, both to those who praised and flogged his book. Attached to the note: three boxes of candy.

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