She's a sucker for romance

For this writer romance novels especially the Nicholas Sparks variety were the flavour of the season only and briefly in our 20s So reading Sundari Venkatramanrsquos Shweta ka Swayamvar a love story of a 20something pretty model with a charcoal gaze and a handsome Mumbai industrialist who makes women go weak in their knees was an indulgence that required some reacquainting We had forgotten all about the chemistry in lingering first glances sleepless and yearnful nights the endless daydreaming and the secret stalking that comes with being the lovesick protagonist of a bookFiftynineyearold Venkatraman mother of two lives these stories daily in her headFor the last six years the Sionbased homemaker has been churning out one bestseller after another predominantly romance novels In November she hit a new milestone when she released her 50th book A week shy of releasing her latest title Once Bitten Twice Lucky Venkatraman is targeting 60 books by the end of next yearmdasha gift she has promised to give herself on her 60th birthdayVenkatramans eBooks have got featured among the Top 100 Bestsellers on Amazons romance as well as Asian drama categories In 2019 three of her books were published for the first time by a leading publisherIf her Amazon rankings are anything to go by Venkatraman is one of the most read writers currently Yet she remains an underappreciated talent in the vast pool of storytellers who mostly rely on the backing of big publishing houses She doesnrsquot Venkatraman selfpublishes her work on Kindle Direct Publishing This means I am my own boss publisher editor and proofreader she says in a telephonic interview And that is quite liberatingThe journey to becoming a bestselling writer though has been marked by rejections and selfdoubt What has not changed is her appetite for romance which goes back several decades to when she was a 13yearold growing up in conservative Madras now Chennai and had chanced upon a Mills amp Boon novel Unlike the recent books by the publishing imprint where the focus is only on the physical desire that the couple has for each other the books that came out in the 1970s and rsquo80s gave you a glimpse of a world you were unfamiliar with Like the clothes people wore the way they lived the cuisine and the way they spokemdashit was literally like travelling to another place through the pages of the book Of course the strong attraction that the lead protagonists had for each other was the thrust of the story But I realised later that the reason I enjoyed Mills amp Boon novels was because they always had a happy ending For a teenager that was a big draw Venkatraman remembers reading a novel every single day especially during exams because it helped calm her nerves It never came in the way of my grades she saysSoon after graduating she got married and moved to Mumbai where family and home took precedence It was in the late 1990s while working in the admin department of a local school when she was asked to go through a bunch of school essays and short stories checking them for grammar and punctuation that she had a moment of epiphany What really struck me was that the kids were not bothered about what someone thought about their writing They wrote freely and creatively When she quit her job sometime later to help her daughter who was in Class X she turned to writing to keep herself occupied I was almost 40 by then and incredibly frustrated I thought I was wasting my life One day after a walk I came home hurriedly pulled out a few pages and started writing I put my pen down only after writing 14 pages Thatrsquos how it all started everything was unplanned Having begun that journey Venkatraman realised her mind was also bursting with ideas The stories just came tumbling out of me The characters would wake me up in the middle of the night and interact with each other Her first three books were born with little intention of having them publishedIt was only later that Venkatraman visited a Crossword bookstore in the suburbs noting down the names of publishers mentioned on the book spine and copying addresses to send across her manuscript She doesnrsquot recall how many publishers she approached but she does remember getting 28 rejection letters Rupa Publications got back within a day with a no Mills amp Boon UK took nearly a year before declining That really broke me I cried all night she remembersMeanwhile Venkatraman took up a job with a daily tabloid where she edited copy before moving to a news website Undeterred she also posted new chapters weekly on her blog Finally in 2014 she learnt about Kindle Direct Publishing a platform where she could have her works published in ebook format The popular notion is that selfpublishing is for those who donrsquot have a way out It is always looked down upon But thatrsquos not exactly true says Venkatraman who having published an average of 10 books a year has understood the nittygritties of the business too well Initially it seemed overwhelming but the more I was part of the process and the more I wrote it became a breeze My readers have also been built over a period of time With every new book your audience grows in concentric circles It takes effort and a bit of selfmarketing she admits The returns are good I make at least R50000 per month but that is because I am writing regularly she says matter of factly By October this year she had made around Rs 40 lakh from her booksOf the 50 books she has published till date 42 have been romances while the others include Indian mythology short story collections and a book on how to selfpublish A quick search on Amazon will throw up an array of ebooks by the authormdashmost are part of a special series The Bansal Legacy Written in the Stars The Groom Series Marriages Made in India to name a few Her eBooks have gone on to become so popular that she even got featured among the Top 100 Bestsellers on Amazon India USA UK Canada and Australia in both romance as well as Asian drama categories Her success has even forced mainstream publishers to take notice In 2019 three of her booksmdashRunaway Bridegroom The Smitten Husband and The Drunken Wifemdashwritten as part of the Marriages Made in India series were published by Westland BooksShe describes her romances as hot Itrsquos not to be confused with erotica she insists There is a thin line between tasteful and vulgar My readers tell me that the lovemaking scenes donrsquot make them uncomfortable It should not put you off it should make you want to read moreThe sareeclad Venkatraman has very strong beliefs about love Her own idea of romance she says has evolved with time to suit her readers many of whom are millennials They look at life very differently especially institutions like marriage But the idea of romance in itself has not changed itrsquos just how we respond or react to it that is different While she addresses issues of queer love and online dating in her books she is indifferent to polyamory and open relationships I wouldnrsquot call that romantic love Sex and romance are not synonymous she says I also like to write about empowered women who can make choices in love and lifeIf there has been a high point in her dogged career it was when she threw the 28 rejections letters that she had kept in a file for the longest time I was extremely hurt A few years ago when I was invited to the Jaipur Literature Festival I finally got a sense of closure Thatrsquos when I knew I didnrsquot need them anymoreQuick FiveA romance novel you wish you had writtenNot really a romance novel but I wish I could have writtenJK Rowlingrsquos Harry Potter series I have read the first five books 13 timesLove or arranged marriagesItrsquos not an easy answer because my marriage was arranged But come to think of it what is love People confuse chemistry or attraction which happens at first sight with love Love is something that grows only with time So it can grow in an arranged marriage and also between two people who are getting to know each other You learn to love each otherDescribe millennial romance in one wordImpulsiveWhatrsquos the biggest myth about romanceThat itrsquos going to be a long sweet roadCan love survive a lockdownIf it is true love it shouldKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news