Poonam Saxena, Hindustan Times
July 23, 2011
I was hired by Penguin in August 1985. I was working as executive editor with Gentleman magazine at that time and I was bored. I was at a loose end. I decided to do a book publishing course from Harvard since it was very highly rated. It was six weeks on campus and then some months interning at a publishing house. But I had no money to pay for the course. Luckily that year Penguin was offering a sponsorship and I got that.
Peter Mayer, who I consider my guru, delivered the keynote lecture and I was introduced to him. We talked. I was the only Indian in a group of about 85 people. Peter said that they were starting Penguin in India, would I like the job? I was 26 years old. I said yes immediately. I took a small flat in Gulmohar Park in Delhi which had a teak boardroom table, easily the most expensive thing in the house!
At that time, general book publishing was almost non-existent. Oxford University Press was doing a few books. Vikas was doing a bit. Rupa were mainly distributors. I remember R K Narayan telling me, ‘You’ll be done in two-three years.’ I was very young. I didn’t know any better. I was very excited. That enthusiasm and lack of knowledge carried me through. This was the late Eighties. It was when the greatest writers of our time had their beginnings. Salman Rushdie had got the Booker. There was Upamanyu Chatterjee, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth.
Pupul Jayakar was part of the first lot of books we did. I got Dom Moraes who was an old friend to do a book of poems. Then I published Shiv K Kumar who did a novel for us. In the first year we did six or seven books. There was no one on the staff but me and an assistant. I was the only editorial employee. I got a lot of attention. Slowly things started picking up.
I met Vikram Seth at the Austrian Embassy. I didn’t know him. I asked him to give us a book of poems. He said, “Why should I give it to you?” So I said, “Because I will give that personal touch, passion to publishing it.” I sent him an offer in a sonnet form. He replied likewise. (Vikram was very loyal. Actually once upon a time authors were loyal to their editors. And over time, all of Vikram’s books came to Penguin.)I asked Vikram what he intended to do next. He said I could come to his house and read his new novel but I couldn’t take it away. So I went to his place, he took me to this shed-like room which had carton after carton of his new book. It was A Suitable Boy. I read enough of the book to know it was a work of genius. In the history of publishing there is no book which has achieved perfection. But there are great books, exceptional books. Then there are the good books and mediocre books. It’s all subjective of course. There’s no objective criteria. There’s no formula.
A Suitable Boy was exceptional. If you get an exceptional book, you must grab it at all costs. We made a very generous offer to Vikram. The book was a huge success. It got great reviews, sold very well. It created tremendous buzz. You know, you can have a great book launch (and India has the grandest book launches in the world!) but there’s only one surefire way for a book to do well – word of mouth. Reviews don’t matter. They’re addressed to people who are already converts.
A Suitable Boy was a turning point, I think. Then we published writers like Arundhati Roy, Upamanyu. We wooed all of them
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