I released my debut book A Kind Of Commitment in August 2017 and re-published its second edition in March 2019. Many people asked me why I was not working on any new book next. The truth is, I didn’t feel like releasing more books as I wasn’t motivated enough to write stories. Then last year in May, I decided to write the sequel, If Tomorrow Comes. I started writing it, and then stopped because I felt like I would be committing a mistake by writing the sequel if I didn’t come up with major & exciting twists. Though almost 30 percent of the work had been done by June 2020.
This year in April end when I was reading A Kind Of Commitment, I got an idea on how I could stretch the story and make it look realistic and engaging at the same time. I resumed the sequel the very day and finished the 70percent portion in the next three-four weeks. I distanced myself from the outside world and used to sit in front of my laptop for 15-18 hours a day.
I wanted to self-publish the book and manage everything on my own as I didn’t have a pleasant experience with my previous publishers in terms of marketing and transparency. I knew some authors who self-published their books on Kindle Direct Publishing. So when my manuscript was being edited, I talked to those authors to seek advice, made marketing plans, designed the cover, and learned the process of self-publishing and right marketing.
I faced few problems in the process; the major one was that the sequel’s title matched with Sidney Sheldon’s one of the books. I read lots of books, but I never imagined already a book with the same title as mine existed in the market. I could have changed the title of my book, but it was too late. I was running promotions, the cover was done, and the final part of the story was designed according to the title. I shared my concerns with my ex-roommate and other friends who pursued Literature. They all said there could be many books that share the same titles as long as the genres are different.
My plan was to launch only the Ebook through KDP. So, once the manuscript was furnished, I enlisted it on KDP. The response I received from the readers was tremendous. They all loved the sequel. I managed to sell 300+ copies on day 1 and 1000+ within a week.
Many readers demanded paperback.
For paperback, I contacted this publication house (let’s call it XYZ) as they allow authors to self-publish their books. But for a 200-page long book, the cost was 379/- including delivery charges. I didn’t want to keep the cost high. Then, I contacted Abhisar Garg who is partnered with Inkquills Publication House. I’m grateful to him for printing books for me. If Tomorrow Comes now costs 199/- with free shipping. The page quality and formatting are just wonderful. The story is divided into 27 chapters. Each chapter is titled after one of the character’s names and the particular character narrates the story from his/her point of view. The plot revolves around Mumbai-based popular photographer Mausami who had a break-up with Anirudh and still hadn’t moved on. After 3 years, a secret of Rajveer Singh brought them together. What did happen next? Go, read the book!
