Saurabh & Priyanka

What is the story behind the formation of Storizen? When was it founded? Who are the key members and how did all of this come together? What inspired you to start this?

Storizen was founded in 2013. The idea germinated in our co-founder’s mind. There were so many media platforms available but none catered to the writing and publishing industry. That became the USP for Storizen. We needed a designer, an editor, marketing and the one for photography. Slowly and steadily the team was formed. The passion fueled the process and growth of Storizen happened. 

The project came to a halt in 2017 after 4 long years as the team got scattered. Finally, in 2018, the magazine was re-launched. After successful rebranding, here we are now after 3 years, 36 issues (since 2018), the multitude of collaborations, being a media partner to some of the biggest publishing houses in the country, and more! We have reached a new milestone of over 2M+ impressions and 70k+ magazine reads. At present, we are the key members driving the platform, planning the content, editing it, publishing it, marketing it, and repeating the process month by month.                

According to you what are the top 5 Book Promotion Ideas relevant today that provide maximum ROI and why?

One of the best ways to promote the book is to take care of the online presence. Nowadays, the youth are available online 24/7, 365 days a year. It has opened doors to a plethora of new opportunities for authors to promote their work. They can do it by following ways

– Having their own website/blog

– Staying active on social media

We have also compiled a list in Storizen. You can see the article: Book Marketing for Self-Published Authors

Secondly, there is a new way of reaching out to the target audience via social media via the Influencer Marketing approach. 

Thirdly, we have seen that people are preferring audiobooks and ebooks over physical books nowadays. Having your books in these formats is essential to reach the Millenials. 

Other methods include involving media/PR and bloggers (other than influencers) to get the maximum reach to their books.

Lastly, having an email list is an integral and most underrated aspect when it comes to promoting your books and get more sales. Having an email list helps in staying connected with your fans besides social media and has a good ROI!            

What are the key elements of a perfect book review and how should one go about writing a book review?

The key elements of a book review include the following –

– Summary of the book 

– Reviewer’s opinion about the book

– A brief about the author, their bio, their background, etc. information

– The name of the author, book, publisher, and the main theme

– Another element you can include is a recommendation for the writer/author.

A book review should be a concise summary of the book in general including the language, the tone used, likes/dislikes, plot, without revealing the spoilers of course.    

What are your favorite books by Indian Authors? And your Favourite Authors too?

The favorite books by Indian authors are many. We would be listing some of them below –

– Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi

– The Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi 

– Voice of the Runes by Manjiri Prabhu

– The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Vikrant Khanna 

– The Taj Conspiracy by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

– Missing, Presumed Dead by Kiran Manral

– The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian

About the favorite authors, we love to read the works of Khushwant Singh, Ashwin Sanghi, Kiran Manral, Amish Tripathi, Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham, Manjiri Prabhu, Ravi Subramanian, Ruskin Bond, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and more!  

What are the top 3 differences between traditionally published books and self-published books?

The top three differences we see are in the Duration of publishing, the revenue, and of course the business model, and distribution.

Let’s discuss them one by one –

1. Duration of publishing – Traditional publishing can take a lot of time (one year or two maybe to get published). Self-publishing is instant. The moment you are ready with your book, you are ready to publish it as well.
2. Revenue/business model – In traditional publishing, the publisher controls the revenue and royalties. In self-publishing, you have control of how much you would be taking home in terms of royalties and revenue.
3. Distribution/Marketing – In traditional publishing, distribution/marketing can be a cakewalk due to established networks and channels. In self-publishing, you would have to take all that pain yourself.      

Which are the top 3 social media platforms for authors to promote their book?

The choice of social media platform to choose from depends on the factors such as your target audience, the book genre, and the time the author can invest to promote their books. Following are the platforms that are a great medium for promoting the books –

1. Instagram (undoubtedly the best platform with a multitude of options available for the authors and publishers to promote their books)
2. Facebook (needs no introduction. The most effective way of promoting the books online include FB groups and FB ads (paid) )
3. Pinterest (if your target audience is the USA, this platform is a great choice for you)
4. Quora (best suited for non-fiction, DIY, self-help books)

5. YouTube (for both fiction and non-fiction books, one can post book reviews, author interviews, podcasts, etc.)

What guidance would you give to upcoming book influencers? 

Writing a great book takes time, so does promoting that book. Choosing the right platform is a crucial step before starting a book promotion campaign. Based on the time you can invest in, the expertise you have about the platform plays an important role in planning the strategy of promoting the book.

Below mentioned points might help –

1. Don’t just rush on using every single platform to promote the books. Choose wisely, create a plan, build your foundation on a single platform, then move to other platforms gradually.
2. Promoting a book or any art just once is not enough. Make a promotional plan for the book(s) that is flexible and that can accommodate in the future as well.      
3. You need to be super active on social media platforms, emails, etc. to be connected to your fans/followers. In this digital era, a lot of people and brands are already promoting their work, so in order for people to remember you, you need to be available.
4. Don’t take up too much of the work. We have seen a lot of influencers taking a lot and in the end, were not able to cope up. Take up 60% of your capacity and invest the remaining 40% in planning the promotional activities of that 60%. Repeat the process.
5. Try multiple ways of promoting the book(s). Test to see which one works. Try to incorporate that in your future promotions.   

As a book Influencer, what changes (trends) have you seen in the Indian Publishing and book Promotion Industry over the years?

There are a lot of changes that have taken place in the publishing industry. The major changes include the digitization of the books. Earlier, the books were available in paperback, and people used to buy and read them. Nowadays, with the advent of ebooks and audiobooks, the interest in reading has faded away.

The positive side of that is the technology has helped a lot of authors during the pandemic times! 

Another big change we have noticed is the rising of the self-publishing industry. Self-publishing has its pros and cons that is a whole new topic in itself but earlier, traditional publishing was the only way authors went but nowadays, a lot of new authors are coming up who are self-published.

A lot of new genres entered the Indian market as new authors who went unnoticed earlier came to light. Overall, a good change can be seen. Again, everything has pros and cons, going by the bigger picture, we can see the pros outweighing the cons in the future.          

In this journey of yours, whom would you like to thank?

We would like to thank our readers who have supported us at every point of our journey. Secondly, we would also like to thank our team members, who stood with us during the thick and thin. Also, we thank our valuable contributors who take out precious moments from their lives to write for us and share amazing writing with us all!   

At Sharing Stories, we have an ongoing campaign ‘Let’s Empower Our Kids’. Please suggest some books which you think every child should read before the age of 15 (mostly the character-defining age) which will teach them life lessons. Things like empathy, sympathy, relationships, etc. 

First of all, great initiative. Following books might help –

1. The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
2. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
3. Educated by Tara Westover
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
6. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
7. How to Make Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (our favorite and a must-read for everybody)

Rapid Fire Round

1.Favorite Place, Actor & Actress, Person, Food, beverage…. Dubai, Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathway, Smoked or Grilled Salmon,  

2.Your First Love…. Mario (Game), Tom and Jerry, and Scooby-Doo (Cartoons) 

3.Favorite Quote….. Trust Yourself, You can achieve what you can’t even think of (written by Saurabh).

4.Favorite Character from a book…. There are many but I love the character of Rubeus Hagrid from the Harry Potter series

What if Round 

1. What if you had to live with only three things all your life, what would the three things be?

The love of my Life, A work I feel most passionate about, and unlimited travel opportunities!

2. What if you were given the power to change one thing from this world, what would you change?

People’s minds. Would eradicate hatred and superstition that is holding people back.

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