1.
Can you tell us a little about yourself ,your blog(s)/website(s),and your
aspirations and your hobbies!!
My
name is Sapan Saxena and I am a Software Engineer who graduated from MNNIT
Allahabad in 2008. I took up to writing blogs on behest of my father, who felt
I should share whatever I learn with others. I write blogs on Ancient Indian
history and mythology, and some of them got published in leading news websites
like Times of India and Hindustan Times. When some of my blog followers
prompted me to write a book, I took up writing one and the product is now
available for all to read.
My
blog:http://credibleindian.blogspot.com
Book
website:http://www.finderskeepers.in
My
other hobbies include reading and dancing. I would like to share with others
whatever I learn about Indology, be it through books or blogs
2.
How you first got involved in with blogging/writing, are you an imaginative
person?
In
my art classes, I would always draw the best possible idea as the worst
possible outcome. And a similar case for my handwriting. So, yeah, I think I am
a creative and imaginative person. An idea initially stuck me and then I
started building a story around it, and that’s how I started writing “Finders,
Keepers”
3.
What do you find most challenging about blogging/writing about your topic?
The
biggest challenge I faced was that in the topic of Indology, there is a very
thin line between an interesting revelation and becoming preachy. History is
not what many people easily get interested in. People are interested in
mythology, but then the moment it gets boring, people switch off your blog. So,
the challenge comes in keeping it crisp when doing blogs.
When
doing novels, the story has to be powerful; otherwise it will all fall apart
for you
4.
Tell me about some of the people you have met while working on your blog?
A
lot of my research was online as well as offline. And as it mostly concerned
Hindu mythology and ancient Indian history, I often visited online portal Hindu
Dharma Forums. In there, you find guys who have spent years learning and
practicing about various sects of Hinduism. It’s always a great learning
experience to interact with them.
Offline
I mostly visited heritage sites and mostly interacted with guides to squeeze
out as much as I could. They pretty much speak some recorded stuff, but the
information they gave was really helpful as they do incorporate local tales and
stories related to some legend
5.
How would (someone) describe your blogging/writing style?
People
say my writing style is descriptive. Though they claim I am able to hold the
attention of the reader till the very end. Though I aim to trust the
intelligence of the reader, there are pieces which need detailed description.
6.
What do you do when you are not working on your novel?
Well,
I am a Software Engineer by profession, so when I am not busy creating a fictional
world out of my imagination, I am usually creating a JAVA program to run on a
virtual environment on my laptop
7
.Where do you see yourself blogging/writing wise in the next 6 months, and 5
years down the road?
After
3 years of blogging and months into publication of first novel “Finders,
Keepers”, I can now safely assume that writing is an addiction. And even a
single appreciation coming your way gives you a high no drug can emulate. So,
in the next 6 months, I think I will be writing more blogs and working on
future ideas for novel. 5 years down the road, I would want to explore more of
Hinduism and Indian history touching subjects which others have either missed
or dared not to ponder, as I think before writing such subjects, I would need
to have more acceptances among readers.
8.
What networking do you do that you feel helps your writing business?
I
think that’s one area where I have had a huge unplanned investment, and that of
course, has helped me a lot. I was a lot into social media even when I had not
penned my first blog. This helped me discover friends from other cities and
colleges and companies. Eventually as we shared and joined similar pages
suggested mutually, the friend circle grew even further. I also made it a point to keep in touch with
wherever I worked. During last elections, I also joined a non-political group
to spread awareness about benefits of voting. So, this online and offline
networking has helped me maintain a huge plethora of friends from diverse
backgrounds, locations, regions and interests. They help me in spreading my
content, and that eventually helps a lot
9.
How do you keep coming up with material/content for your blog? Many people
struggle with coming up with different articles/posts and they only have one
blog.
I think
in my case Indology is a vast subject. We are one of the oldest civilizations
and there is a lot to uncover, discover and analyze.
Let’s
take an example, say Ramayana. How many articles have been written around
Urmila(Lakshman’s wife), or Shatrughan? These are mighty interesting topics
which most of the people want to read about.
So, I have rarely found it tough to search for
a topic on which I would write my next blog, but yes, to generate interest and
buzz around it, that’s always a challenge a writer has to accept and succeed
eventually
10.
Whats your strategy with your novel in general?
I
would first think of an idea, that people may be interested in. I may even
think of more than one idea, and combine them, or analyze them independently.
Once I am confident about the idea, I start building a story around the same.
The themes which I am comfortable in do not have much scope for romance or
drama, and I consider myself good at building puzzles, suspense/thriller is the
theme I choose for building the story. Only when I am convinced about the
story, do I start penning it down
11.
Any specific tips you have for newbie bloggers who want to make it in the
blogosphere?
Of
course! Anyone who is reading this and is planning to start a blog, please do
it now! Keep it private, if you are not too comfortable with it, but do keep on
penning your thoughts. Tomorrow you may have to search for these thoughts and
there would be a place where you can always find it.
For
newbie bloggers, I think networking is very important. There is a huge audience
who is waiting for good content to be told and written about and if none of
your friends form a subset of that audience, networking with other bloggers,
visiting blogging sites, forums like Indiblogger, Facebook pages could be a
good way to start. Eventually, you have to identify and reach out to that community,
and mark your presence there with good content and networking
12.
What would you prioritize? Content? SEO? Traffic? Readers?
I
think that’s a very good question and thanks for asking the same. For me, the
aim was to increase reader base/subscribers. So, of course, I needed to strike
out a balance among all the parameters. I started out with prioritizing Traffic
and SEO much more and focused solely on page views. Because, I knew if 1000
people would visit the blog, only 2 may stay back, and to build a base of 2000,
I had to reach out to 1000000 different people. But, as eventually the dust
settled down, and I had a regular audience, I started prioritizing the content
and readers more and now don’t focus much on SEO tools and page views. The
tools brought them here, but what made them stay is the content and the feedback
of readers helps me build my content better
13.
Whats the best thing a blogger can give to his readers?
A
good quality post! I mean readers are the real motivation behind a blogger, right?
Unless, of course, he wants to manage it as a private diary. So, definitely,
the blogger shouldn’t compromise on the content and try not to please the
readers. Your content was the reason they came in first place
14.
A lot of people are interested in writing for the money earning potential. What
are some tips for people interesting in making money from writing? What are
some realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?
If
you are trying to take up writing as a full time job, go ahead! You are trying
to attempt one of the most respect jobs of all times. However, the core reality
of Indian literary circle is that no matter how much Chetan Bhagat or Shobha De
get offered for writing columns in national newspapers or the rights for their
next novels, these are merely a handful of names. Writing industry is still not
a huge money raker jobs for Indian authors. In fact, for a new writer, to get
his first novel published, he may have to wait for as much as 2-3 years(and I
am not exaggerating), or would have to turn towards self- publishing which
involves a lot of extra baggage in the form of marketing, etc.
So,
I would suggest, you keep writing and trying to earn no matter where you get
the opportunity from. Be it some sports magazine, or local newspaper, or e-magazines,
etc. You may also choose to write on subjects on which people may be highly
interesting in, like stock market etc. which can help you earn through ads, but
again, the content should be unique and original, the images unused.
15.
What motivates you most in life?
My
family is the biggest motivation in my life. My parents never did force me into
any stream or any choice of career, and I made all the decisions myself. That
kind of helped a lot. My wife is now the biggest motivation of my life. The
amount of effort she puts in to help me create content, spread information
about my blogs and novel through her network, and her continuous motivation
when things don’t seem to work, is really splendid. My brother and
brother-in-law have also helped a lot in getting a substantial audience for my
book Finders, Keepers and that kind of always motivates me to keep moving.
16.
What has been your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and your blog?
My
social media network has by far been my biggest strength. But apart from the
people, I make sure I make good use of all possible tools like Youtube, Quora,
Pintrest, Reddit, StumbleIpon, Speaking Tree, Indiblogger, etc.
Not
only these tools help me create and share content of varying conventions and
attributes, they help me share some good original content as well. The content
you create should be engaging enough and that’s one key feature to visibility
17
What was the most challenging moment in your novel content development process
and why?
Well,
by all measures, I have written “Finders, Keepers” on a pretty controversial
topic, haven’t I? I mean writing on religion is like walking on a razor’s edge.
A slip on either side and you would not even know which side did you offense.
I
have tried to keep the tone of the novel positive throughout. However, as I
said, no one knows which side this could end up offending
18.
Everyone has a favorite/least favorite post. Name yours and why?
Ah
Yes! My favorite one was “The Krishna Advantage” from my blog. Can you believe
it, I have written some 30 odd posts, and 15% of all the views on my blogs have
been on Krishna Advantage. In fact, this was published on Times of India
website as well. I had tried to explain how Krishna would be a perfect manager
in modern times.
19.
Name some of the bloggers whom you look up to and why?
Well,
Nimi Vashi, certainly. The way she has revolutionized book promotion/review
circle is amazing, and people now know where to find the good books. And of
course you, Rahul! I mean here you are doing a fine act of promoting authors,
managing and maintaining your blog, your wonderful site and are doing a great
job of balancing! I definitely got to learn a trick or two from you.
My
friend Dev Ashish is another such blogger who creates very unique and distinct
content.
Among
Indian writers, I look up to Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi a lot as they
touched a subject when it was almost a no-go, and converted the theme into
solid gold
20.
What is the story behind the name of the novel?
Well,
The title is basically an adage, “Finders, Keepers”. It means if anybody finds
something, he can keep it. It’s also a famous game played by children. The
story of my novel also kind of follows a similar path, where people are on
lookout for hidden things. Further, “Keeper” is a term in my book.
21.
Your connection with any Blogger Network like Indi blogger or Writeupcafe or
any other and the experience?
Yeah,
I am a regular with Indiblogger, though not much familiar with Writeupcafe.
I
think Indiblogger is a great platform to bring bloggers together on a common
portal. There are regular discussions and threads which help you improve your
blog and streamline your thoughts. There are topics under which you can place
your blog, which again helps you identify what content you may be interested
in. The regular events and competitions also help people improve visibility
among others. Overall, it’s been a great experience
22.
Which genre do you feel gets the raw deal?
Poetic
genres, in my humble opinion. I mean, I always find a diminishing market of good
poetry, atleast in India. This is one of the toughest genres to write and never
gets the due credit.
23.
Which one plug-in would you suggest all bloggers to have?
Twitter,
Google Plus and FB share plugins. These are handy and should be located at the
right place. I mean a reader may not always copy the URL from his browser and
then copy at FB or Google Plus and then care to limit it to 140 characters for
Twitter. He may just close your blog and move ahead, and you may lose precious potential
readers.
FB/Twitter/Google
Plus plugins customize it for you. In fact, try to add all social media plugins
available on your blog.
24.
Five adjectives that describe you.
Well,
humorous, resolute, persuaded, creative and hardworking
25.
What book would you say has made the biggest impact good or bad on you?
Well,
now that I have read most of the major Hindu scriptures to research for
“Finders, Keepers”, Ram Charit Manas and Shiva Purana did make the biggest
impact on me. Not only because they kind of form a subplot for my novel, but
also because for the first time I looked into what was in the mind of the
writer. If Ram Charit Manas was simply a re-telling of Ramayana, Tulsidas would
have simply done it that way. Why are there differences between the two, what
did Tulsidas want to tell us? Why does it start with the marriage of Shiva?
26.
Do you get easily provoked by positive/negative comments??
Positive
comments always get you high, and I see no wrong in it. Just that we should not
lose our head and scream. Also, we should be ready to gracefully accept
negative comments and work upon the weak areas. Initially I got affected by
negative comments as well, but now I see them as suggestions people are trying
to make to help me better my work and book.
27.
Do you plan to write a book, as every bloggers dream it is?
I
think this question doesn’t fit in here, as I have already written a book. I
chose to start writing only when a lot of my readers asked me to do it
28.
Are you a judgmental person, do you prefer to take sides instead of standing
neutral?
It’s
very tough to be always neutral. So, I do take sides instead of standing
neutral, but that mostly depends on the situation and the topic. Like, I go out
and vote for a party, so no point being neutral there. But, if someone is in a
conflict of whether Greek mythology is as diverse as Hindu mythology, I prefer
to stay neutral.
29.
Your collaboration with other bloggers, are you much into social networking,
tell us everything about it?
So,
as I said earlier, there is a huge audience out there for every genre that
wants to read your work. It’s just the matter of connecting with them and
telling them your work has all the ingredients they were searching for. So, of
course collaboration is important and networking is very important.
As
far as books are concerned, the authors from your network will help you get
your work promoted. I mean they are people with certain number of followers and
fans. Their word for your book will always be counted as a huge plus and that’s
the best way you can promote your book.
I
have spent a lot of years in a good deal of social networking, and believe me,
there are friends who I have never met or spoken to, but they have helped me
out like anything to get my work published. I think that counts a lot.
30.
What genre attracts you the most and which genre you avoid?
I am generally more inclined towards fictional writing than any other genre of
writing. Among fictional works, I prefer suspense/ humor/satire over more
“mainstream” genres like romance or love stories.
31.
Your Views on Contests and increasing plagiarism?
I
think contests are important. They help you increase visibility about the book.
See, this is not the age and time when a writer writes something good and once
a publisher picks it up, he sits back and relaxes that marketing and promotion
is publisher’s job. No, you have to do a major part of the job, and contests,
reviews are a major part of it.
Plagiarism
in any form is harmful as it not only kills the hard-work done by someone; it
also kills the spirit of creativity. I mean someone has put in a lot of effort
to create some content, and you think you can have it for easy, that’s simply
wrong. We should have stricter laws and rules as creative writing is one field
where the lines of plagiarism blur down and it’s not easy to prove plagiarism.
We should also have much stricter author- reader community which may help us
identify such people and cases.
32.
Words for me and my blogs Desire v/s Destiny and Blogger Interviews and my
Website www.MyMagicJobs.com
As I
said earlier as well, I think you are doing a great job with Desire v/s Destiny
and MyMagicJobs.com. You are
doing a great act of promoting authors, managing and maintaining your blog,
your wonderful site and are doing an awesome job of balancing all of it. The
tips and tricks you put up on MyMagicJobs is really helpful to those who are
struggling to find the right platform to know about these things, and of course
to know about current job openings is really important. And you do so much for
free! Hats off to you and your efforts, Rahul! And I have not yet mentioned
your photography skills! You are really an all-rounder.
33.
On winning the Award/s , Are they Really necessary.
Awards
are good for your health, though they necessary are your life support. Which
means, while its good to win awards, they are not everything. I mean, the jury
consists of people only, and they may err. So, they are not a final word in any
case.
34.
So whats Next in your list?
Right
now I am enjoying the great reviews my book “Finders, Keepers” is getting and
how slowly but steadily its being liked by reader circle and fellow authors. I
am also trying to work on the idea for my next book. If I am not convinced, I
may not even start my next book. So, unless the idea is super strong in my own
views, I will probably keep on working on the same. I would also like to
continue blogging regularly as it gave me the reader base which is helping me
now.
35.Words
for your readers and why they should follow you?
My
theme is not very widely chosen and my readers say I am able to hold their
interest inspite of my descriptive style of writing, so there must be something
good in the content that I create, and that should be a good reason for others
to follow me as well. You can visit my
blog http://credibleindian.blogspot.in to know more about my work.
