Wednesday 16 November 2016
I love the features in modern day cameras: Sketch mode is great. I was in the city of Pune last week, and I took several pictures using this feature. This one os from the neighbourhood of Kothrud, where I used to live and it is also the setting of my debut novel NRI: Now, Returned to India.
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Monday 14 November 2016
Sunday 6 November 2016
Saturday 5 November 2016
Thank You to all listeners, fans and reviewers! Baalgatha Podcast of Children’s Bedtime stories, is featured as #1 in Children’s podcasts in India. Not bad, considering that other shows have been around much longer, and are produced by established players in the media/ kids’ market. It is a great reminder of how a simple idea can yield awesome results.
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Friday 28 October 2016
This is Ratilal, a musician from a small village in Gujarat. He is playing a local single string musical instrument, a traditional instrument played locally. He represents a small but rapidly vanishing breed of artists who are keeping thousand year old art alive. When he came to our neighborhood, it was only natural that my wife and I talked to him, learn his story.
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I met Vikrant Pande, who was the first guest on MyKitaab Podcast. Vikrant is an author and a translator, who has translated six books from Marathi to English. We met at a coffee shop in Vadodara, where Vikrant lives. I am holding his book Rau, on which the Bollywood movie Bajirao Mastani is based. You can listen to Vikrant's interview at http://ift.tt/2eV72Uq
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Thursday 27 October 2016
Newspapers and online forums in India keep talking about discount ts driving millions of sales for Mobile phones. But a lot of people still buy phones from bricks and mortar stores, particularly during the festival of Diwali. I am in the city of Vadodara in western India, and all I can see is shops selling mobile phones and accessories. You can see some familiar and some unheard of brands in this picture.
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Wednesday 26 October 2016
Say Hello to Bhageera, she looks so strikingly similar to Buddy, we almost thought they were twins born three years apart :-). We were visiting family last night and she was adopted bybthem: Bhageera is five year old Labrador /Indian mix, very lovable, yet extremely faithful and protective of her family.
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Tuesday 25 October 2016
Monday 24 October 2016
Saturday 22 October 2016
The worst retail shopping experience I have ever had. Garvi Gujrati, the Government of Gujarat owned store. The entrance looks like a run down shack, the roof is leaking and the air conditioning does not work. There is garbage all around the store, and the merchandise simply sucks. This shop is located in prime shopping area of Ahmedabad. This experience prompted me to have the setting of my next novel in a clothing store. I have tentatively titled it 'Urban, Sophisticated'.
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Friday 21 October 2016
Thursday 20 October 2016
Where do you read? This morning, I read in this 'reading chair'. I love natural materials, and Bamboo is my favourite. Cane comes next. So when we decided to install a swing in our house, this is what we got. On a quiet, warm, sunny morning, it is a pleasure to read a book in the natural light. The view isn't bad either. Too bad this is our last day in Gandhinagar, next phase of our Workation begins tomorrow.
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Wednesday 19 October 2016
Found this coin operated telephone at a medical store in Bangalore. It's amazing how technology changes so rapidly. Ten years ago, these devices were quite common in India, today they are a rare sight. A telephone uses to be a device for voice communication back then. Today, it is a whole lot of things. Including podcasting and writing, two of my passions.
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Saturday 15 October 2016
Chris Kennedy is the bestselling author of Science Fiction and Military Fiction Books. Chris is a former Navy pilot, a school principal, and he is a coach and a consultant. In this podcast interview, Chris and I talk about use of social media by authors, maintaining a writing schedule, daily word count goals, importance of mailing lists sand author websites, and finally, how to get featured in Chris’ books. You can listen to his awesome interview at http://ift.tt/2e1QQB9 on itunes http://ift.tt/2eeCHPz You can also click on the link in the profile to listen to over 70 such amazing interviews.
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Friday 14 October 2016
Rajeshwari Victor is a faculty at XLRI in Jamshedpur and author of the book “My Life, My Choice: Midlife Career Choices.” She is an alumnae of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and has over 15 years of experience in the corporate sector. She has worked with organizations such as Hindustan Unilever, CavinKare and Nippon Paints. She loves listening to music and she is a marathon runner. She is a columnist for the Business Line, where she covers the topics of sales and marketing. You can listen to her awesome interview http://ift.tt/2eq7nkZ on itunes http://ift.tt/2eeCHPz
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Sunil Gandhi is a management consultant who specializes in customer experience and financial engineering. He has been a writer since 1994 and has written in various publications on the subject of finance, management, personal development, economy and customer experience. He has written for The Smart Manager, The ICAI Journal and Journal of Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society. Since 2010 he has been writing for his own blog Amazement. He is also an active blogger on LinkedIn. You can listen to his awesome interview http://ift.tt/2eeOZHL on itunes http://ift.tt/2dOGAg9
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V Raghunathan is an author , academician, banker and his interests in locks and mathematics. He is a fellow from Indian Institute of Calcutta in Finance and was a Professor of Finance and accounting at Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad for close to 20 years.He has written 14 books in non fiction, fiction genre as well as children’s rhyme books while managing several roles. You can listen to his awesome interview at http://ift.tt/2dOvN5K on Itunes http://ift.tt/2eeCHPz You can also click on the link in the profile to listen to over 70 such amazing interviews.
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Tuesday 11 October 2016
Apurva Purohit is the author of the national bestselling book “Lady, You’re not a Man” – the Adventures of a Woman at Work”. Apurva is the CEO of Radio City 91.1 FM (Jagran Group) . She calls herself an accidental author. Her blog for women in the corporate world who face difficulty in balancing between office and home and how to make success of both career and family became a success. You can listen to her interview by visiting https://goo.gl/rbRE11
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Monday 10 October 2016
Dussera festival, where we pray to the instruments that we use in our profession. As an author and a podcaster, that would mean saying a "Thank You" to these devices. This picture shows all the devices that have been used for recording podcast interviews: from the ten year old Dell laptop to the RaspberryPi and the iPad and now my MacBook Pro. And the Android phone we use to distribute Baalgatha podcast via WhatsApp Technology and tradition makes an interesting mix.
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Sunday 9 October 2016
Nearly 10 months after launching MyKitaab is now a podcast on "How To Publish and Market Your Book". In other words, we have decided to tweak the theme. When we originally launched the podacst, the idea was to help answer the question, "I have written a book, how do I get it published in India?" I think after nearly 70 interviews, we believe that the scope of the podcast should become wider. In today's world, when a person sitting in Australia or South Africa can sell a book in India (as some of our guests have done), there are many options to the question, "How Do I Publish?" The real trick lies in How To Market. And that's what the second focus of the podcast will be about. Starting November, the podcast interviews will focus on the marketing aspect as much as writing. Visit www.mykitaab.in to listen to over 70 awesome interviews.
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Friday 7 October 2016
How are you spending your weekend? Working? Spending time with family? Traveling? Shopping? Whatever you do, keep some time free for recharging your creativity. Do something that will keep hit a "refresh" button for your mind and body. What am I doing this weekend to recharge my creativity? I am going for a LONG walk with my dog.
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I've been using these pencils since my school days. I'm really impressed that they are still around. Speaks a lot about a brand that lasts. If only they used recycled wood... I was at a conference yesterday and couldn't help picking up the notepad and this pencil and start jotting down ideas for my next novel: The Underworld Startup.
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Thursday 6 October 2016
Ritesh Kala, Co-Founder of Read Out Loud, tells us how to market and sell your books in India. Ritesh is a former investment banker who has turned into an entrepreneur in book publishing. Ritesh and I talk about how to price your books in India, and how International authors can market and sell their books in India. We also discuss how to use WhatsApp for book marketing, and film options for books. Listen to his interview by clicking on the link in the profile
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Wednesday 5 October 2016
This weeks guest on MyKitaab Podcast is Dmitry Selemir, the co-founder of Scriggler. Dmitry is the co-founder of Scriggler, an online site for posting and sharing stories, articles and poems. Dmitry also talks about the promotion service for authors, including managing their Twitter accounts and book promotions. He also talks about posting stories in Non-English languages (Spanigh, German, Italian, Portugese, Russian and Hindi). You can listen to this interview by visiting http://ift.tt/2e0Wyoc
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Monday 3 October 2016
The best gift I have received in a long time. Last Tuesday I was at friend's place in Delhi, and their daughter gave me this drawing as a welcome gift. What I loved was the way she presented it: rolled and wrapped. Pari (her nickname) is a listener and fan of @baalgatha podcast too! Now she wants to do the cover design for my next book. I just might hire her.
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Sunday 2 October 2016
Saturday 1 October 2016
Monday 26 September 2016
Wednesday 21 September 2016
Audiobook: NRI:Now, Returned to India. Available as a Podcast
About NRI:Now, Returned to India
Moving back to India was the last thing on Amol Dixit's mind when he was leading a carefree life in Chicago. But one day, he found himself sleeping on the streets of Mumbai. Now, Returned to India, is a humorous account and a Back-To-Rags story of Amol Dixit.
NRI: Now, Returned to India is a fiction novel written by Author Amar Vyas. This book is the first in a four part series featuring the protagonist Amol Dixit. The audio version of this book is narrated by the author in his own voice, and each week, one chapter of this book will be released. We will bring you this book in three languages: English, Hindi and Marathi. You can learn more about this book at myBook.to/NRI
You can listen to the Chapters from this book by clicking below:
Monday 19 September 2016
Trip to Kochi for Publishing Next 2016
Friday 16 September 2016
Tuesday 6 September 2016
Thursday 1 September 2016
Sunday 28 August 2016
How did you get out of the rut called Writer’s Block?
Saturday 27 August 2016
Which Film Actor has inspired you the most? Here is Bala’s choice. P C Balasubramanian (Bala) is an entrepreneur and a bestselling author. He has written nonfiction books on management, but with a twist. His books are based on the extremely popular Tamil Film actor Rajinikanth. Grand Brand Rajni is a book on branding, based on Rajnikanth the brand. Rajni’s Punchatantra is a play on words on the classic stories from Panchatantra, and is based on the punchlines from Rajnikanth’s movies. Bala is not just a fan of the actor, he also believes that the off-screen life of Rajnikanth has a lot to teach us. Listen to Bala’s amazing interview on MyKitaab Podcast at www.mykitaab.in/bala
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Friday 26 August 2016
How do you market your books? Reply in the comments below. When I launched MyKitaab Podcast, my goal was simple. I wanted to create a resource base for authors who are looking to get their book published in India. With this goal in mind, I began the first set of interviews with authors, publishers and entrepreneurs the book publishing. Very soon, it became evident that we also needed to talk about book marketing. The rationale is simple. there is not point in publishing a book if nobody is going to buy it, let alone read it. In this infographic, I have compiled that Top 5 book marketing strategies that are followed by bestselling authors who have been guests on MyKitaab. I’ve also written a blog post on this topic, which will soon be published on a book marketing website.
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Thursday 18 August 2016
My Blog Post on the Artist Unleashed Blog
My blog post got published in the Artist Unleashed Blog Today. You can read the blog post at https://t.co/wKnq2ntZ1F Below is the tweet by Jessica Bell, who started this blog.
HOW SIMILARITIES BETWEEN CONSTRUCTION AND BOOK #PUBLISHING HELPED MY #WRITING by Amar Vyas #TheArtistUnleashed https://t.co/wKnq2ntZ1F
— Jessica Bell (@MsBessieBell) August 17, 2016
Wednesday 17 August 2016
5 Mistakes I Made During our Podcast Launch
The good news is that the MyKitaab Podcast was launched in January 2016, and we have nearly 10,000 downloads for over 70 episodes. Not fantastic numbers, but that's the way we had planned it. Below is the post I had originally written on Medium on the day of our launch.
In spite of hitting the refresh button to track the stats on Libsyn several times today, my wife and I could not see our excitement die down.But soon, we thought “what are the things that we did not get right?” So here is the list that we came up with.
The 5 Mistakes I Made During OUr Podcast Launch
Mistake # 1:
Launch delayed by nearly 2 months
Our original plan was to launch the MyKitaab podcast in the middle of November, just after India celebrates Diwali, the Fesitval of Lights. For a variety of reasons (I was in a full time job till end of December which slowed down the editing and post production process, not incorporating in time, floods in Chennai delaying the incorporation process further, etc.) the launch got delayed by 2 months. As on today, for a 3 x a week podcast, we could have released nearly 25 episodes, today we have three. John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire podcast has written a post in which he says that a delayed launch cost him thousands of dollars, because he lost out on sponsorship for a month. While we wish we get sponsors soon, lost opportunity for sponsorship is a good enough reason to kick ourselves.
Mistake#2
Not understanding the finer aspects of audio recording well enough
Maybe it was an oversight, or the zealousness of jumping into recording. This mistake has cost us the most in terms of time and effort. Sound recording is, as we learnt, not an easy beast to train. We live near an airport and a train line passes close by, not to mention there is construction activity in one apartment or another where we live in Bangalore. But most of all, not thinking about soundproofing has really been a huge oversight. The helpful editors from Upwork (formerly elance/ odesk) are trying their best, but the feedback is consistent: “Try and reduce as much echo/ background noise, etc. during recording”. This goes for the guests as well as for us. Maybe more for the latter, because we can re-record the questions should the need arise. I just wrapped up an interview where there was construction work in the background, a barking dog, and flying aircraft coming from the guest’s end. Most likely I will either have to re-record, or scrap the interview altogether. Have done it for 2 guests out of 35 already. That is an avoidable waste. It is only from January that we have invested in a much better recording environment. Still my living room, but the recording is far superior.
Mistake #3
I wish I knew the right settings for hardware and software
i.e. How to conduct the orchestra and not just focus to tune an individual instrument
I use Skype for the calls, and use Skype Call Recorder for the recording. Microphone is a ATR USB 2100, with a pop filter. And I use audacity. Overall, a workable system, and it does work. But little did I know that I had the wrong settings for the Skype recording, The result: lot of echo, voice getting muffled, etc. That was because of some issue with hardware detection and also with the recording frequency. It got resolved over the weekend that went by. Last night, a musician told me about recording in ogg versus mp3. I did not understand much, but I changed the setting to ogg, and I absolutely loved the way the recording came about. If we add the effect of changed settings, and the soundproofing, the raw audio sounds 5 times better now. Which would mean lesser back and forth between the editor and I, and faster turnaround time!
Mistake # 4
We had too long a runway
i.e some of the episodes recorded 3 or 4 months ago are already dated!
We thought that it would be great to build atleast 2 months’ worth of pipeline (i.e. recorded shows) before launch. The first interview was recorded in last week of August, followed by another block in September, and November onwards, there has been a steady stream of interviews. As on date we have nearly 35 recorded episodes. that is a great ‘runway’ to have, (as someone mentioned it to me) but when I factor in the timeline, a lot of interviews or episodes are already dated. And the huge pipeline of episo0de launches ahead of me means that I cannot record more interviews till middle of March, that too, for shows that will go on air in end of April. That means saying ‘no’ to a lot of potential guests or rescheduling confirmed interviews to a future date. Not good.
Mistake #5
Not preparing for the best
i.e. Sir, your website is broken,and iTunes and TuneIn have thrown a surprise
This was a most recent and most callous of the mistakes. My wife and I were simply unprepared rather underprepared for a situation like this, and we did not have a Plan B. I am not quite sure what happened, but 2 days ago, all of a sudden, a lot of blog posts disappeared from the website. Turns out that they were in wordpress, just that the links to the files had changed. How? I wondered. Around the same time, to my surprise, both iTunes and TuneIn approved my podcast feed in less than 12 hours. I was told by the wise and those in the know that it can take upto 48 hours. In other words, instead of celebrating that the podcast is live before schedule, I am worried that the blog posts, the links and the shownotes are not available. lesson learnt- have a Plan B in place (in this case, maybe a simple wordpress site would have served the purpose till the website for the podcast was up and running again?)
Hope writing about my mistakes will help a podcaster or two in the future from repeating them!
Note: You can listen to the MyKitaab podcast on Stitcher radio here or subscribe to iTunes here.
Monday 15 August 2016
How To Publish Your Book in India: Listen to MyKitaab Podcast
MyKitaab Podcast is present on the following social media sites
Twitter: @mykitaabcast
Facebook: MyKitaab Page
Instagram: @Mykitaabcast
Subscribe to MyKitaab Podcast on iTunes
Listen to the podcast episodes below
Wednesday 10 August 2016
The Story Behind the Name MyKitaab
- The Creative Penn Podcast
- Self Publishing Podcast
- Rocking Self Publishing Podcast
- Sell More Books Show
- Writer 2.0
- Author Strong Podcast
- In the Trenches with Tom Morkes
- Write 2 B read Podcast (now rebranded as Brand Architect Podcast )
- Authorpreneur
- Self Publishing Answers
- Writing Unblocked
- Author Hangout
- Bestselling Fiction Podcast
- Portfolio Life
- Authority Self Publishing
- Bookpreneur
- Publishing Profits
- Read to lead
- Relaunch
- MyKitaab (yes, why not?)
- Copyblogger
- The Marketing Book Podcast
You can visit the related page: How to Listen to MyKitaab Podcast.