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This is part of a series of conversations from The Bound Publishing Course, India’s first comprehensive course on book, magazine and digital publishing.
This article covers the best insights from an hour-long panel discussion on poetry and publishing, featuring three poets who have each established their own presses and continue to influence the poetry landscape of India.
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It is often falsely assumed that poetry is underappreciated in India, but the strong presence of these poetry presses has inspired even big multinational publishers to take notice and come out with their own books and poetry collections. As poetry continues to make its presence known in the literary landscape of India, it is important to understand how the independent poetry presses of India function.
To shed light on how this tight-knit, yet welcoming community works to bring poetry into the mainstream, we interviewed Hemant Divate of Poetrywala, Dibyajyoti Sarma of Red River, and Shloka Shankar of Yavanika Press.
Hemant is a celebrated Marathi poet, editor, publisher, translator and poetry activist. He is the founder of Poetrywala, which has published over 100 Indian English poetry collections. His contributions extend globally through participation in various international poetry and literature festivals, as well.
Dibyajyoti leads Red River, an independent poetry publishing house which was founded in 2017 and is known for its selection of titles and innovative designs. Red River is a business and a passion project, fueled by Dibyajyoti’s love for poetry. Over the years, Red River has earned a reputation as a niche publisher of poetry.
Shloka is a multi-talented poet, editor, publisher and visual artist. She’s the founding editor of the literary and arts journal Sonic Boom, and Yavanika Press, and a Master of Japanese short forms in sound poetry. She has also been featured in over 200 esteemed online platforms.
1. Could you take us through your journey of setting up your own presses? What was the first book that you published?
Hemant Divate: We started our Marathi magazine, Abhidhanantar, in 1992. By 2000, we realised that nobody was ready to publish Marathi poems, because the poets were different from the modern poets like Dilip Chitre, Arun Kolhatkar, and others. Dilip Chitre was the one who first suggested translating my poems in ‘Chautishiparyantachya Kavita’. It was Dilip who suggested that I start Poetrywala, and he was the one who came up with the name. In 2003, we finally started Poetrywala to publish English poems and English translations of poems written in Marathi and various other languages. Now 20 years later, we have published over 150 poetry collections in English, English translations of Indian languages, and some international languages as well.
I would not call this a journey, but rather a movement, a movement that is still going on.
Dibyajyoti Sarma: What Hemant did with Poetrywala was very unique. In 5-6 years they established a niche, and soon everyone knew Poetrywala. This inspired me to start my own press. I had the same rationale, my first collection was published by Writer’s Workshop in 2004. Years later, when my second collection was ready, I didn’t know what to do. A little while later, I was in Delhi, where the ISBN offices are. In those times, you could physically go to the offices and get your book published, so I thought, why not do it myself? I knew a little bit about printing, so I got a name, got my ISBN number, and got my book out. After that, a lot of my friends in Delhi saw that I had published my book. They would come to me with their own collections, and ask me to print it. I started by publishing the work of my friends; we didn’t have a 5 year plan, or a distribution plan, or even a balance sheet with earnings and income.
Shloka Shankar: Yavanika Press mostly publishes ebooks, and we are most likely the only press that deals with ebooks. We publish Chapbooks which typically contain about 15-25 poems. As far as my knowledge goes, nobody was publishing ebooks and Chapbooks in India, it was always poetry collections with a large number of poems. I thought that Yavanika Press would be a good place for people who are just starting out in publishing.
You may not have a full-fledged oeuvre to choose from, but you can still publish your collection of poems.
The first book we published was the best of the Japanese Short Forms from the Paper Lanterns section of Sonic Boom. It was our first paperback, and we used Kindle Direct Publishing, which was known as CreateSpace in 2018. I wanted to stick to ebooks for the sake of logistics and to keep things simple and accessible. In fact, for the first 2 years, all of our titles were free and we didn’t have a submission fee either. I partnered with third-party platforms and online libraries which send the books straight to your inbox.
2. What is the size of your Editorial Team?
Shloka Shankar: My Editorial Team is constantly changing since the work is very demanding, and most people also have to balance full-time jobs. My team consists of Shobhana Kumar, K. Srilata, and Soni Somarajan. Robin Smith helps me with the Japanese short forms, prose, and other mixed genre collections. I also have two resident artists, Phil Openshaw and Raghav. Phil is an artist and Photographer based in the UK, and Raghav does most of the illustrations for the book. Rohan, our resident webmaster, helps me with basic formatting for digital platforms.
Dibyajyoti Sarma: When we started, I did everything on my own. We used to have one book at a time, and it was easy to focus on it for a couple of months, but now that we have a lot of pending projects, it’s become a little difficult. It’s a small community, and I do have friends who can help out. Shobhana and Soni have been a part of many of my projects as well. Until last year, I was working pro-bono, but I realised that my editor was investing their time as well, and I should compensate them for it. Now if there is money involved, I make sure to pay my team, but otherwise, I do the projects on my own. We started Red River Story recently, and that portion of the publication is handled by Sucharita Dutta-Asane, who is a freelance editor. I do help her out, but Red River Story is her baby. I am very lucky to have a good group of friends who I can reach out to if I need any help.
Hemant Divate: Like Dibya, we too rely on freelancers and friends. Poetrywala is headed by my wife and I, but we do take the help of freelancers who specialise in pagination and cover design. Shloka and Dibya have been a part of many projects too. We charge a reading fee and give sets of our collections to different people from time to time.
3. How has your Editorial Mandate grown over the years?
Hemant Divate: At the start, we used to ask a lot of people for manuscripts. We used to write to poets asking for recommendations and submissions as well. Our main source of support was from poets in Bombay like Adil Jussawala, Dilip Chitre, Menka, and many others. Most of these people are like the extended team of Poetrywala, they give us recommendations, and we decide whether to accept them or not.
I want to create a market for foreign poetry here in India, and make it accessible too. That is why our collections are priced in an affordable range. There are many types of poetry and poems in the world, and I believe that as publishers, we should offer our audience a good variety of poems to read.
Shloka Shankar: At Yavanika, there are 4 specific genres: poetry, Japanese short forms, prose, and mixed. Under poetry we publish poems which are specifically under 20 lines, and the ideal limit of the collection is 15-20 poems. In the Japanese short forms section, we publish haiku, ryo, and gelita among other forms of poetry. The prose section is slightly different, where we look for vignettes, high-burn, or short pieces. Each piece should be 200-300 words and read individually, it’s more like lyrical prose leaning towards the high burn genre. Mixed genre is where we accept hybrid work. This allows us to cater to a wider audience.
4. There’s copy editing and developmental editing in fiction and nonfiction. What does editing look like for poetry?
5. Poetry as a genre is considered very niche or not mainstream. How have you gone about building a market for yourselves?
Hemant Divate: The narrative that poetry doesn’t sell is false. I know poetry sells because we have sold many copies of a variety of books. In the last 12 to 13 years, we have not used a single penny out of our own pockets. We have earned money and reinvested it to publish our books. Poetry does sell, because people are buying the books when they are launched. Amazon has been a great tool in helping us sell poetry, because most bookstores don’t have a large collection of poetry books.
The world is changing to help poets and poetry, and we will use digital spaces and tools available to us to promote our books.
Dibyajyoti Sarma: The whole discussion that poetry books don’t sell comes from the fact that we are unfairly compared with fiction and nonfiction. The volume of books published by various publishers is very high and we can’t compete with that. Within the context of poetry books and the readership of poetry, we are doing quite well.
6. What advice do you have for new poets looking to publish their poetry?
Hemant Divate: All of us got our start by coming together and starting our own printing presses. It is important to be part of a community, and as mentioned earlier, all of us help each other out. The community is here to help you with whatever you need. Before publishing your poem or book of poems, make sure to read at least 100 other books. After reading what has already been published, then you can evaluate whether your work is an addition to what has already been written.
Dibyajyoti Sarma: When you submit your manuscript, make sure that the ideas and basic structure of what you are trying to convey is present. We can help you build on your manuscript only if you present us with good ideas. You must also be willing to cooperate with us to make your work better. We can make a manuscript better, but it is your job to work hard and invest time into making the manuscript better. If you have an idea, you need to be ready to commit a lot of time to it. It may take years for your book to be ready, because it takes time to create something that will last for a long time. If you commit time to your book before publishing it, when you look back on it you will have fewer regrets.
Shloka Shankar: Instead of jumping straight into books, start getting your work out to online journals, which is a great way to add some publication credits to your list.
Start small and see where you stand in the global poetry community and market. Build your confidence up, find your own voice first, and see what topics you’re drawn to.
Make sure you have enough poems for a collection, you don’t have to add everything you have written, but your collection has to be cohesive. We (Yavanika Press) published Michelle D’Costa’s first book ‘Gulf’, and we started off with 80 poems that were brought down to the 15 best poems which showcased her voice. The curation is the toughest and the most enjoyable part of the whole process- how you bring those poems together, what the sequence of the poems is, and how they’re linking and shifting.
7. What advice or suggestions would you give to someone wanting to start a poetry brand, and how do you focus on making such quests more popular or discoverable?
Dibyajyoti Sarma: First, if you’re starting a poetry press, don’t expect to earn any profit for at least the next 10 years. Second, be ready to devote your time and energy to your work even when it becomes frustrating. You have to make a promise to yourself that you will push through the next five years, because it takes time to establish yourself. Third, you must have a passion for poetry and form strong opinions about the poems you read.
Hemant Divate: Be ready to handle frustration, because you will have to do a lot for your poems. If your poem gets an award or a chance to be published with a bigger press don’t expect anything in return.
Shloka Shankar: You instinctively know whether a collection is going to work or not, and if there’s potential you can work with the author. We sit with authors and put time and effort in because ultimately, we want the best possible outcome. You may have to take the first step in your publishing journey but if they’ve brought out their first book with you, it’s a special feeling. There are also frustrations when you have to look at the slush pile and there’s absolutely nothing matching or aesthetic. Those are the days where you have to brace yourself and say, “Okay, is it all worth it?” You’ll find that it is, because you’re ultimately finding a few gems amongst 60 to 70 books each year.
8. Do you have any parting advice?
Dibyajyoti Sarma: Don’t try to publish your work, write for yourself first. Read everything and every piece of poetry that you can lay your hands on. After a while, you will discover that you like some particular poet more. When you find out about those poets, read everything about them and become an expert. Then, you start writing yourself.
In a literary landscape which is eager to write off poetry as something niche and outside of what audiences like, small poetry presses have been able to establish a strong readership by utilising digital platforms and online libraries to showcase their collections.
Our panel of experts emphasised the importance of being part of a robust community you can turn to in times of need. Creating a poetry press and getting your own collection published requires a lot of commitment and willingness to work with others. The community may be small, but its doors are always open to anyone who wants to join.
The Bound Publishing Course is designed to help you understand India’s publishing scene and give you the resources you need to get started in publishing. It is a 3-month certified course that teaches you everything you need to know about India’s publishing and digital media landscape. The course will start from 14th September till 15th December. Applications are open now. Know more here.
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