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Jyoti at Kitab Festival, Mumbai, India
Feb 26th
Jyoti attended the flamboyant Kitabfest, the International Literature and Media Festival, in Mumbai, India, where he talked along with leading writers, publishers, agents and film directors from Britain and the Indian subcontinent.
21st and 22nd February 2007
I arrive at Delhi Int. airport. Someone is supposed to be waiting for me, but my fears materialise: I see no plaque reading “Jyoti Guptara” or, if they are more security-conscious, something like “Samarth’s Wedding”. My Swiss phone is out of juice and my Indian phone has expired, and would not work anyway because it was purchased in Goa. But a payphone call with my “Chacha” puts things back on course, and I discover that beyond the two Exits there are yet further reception areas. Fortunately, on the horizon of new plaques one of them reads my name. The driver wheels my luggage to the car park before I realise I’ve left my papers with contact details, an absolute essential, in the pay phone booth. Run back and retrieve them from the operator, whom I leave looking like he wants a reward.
Beep. Beep. Beep. It’s good to be back.
Whereas other countries endure chaotic organisation, India happily boasts organised chaos. More >
Italian Calaspia Rights Sold
Jan 25th
Mondadori, Italy’s largest publisher, has purchased rights to the first three books in the Insanity Saga for a substantial advance. Book One to be published in 2008 in prestigious i grandi range.
India Book Tour, Dec06-Jan07
Jan 7th
Delhi Book Launch: 200 guests mingled in the picturesque surroundings of Lodi Garden Restaurant as Guests of Honour, Tarun Tejpal and Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, officially launched Calaspia in India. Press journalists, photographers and camera crews crowded around the twins to interview them for all the major national papers and television stations.
Goa Book Launch: Held at the Cidade de Goa Hotel, the line up on the press conference panel included the Governor of Goa, His Excellency S. C. Jamir, renowned poet Sudeep Sen and social reformer Dr Vishal Mangalwadi. Following an interview and speeches by the Guests of Honour, the twins read an extract each from Calaspia.
Two days later, another reading. In the unique surroundings of the cosy Literati book café, 30 people gathered for a ‘come and share’ evening of poetry reciting, songs, music and book readings. Sudeep Sen and Ivan Kostka shared their poems, Jyoti Guptara read an extract from Calaspia, and Talvin Singh shared his tabla skills – improvising impressively on earthenware pots to the delight of the audience! A magical evening.
After Goa, Jyoti went on to Bangalore and Chennai (Madras) to promote Calaspia with Indian book chain Odyssey.
Switzerland Book Launches, Nov 06
Nov 15th
Over 100 people filled the respective rooms to congratulate the Guptara Twins on the publication of Calaspia. The Book Launch in Zurich on 14 November was hosted at Orell Fussli English Bookshop, on Zurich’s prestigious Bahnhofstrasse, where the Guests of Honour, author Theodore Beale (Eternal Warriors) and Culture Minister Marc Wehrlin, spoke before Suresh and Jyoti gave a reading each. In Weinfelden the book was launched on 15 November in the local language Schwyzerdütsch by Mayor Max Vögeli, who interviewed the boys. At both events, the crowds then mingled over King’s Kurry snacks while the Guptara Twins autographed copies and answered questions. Friends of the twins stayed on after the event to celebrate the boys’ 18th birthday a week early, before Suresh returned to school in England the next morning.
Journalist vs. Author: teenage Writer at Frankfurt Book Fair 06
Oct 11th
3 – 8 October 2006: Jyoti Guptara attended the world’s largest Book Fair at Frankfurt as an author with Indian publisher Tara Press and as a journalist with The International Indian magazine.
Despite over 7,000 exhibitors at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2006 and my lack of a map, my feet lead me directly to the collective stand of my Indian publisher and its relevant imprint. The same instinct that directed me here tells me that these four Indians are my publishers and agents even before I catch sight of the lettering: India Research Press / Tara Press – and Red Ink, the first, and to my knowledge only, Indian literary agency.
We meet for the first time after months of electronic correspondence. I immediately feel at home with them; it’s as if we already know each other, and just happen not to know much about one another. It’s always been business.
“All Delhi’s turned up,” they laugh. Indeed, a glance at the area between Halls 5.0 and 6.0 yields more brown faces than white. It is the 3rd of October and publishers are setting up their stands, arranging their products, books and promotionals. India is the Guest of Honour this year. I hear more Hindi than German.
After weeks of being chained to a computer and editing, it is refreshing to be meeting people and talking. After six years of working on a book you know may never be published, which was the case until recently, receiving overwhelmingly positive responses from international publishers, literary agents and scouts is like having your batteries recharged. More >
Accepted for Publication!
Apr 25th
Good news: I woke up at 08.00 this morning!
But the story doesn’t end there. I woke up because my father woke me for exercise (although he did not wake me for exercise).
It gets better still; before I could be motivated to get out of bed and begin the violent process of circulating blood around my body, a rush of blood to the head was inspired by a phone call. My father said it would be for me in his typical manner, but it was eight o’clock – all my friends would be at school. However, it did turn out to be for me. Debbie Smith from Tara Press, Bahrisons, India.
They liked our book, and they had given it to a Reader, who had read it cold (without any information about the authors, including our age). The Reader had liked it very much, and so had the other people in the publishing house. Basically, they want to publish us!
Very exciting! Very, very cool!
But … not as much as you would have thought, considering we’ve been waiting for publication for 5 years already. As Dan Gilbert says: we consistently overestimate the emotional impacts of events. Precisely because we’ve been looking forward to acceptance for so long, with such ecstasy, reaching the goal loses some of its magic. It’s more of a relief than anything else. But that made the journey all the more interesting.
As we were to discover, this is anything but the end. This is the beginning.
First Calaspia Sale: to Indian Publisher, March 2006
Mar 29th
Rights into territories in South and South-East Asia to epic fantasy Conspiracy of Calaspia sold to Tara Press, fiction imprint of India Research Press, for publication in November 2006, while the Guptara Twins are still 17 years old.
Jyoti’s visit to Frankfurt Book Fair 2004
Oct 10th
8th October 2004
On Friday the eighth of October, I was sitting on my father & mother’s bed talking with them about our book and publishers. I mentioned the Frankfurt Book fair, and my father told me a little about it. My brother had suggested that it would be better to go once I was already published, and not go to seek out publishers. My father said that actually it could be a good way of getting questions answered and receiving advice.
‘It’s on now, though,’ I said, ’apparently.’
‘Why don’t you run upstairs and find out then?’ said my father. ‘Quickly do an internet search. If it is on at present, then we’ll have to act fast. We need a synopsis, and some copies of the manuscript.’ More >
Jyoti Leaves School to be Full-time Writer, July ’04
Jul 29th
With only a handful of articles and short stories published and no book publisher in sight, Jyoti Guptara leaves Switzerland’s prestigious “Kantonsschule / Gymnasium” to study by himself at home and to write, becoming one of the world’s youngest full-time writers. Meanwhile, Suresh does brilliantly at Bradfield College boarding school in the UK.
Jyoti Guptara Published in The Wall Street Journal, June 2004
Jun 25th
Jyoti’s article on the casting for Harry Potter’s Viktor Krum in Bulgaria is published in The Wall Street Journal. Editors say that he, a 15-year-old, is possibly the youngest person the Journal has ever published. See Pic | Read the Article