When the stakes are high, competition can be much more fierce, says author Amish Tripathi

Amish Tripathi rose to fame in 2010 with his three books, The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras, popularly known as the Shiva Triology. His latest, the eagerly awaited Scion of Ikshvaku, is already in the news with Amazon and Flipkart fighting in the Delhi High Court over the online sales of the book.
Westland, the publishers of the book, say Amazon has an exclusive two-month deal to sell the book on its site, and that Flipkart was violating the copyrights and IT act. Flipkart maintains it is a marketplace that helps sellers connect with customers across India. A Flipkart spokesperson told the Economic Times on Thursday. "The matter is sub-judice before the Honourable Delhi High Court, which on June 30, 2015 declined to pass any restraint order against Flipkart India or any of the sellers on the sale of the said book." Over to Tripathi, who seems to be doing a great job of not losing sleep over the matter.

Your new book is in the middle of a copyright battle. What was your overriding emotion when this happened?

The matter is subjudice so I can't really comment on that. But what I see happening in the book trade today is that the stakes have become a lot bigger. I don't think people could think of making a living by writing 10-15 years back. Frankly, many who worked in the publishing industry came from a privileged background, with family wealth to fall back on. The positive side of the industry having grown dramatically in the past decade is that we have many more resources. Authors are able to market much better. A best seller a decade back perhaps meant 5,000 copies. Today, it means 50,000 copies at the minimum. So hiccups like these (the online battle for his book) are all part of the game. When the stakes are high, competition can be much more fierce.

What convinced you to go ahead with an exclusive contract with one ecommerce site (Amazon), aside from advice from your publisher?

Were you worried that this would restrict the "marketplace" for your book? Distribution calls are definitely made by my publisher. I'm totally involved in the marketing.

As an author, what is your point of view on books being caught in fights between online retailers? Can writing, considered art, turn into a commodity like electronics or clothes?

As an author one would obviously like the focus to remain on the book. But look, one also understands that this is part of a high stakes game. I would like it if there are no court cases, but the world is not a fairytale.

Aren't you worried the least bit, given that you have to deal with the stress of the legal battle while promoting your new book?

I can't say I'm personally happy about it (laughs), but like I said, this is part of the game and one has to be an adult about it, there's no other choice.

In the light of these exclusive tieups and online deals, has combing through contracts become far more complicated than it used to be?

Do you find it difficult to go through every fine detail of the contract, or is it easy to navigate your way through them? I have a professional team of lawyers whom I depend on for my contract. And so does my publisher, and movie producer — I've signed a movie deal. I don't spend all my time on these things though. I'd rather write my book, you know. But given the size of the contract and deal at hand, it takes me anything between a few hours to a few days to understand everything and sign the dotted line.