Amish Tripathi's Success Inspires MBA Grads to Become Writers

Bangalore: When literature and marketing join hands, a national bestseller is born. This is true in the case of the renowned author Amish Tripathi who wrote the novel ‘The Immortals of Meluha’. Tripathi faced many rejections for his first work from publishers for reasons like - a book on gods would have no readership and that it would have no connect with youth. It was after all the rejections that the alumnus of IIM Calcutta decided to take his next stern step. He went back to his marketing textbooks and charted out the plan to publish and sell the book all by himself. In a unique sampling format Tripathi printed out the first chapter of the book and distributed it at all bookstores. He also got a movie trailer done for the book and uploaded it on YouTube. His unlikely initiative to sell the book finally paid off. A year later, after publishing the second in the series of his Shiva trilogy, ‘The Secret of the Nagas’, both the novels sold over a million copies. As for The Immortals of Meluha, it is now being adapted to a movie by filmmaker Karan Johar this year, reported Kala Vijayaraghavan for ET Bureau.

The success earned by Tripathi has prompted many B-school graduates including fresher’s and top corporates and bankers to turn into the new era novelist. The invoked interest is also due to the fact that out of the 10 books shortlisted for The Economist Crossword Book Award in October 2012, seven are authored by MBA grads in which six are the IIM alumni.

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