MY PATH TO PUBLICATION
SANTANU BHATTACHARYA
The debut author of the greatly anticipated One Small Voice describes the obstacles he overcame to publish the book he believed
'As a child, I loved reading, had a flair for languages, engaged an audience with my storytelling. I knew that one day I’d like to write a book. The problem was I had no idea how I’d get there.
‘I grew up in India. When it was time to go to university, India was on its way to becoming a tech powerhouse. The only career option presented to us was engineering. To add to that, my family wasn’t rich; it was essential that I get a job and can pay my bills; there was no golden parachute. I didn’t know any writers. The English-language Indian authors were few, and their lives seemed very distant from mine. Over the next decade, as I focused on studies and jobs, writing disappeared from my life.
‘I’d just turned thirty when a short story I’d submitted on a whim won the first prize. That was the turning point – if I didn’t write now, then when? That is when the idea for the novel that is today One Small Voice came to me – the story of a young man coming of age in modern-day India. But I put it away after writing forty thousand words; somehow it wasn’t working.