How to get published, by a magical realist

WHEN Preethi Nair's attempts to get her first book published seemed to hit a dead end, she refused to be disheartened.

Instead, the 28-year-old management consultant from north London conjured up a plot worthy of a best-seller.

Secretly reinventing herself, she posed as public relations executive "Pru Menon" and began a double life promoting the work of "hot new author" Preethi Nair.

Now, with Gypsy Masala scaling several book stores' best-seller lists since its release in April, and major publishing houses keen to snap her up, Preethi is very much indebted to her alter ego.

"I took a massive gamble when I left a job with an incredible salary last year and sank all my savings into this dream. I had no idea what would happen. I had no grand plan, no huge budget or massive publishing machine behind me, just a passion to share my book with lots of readers.

"What has happened since has surpassed all my expectations. My family and friends are thrilled."

Publicist Pru Menon of the "multinational PR firm Creative House" - Preethi's back bedroom - was created after she realised, while promoting a colleague's book and receiving two rejections, that, as an unknown writer, her magical realist novelist would automatically be relegated to the bottom of the manuscript pile.

"I got two of everything, telephones with different ringing tones and separate emails, for Pru and myself. I lower my voice two octaves when callers want to speak to me as Preethi," she said. "I decided to go it alone because nobody can put the same passion into promoting my book that I can, because nobody believes in it as I do. She's the total opposite of sentimental, wimpy me. She can handle rejection better than me."

But after sending out around 400 copies to the Press, out of an initial 3,000-edition print run, accompanied by hundreds of follow- up calls in January, Preethi was forced to confront such criticism head-on.

"Some people said they absolutely hated my book to Pru on the phone.

I would, of course, remain professional and calm, but burst into tears as soon as I hung up."

Her cover was almost blown several times. "One afternoon a journalist on a tight deadline rang Pru, demanding to speak to Preethi immediately. I told him, 'You're in luck. She's just walked through the door.' I was focusing more on how I was speaking than what I was saying, praying he didn't realise Pru and I were one and the same."

And when a suspicious BBC radio interviewer remarked on the similarity between "their" voices, Preethi was forced to improvise and joke, "Everyone says that."

She said the difference in her treatment as PR Pru and author Preethi was "phenomenal". "A lot of people treated Pru like an airhead, but suddenly produced their poshest accents when they passed over to me. They would also blame Pru for failing to send things or messing up interview arrangements which I'd organised myself. It was hilarious."

But as media interest mounted, Preethi realised to her horror that she had overlooked one major area - the novel's distribution to the shops. Armed with a travel card and a hundred books, she pounded pavements for two weeks to persuade stores to stock the book while doing newspaper and radio interviews.

"The shop managers thought I was mad. They'd never seen anything like it.

Authors drink wine and do book signings, but they do not traipse around like salesmen." Gypsy Masala, which soon became a Borders and Books Etc "staff choice" and has sold around 7,000 copies so far, is, appropriately, about three family members who reflect on whether they have followed their dreams.

"Although I had a lot to lose when I embarked on this, I always felt that if you passionately believe in something, you can't possibly fail," she said.

Copyright 2000
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