COVER STORY

SUCCESS SECRETS OF A BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Alka Joshi became a published author at 62. And zoomed into global bestseller lists. How did she do it?

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

Alka Joshi is the globally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy – The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris – historical fiction novels set in Jaipur, Shimla, Agra, and Bombay with smatterings of Europe thrown in.

Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick, an LA Times bestseller, a Toronto Star and Globe & Mail bestseller, an Indie Bookstores bestseller, a Cosmopolitan Best Audiobook, and an Amazon and Goodreads favourite. It was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, has been translated into 29 languages and optioned as an episodic series.

Her fourth novel, Six Days in Bombay, is a sweeping travelogue of a young Indian woman’s journey from 1937 India to a turbulent Europe as she comes into her own.

Because she started her writing career at the age of 62, Forbes selected Joshi as one of 50 Women Over 50 who are shattering age and gender norms.

She shares milestones from the journey of a little girl who was born in Rajasthan, India, and came to the US in 1967 with her family at the age of nine and found massive success as a writer.

Why historical fiction? As the daughter of immigrants, why not something like Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake?

My intention, when I started out, was to create an alternate life for my mother! She had an arranged marriage in 1955 and my brothers and I came along soon after. She had no agency in her life, no control over how much she wanted to study or whom she wanted to marry, no decision-making in how she wanted to see her life unfold.

With me, she made sure I had every independence she never had, and so I wanted to do the same for her. I couldn’t go back and change the course of her life, but I could write the story of a woman based on her. Someone who had her beauty, her innate style. And her way of getting things done indirectly – women of her generation had to figure out ways to influence family decisions. So, someone who was just like my mother but with more choices.

I imagined someone who remained child-free in her early years. How would someone of that generation achieve that? My research revealed that they used cottonroot bark. Could she sell that to others and monetize that?

The first step would be for her to leave her marriage. The only socially acceptable way in that time period would have been if her life were threatened. Enter an abusive husband.

She would have to become financially independent. What would a woman like my mother with no education beyond grade 12 do? Mehndi! I asked her what her mehndi was like when she got married. It was very basic and simple, she said. A large dot on the palm and some lines and smaller dots. I thought if a woman could create intricate patterns, understood what her clientele desires, she could earn more. She could also give them herbal teas and potions while the henna dried – helping them with everything from an unsettled stomach to delaying pregnancies. Just like my mother gave us chhaas (buttermilk) when we had an upset stomach, Lakshmi could have had some recipes handed down to her. But someone else would have to teach her the more complex ones. That’s how I brought in the mother-in-law. Which led me to debunk the notion that all mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relations are fraught.

So, that’s how The Henna Artist was born.

“I worked on the book for 10 years. I was writing while doing my master’s program, while running my advertising agency, and travelling with my mother to India.”

It’s interesting how you cast the husband as a villain and the mother-in-law as a sympathetic character. What did your dad make of this?

My dad is my biggest cheerleader. He gives me so much of the political and historical background of the time. He bunked school to listen to Gandhi’s speeches. And when Nehru said the newly-independent India needed engineers to help build the country, he went on to become a civil engineer. He loves my books and has helped connect me with so many people across the globe for research purposes for all my subsequent books.

But why this particular period? Several other authors – Abir Mukherjee, Vasim Khan, Sujata Massey, Harini Nagendra – have also set their books in the pre-Raj days or during the Raj. What is it that drew you to this time frame?

I think, for me, the most important information I can impart to the global audience who are not aware of India’s history is what colonization does to a country and how it impacts the self esteem of its people. How does a nation develop itself post-independence? How do the people deal with it – do they work cooperatively or do they fracture? How do they forge a new identity? Many colonized nations fell into the pattern of dictatorships after gaining independence. India became the world’s largest democracy. This period fascinates me.

Your books are meticulously researched. Doesn’t setting them a century ago make it harder to get all the little details right?

You know I went to Stanford, so you know I’m a nerd! I love doing research! Writing papers, doing a deep dive. I travel, I look around, I meet people to get the nuances right. I made an appointment to meet the maharani of Jaipur to understand how the royal family would have helped promote the education of girls. We chatted for three hours and she also had me speak to a class of female students.

You say you never dreamed of being a writer, but a book doesn’t just happen. There’s intent and purpose to it. What were your thoughts when you were working on The Henna Artist?

So I have to tell you a little story. My dad came to the US to get a PhD. We came from Bikaner, where everybody looked like me to a place where no one looked like me. At school, people would ask where I got my tan from. When I said I was Indian, they wanted to know which tribe. When they got that we were from India, the reaction invariably was, “Oh, you’re from that country”. A place where people are dying of poverty, with cows on the streets. They asked if I knew how to use a knife and fork to eat. So I tried to ignore my heritage for years. I distanced myself from it. I was so ashamed and embarrassed to be from India that I didn’t want to go back. The first time I went back was with my mother in 2008. By then it had become a fun place. The gorgeous saris and jewellery were on the fashion runways of the world. My mother was reacquainting me with India, with my extended family that received me so warmly.

“I think for me, the most important information I can impart to the global audience who are not aware of India’s history is what colonization does to a country.”

I realized I had been missing out on so much. I was in my 50s, I had the research, the answers to questions about why the country was poor. I had the voice and the communication skills and I found in historical fiction the perfect vehicle to address all of those questions. So readers could learn a little about the history of the country while reading a story. I can’t tell you how easy it was for me to write! My MFA instructors at California College of Arts were so impressed. They were sure I had written before. I said no, it just comes pouring out of me like batter!

From that to selling your first manuscript – did you face any challenges? Were you asked to change this, tweak that?

Was I ever! Ten years! I worked on that book for ten years. I was writing this while doing my master’s program, while running my advertising agency, and travelling with my mother to India. When I graduated, I got busy running my marketing and advertising agency. Then my mother fell ill and I was taking her to doctors’ appointments and to the hospice. I stopped writing. My husband, who is not Indian, loved my stories and said I should write a book but I said, “What are you talking about? I’m not a writer! Besides, I have mom to look after and a business to run...”

Emma, my instructor from the program, wanted to know how the manuscript was coming along and I told her all that was going on in my life at the time. When she also said I had to write, I enlisted her help. She agreed and sent my manuscript to her agent. The agent loved it. And I thought, wow! I’m going to be a published author. But it wasn’t so simple. The agent said I had to work on it, to focus on Lakshmi and minimize the other two roles. I cut 140 pages, reworked it from page one, and sent it back. “Ahhh, it’s still not right,” she said. “Get rid of the epilogue. And do the start and end differently.”

I sent another version. We went back and forth for three years. By which time it had actually been seven years since I started and I told her I’d really like to send it to a publisher.

She said I had no pedigree as a writer, nothing published in The Atlantic or New Yorker. “You need to submit a blockbuster to get published, and you’re not there yet.”

Also, that she’d helped as much as she could, I now needed to hire a professional editor.

“I thought you were my editor,” I said. Imagine how naive I was! She suggested top editors and I approached one, hoping they would say, this is great, don’t know what Emma is talking about, let’s get you published! Instead, I heard back that they loved the story – with a list of things I needed to work on.

I sent it to another editor, paid for her to take a look at it, only to receive a similar response. “Lovely, lovely, but here are 18 pages of changes...”

I gave up. A whole year went by. I was working at my ad agency. Then one day, I came across the thick manuscript tucked away in a drawer. It had all the research I’d done, the back stories of each character. I’d created character bibles for each. I thought I spent so much time on it, I can’t believe I’m gong to give up on telling my mom’s story. All the comments and suggested changes were stapled to the top. I reread them. They were not big changes, more like clarify this or reframe that, and I thought I can do this.  So I made, maybe 85 per cent of the changes. The rest didn’t make sense to me culturally and I ignored those. I sent it off again to Emma with a note saying that I’d spent nine years on this by now, this was the 25th revision, I couldn’t do any more, any different, and so to please send it to a publisher.

She said she still didn’t think I was ready, but that she could see how frustrated I was, and so she was going to do as I requested.

And we sold it to HarperCollins!

But.

They wanted changes.

The major change the editor wanted was in the character of Hari. All the other characters – both good and bad – evolved over time, she said. But Hari was mean, he never changed. Why couldn’t he have humanity?

Hari was someone who was beating up on his wife and I told Cathy I hate men like that, I didn’t want to show him with any redeeming features. But when she insisted that he was coming across as unidimensional, I went back to page one, to Hari’s story. Why are you so mean to Lakshmi, I asked. Because I’d lived with the characters for so long, I used to talk to them. And Hari began speaking to me. He explained what drove him. And so the ending changed because of his transformation.

Many big-name authors say they retain their day jobs to help pay the bills. What gave you the confidence to devote yourself to writing? To pivot to a full-time career as a novelist after 30 years in the fields of advertising and marketing.

Because I sold The Henna Artist so quickly – after ten years of writing and revising! When I got my contract, I took it to my neighbour and friend. She’s an editor, too, and I asked her to tell me if it was a good contract. It was 30 pages long and I could barely make sense of it! She confirmed that it was really good for a debut novelist and that’s when I knew I was going to be a full-time author.

This feeling was reinforced when HarperCollins flew me down to various cities for book readings and events. There was champagne, my books in every lobby! I said, “You treat your authors so well!”. And my handler said they don’t do this for everyone. “We know The Henna Artist is going to be big for us.”

Meanwhile, I had all this material on Malik that I had removed from The Henna Artist and he was telling me to tell his story. I started writing and sent a 20-page draft to my agent. She sent it to the publisher and I had a contract for a second book, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, while the first was at the printers.

I gave away the business projects I had to friends who were in similar fields and jumped all in.

How do you write? Do you have a “process”? Sit in this chair, write from this hour to this hour, have so many cups of chai or coffee? Or is it all the time, any time?

I love my bed! I write from my bed. In my pjs. I buy a couple of pairs of a label I love from a catalog – that’s my writing outfit. I have all these pillows, my dog is at my feet. I live in Monterey, by the bay and the view from my window is beautiful. I see the squirrels run around... what more does a writer need?

If you were to guide budding authors who ask you for advice, what would your top tips for them be?

Passion for the subject matter – it can’t just be a trendy topic. Perseverance, because it’s going to take a long time for it to get out there. It should take  a long time, you have to immerse yourself in the work. Patience with yourself. If you do not get it right in the first attempt, it’s okay to take time off. Go for a walk, do some research... there’s no time limit on writing. It’s worth taking the time and the energy to make sure it will be read by many people. Go easy on yourself. If you put in the love, you will find success.

But success doesn’t come overnight. People are constantly sending me their work and asking if I can send it along to my agent. But within a few pages I can see they’ve got so much work to do and it’s so difficult for me to say, “You know, you’re not ready”. That’s why I try so hard to share what is involved. My first book was published when I was 62.

You describe life as mysterious and incredible. What’s the most magical part of being Alka Joshi?

Knowing that people around the world understand more about India than they did from history books. They understand nuances of the culture, why certain gods are relied upon in different situations, how the vast diversity of the nation makes a cohesive whole.

I love being able to observe, listen, watch people – really understand them and why they make the choices they do. I’m curious and I ask questions. I’ve always had this ability, even when I was a kid, to say little and observe. To see how people are saying one thing with their mouths and something else with their expressions. And when young South Asian women approach me and tell me my novels make them proud of their heritage, I feel so fulfilled.

What would you say to the nine-year-old Alka, newly arrived in the US?

I would say, Alka, hold on to your heritage. Everything you have now is a result of what your ancestors strove for. Your people are in India. And in you.

IN TORONTO

“When young South Asian women approach me and tell me my novels make them proud of their heritage, I feel so fulfilled.

Alka Joshi will be at Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), October 29  to November 2 at its new home, Victoria University at the University of Toronto. Check out her event and other exciting author events at www.festivalofauthors.ca.