About
Please email Rasana at rasana@rasanaatreya.com if you wish to contact her. Thank you.
Rasana is the author of Amazon bestseller Tell A Thousand Lies, which was also shortlisted for the 2012 Tibor Jones South Asia award. UK’s Glam magazine calls this novel one of their five favourite tales from India (June 2014). Her other works are The Temple Is Not My Father (also available as an audiobook) and 28 Years A Bachelor.
The cover of The Temple Is Not My Father was awarded the coveted gold star by book designer Joel Frielander.
Rasana declined a traditional publishing contract in order to self-publish. She has been interviewed on self-publishing by many major publications in India. The Media Mentions tab has a sampling of her interviews and reviews. She was also invited to New Delhi for Amazon India‘s launch in February 2014.
She’s been a panelist or conducted workshops at the:
Publishing Next, Goa (Panelist, September 2015)
Hyderabad Literary Festival (Self-publishing Workshop, January 2013)
Jaipur Literary Festival (Panelist, January 2013)
Hyderabad Literary Festival (Panelist, January 2013)
Now on to more personal stuff – Rasana would like to be able to tell her readers that she once stopped a robbery single-handedly, except she’s terrified of robbers. And geckos. And two-year-olds who throw tantrums. When she’s not running scared, she’s mother to a girl and a boy who were respectively six and eleven years-old when they wrote and illustrated The Mosquito and the Teapot. She lives with her husband and children in Hyderabad, India, where a lot of her stories are set.
Her author website: http://rasanaatreya.com
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Amazon US/UK Bestseller: Click On Cover To Buy
6-year-old Author, 11-year-old Illustrator
28 Years A Bachelor
On Getting Published, Good Books, and Living Goddesses 
Hi Rasana
You may remember commenting on my So You Want to Write a Novel video from a few months back. Just wanted to let you know that I recently published my debut novel, The Jackpot — self-pubbed it actually, even though i recently signed with an agent.
My book is a comic legal thriller, and if you’d like to learn more, please follow this link to a page on my blog about the book: http://wahoocorner.blogspot.com/p/my-debut-novel.html
Thanks for reading this.
Best,
David Kazzie
Hi. Thanks fr yr comment on my blog and on the Ibne Safi novels. Hope u will continue to visit the blog and find something of some value in it. Btw,the Ibne Safi novels are being readied in Devnagri too. best, Rakhshanda
Thanks for letting me know. I think I’ll stick with the English version, been a while since I read anything in Devnagri 🙂
I’m from Hyderabad. A lot of people in my grandfather’s generation grew up under the Nizam’s rule. It was common for them to be educated in Urdu (as opposed to Telugu). They still quote such beautiful couplets.
Hi, Rasana, thank you for the blog re the Amazon/Penguin rip-off. I just finished critiquing some materials for a young, new novelist who insists on entering this competition, and it’s good to have this info. for her.
Glad you liked it, Paula. And thanks for ‘liking’ me.
Hi Could you please email me how your editing services work?
Thanks
Hi Santhoshi, I’m sending you email about this.
Hi Rasana, i read thru all ur posts, which, i must say are informative for us writing mortals… Just to let u know I’m an author with four books of poems and have now got my novel, LOVE AND LIFE IN A CHANGING CITY, published by a publisher from Kolkata. Could you kindly advise me how to get a review of my book appear in this site?. I have four more ready mss of novels. The first chapter of LLCC is in my blog: http://www.bobdcosta.blogspot.com. Thanks and regards
Hi rasana. I read about you in Hindu newspaper. First of all congrats! You people are really an inspiration for us. I have been planning to publish a book for a long time, but didn’t work till now. I contacted many publishers and the response was cold. Then only i came across your article. But i wanted to hear everything in detail, so thought of contacting you. How can we self publish a book? I would like to know what all procedures you went through. I’m providing my blog address with this. Do have a check and give me your valuable feedback. Good day..Thanks 🙂
Gautham,
I did check out your blog. My advice to anyone who’s looking to get published is to:
1. Get your manuscript professionally edited
2. Get a professional looking cover
3. Format your book as an ebook.
4. Go to kdp.amazon.com and get yourself an account. Then follow the instructions to upload.
Good luck!
Rasana
thanks rasana for your reply. see I have lot of concern regarding the manuscript stuff, about the format and all. and i do like to know about the ebook thing. i read it in newspaper and didn’t get a clear idea. can you tell me in detail about all these?can i have ur contact mail address so that i can mail you and clear it?
Hi. Could you please email me how to get a book editor and a literary agent. Virendra
Hi Virendra,
There is a lot of information about literary agents on my blog. You need to write what is called a query letter (I should have that, as well). Or you could google it to see how it is done. Then approach the literary agents in your genre (I have a big of agents on my blog).
Best,
Rasana
Gautham, just sent you my email address.
Hi Rasana,
Your article in the Hindu regarding your self-publishing journey made for a very interesting read. We need more success stories like you.
We do have services like Createspace in India, that also distribute through agencies like Flipkart. Our company CinnamonTeal Publishing has also tied up with Lightning Source for international distribution. And yes, through Smashwords too.
Perhaps we could exchange more notes on your experience. There is always a lot to learn from enterprising authors like you.
Warm Regards,
Leonard
Hi Rasana,
Antrik ExPress [http://www.dmiepub.com] is one of the leading e-publishing platform in India and with its rapidly growing catalogue, http://www.Antrik.com offers an impressive range of ebooks.
It would be interesting to get distributed in India via Digital Media Reserve, an imprint of Antrik ExPress that offers DRM protection for eBooks in epub and pdf-a formats.
Happy e-publishing!
Brijesh
Thank you for the info. ebooks are very cheap and inexpensive to publish, even on my own. It is paperbacks and distribution that I’m looking at now.
Hi, can you please send across your email id. I want to get in touch with you for a story on e-publishing that I am working on for The Telegraph. rgds
I just sent you email. Thanks.
Congratulations !!! Rasana Atreya Author of Tell A Thousand Lies.
Thank you. 🙂
Blast from the past – Is this Rasana from Fremont? If so, we used to be in music class together all the way back in BK..congrats on the book!
Hey Preeta,
This is indeed Rasana from Fremont! 🙂 How did you come across my book? Did you see the article in today’s The Hindu? Are you on Facebook?
Rasana
Came here from the comment you left at my blog. Wow. ! This is quite some awesome achievements here. All the best.
Thank you!
Hi Rasana, please share your contact details We wanted to touch base with you for one of our client. I have sent you an e-mail as well. Thanks
Dear Rasana,
My father is a retired Indian army officer, He has written his memoirs, which I have edited during the last one year and it has been published this month. He fought in the India – Pakistan War of 1965 as a young man of 23 years. He has narrated his experience in the battle-fields. He also writes about his experiences in counter insurgency operations.
The process of typing and editing this book was a journey of discovery of a father by his son. None of the incidents in my father’s memoirs were known to me before I got the hand written manuscript in my hands……I found that my father ( an infantry soldier) had single-handedly destroyed an enemy Patton Tank 50 years ago in the battlefield….
The book is called “Moments of Maximum Danger” by Major General Kartick Ganguly.
e-Book version is available at http://www.swiftboox.com
Paperback version is available at http://www.infibeam.com and http://www.doorstepbooks.com
website is http://www.facebook.com/MMDMJKG
Could you kindly advise on how to market this book.
Thanks a lot,
Kaushik Ganguly
Hi Kaushik,
Why isn’t your ebook on Amazon? Without that market, you might as well give up on marketing. Once there, google how to do promotions on Amazon’s KDP Select. Also get reviews for your book. That should raise it in ranking. Good luck!
Dear Rasana, many thanks for your reply.
My publisher does not have a tie-up with amazon, but only with swiftboox. Can I put the ebook in Amazon directly ? It is a self published book, ie, we made a payment to this publisher to print 300 copies + ebook. Now I am trying to promote / market this book. I have sent the book to various newspapers requesting reviews but there is no response. Could you advise how to get book reviews. Regards, Kaushik Ganguly
Dear Kaushik,
Looks like you signed up with a vanity publisher. I warn writers against this all the time. Hopefully you still have all your rights. If you do own the rights (look at your contract to make sure), you should be able to upload the ebook to Amazon etc (don’t let anyone else do it – you should be able to control your own dashboard). Don’t expect newspapers to respond to a self-publisher – even traditional publishers are struggling to get reviews. What you should do is look for book bloggers who’ve reviewed similar books, then offer it to them. Once they accept, request them to cross-post to Amazon. But wait till you get the book on Amazon. I hope you had your book professionally edited, because, if it not, no one will even look at your book.
Let me know how it goes.
Rasana
Dear Rasana,
You are right about the publisher ! I did contact a number of leading publishers over last 6 months but did not get any response. Hence I had to go with this publisher.
I myself have edited the book over last one year. Definitely a professional editor would have been a great help. But I did not know whom or where to approach 😦
I would definitely like to get the book professionally edited before uploading the book in Amazon.
This book has a niche market … it is.a military memoir. I could mail you a PDF copy of the book if you send me your email ID at kkganguly@hotmail.com. Your opinion would be really helpful..
Regards
Kaushik Ganguly
Dear Rasana, Congrats on your success with your eBook and I am sure your experience will help lot of new-gen self-published authors. I have a quick question regarding KDP and the 30% withholding tax – are you getting the exemption or your net royalty is after the tax deduction. Not able to understand why this is applicable to the Indian authors and if yes, how they will claim the tax benefits being a non-US entity? Regards, Santanu
This is the only thing I don’t have much knowledge about, Santanu. Because I did the setup differently. Let me see if I can find people who know about this – I get this question a lot.
Thanks for your reply Rasana. Kindle also couldn’t of much help, they are directing to the IRS norms and says the withhold is based on the tax treaty between US & India. What is not clear that how being an Indian we would be able to claim the tax to avoid double taxation. You mentioned that you had set up differently, can you please explain the modalities ?
This is what I got from my contact at Amazon India:
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires Amazon to collect 30% from royalty payments issued to non-U.S. entities. We automatically deduct the tax withholding from your royalty payments.
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=201274690
Essentially, IN residents can claim a reduced withholding rate (15%) through India’s tax treaty with the US for sales on the marketplaces listed on that page (US, JP, CA, IN, MX, AU) if they file the W8-BEN with a US TIN on it. That is stated in the first section on that page.
Hello Rasana,
I am having problem with making a youtube trailer of my upcoming novel. I had decided to publish e-book version on kindle . Can you please help me with the sountrack. Am I allowed to import any sountrack of album to theme song. What is the name of your theme song of your trailer?.
Hi Sonam,
I hired Manoj Vijayan of Inkbug Designs to do my trailer. You might ask him for help.http://www.inkbugdesign.com/
Rasana
wonderful
Hi Rasana,
I have seen a tab in your blog “ebook formatting service”. Do you also do proof reading and editing service as well?
Very stylish trailer for 1000 Lies. Nice work.
Much appreciated. Thank you!
http://rowanlindsay.blogspot.co.nz/ Cheers from Indies Unlimited.
Mam I need copy your book ‘Temple is not My Father’ Where can I get copy of the novel?
It is available on Amazon. Please note that I’m in the process of expanding this to a full-length novel