In the preface of his autobiography, One Life Is Not Enough, suitably assessing the expectations one might have from it, Natwar Singh writes, “Under-statement, restraint, objectivity have a paralysing effect on an autobiography. Mine is as subjective as it could be.”
But more importantly, it feels as though Singh, who resigned from the Congress in 2005 after being declared one of the beneficiaries in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam by the Volcker Committee, was just waiting for plain, old vengeance as he becomes the latest party “insider” to join publishing’s very lucrative, tell-all bandwagon — perhaps the most legitimate (and profitable) way to sell secrets.
Which is why it has been a great year so far for publishers. Take for example Penguin Books, the publishers of Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya Baru. It’s their best-selling book so far, with a cumulative sales figure of about 80,000 since its release in April. Chiki Sarkar, the editor of Penguin Books, says it was a deliberate move to release Baru’s book prior to, or during the general elections, for maximum impact.
“We wanted to publish as early this year as possible, believing the book would get less attention after the elections. Sanjaya, initially, wanted the book out after the polls but he soon agreed to a compromise solution of publishing alongside the first phase of voting. “It was a tight schedule. We had a team of three in-house editors and one freelance editor read the book and give feedback. And finally, we had a thorough libel read on it. Our marketing strategy was to push the book on TV news channels since this was going to be a newsy book,” says Sarkar.
Generating the buzz
Which brings us to the glitzy, busy world of non-fiction marketing. Since its release, Baru’s book has been panned in a few circles for being mercenary in nature. A similar case was Hillary Clinton’s 2004 memoir, Living History. Eager publishers Simon and Schuster printed over a million copies of the book and they sold the rights in 20 countries because the world was curious to know how the former US First Lady had dealt with a “pesky” intern at the White House. And soon after the release of the highly-publicised book, there was this review in the New York Times: “She dispatches the pesky Monica as quickly from her story as Bill should have from his study. It’s far more interesting to know that Hillary Rodham was president of her high school’s Fabian fan club. That explains a lot.”
Then there was Adam Gilchrist’s shot at writing with the 2008 autobiography, True Colours: My Life, a book that instantly caught the Indian cricket fan’s attention when a single paragraph, in which Gilchrist calls Sachin a “bad sport”, was flashed across news channels here. No doubt, the book made for great reading but overall, marketing in India was focused on that line… taken out of context.
The British Royals almost seasonally, have to brace for “memoirs” from butlers, drivers, cooks and hairdressers about how charming Princess Diana was and the many men in her life, except for poor Charles. Often, the juiciest bits were found to be just paragraphs on page 102.
The extreme publicity push can even leave authors themselves stunned. For author Nandita Puri, the experience of writing her husband Om Puri’s biography, Unlikely Hero, left a bad taste in her mouth.
“Om’s was supposed to be an inspirational story about a young boy’s journey from working at a tea stall to becoming one of the greatest actors of our times. The book spoke about a lot of his experiences and his love life was merely a part of it. But after it was released, a few of his relationships were spoken about in the media. In the book, it just occupies half a chapter!” she says.
But numbers earned from these books are stunning. Riding solely on the Lewinsky wave (and pretty much nothing else), the advance paid to Hillary Clinton for Living History was $8 million. In fact, since leaving the Obama administration, she’s been making $750,000 per month (that’s over '4 crore) for her second memoir, Hard Choices, just by talking at various events about her life and the book!
And at 83, Natwar Singh will be hoping to make similar headline-making numbers too. His book has sold 50,000 copies already and the publishers have gone for a reprint. Like a Bollywood movie, there talks of a sequel, My Irregular Diary, which promises “many more disclosures”.
Truly, one life is not enough for all that moolah Mr Natwar stands to make.
Genre of the future?
Anirudh Bhattacharya, author of the, The Candidate, adds, “If you want to keep a secret in Lutyen’s Delhi, you’re probably best off speaking to yourself and even then, crosschecking to ensure you’ve not double-crossed yourself. You may just see non-disclosure agreements become part of government contracts, but that’ll never apply to politicians. This may well develop into the genre of the future. It’s taken some time coming to India, but it has always been a robust field in the West.”
And that’s why, burning bridges is perhaps one’s last concern. “All writers write to sell. But when you talk about politics, where friendships change with the power balance, it is up to you to trust someone with top secrets. Often, to get further, people burn bridges and that is just human nature,” says Daniel David, professor of English at the Madras Christian College.
But overall, it’s a need for truth, for information that often goes missing during those TV debates. It’s also imperative we see beyond scandal and recognise that these books are after all, humanising governments... telling the tales of the faces behind the scenes.
Social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan believes they do need a serious eye.
“Natwar Singh’s autobiography doesn’t harp on damaging Sonia Gandhi’s reputation. It also reminisces a lost friendship. Books like these are anecdotal and merely a fragment of a narrative. And they need to be read more seriously than plain old scandal or gossip.”
