Not a Half Phenomenon

Does the announcement of an author’s new novel merit a full front page advertisement?

In the world of newspaper advertisements, where every square inch is measured and calculated, a full front page advertisement in the most-widely read national English newspaper in the country, The Times of India, as any advertising professional will tell you, is wildly expensive. It is not surprising to see such an ad featuring a top star promoting a big brand or bigwig politician on the eve of a marquee election. Earlier this week, The Times of India ran one such advertisement but it didn’t exactly fit the mould. The celebrity and product were Chetan Bhagat and his latest book, Half Girlfriend. The advertisement, which seems to have been brought out by Flipkart in alliance with the author’s publisher, also ran into the second page, where the e-company’s other products were listed. He wrote on Twitter about the ad: ‘They told me nobody cares about books. Big day, not only for me, but also for Indian publishing. Front pg TOI today.’

How does a book, by no means a premium category product, and its author find their way to the front page advertisement of the most-widely read English newspaper? It is the stuff of every author’s wet dream. But Bhagat, given his writing and the subjects about which he chooses to write, has long confounded people. In a country where anything over a thousand sold copies is considered respectable, and 10,000 proclaimed a bestseller, Bhagat’s six novels, whatever the complaints against them may have been, has sold over 7 million copies in all. According to media reports, when Bhagat’s 2 States was released, it sold a copy every 20 seconds. His The 3 Mistakes of My Life apparently sold a copy every 17 seconds at the time of its release.

What Bhagat possesses is a shrewd marketing brain that micro-manages every aspect of his books’ promotions. It is said that when he was trying to get his first book, Five Point Someone, published, he sent out his manuscript to publishers with a CD that contained a PowerPoint presentation on how to make the book an instant bestseller. The presentation talked about himself, the book and a marketing strategy of low pricing, buy-back offers, and tie-ups. This astute business sense is also in evidence with the announcement of Half Girlfriend ’s impending release. After the newspaper hit the stands, throughout the day he released a string of teasers on Twitter, talking about the thrust of the novel, and putting out an online commercial and the first chapter of the book. Bhagat, it appears, even had the book sent out to a few test readers and had their comments to coincide with the announcement. He re-tweeted designer Masaba Gupta’s comment on Twitter where she claimed to be one of the test readers and found it ‘terrific’. Before noon, Bhagat’s website had crashed. The author had to link the commercial and the first chapter to other outlets.

It is also interesting to note the author’s pitch about himself and the subject of his books. For long, his works were campus novels, set in an IIT or IIM. This was also a time when his core readers were students in the thrall of these institutes. The current book, as its brief description points out, is the story of a Bihari boy who can’t speak English but loves a girl who can. If one goes by his interviews in the recent past, Bhagat has been pushing himself to be identified with people from smaller towns—as an author whose work becomes the first book they read and through which he can show them how to adapt to a fast-changing urban universe. He described the book on Twitter thus: ‘English is the new caste system. Half Girlfriend explores this aspect of our society today’.

booksChetan BhagatHalf Girlfriend