By Narayan Prasad Mishra When my late beloved wife Shanti Mishra and I lived with our only daughter Dr. Pragya Mishra in the USA in 2019 before her sad demise, we learned about "The Write Practice" and' Writer's Digest." We found both of them of our interest and subscribed to them. Since then, I have been receiving their information and activities regularly. In this context, I received a letter from" The Write Practice" on March 1, 2021, and it wrote: Hey Narayan! Get the free book writing course here.» Why? Because the story inside of you is too good, too important, to leave for "later" (i.e., never written). And I believe you have what it takes to write it. Similarly, I got a letter from Writer's Digest about their activities on February 23, 2022. In that letter, it wrote the following sentences. Hi, Writer's Digest Subscriber, If you're a good writer, you should be paid well (very well) for your services. You have a rare natural talent. Not everyone can do what you do. Writer's Digest inspires the writers, even arranging the program" Self Published Book Awards for honoring self-publishing writers. I received the following information on March 3, 2022, with a letter. I was so glad to see it and wished we also had such a program in our country. Both these organizations work for the cause of writers. They help, encourage, inspire, and facilitate writers in writing and publishing. We know some of us may have excellent knowledge and experience in our minds, but it will go to waste if we do not write it for society, as Writer's Digest pointed out. To my thinking, our knowledge is more important for our society than our property. Because only a few of your descendants could use and get advantage from your property, but the unlimited vast number of people could get advantage from your writings. So it should not go with us when we die. I am happy to be their subscriber. The writers write for others to share their knowledge for later. We write what we think would benefit society, the nation, and beyond. We put our time, labor, thoughts, and brain into it. The writers also need to earn for living. If you are a professional writer and intend to spend your whole time writing, naturally, you expect the necessary earning from it. No one can work without food and shelter. So Writer's Digest thinks the writers should be paid well (very well) for the services, and that is absolutely correct. There cannot be any question about the value and importance of writers. They are the source of your knowledge and experience. Writers should not have the problem of shelter. They should not have the problem of publishing and earning. They should be encouraged to write and publish their works and have a favorable and essential role in a country. But I know our writers have no favorable marketing and publishing atmosphere. I am thoroughly acquainted with this problem, authoring hundreds of articles and some books. Firstly, the country has very few professional journals and magazines to publish your articles. Secondly, the country is so politicized that you hardly find a professional newspaper that values independent thinking based on facts and truth. Almost all newspapers are the follower and promoters of some political parties - Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (UML), Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, etc. When they see the writing differently from their views and perception, they discard it even if it may be based on reality and truth. Hardly you can find a newspaper in Nepal standing to the pure ethics of journalism of truth and facts. Before 1990 there were some like Samaj Daily, Samakalin Weekly, and Rajdhani Weekly. There was some space for free-thinking people where I could get easily published most of my writings without personal contact and knowing. They are no more in publication now. However, now I am glad we have "People's Review" for the people like me. I am thankful for it. Besides this, there is a meager chance of getting remuneration for your writings. Only a few newspapers, like the government newspapers - Gorkhapatra, Rising Nepal, and the prominent newspaper like Kantipur, The Kathmandu Post pay some remuneration to the author. So writing in newspapers should be like volunteer service. Even in that case, one should be thankful for publishing your writings. That is the situation in our country. Regarding book writing in Nepal, one could hardly think about its problems and difficulties unless you experience it yourself. As we do not have good reading habits among our people, the people are not rich enough, and there are not many libraries to buy the books. The books written in Nepali are hardly sold unless the books are textbooks and compulsorily should be read by the students. Because of this, you could hardly get a publisher for your writings as there is a low chance of making a profit. As publishing costs a lot of money, most Nepali writers cannot afford it. In some way, if you publish your book by your expenditure, you need to face many problems for marketing, even giving 40/50 percentage commission to the booksellers. You hardly get the book sold and the money back. You can feel easy only when you take it as your social work. You see, hear, or read the report; sometimes, some authors' books are nicely sold. Even in this connection, if you do the research and dig the matter, you see that it is because of contact and influence in approaching different circles and people. I have five Nepali language books to my credit so far - 1. Pustakalaya Bigyanko Ruprekha (An Outline of Library Science) 2. Tribhuvan Biswabidyalaya Ra Sikchha (Tribhuvan University and Education) 3. Prajatantra Ra Janaawaj (Democracy and People's Voice) 4. Umliyeka Pidaharu (Boiling Agonies), a book of poetry, 5. Tribhuvan Biswabidyalaya Pustakalayako Gauravshali Kahani (Tribhuvan University Library's Glorious Tale). Among these five books, we published numbers 1, 2, and 5 by ourselves, and Pilgrims Publishing published the numbers 3 and 4. I experienced the problems mentioned above and difficulties through this course. Besides all the difficulties, I am bringing out two books soon - 1, Viraha (a collection of my grief poem in Nepali) 2. A book about Nepal and Nepalese Society in English.

Some books in Nepali and English by Narayan and Shanti Mishra

But you can have a publisher without not much difficulty with your writing if you have good writing possible for selling if the book is written in English as the English speakers from abroad could easily buy the books. Even in that case, the author could hardly get the royalty or the remuneration because of many unseen problems. In Europe and America, the publishers take pride in reporting the number of books sold. They do not have a system or conduct of hiding the truth to cheat the authors to give royalty based on the number of books sold. But in our continent, the situation is different. Cheating culture is like a part of our life. You see cheating everywhere -- business, industry, tax, groceries. So the rumor is that the publisher always tries to show far fewer books than sold, not to give royalty or give minor royalty than the copies sold. So authors hardly get and expect royalty. Despite this, the authors should be happy that they do not need to invest money in printing because the publisher takes responsibility. However, the author is authorized to get ten percent royalty, remuneration, or copies of a book according to the agreement with the publisher. Generally, the writer takes ten percent copies of the published book. My beloved wife late Shanti Mishra wrote three books in English -- 1. Voice of Truth: The Challenges and Struggles of a Nepalese Woman. 2. Rupamati, a novel (English translation of the Nepali novel Rupamati) 3. A Widow's Gift (novel). All these books were published by the Book Faith India and Pilgrims Publishing. These books were among the ten best-sellers book list when they were published. Even now, one can see and buy them also from Amazon. And it seems the books have a good market. I am glad to see it. We got ten percentage copies of the books out of the published first recorded 1000 copies, and we never received even a rupee in cash from her writings. I think, in our country or this region, we should consider our writings as a social service or volunteer service and are bound to be thankful to the publisher for publishing and selling the books. However, we do not get the royalty as no other alternative exists. That is the reality of our land and region. At the same time, I feel that situation should not exist to develop the books and knowledge. The writers should have a straightforward approach to publishing the writing and quickly get enough royalty. We must create an atmosphere where professional writers can have a good standard of living through their writings. A person's knowledge should not disappear when he leaves his eternal life because of the country's lack of a good genuine publisher in the country. narayandhanti70@gmail.com