Ep. 12: Read Before You Think feat. Chiki Sarkar

This week, Gauri is joined by Chiki Sarkar, publisher, Juggernaut Books. Chiki is a visionary entrepreneur who had the foresight to adapt her publishing house to the ever-evolving digital space well before the lockdown. Since bookstores were closed in the first few months of the lockdown, more and more of us have had to be more dependant on our digital devices to read. So who better to have on the show to talk about all this than Chiki!On this episode, Gauri and Chiki discuss how Chiki sees the future of publishing, what made her leave her positions as Editor-in-chief of Random House India and Publisher of Penguin India to start her own venture, publishing the book 'The Accidental Prime Minister' and how big that became, wanting to reach out to the most number of people, her business model and how she chose to differentiate from what was already out there like Kindle, etc, the intricacies of running a business, marketing and publicity around small businesses, learning multiple skills when working on a small business, the relationship between the editor and the author, working with authors like Twinkle Khanna, Rujuta Diwekar, Abhijit Banerjee, and some newer authors, working with Karan Johar on a children's book during the lockdown, how to sell and publicise a book, competing with the rise in video consumption, some parallels between the publishing and the video content industries, some tips and tricks she has learnt as a publisher over the years, the future of audiobooks, competing with bigger multinational companies, some advice for aspiring writers and authors, and lots more. Tune in for an endearing conversation.Follow Chiki Sarkar on Twitter & Instagram @chikisarkar: https://twitter.com/Chikisarkar and https://instagram.com/chikisarkarYou can reach out to and follow Gauri @gdevidayal on Instagram / @gauridetails on Twitter.You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/