EFICTIONINDIA, A TRANSPARENT WAY TO DEAL WITH INDEPENDENT WRITERS
The publishing industry in India is counted among the top sevenpublishing nations in the world. With a market of over 10,000 crores, Indiaranks third after the US and UK in English language publishing.
With the coming of the Digital Age, nature of the industry haschanged. The advancement in technology and India's skilled manpower resourcemakes the country a major outsourcing hub for print and pre-publishing servicesin the world be it print, design or editorial. This sector has tremendouspotential, both in the domestic as well as export markets.
But it also has several limitations like whenever an independentwriter wants to publish a book; the publishers don't get back to them forfeedback so the writer never knows what major publications are looking for.Being a victim of this issue, Nikhil Sharda decided to tackle this problem bylaunching his own media publication company with the name 'EFiction India'which is a transparent way to deal with independent writers.
EFiction India is a platform where all independent writers fromacross the world can submit their blogs, short stories, poetry and other formsof content. It is a technology-driven company and it is community which havemore than 200 volunteers who read and vote on the content. After this, thecontent that receives maximum votes gets published in the magazine. Theypublish a monthly magazine on print as well as online and they are also presentin e-reading formats like kindle. EFiction India also has a lot of independentfilmmakers and music composers who converts a short story into films and poemsinto songs respectively. EFiction believes that writers are the assets of thecompany, sothey focus on takingcare of them.
About the Visionary
Nikhil Sharda has a great passion for creating quality content. Hecompleted his schooling from a boarding school in Mussoorie and then went toKolkata to learn about filming technology. He also went to the UK forinternships and also created many independent films. After coming back toKolkata he started working as a content manager in one of the magazines called'communiqué'. Later he joined Wipro and they recommended him to Convergys wherehe worked as a network engineer. All this time he was creating great contentfor many magazines and publications, some of them accepted his content but mostof them never get back to him, therefore, he decided to start his transparentpublications for independent writers like him which is known as EFictionIndia.
Readership and Subscribers Base
EFiction India has a total readership of over 1 lakh people andaround 1000+ subscribers and most of them are from the UK, US and Singapore.Besides these, some libraries are subscribing to them like Mahatma Gandhiinternational Delhi University, Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Universityof California and many more.
Word of Mouth – Best MarketingStrategy
EFiction follows the best marketing strategy which is mouth tomouth publicity. As they have a network of 1000+ writers and all of them domarketing for them, like if a writer has submitted any story or poem for themagazine and it has been published, the writer wants people to know thather/his work has been published then they promote it for them in their network.
"Good mouth publicity can result inlifelong subscriber of your product." – Nikhil Sharda
EFiction's Unique SellingProposition
One major difference that separates EFiction from other publishersis that despite the fact thatthey have experienced writers and financial aid, EFiction have a community thatrecommends. Another feature that attracts writers to them is that whenever theyreceive a story or a write up which have quality issues and it is not selectedfor the publication, that article is sent to their E-workshop where one oftheir volunteers editors works with the author of the article and edits thearticle in front of the writer and give feedback at the same time, then thatarticle goes into the magazine of the next month. Therefore, no article is everrejected and it also encourages writers to come up with better write-ups. Mostof the publishing houses are not providing feedback therefore; this gives anadvantage to EFiction over others.
As EFiction is a community of writers and readers, therefore,every content is read before it gets published and feedback is given to thewriters so they get to know what their strong points are and what they need toimprove. To delight their readers they also provide ads-free magazine. Thewriters also get credit as well as pay when they write up or poem turns into ashort film or a song.
Heart of EFiction
Technology and innovation is the heart and pillar of EFictionIndia, the entire process is based on a series of algorithms, whenever astory comes a mail is sent to all the volunteers where they have to vote andcomment. Based on those votes and comments the article automatically gets intothe format of the magazine and later published.
There is no manual works expect the commenting and the feedbacksby the writers and there is no designing as there is a fixed template in whichthe content and picture gets placed automatically as per the information fromthe backend.
Overcoming Challenges like a Pro
There were many complex situations during the initial days ofEFiction India like it was not easy to find independent writers, filmmakers andcomposers to do it for free.
"It was difficult to convince themthat we are doing it for something bigger than money" – Nikhil Sharda
One challenge that they are facing now is to convert magazinesinto audiobooks for blind schools around the world as there is no financialsupport.
Values Followed by EFiction
They have a set standard for the quality of the article whichEFiction keep on pushing and that quality is set by the reader themselves.EFiction focus on delighting their readers by giving them what they want toread in top quality.
"We always has a short bio of the author with their contentlike if a 10-year-old boy has written a short story, it will be shown like a 10years old, not like a 24 years old man has written that story, this helps thereader to understand the content better." Nikhil Sharda
"I don't want awards I just want tobuild a community of great content." – Nikhil Sharda
Future of EFiction
In the future, there will be a bigger community, writers' forums,reader forums and automatically more subscribers.
"Wither it will be a profit-generatingcompany or not, but as a brand, EFiction India will grow." – Nikhil Sharda
One vision that the CEO of EFiction, Nikhil Sharda has is toconvert all magazines into audiobooks and distribute it to all the blindschools in the world for free. He also wants to enhance the quality of songsand story that the industry is producing as EFiction is going to be a leadingmedia house.
