Bengaluru: One of the highlights of the Bengaluru Literature Festival, which ended on Sunday, was the LitMart. A bevy of first-time authors gathered at the Red Couch and made a pitch to publishers, selling their stories.
After the success of LitMart in 2015, the Bangalore Literature Festival this year too held an exclusive forum for aspiring authors, who got a chance to make a three-minute pitch of their book ideas to literary agents, commissioning editors and publishers.
The jury included Ajay Mago (Om Books), Ajitha G.S. (HarperCollins), Ashok Chopra (Hay House), Deepthi Talwar (Westland), Milee Ashwarya (Penguin Random House), Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee (Niyogi Books), Rashmi Menon (Amaryllis), Trisha Bora (Juggernaut) and Trisha De Niyogi (Niyogi Books), Sumant Batra and Sally Breen.
Each author weaved a tale and the audience appreciated their effort to grab the literary agents’ attention. The highlight was a book idea by 17-year-old Christ Junior college student Sanjana, who received a thunderous applause. The story based on a schizophrenic protagonist, her idea had the audience spellbound.
Another youngster, Ashmi from Delhi, said that her book is aimed at bringing out stories of strong career-oriented women, and gave an example of a friend who was with her at the London School of Economics and how eight years later she is now living the life of a housewife.
Akanksha, another first-time author, said, “This is a great initiative. It helps bring authors, literary agents, commissioning editors and publishers together. We get to pitch our stories and get noticed. It is one-of-a-kind event.”
Debolina, Sanjay Kumar, Sanjana, Veena, Pushkar, Kamlesh, Eugene, Amal, Akbar, Ashmi, Ramya, Sia, Janashri and Anandam Ravi were some of the first time authors who were given the opportunity.
