Debut Author Aashisha Chakraborty: Aspiring Writers Should Not Do Writing Full Time

In her debut book, 'Mis(s)adventures of a Sales Girl', Aashisha Chakraborty takes readers on the delightful, humorous, and challenging journey of a saleswoman who succeeds in getting her voice heard among the corporate sales pros.

Enakshi Chatterji, a 25-year-old woman from Delhi, is relocated to Chennai to work as an intern in the fiercely competitive and predominately male field of sales, where there is no place for a sophisticated girl from the city. You get a powerful mixture of circumstances that promise to send you on an emotional rollercoaster when you add in the fact that she doesn't speak a word of Tamil.

Aashisha Chakraborty, an active program manager for sales and distribution, tries to illustrate how Enakshi discovers the harsh realities of relationships, life, and work while attempting to establish her credibility through her book.

In the most recent edition of SheThePeopleTV's Women Writers Fest, Chakraborty discussed her first book in depth. The author also talked about her love for writing and how she went from being a devoted reader to starting her own writing career. She shared her journey from pitching to publishing, and her lessons learned and also shared some valuable advice for aspiring writers.

Aashisha Chakraborty Interview

Chakraborty has always been an obsessive reader and has a great connection with her favourite authors. She always aimed to have such a connection with at least one reader, and that could only be possible if she could write a book by herself. This journey from being a reader to a writer was not quick, though. She took small steps, or should I say, she took one opportunity at a time, and she proved her passion. She was chosen as one of the 75 pan-India authors under 30 for the PM-YUVA scheme for her work of historical fiction with the National Book Trust, India. She also won the Times of India Write India Season 2 for Shobhaa De.

Suggested Reading: Janice Pariat: Women Need The Space To Tell Their Own Stories

Her debut novel by Rupa Publications was released on September 1, 2022, and before this, she had already written a book however, that book did not get fate to publish. So how did Misadventures of a Salesgirl become her debut? How did she confidently end up with this subject for her first novel, and how difficult was it to get it published?

Chakraborty asserts that her confidence to stick with her character, Enakshi Chatterji, for her first book came from working in sales for a significant amount of time. She also says that writing this book was much simpler for her than writing her earlier, unpublished book. However, she had a challenging waiting period while she pitched her book to publishers or editors. She claims, "Within 25 days to one month, the publishers will either respond to you or not. You realise that the publishers are too busy to even send you a rejection email during the waiting period, and you begin to think that maybe your efforts weren't as important to them as they are to you."

She believes that waiting tests your patience, but the fact that she works full-time in sales has saved her from a lot of potential concerns. She advises all aspiring writers to have a side job or two and not consider writing to be their full-time profession in order to avoid becoming depressed while waiting for that one mail.

Chakraborty was now working as both a sales manager and a writer for her debut, and managing both was extremely difficult for her because she was aspiring in each of them. She shares that having two careers saved her from many things but also caused her to experience mental breakdowns.

So what did she do to overcome the difficulties of juggling two careers, and what saved her from having a mental breakdown? Chakraborty responds that she established a routine of participating in extracurricular activities each day to discover her true self. She created mandala art while taking breaks from writing and her sales job.

She concluded the entire journey by stating that it was a lovely experience and a gift worth the many years of waiting. We wish But her literary agent, Suhail Mathur of The Book Bakers, helped ease the process. the best of luck in her writing endeavours.