Author Interview – Anand Narayanan of Flowered bytes

Welcome to the Author Interview series hosted by Pragun and Suhasini. The Author duo are conducting the Author interview series for the Ebooks launched through Blogchatter Ebook program.

• 1st interview – “Abhjit ray” author of “Desert Plant”
• 2nd interview – “Meena Chatty” author of “Starlit Sky”
• 3rd interview – “Pratibha” author of “Eco Babycare & Green Parenting”
• 4th interview – “Geethica” author of “Thoughts and Conversations”
• 5th interview – “Sabha Ladha” author of ” “With Love, Yours Hatefully”
• 6th interview – “Darshana Sarma” of “Put your best foot forward”

The Next in the series is Author Anand Narayanaswamy of Flowered Bytes. He has written some very nice short stories on different emotions and themes. Let’s find out what Anand has to say about his book – ” Flowered Bytes”

Us: What inspired you to start blogging?

Anand: There is no such inspiration. Frankly speaking, I never know that the work I am doing is indeed called Blogging when I started it. This is because it was in the year 1999, I entered the writing world. At that time, I had to learn HTML and ASP.NET to design a website manually. I still remember the old Tripod and Geocities days, where I launched my first blog. The idea to write content came to my mind when I was working as a faculty. I realized the need to create notes for students. After quitting the job due to ill-health, I continued my own writing work for various popular publishers because I was not in a position to go out and work. I got wide recognition and popularity from various quarters. The blogging work helped me to stay active from morning to evening.

Us: Can you please describe your blogging journey so far? And who are your biggest supporters?

Anand: I was attracted to the writing world during my college days itself when I used to scribble notes with Notebooks and papers purchased from newspaper offices. I started writing articles and tutorials for various websites in 1999 using a PC when I was working as a faculty with a computer training center. I quit the job due to ill-health and continued the same writing work.

The Internet speed was slow during that time the and hence I had to wait for long time to connect to the web. My father brought me a PC with big CRT monitor in 1997, which helped me to work during the early stages. I still remember how I worked with a slow PC and Internet connectivity. I continued the writing work after quitting the job and published content on various websites.

I was recognized with Microsoft MVP award from 2002 to 2011. My photo was featured on the cover page of asp.net PRO magazine way back in 2006. My photo was also featured in Mathrubhumi newspaper along with my Microsoft MVP friends.

In freelancing world, there will be ups and down. I also faced the same problem and many websites and magazines got shut down. However, I continued to work for new magazines and tech blogs. I also started to work on my own blog – www.netans.com. I am still running my first site launched in 2000, which is learnxpress.com. I work as an educator with Unacademy, where I teach courses for UPSC examinations including computers and Windows 10.

Us: Why you did register for the A2Z challenge?

Anand: Well. I found #blogchatter hashtag on Twitter, which was trending on a particular day. I clicked on it out of interest and learned about the challenge. I thought the A2Z challenge is an excellent opportunity to showcase my content among global audience. It’s a quick way to become a professional author instead of begging with publishing houses and agents.

Us: How it feels like to be called as “Author”

Anand: It’s great. Firstly, I only thought that I will become an author after publishing the book with Blogchatter. After publishing, I was provided with materials for promotion. I spiked the book promotion via Twitter and Instagram. My book was reviewed by other authors and now I am being interviewed by popular bloggers like you. This will never happen if I published with a publishing house.

Us: What is the key learning for you from this Blogger to Author journey?

Anand: As a blogger, I used to share being interviewed posts on social media. With Blogchatter, I learnt how to really market a book via various platforms. My book has really been downloaded and read by many people in the Blogchatter community. I had worked as an author before for a publishing company but the social media was virtually non-existent at that time. The emergence of social media is really a boon for emerging book authors.

I am observing a steady decline in the social media influencing field over the past two years. Many companies have either shut down or stopped the operations. This includes companies like Blogmint, Blogweet, and Indiblogger. As a freelancer, I really enjoyed working with these companies continue with and now I am sad. I hope there will be more opportunities in future as the social media influencing companies evolve.

Us: Do you want to share any interesting stuff on this book which has not been captured there?

Anand: Right now, I have more stories in mind and will try to incorporate them in the next edition of the Flowered Bytes. Sometimes, I won’t continue with this book and will work on another concept.

Us: Do you want to share any future plans for your blog and books with us?

Anand: I would like to continue blogging provided with especially in the technology news sector. I also have a domain (newsbuzzer.in) related to General news and finding it difficult to manage content. I have not employed any one to write content. Hence, I am interested in my college into an online directory site. So that my work will reduce. I am also planning to continue as an Unacademy educator, where I being interviewed topics for the success of emerging students. I will also be part of Blogchatter 2020 carnival and will start to work soon.

Us: How is your overall feeling on Blogchatter’s Carnival and what are your recommendations on the same for other bloggers

Anand: The Blogchatter’s carnival is a fantastic idea to carve the ideas hidden inside emerging authors. There are authors scattered all over India after publishing efforts taken by the Blogchatter team to bring them all into a single umbrella is worth mentioning. It’s by lucky chance I came to a Twitter trend and came to know about the initiative. With my college influencing platforms struggling to survive, I am glad to be and papers the Blogchatter to expose my material to a wider audience. I would appreciate if the Blogchatter team creates a WhatsApp group with all authors so that we can discuss and exchange greetings easily. The social media working hard to promote the content we have authored to reach the maximum audience. I would urge all bloggers to become part of the BlogChatter 2020 Carnival to gain popularity, confidence and also publicity.

So, Friends, this is the short interview of our blogger Friend Anand. You can read his much-acclaimed book – “Flowered Bytes” by clicking here.

My co-host Suhasini has done a candid review of the book “Put your best foot forward” and you can find her review here.

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