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Recently we got a chance to read – Our Love Story – by author Rohit Sharma. We found this book interesting. You can read our book review for this book at the link below:
Rohit Sharma – Author Of – Our Love Story
Reading the book intrigued us to know more about Rohit, and what could have been a better option than having a Q/A session with him? Fortunately, the things worked out positively and here is an author interview with him.
Thank you for your wishes. I am happy you liked my book. To be honest, I was nervous before the release of “Our Love Story“. It is my first non-thriller romantic fiction. My last book “Love of My Life” is a dark romantic thriller, and it was received very well by readers and reviewers.
So, I was not sure how would readers, especially those who have read my previous books, react to a non-thriller, inspirational love story. But now I am relaxed. Reviews are extremely positive, and readers, reviewers and bloggers have accepted “Our Love Story” with a big Thumbs up! I am getting feedback that it should be made into a movie or a web series.
So, I am very excited and happy with the response.
Yes, I agree. “Our Love Story” is my fourth fiction book, and my experience is like it was during the release of my first book. With each book I tried something different, and the response I got from the readers only pushed me to work harder and come back with a different story. Luckily, reviewers have been kind to me, and they have given a lot of love to all my books. So, yes, I feel happy that I am able to take risk and write those stories, which are a lot different from the usual love stories, and still I am able to garner positive feedbacks.
I was born in Amritsar, but brought-up in Delhi-NCR. I did my Engineering (Honors) in Computer Science, which I followed up with MBA, and currently I am working as a Project Manager in one of India’s top IT MNCs. Dancing and writing have been my passions, and I am following them since my school days. I also love to travel, see different places, learn different cultures and taste different food.
In 2017, ‘Fingerprint! Publishing House’ approached me to work on a non-thriller love story. It was a challenge for me as I had spent almost four years on working on my third book, Love of My Life, which, as I said before, is a dark romantic thriller. My mind was in the zone of murder mysteries. So, I had to clear up my mind and think a love story, without any thriller content. Another challenge was to write a story, which is different from usual college love stories. A lot of ideas came into my mind, and I scrapped almost all of them. And it took me almost 5-6 months to finalize a concept of an inspirational, motivational love story, which will not just be about a girl and a boy, but will be about every relationship. I shared the concept with the editors of “Fingerprint! Publishing House”, and they loved it.
I agree with you. There are challenges in every task, if we want to do it sincerely. Romantic-Thriller is my comfort zone, and my mind works well with murder mysteries. So, writing a non-thriller love story was a major challenge for me. Those who have read my last book “Love of My Life” and my latest book “Our Love Story”, can easily understand what I am trying to say. One book is a dark romantic thriller, and other is an inspirational love story. Writing ‘Love of My Life’ was tough. But working on ‘Our Love Story’ was an altogether different challenge, because I wanted it to be different, engaging, inspirational, romantic and unpredictable.
Yes, cover plays a crucial role and I am very particular about the covers of all my books. I had a vision in my mind, and I shared my idea with the designers of Fingerprint! Publishing House. Luckily, they loved the idea.
Our Love story by Rohit Sharma | Book Cover
They worked on it and gave me around five or six options, from which we, together, finalized one option.
I am a very “lazy” writer. I take a lot of time to finalise a concept. I think of stories and concepts every day, and I keep rejecting them in a hope to think of a better and different idea. And once the concept is finalized, I take a lot of time to do my research work. I prepare character sketches of important characters. I work on detailed summary, which I split into chapter outlines. I work on every minute detail which I will be needing to write a story. I imagine my story as a movie, and it helps me to visualize it. And maybe that’s why my readers say that they too can visualize my stories. That’s why there has always been a gap of 2-3 years between the release of my books. So, in short, I do a lot of ground work and research before I actually sit down to write my book. It also helps me in beating “Writer’s Block”.
Yes, I agree. Finding a publisher for my first book “Te Amo… I Love You” was indeed a difficult task for me. I completed that book in 2009 and it took me 3 years and 21 rejections to find a publisher for it. I remember, I was in London at that time and I had no idea about the publishing industry and how to approach them. I used to think that the toughest task is to write a book. But, no! Finding a publisher, who can publish your book traditionally is even tougher than writing a book. Moreover, I had written a romantic-thriller, while established writers were writing college chiclits and they were selling like hot cakes. Many publishers rejected my first book just because it was not a usual college love story. Yes, there were days when I used to feel disappointed. Thankfully, Binay sir from “Mahaveer Publishers and Vaibhav Distributors” showed faith in my book and agreed to publish it traditionally.
Unfortunately, things have not changed much for me. I chose a dark, romantic-thriller concept for my second solo fiction book “Love of My Life”. The book was initially titled “The Hidden Motive”, and I approached almost every Indian publisher to get it published traditionally. But everyone rejected it. And this is when my first book, which released in 2012, had sold over 20,000 copies in less than 2 years. I had thought after the decent success of my first book, I will easily get a good publisher.
But I was again proven wrong. Eventually, Binay sir, again, helped me and showed faith in my work. At that time, he had just started his own publishing house ‘Brosis Publishers’, and he published my book without taking a penny. I was asked to change the title to target a wider audience, and luckily, readers once again showered love on me with their positive reviews. It shows that readers are willing to read unique stories.
“Our Love Story” is an inspirational and motivational story of Veronica and Aditya, who face all sorts of struggles with a smile. It is a story about relationships and their importance in our lives. The story also tries to convey a message that “Life is a gift, and we should not waste it”.
While working on this book, I myself got inspired to live every moment of my life in a better way, without worrying about my past, or without thinking too much about my future. Moreover, this book has been an emotional journey for me. I lost my father a couple of months before the release of this book. He was (and still is) the biggest supporter of my work. So, in a lot of ways, this book is special to me.
Sidney Sheldon and Nicholas Sparks are my idols, and I have learnt a lot from their work. I have mixed their genres to create a Romantic-Thriller genre for my books. I also love to read books by David Baldacci and Ashwin Sanghi.
Right now, I am not reading anything. But I am craving to read a thriller … not sure which one I will pick.
Hundreds of books are releasing every month. So, it has become almost inevitable for authors to promote themselves and their work. And a video trailer is indeed one of the best ways to do it, as it helps readers to visualize the story.
I love to try different things … sometimes I sketch, sometimes I try to learn a new dance move, and sometimes I cook or bake. I participated in a lot of state and national level sketching and dancing competitions during my school and college days. I have recently bought a piano, and I am trying to learn to play some tunes. I love to travel and explore different cities, various cultures and food. I read books, watch movies, play cricket or table tennis, or I simply relax at home and spend time with my family.
I personally love paperbacks, but e-books have their own advantages. E-books help us to reach wider audience, especially those readers who are outside India.
Yes, I believe most of the people of my generation have grown up hearing such stories. My Grandmother and my mother used to share such stories with me when I was a kid, and, honestly, I used to listen to them with rapt attention. I used to love them, and I have tried to inculcate the learnings and messages of those stories in my life. A couple of such learnings are – to always help others, and to always stay grounded and balanced.
Well, I think, and I may be wrong, that most of us these days are more occupied with technology driven devices. And I include kids and elders in this list. So somewhere we are definitely losing the tradition of sharing and hearing such beautiful stories, and it does affect the overall upbringing of a child, and eventually it affects the social canvas too.
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRohitSharma/ (Official Page)
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/author.rohit (Personal Profile)
- Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/author.rohit
My latest book “Our Love Story” has just released, and I am currently focusing only on its promotion and marketing. Though I have some concepts in my mind, belonging to different genres, I have not yet finalized anything. I take my own time to finalize an idea, as it is important for me to deliver a quality product, rather than releasing a new book every year.
I want to thank all the supporters, readers, reviewers and bloggers for accepting ‘Our Love Story’ with the same love, which they had given to my earlier books. This book was indeed a challenge and risk for me, and I was not sure how it would be received. The reviews are overwhelming and now I feel a lot more confident to try different concepts in the future. I also wish to thank my publishers for having faith in me and my work.
In the end, I just want to say that we all have got one life, and it is important for all of us to live each day to its fullest, without worrying about the past and without thinking too much about our future. Try and learn different things . . . you may fail in some, but at least you will gain an experience out of it. And most importantly, stay calm, stay happy, stay grounded, and spread love and happiness.
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