An Interview with Debut author of The Justified Sin, Harpreet Makkar!!!

INTERVIEW -->>

             It was a nice time interviewing Mr. Harpreet Makkar who is debuting very soon with his book- THE JUSTIFIED SIN. Do read a straight forward interview I had with him.

1. Hello Mr. Harpreet, what is your feeling after being an author now? What’s your perspective about life now after achieving a rare flagship in your life?

It feels great, everything happening around, the excitement, and the desperate wait to hold my book in my hands, everything getting bigger by time. 

I don’t think there will be any change in my perspective towards life. Becoming an author is secondary but being a human is primary thing for me. I will be taking life the way I used to take earlier. But yes of course, things change when you got people to notice your actions and there are people to follow you and that’s the time when you need to be careful with your words and actions.

2. When you saw your first novel- The Justified Sin for sale on E-commerce websites and placed at a bookstore for the first time, what kind of thoughts dominated your mind?

I won’t call it dominating, it was some kind of mixed feelings, excited to see myself there, happy to reach this far and nervous thinking about the response from my readers. Not able to think about anything else, I was confused. But all thanks to Kunal and friends who supported me all the way, from the very start till the end. 

3. Before we head towards discussing your book, we would like to know in spite of being an author, what do you exactly do? And do you wish to continue with the job or come into full-time writing? 

I completed my engineering in 2011 and worked as a Senior Design Engineer in one of the top MNC’s of the country in Bangalore for around a year or so. But later I realized it was not exactly what I wanted. Looking back towards my family and situation at home, I decided to quit. I came back home and joined my Dad in his business. 

Currently I am working as an Insurance & Stock Broker, and for now my plans are to continue with it till the moment I earn sufficient enough to live my life with all required luxuries and then get into full time writing. 

4. What is your book all about? And from where did this idea occur to you? 

What do you call it when three beautiful women come in your life, but you are still single? What if they all, at some point, tried to entice you, but you feel like committing suicide because of loneliness? What do you call it when you made no mistake, but still, you feel guilty as sin?

Having so many people around, still you are alone. Always thinking n caring for your friends and not getting anything in return, forced to live with guilt of a crime you never did. This is what my book is about; story of a guy having everything yet nothing, he did everything to keep people happy yet he was accused, he was betrayed and what not. Let’s leave something for our readers to read and let’s keep the excitement.

5. How much long did it take to write this book from the moment you started developing the story to start writing it till completing it finally with editing and all?

You will be surprised to know that I wrote this story few years back, at quite a young age and though it was not a story at that time, I mean everything was just like some rough notes. Writing down my experiences, my feelings was my passion at that time and it took me I guess six months to convert those notes into a full fledge story. And then couple of months for editing n all. It was a nice journey, enjoying every bit of it. 

6. Indian Publishing is too hard to deal with, was it easy for you to get a Publisher or did u wait for a long time to get your work published?

It is indeed very hard for debut authors to get published. But as they say, nothing is difficult when there is dedication and sincerity in your work. I tried my best, and with a person like Kunal, things are never difficult. He will do whatever he can and even if he can’t do something he will guide you properly to get it done. 

7. What are the Promotional strategies that you and your publisher have applied to promote/market your book?

There is nothing much to do, my main goal is to reach every possible corner with my book and convey my feelings through my words. I am trying my best to do that, making people aware about my book using offline and online mediums. 

8. What exactly is your target from your Books- 1. Getting most copies sold out, 2. Getting the love of readers or 3. You just wrote it because you wanted to write a book once in your life, hence you have no targets?

I don’t have any set targets, infact I never get into something thinking about the targets. For now my main aim is to deliver my book into as much as hands possible. And I just wish people to feel my writing, as reading something just to read it is something I never wished for. People should know me by my writing not by my name, and their love is all I want. 

9. By when are you coming up with your next novel? And if possible, do give us an idea about what it would be.

This book is quite important for me, being the first one of me and of course the story is really close to me. For now I just wish to deliver my best in every possible form.

And definitely I will be back with my next book and I will try to put it up by next summer. It will be again something based on romance. 

10. In the end, tell us in 5-7 lines, what speech will you give if you win a Major Award for the Best Indian Author for your books?

That will be a dream coming true. Anyways I can practice for that now. 

“Good evening ladies and gentleman. I am grateful to you all for considering me capable enough for this honor. There are few people I wish to thank before I accept this award as it belongs to all those people. Starting from God, to my parents n family for their support and faith in me, and my friends for pushing me all the time and last but not the least, Mr. Kunal Marathe, my publisher, a friend, a brother and what not. He supported me in every possible form, whenever things got tough to handle he was there. Thank you all for this honor, a big thank you from bottom of my heart.”

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!