Interview with Anish Chandy, Founder, Labyrinth Literary Agency
Samyuktha Nair: You have a long and varied career trajectory, having first worked with Infosys and having been deeply involved in non-profit organisations that focus on governmental issues. How did you make the transition to literature? What influenced your decision to move to publishing and literary representation?
Anish Chandy: It was a step-by-step process. I always wanted to work with stories and wasn’t keen on working in a traditional corporate setup. So I left my job with Infosys in Chicago after about four years there. I took a career break for about 15 months and travelled around India, just meeting people and asking a lot of questions. In that process, I met someone who worked at Penguin who introduced me to their colleagues. They were open to hiring someone from outside the industry, and I joined as a commissioning editor. I suppose I got lucky! I learnt the business, identified there was a gap in the kind of manuscripts publishers wanted and what authors were submitting so I became an agent.
SN: Labyrinth is one of India's best-known literary agencies, and has worked with celebrity clients such as Ratan Tata, The Harry Potter Franchise, Azim Premji, Sanjay Manjrekar, Nikita Singh etc and has connections with major publishers like Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Westland, and Pan Macmillan. Can you give us an idea of what went into building a literary agency of this scale, and how you achieved this?
AC: When I started out I realised there was enormous amounts of work to do in finding the right story, mentoring authors, editing manuscripts, giving feedback etc. Publishers also needed marketing information. When the right manuscript is matched with the right publisher at the right price, magic could happen. So that was my main endeavour with Labyrinth. Once I set up shop, the business pretty much took wing immediately.
SN: How did you decide on the name ‘Labyrinth’?
AC: “Labyrinth” was chosen because the world of publishing is quite labyrinthine (laughs) – you never really know what’s happening. It’s also because books are just at the beginning of the maze – there’s also audio, translation, web series, adaptation. Web series weren’t around so when the streaming platforms came to India, Labyrinth started working with these platforms and producers by pitching books to them that could be adapted to screen.
SN: As a literary agent, what kind of manuscripts catch your attention? What are the qualities you look for that make you feel that a particular author or their book shows promise?
AC: It’s simple, I just have to emotionally engage with the writing and feel readers would do the same. Then market timing is important. A lot of good manuscripts don’t make the cut because of poor market conditions for that specific genre. Then there are some genre specific rules. For business books, I look for conceptual clarity and new models. In self-help, social media following becomes important – so it depends on the genre.
SN: Is it important for an author to have a large social media following to successfully find an agent?
AC: I don’t think a social media following matters at all when it comes to fiction. However, it matters in self-help and in business books, where you’re giving out lessons. I’ve represented a lot of authors who don’t have a social media following, but I like their writing, and all of them have got book deals.
SN: As a reader, what are your personal preferences? Do you have any favourite genres/authors? If so, why are they your favourites?
AC: I read across genres – I read narrative non-fiction, literary fiction… whatever catches my fancy. Nowadays, I’m reading a lot of biographies – I’m currently reading Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler – deeply researched and easy to read. I’m also reading a lot of Middle East conflict stuff, European fiction. I do read multiple books simultaneously.
SN: The horror genre has seen a sudden boom in the Indian market, and non-fiction has also been seeing a steady rise in popularity in recent years. However, genres like poetry remain the underdog. As a literary agent and someone who has worked for several years in publishing, why do you think these particular genres are popular/unpopular?
AC: Non-fiction has seen a rise across the world. If you seek to derive some practical utility from the book you read, then you go to non-fiction. It has various genres and sub-genres. Non-fiction is also easier to publish, the discovery of the book in the market is easier. You can tell the audience exactly why they should read the book, and what they can learn from it.
Meanwhile, horror has had a recent spurt – it sees popularity on and off. It’s a bit of a challenge to sell horror, but there is generally always an interest in the Indian market for well written horror. I am always open to horror.
There has been a slump in poetry reading across the world. Most of what gets submitted in India is very college level poetry, where the person submitting it thinks they’re writing something profound, but it’s actually pretty dull. Despite it not being published by traditional publishers in India, it is one of the the most submitted genres to literary agents.
SN: Do you think the pandemic has influenced the genres that people read?
AC: I can’t say for sure. There are theories supporting both sides. Self-help sales went up, as did fiction. Across the world, reading went up.
SN: Is there any particular genre of writing that you feel has not been explored to its full potential in the Indian landscape? What do you think is the reason for this?
AC: True crime – there have not been enough great true crime books in the Indian landscape because access to information is tricky, and sometimes there are legal challenges. However, there’s a lot of crime and it’s a genre that will keep expanding. Young adult fiction hasn’t worked in the Indian market – various people have tried, but it simply hasn’t made a mark so far. A lot of Indians read American young adult books, even though some of the existing Indian young adult work is pretty good.
SN: Tell us about the process of pitching a book to a publisher and getting it approved. How does it work? And is it usually a process that takes a lot of time/requires plenty of patience?
AC: It depends. When you’re in the business for a long time, you know most publishers and who is looking for what. Apart from the formal pitching process, sometimes I just send a message or call and say that I think a particular book fits the list the publisher is looking for. Sometimes, if the commissioning editor is excited about it, it takes me only five minutes to sell a book. If it’s a tricky book, it has to go through a more elaborate process. Sometimes we have specific publishers we want to place books with, and sometimes we conduct auctions where multiple publishers bid for the proposal. It depends entirely on what you have – who is writing, what is being written, the financial expectations of the author, the value of the proposal… it’s a slightly complex situation.
SN: Would you say the level of experience of the literary agent helps in pitching a book? Is it easier for an agent who has been in the business longer and knows more publishers?
AC: Yes, that is true for agents around the world.
SN: With plenty of discussion and debate around the topic of sustainability, how do you feel publishers can contribute towards making their process less wasteful and more eco-friendly?
AC: Some publishers source FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) paper, they get paper that goes through the certification process. One thing that has stalled the growth of sustainability is e-books – e-books haven’t worked in India. I think a lot needs to be done on this front. The publisher’s main concern is to bring new ideas into the world and to turn a profit. If you can’t turn a profit, you can’t retain talent, and if you can’t retain talent, you can’t do your job. Sustainability would have to follow this.
SN: Do you think publishing with paper sourced from more “regular”, less expensive sources is what most publishers opt for?
AC: If you use less expensive paper, the first person to complain will be the reader, which will result in poor reviews of Amazon saying the paper quality wasn’t good. The Indian reader wants a cheap book with good paper that is delivered at home, they also want it discounted – they’re not going to get all this plus sustainability. It’s all about cost of sustainability, and the cost has to be split. If the reader is willing to pay for sustainability, it is possible.
SN: What are your future plans for yourself and Labyrinth?
AC: For myself, I love the idea of bringing ideas into the world. I meet new people every day – everyone has a new idea to pitch that they’re excited about, and some are fantastic. As for Labyrinth, it will keep growing across all formats. The audio-visual side has shown more growth during the pandemic as streaming platforms have been acquiring a lot of books.
SN: Kindly share a few words of advice/encouragement for any budding writer reading this interview.
AC: Be persistent, and look for honest feedback – it’s very rare to find this. Don’t get frustrated if it takes time to find success – some succeed in a month, some succeed in ten years (laughs). Everyone’s definition of success is different, so figure out what yours is. Some people want to sell 100,000 copies, some want to be published abroad, some want major prizes, some just want to hold a book in their hand, and some are okay with being self-published. It all depends on what your definition of success is.
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