Now, a new platform for unpublished writers

Anybody can write. Better still, anybody can get published. That’s the line on which valmeeki.com, a Kochi-based virtual publishing start-up, is building its client base. Valmeeki, perhaps, becomes a natural choice for the name here, considering the adi kavi’s celebrated transition from robber to writer. Over the 10 months since its formal launch, the group has published 300 titles; 250 of them in Malayalam, 30 in Kannada and 20 in English. 

The Valmeeki team draws from potential in a digitised world where everyone seems to have a story to tell and from statistics – 20 million mobile subscribers are added every quarter, 42 % preferring regional content. It’s about finding new contexts to the business of publishing but more about offering people new spaces to express themselves. 

Kuruvilla Chacko, CEO of valmeeki.com, talks about these people – an office help who writes poetry during her off-work hours, a retired All India Radio employee who came over with plays he wrote 2 decades ago, a football player-fan who penned down his thoughts on the Beautiful Game – rebooting aspirations to write.

The publishing house has also opened up new avenues for the traditional writer to connect with a new generation of readers, without having to go through the rigour of existing publishing set-ups. “Even on the internet, getting a new writer tagged to a platform like, say, Kindle, won’t take him or her far because the writer will be lost among the tens of thousands who are already there. We had to come up with a publishing space in tune with the times. We are not just offering a market-place for the writers to sell their work; we are here to represent them and promote their careers,” says Chacko.

About 80 % of the titles are by new or self-published writers. A Valmeeki team scouts for talent through blogger networks and other sources; writers also approach the team seeking help. The second phase involves editorial screening and digitisation before the books are converted into a compressed format.

Valmeeki offers proof reading, editing support, DTP typing and cover designing at a service cost. The editorial team rates the content but doesn’t reject the works.Through its mobile app Valmeeki, now on Google Playstore, the publishing house makes available the titles, to be purchased and downloaded. The promoters say apps for Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows Store are being readied. By the end of May, the titles will also be available on the group’s website. There are titles available for free; the priced titles come in the Rs 10-Rs 100 range. The writers are offered up to a 50 % royalty as a share in revenue. “In 3 to 4 weeks, we hope to come up with a new revenue model. The downloads could become completely free but revenues would be generated from advertisements on the pages. Eventually, this will be a set-up where neither the writer nor the reader is going to spend money,” says Chacko.

The Valmeeki founder team consists of Chacko, an engineer and travel writer, Vishnu M Unnithan, Director – Operations, Suhair Zain, Director – R&D and Vishnu G P, Director – Technical. KITCO, a public sector engineering consultancy firm, holds a minority stake in Valmeeki and functions as a mentor for the group. The publishing house has a Mysuru-based team member who identifies emerging writers in Kannada.

 Valmeeki has also managed to get on board established Kannada writers including T K Dayanand’s 'Baudelaire na glasu' (Baudelaire's Glass) figures in the list of titles). In Malayalam, eminent writer K L Mohana Varma has shown interest in publishing with Valmeeki. “For established writers, virtual publishing comes with possibilities of reaching out to a new, large readership. It also allows them to experiment with language and work with new narrative formats,” says Chacko.

The publishing house, still, has raw, untested writing talent in focus. A conference it organised at Thiruvananthapuram in October last year had doubled as an introduction to the concept, generating interest among aspiring writers.
 Changalakilukkam – a 3-volume work on elephants in Kerala – is one of Valmeeki’s most popular titles, clocking a combined 6,000-plus downloads. A couple of Indian English titles have registered more than 1,000 downloads as well.

 Valmeeki also proposes to act as a literary agent for select writers and publish their works, based on their popularity on the apps. “More downloads mean more prospects of getting published. Typically, we have a cut-off at 2,500 downloads, based on which we decide to go ahead with plans to publish the work.  Changalakilukkam could be our first title to get a traditional release,” says Chacko. The publishing house is also exploring possibilities in graphic novels, journals and unpublished movie scripts.

Valmeeki could contribute to the publishing industry change, the kind which a surge of new-generation filmmakers effected in the Malayalam film industry a few years ago. But an endorsement of the anyone-can idea could also mean a compromise on quality. Chacko feels that a set-up which offers exposure to new writers and promises to do away with the “delays and hassles” of regular publishing cannot be too stringent on the quality of content.    

“We do get really bad pieces of writing but we don’t reject them. We rate them low and relegate them in terms of visibility. The way we see it, it’s about providing opportunities to everyone; for us, it’s just a matter of some space in KBs,” he says.