My So-Called Bollywood Life is out (again) today!
I've finally republished my first YA novel, and I'm feeling some big feelings.
I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this, but enough time has passed that I can put my business out there.
After I sold My So-Called Bollywood Life 10 years ago, film rights and print, the Publisher asked to change the title to “The Perfect Ending” because they said that they didn’t think enough people knew what Bollywood was for the title to sell the book. They were going to first hyphenate it, and then decided to just remove the hyphen all together.
The title was changed back eventually after some support from marketing.
Fast forward through four years of publisher delays, multiple rounds of revisions and copious cover changes, the book came out in 2018, and it was a quiet whisper of a release.
The book ‘earned out’ which basically means that I sold enough copies to not only pay back my advance but to make money off the title. However, the publisher decided not to print any additional copies so it went out of print two years ago. I was thankfully able to get my rights back at that time.
I knew I wanted to republish the book, but the reason why it took me so long to do it is because Winnie Mehta and the Bollywood Life family needed some updates. Winnie was written over ten years ago, and I, thankfully, had gotten better at writing.
There was one thing I didn’t want to change about the book, though. And that was the INSANE number of Bollywood movie references.
Bollywood was a culture access point for so many people in the diaspora. It was connection to language, to ethnicity, to an identity that many, myself included, often felt disconnected from. This wasn’t just for Indian viewers but for other readers of color who saw pieces of their own narratives in movies.
Is it campy? Absolutely. Are so many Bollywood movies these days problematic? Yup. But we can be critical of something while also accepting the value it gives us as a community. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
After revisions, My So-Called Bollywood Life continues to be my book that is a love letter to the person that I wish I could’ve been in high school. The super confident, the strong-willed, and the identity-conscious heroine that Winnie Mehta represents. I think she is why the book is also the one that people reference the most when they meet me. Winnie is loud and proud about the things she loves just like we all aspire to be.
For those of you who have been with me since this very first book, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’ve added two new scenes, one of which will give you a glimpse into Winnie and Dev’s life today.
And for those of you who are just finding this YA rom com, welcome! It’s about to get very, VERY filmy.
xoxo, Nisha (And maybe dream-version of SRK, but you’re going to have to read the book to know what that means!)
My So-Called Bollywood Life is out now in e-book and in print. However. There are already delays for the print version (Thank you, Ingram Spark).
You can find it on Amazon (for the print version, make sure you’re clicking on ‘new edition’ - resales of older editions are still prioritized in the Amazon system), Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and Kobo. Apple Books will be up in the next week.
If the book is listed as “out of stock” or “2-5 week delay,” I’m so sorry in advance! This is my first rodeo with print books, and apparently, it’s as much of a nightmare as everyone says it is.
If you’re attending Apollycon, I will have copies for pre-order there!
Nisha Sharma's fan-favorite YA romance gets a Bollywood remake featuring brand new scenes and a timeless sweet love story.
Winnie Mehta was never really convinced that Raj was her soul mate, but their love was written in the stars. Literally, a pandit predicted Winnie would find the love of her life before her eighteenth birthday, and Raj meets all the qualifications. Which is why Winnie is shocked when she returns from her summer at film camp to find her boyfriend of three years hooking up with Jenny Dickens. As a self-proclaimed Bollywood expert, Winnie knows this is not how her perfect ending is scripted.
Then there's Dev, a fellow film geek and one of the few people Winnie can count on. Dev is smart and charming, and he challenges Winnie to look beyond her horoscope and find someone she'd pick for herself. But does falling for Dev mean giving up on her prophecy and her chance to live happily ever after? To find her perfect ending, Winnie will need a little bit of help from fate, family, and of course, a Bollywood movie star.
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A 2019 RITA WINNER FOR BEST YA ROMANCE
"A delightful and humorous debut."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred review
PURCHASE LINKS:
AUTHOR LINKS:
Website http://www.nisha-sharma.com
TikTok http://www.tiktok.com/@nishawrites
Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nishawrites