On the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, and just thirteen days before the opening of the next Frankfurt Book Fair, I wish to make available to a larger public the book that is the story of my literary experiments with truth: The Killing of an Author. For peanuts, for $5.50 (may change slightly up in a few days, details below).
Had I been bailed out by now, I would have been in the U.S. at this time, promoting this book, doing readings, approaching editors and booksellers, even hawking it on the streets of New York if necessary, and doing my little bit to help elect Barack Obama, in what is perhaps the most important election of the last one hundred years. But I owe more than $25,000, and unless someone helps me to pay that debt, directly to my debtor, I am not free to travel to the U.S., and am in involuntary exile: a literary exile, a political exile, punished for exercising his freedom of speech (details in the book).
Meanwhile, the book languishes in limbo. Indian distributors deny it distribution, only a few copies are in five Indian bookshops in one city, the ugliness and meanness of the ayatollahs would choke me if I were to think too long on it.
Therefore, I have decided that this 200-page book will be available for a limited time at a very low price (of around $5.50, with zero shipping costs) as a download at present only from http://www.lulu.com/content/1225412 and at a reasonable price for the printed book ($11.95), which is also available in a slightly handier edition from http://www.richardcrasta.com If after you read the book, you decide that you paid too little for a book that took me two years (approximate labor of $50,000) to write and has earned me around $400 so far, feel free to go to the Tip Jar on top left and make a contribution for the difference, and to order the book as gifts for others, especially for editors and those working in the publishing industry.
For more details regarding the book, read the Tehelka interview in the blog previous to this: "Anyone Can Make Cars: The Tehelka Interview".
Brief reviews of "The Killing of an Author":
"An integrity that is rare. This book must be read. If Richard succeeds, we shall all succeed." --Kuldip Nayar, Eminent Indian Author & Veteran Editor-Columnist
"Bare-all, spare-none, and disturbing account of a writer's torture by the Ayatollahs of Western publishing . . . a brown boy's Great American Writing Dream. Bohemian . . . every page is engaging."--The Week Magazine
“Crasta has a sense of humour which he maintains from the start to the end. In a sense, the book is a lesson to new writers of what could happen to them even in developed nations like the U.S. and the U.K.
Whatever Crasta does, he does passionately. He dares to be different in his writing and behaviour. And this seeps through in his work as clearly as sparkling water. The Killing of an Author is funny, sad, and eye-opening. . . .We need more writers like him. But are Indian publishers ready to take him seriously?” --Sunil Poolani, The Deccan Chrnoicle/ Asian Age
"Funny and delightful . . . I've never read anyone like you. I laugh, I ache, I smile, I cry."--Sheelagh Grenon, Quebec City, Canada
