Yo! Exclusive: Sudeep Nagarkar shares his journey to becoming a best-selling author

An engineer-turned writer, who is fast establishing himself as one of the more popular names, Sudeep Nagarkar was recently in the city to promote his new book at the Pages book-store. All praise for the refreshing greenery in our city, he shared more with Teja Kovvali.

The beginning

“I have always had a special thing for writing. Back in college, I even used to maintain a personal diary.”

Sudeep Nagarkar started writing in 2007, while pursuing his bachelor’s degree. An avid keeper of all his personal experiences, the then-budding writer was advised by one of his friends to publish his writings; an advice that eventually materialized when Sudeep’s first book, ‘A Few Things Left Unsaid’, got published in 2011.

Challenges

“One of my first challenges was to tell my parents about my passion for writing. It was not until my publisher had sent me the cover page of my book, that I told them about it.”

Initially, when Sudeep informed about his future plans, his parents didn’t take him too seriously, which, he feels, proved to be a blessing in disguise. The author says that it was only because his parents weren’t too bothered about his writing that he was free to explore further, without any added pressure.

Typically, Sudeep found it tough to get a publisher for his first book. While he thought of self-publishing, things fell in place when a publisher eventually came forward and more than 8000 copies of his first book were sold in less than a month.

Inspiration

“All my books are inspired from real-life events.”

The man from Maharashtra likes building relatable characters and storylines that are inspired from real life. In fact, in his latest book, ‘She Friend-Zoned my Love’, Sudeep tries to concentrate on a rather “untouched” aspect of friend-zoning. He also touches upon several common issues such as body shaming among others.