6 Powerful Life Lessons I Learnt While Writing My First Book 'The Ineligible Millionaire': My Story

Yes, the process of writing and publishing 'The Ineligible Millionaire' taught me 6 powerful life lessons that changed my life. I changed as a person, my thinking got changed, my way of working changed, and every other perspective about life. I'm writing all those six lessons in detail here along with my real-life experiences. Hope you'll learn something from it and become a better executer in your life.

Believe-in-yourself: I started writing 'The Ineligible Millionaire' in 2015 after seeing some book launches on YouTube by young authors. I never had a writing hobby or something similar to that. I'm a technical person who knows how to make brilliant mobile apps. It was my gut feeling that if those young authors have stories to tell then I have much much better story to tell. It took me 3 years & a lot of pain to get published but the story is worth everything. Because of this book, I got the chance to meet 'Roshni Nadar Malhotra' (chairperson of HCL Technologies, ranked 51th on Forbes World's 100 Most Powerful Women list) and received appreciation from her. It was nominated by Invincible Literary Awards under the 'Best Fiction' and 'Best Debut' categories. It received 150+ positive reviews on Amazon. Every positive review helps me forget the struggle I faced to publish the book. 

Some readers wrote a detailed review on amazon:

• “If you wish to read a story where the protagonist rises from rags to riches, well then this is for you. I liked the overall plot and narrative of the book. It tells the tale of a student who often got rejected for placements because he had not-so-good marks at grade ten and twelve. From many rejections, this chap rises to become a millionaire in one decade. The story sounds incredible and inspiring at the same time. Go for it.” - Kevin Mallik (amazon.in)
• "The author has done a wonderful job by incorporating his personal experiences into the story to some extent, especially in work culture, traveling abroad and skydiving adventures. Most readers will find this book interesting as well as inspiring. Love, friendship, trust, betrayal, and a millionaire dream coupled with responsibility towards parents and balancing personal life is what makes this story truly wonderful to read as there are many sub-plots and adequate twists guaranteeing a satisfactory end. A completely believable story that is sure to encourage young minds." - Debjeet Mukherjee (amazon.in)
• “I felt that it was my own journey & not his! I felt like I was the protagonist & I was going through everything he was going. Each & every sentence was strong & bold! It is people's misconception that low page count books are not powerful but if you think this then you should read this! It's overall a powerful & a strong read. Well, the book was negative, heart breaking & just like the protagonist I felt so hopeless & doubted why I am living & I am just useless so definitely you can guess how powerful it was! Talking about the cover- it's a bit dull! But the title is strong enough to attract anyone. I highly recommend it!” - Rutuja Ramteke (amazon.in)
• “You can sympathize with the author and at times feel like he is fighting your own fight and seeing him emerge from difficult circumstances gives you hope for sure. It's great to see the character evolving with time and how he covers his journey from being in debt to becoming self-sufficient and doesn’t stop just there. Hope and consistency is my takeaway from the book. At times it reassures that everything will be fine.” - Vikram Singh (amazon.in)
• “Good story which describes if you have the will to achieve something in life, it comes. Arjun being a lower middle class boy whose father is in huge debt struggling daily to meet basic necessities is the most sensitive part in the book. The Motivational part when Arjun leaves the house & struggles to be a rich man is inspiring. Read by yourself & feel the end. Good read with all positive aspects.” - SW (amazon.in)

Some bloggers were so nice that they wrote a detailed article on their blog after reading my book:

• https://thinkerviews.com/books/english-books/the-ineligible-millionaire-by-tarun-varshney-book-review/
• https://www.authordebjeet.reviews/2019/10/br-54-ineligible-millionaire-tarun.html
• http://www.keveinbooksnreviews.in/2019/01/book-review-ineligible-millionaire-by.html
• https://www.sarathbabu.in/2018/12/book-review-ineligible-millionaire.html

India's popular booktubers had their views too about the book: 

Patience: When I started writing 'The Ineligible Millionaire', I decided to finish it in 3 months. 3 months later, I was ready with my book. I was so excited to see myself into bestselling authors' list. I started sending emails with my sample chapters to every publisher and literary agent in India and the United States but no positive response. I was so desperate to publish my book but rejections one after another calmed me down and taught me to be patient at times. If something is not working out, be patient, and keep trying. I have sent my query to almost 100 publishers and literary agents once every year which resulted in 300+ queries in the span of 3 years. Everybody rejected it. Later on, I got in touch with Invincible Publishers. We agreed on some terms and I signed the contract. The book launch event happened at Gurgaon Literary Festival on 24 Nov 2018.

Consistency: When I saw no response from any publisher, I took this project aside, thinking: it was my illusion that I can also write a book. I failed miserably to work on this manuscript for almost 6 months due to the loss of confidence. As time passes, I realized the value of consistency. Good things don't become good in a day or two. It takes time. Especially when you're new to the process. I resumed work on the manuscript with full energy and wrote my plot again. From there, I worked almost every day on my manuscript towards publishing.

Improvisation: Nothing extraordinary can be made or achieved without improvisation. When an actor gives a shot, the director asks for improvisation. He gives some suggestions, and the actor improves the scene from there. I was always open for feedback from anyone: friend or editor. Initially, none of my friends was ready to read my book to give feedback. I asked them multiple times but no luck. I wasted around 6-8 months, thinking if some of my friends can give feedback. I realized, how busy everyone has become in their lives? With a lot of -ve and +ve thoughts, I hired one editor in the USA who helped me with my manuscript. And, it got better and better. She asked me to wait for 6 months because she had a lot other projects, she was working upon those days. I waited because I wanted to see my craft in best shape. It did cost me money and time both but my craft came into the shape and became more mature in the span of 10-12 months. If nobody is helping you in free, pay the money to professionals, and get your work done.

Time-management: Initially, I used to write after office hours and on weekends. A few months later, office work pressure went up. I hardly had time to call my family in India. It became so stressful for me to manage office work and book writing. I was trying so hard to work on my manuscript every day but nothing was happening. But, who else will work on this if I'll not? It was the thought I had one lucky day and I decided to wake up at 4 AM every morning to finish the book. I'm not a very morning person but I had no choice. Luckily, I was able to do it and finished my manuscript.

Focus: When I was writing, I had a plot already in my mind which was for one book. Through media channels, I came to know that trend is going for book series (e.g. trilogy etc.)  in the market. So to sell your books well, you should write it in a series. Here, I did a mistake. Before finishing my story, I was thinking about its sales and trying to turn the story into a series to grab more sales. I started doing a lot of experiments with characters and sub-plots to increase word counts and convert the story into a trilogy. I struggled for a few months and nothing was coming out because I was trying to increase the count of pages, not focusing on writing a great story. One fine day, somewhere I read on the internet: don't ever think of book sales until your book is finished. I got my lesson and I moved back to my story and started working to improve the story without thinking of word counts. It got finished in around 80,000 words (near to 300 pages). In final edits, it came down to 270 pages. In short, when you're writing just think about writing a good story, you want to write from your heart, do not worry about sales and opinions.

This is my story, thank you to everyone who helped me in the process and read the book. Last but not least 💗 to those who shared reviews of the book on social media, blogs, and e-commerce partners.

Products mentioned in this article:

• 'The Ineligible Millionaire' by 'Tarun Varshney' <= click to buy