Today, a growing crop of market-savvy authors is using promotional films and audio tracks to grab attention. Books are being given away as prizes in online contests and there are web conferences with readers. Publishers couldn’t be happier.

Author Amish Tripathi has an unlikely role model, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan. Like Khan, who is as much a savvy marketer as creative savant, Amish (he prefers to use his first name) believes in mixing commerce with craft. He says an author should have an 'end-to-end' vision of his books. Amish's novel The Immortals of Meluha has sold over 2 lakh copies, his second, The Secret of the Nagas, attracted 80, 000 pre-orders before it was launched earlier this month and has sold over a lakh copies by now. Clearly, the 'end-to-end vision' is working and it guides Amish on how to make his books bestsellers.