Interview with Ravi Shirurkar

Ravi Shirurkar is a Master in International Business graduate from London and specializes in e-commerce innovation. He has been working on his own startups and several other unicorns like Zomato, Quikr, Bigbasket at various management roles. He also consults new e-commerce business ventures in launch strategy and well-known consulting companies like McKinsey on hourly basis through GLG.

He has been invited to various institutes from Pune and Mumbai for motivational and career guidance sessions. He has also delivered guest lectures on entrepreneurship, leadership and marketing at AIIMS, MITCON Pune etc.

‘Where’s the good in a Goodbye’ is his debut novel and is among the most loved debut books of the year.

In an interview to TALK TO BLOGGER.COM, Ravi Shirurkar gets talking about his books, readers, roaring success, and of course his thoughts on life! Catch the interesting conversation here!

What was the feeling when your first book got published? How did you handle that moment of glory and self-pride, were people supportive or something else?

First of all, thank you so much for inviting me to this great platform to share my journey with the readers, I truly appreciate it. Getting back to the question, this exact moment is captured in a video. While I have been emotional yet calm; my wife ended up crying when she first held the sample copy. It was simply because she had been an equal part of the struggle and hard work we put in for years to bring the book into reality. 

Most people are very much supportive, of course there are a couple of exceptions everywhere. From writing first para to ranking it among top 10 romance titles for weeks, no one can simply do it all alone. I was extremely lucky that I could manage world class editor, cover designers, all from my friends' circle. Once you start getting successful, there would be unexpected jealousy from your competitive friends. But that’s a good sign to keep you grounded and to not to lose the steam. When you develop haters, it is a sign that you’re doing great! Nobody gets jealous of a loser.

How do you take writing novels, as a career or hobby or between both?
It's a gradual shift from hobby to career. Everyday I get at least five to ten messages of people asking for a sequel. Even if I never planned it, I will come up with the next title soon. Once the reader gets hooked to your writing, it no longer remains possible to focus on any other stuff. Writing itself anyway is a glamorous career. I would have never got interviewed by talktoblogger if I weren’t a writer, would I? If it feeds you well, earns you fame, then why not make it a full time career?

For your books you must be doing a lot of research topics and themes. How did you go about it?
Writing this book took a tremendous amount of research. My research is never limited to only Google search. I actually travel a lot, look for people similar to my characters, people who lead similar lives and try to hold their interviews. Every stranger you meet and talk to is like one book read. For example, my next novel includes an Ola driver as one of its main characters, for that I purposefully travel by cabs every day and try to talk with cab drivers. It has given me some fascinating insights of lives of taxi drivers.

What is the best aspect about your writing that you love most?
I am surely not the person to brag about myself. But from what I have received as feedback from readers is that my writing leaves a deep and positive impact on the readers. It alters readers’ behavior patterns. Most importantly, it leaves them craving for more. There are people more eagerly waiting for my next book and are in the need of it being published than I do myself.

Is getting published traditionally really tough? Share your views.
Yes, it is! I have gone through aseries of rejections, but somehow I have overcome the need of being traditionally published. I have proved that if your writing could touch hearts of readers, then your book can do great even without a hot shot publisher or huge marketing budgets.

What do you feel about the Indian literature arena? Do you read Indian authors?
I have never promoted my book abroad. I enjoy a global readership today with higher ratings abroad than in India. My monthly kdp royalty has a major share of KU readers from the US and Europe. Though growth is slow, it is a steady one. The times are gone when foreign authors ruled the charts in Indian market. The young Indian talent is not only capturing home market but also venturing abroad. I personally do read selected Indian authors and 'Ashwin Sanghi' is my personal favorite.

Tell us about your recently published book or the upcoming book?

Most of the events in my books are real events happened in my life and my friends’ lives. It means more than just a fiction to me. There are more emotions, memories involved in this book than one can even imagine. I can only ask people to give this book a try, and I can assure that it would be an unforgettable, emotional and equally inspiring ride. 

There are many new writers out there who are aspiring to get their work published. What would you say to them?
I can only say I am always there to help them out. I would be a message away in their times of need.

Check out more about him:
Ravi is more active on Instagram than other social networks. People can connect with him through Facebook/Instagram. To know more about Ravi, please visit or follow on Facebook and Instagram.

Thank you so much Ravi, for sharing your experience with us. This will definitely help others to learn from it. If you liked this interview, share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.