White Falcon Publishing at Jaipur Literature Festival, 2026
The Shadecard of Self-publishing was one of the sessions at the Jaipur Bookmark, Jaipur Literature Festival, 2026. Navsangeet Kaur, Founder Director, White Falcon Publishing, was one of the speakers at this session held on January 18, 2026 at Hotel Clarks, Jaipur.
The discussion revolved around the various facets of self publishing and how it helps thousands of authors worldwide to achieve their book publishing needs. How self publishing has bridged the gap over the past decade to become the tool of expression for authors worldwide. 300 million self published books were sold in 2025. This number speaks immensely about the impact self publishing has created.
Few excerpts from the discussion are presented below -
Which genres stand out in the field of self-publishing?
I believe self-publishing has enabled empowerment and freedom of expression for writers. What matters most now is that the right form of content is presented to the right audience irrespective of the route chosen by the author to publish it. In this journey, White Falcon is one such value partner that helps make this happen. Our philosophy has always been quality over quantity. We have never been in the number game. What matters most is if our books are able to make an impact. Although, we publish books in a wide range of genres, business, technology, religious/spiritual, self-help and astrology are the genres that stand out and have higher chances of being successful.
What is the life-cycle of a book that goes out under the White Falcon imprint?
As our philosophy at White Falcon is Quality over Quantity, we have refined our processes such that we can offer personalised attention and quality at each step of publishing. The ideal timeframe for a book to be published ranges from 1-3 months. We do not believe in working in haste, ignoring the processes laid out to bring our maximum quality.
The typical lifecycle of a book at White Falcon involves:
- Author Onboarding – where the author is introduced to their project manager who guides them through the entire process of publishing. Submission of typescript and related content is completed at this stage.
- Quality check of the submitted files where our QC expert reviews the files and blurb, author bio, title and offers suggestions.
- Initiation of cover design, page layout and editing
- Review and finalisation of the print-ready files
- Print proof review is done
- Price, Book category, paper type, binding finalisation
- Book live and author copies delivery
- Marketing
- Sales reporting
Some success stories that have surprised you
When GST Law was implemented, we had just published a book on the topic. The day the book was listed on amazon, it sold like hot cakes. We were unable to meet the huge demand for the title and had to go for 1000 copies printing after trying to handle sales with batches of copies printed in few hundreds. This was without any significant efforts put in marketing.
Likewise, an astrology book on Nakshatra Padas sold out hours after its release. We had not anticipated such a huge demand for that book.
We had published a book on the teachings and analysis of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, written by a retired army officer, a first-time author. That book has been bestselling in Sikhism genre consistently in India and internationally for the last 4 years.
We compiled and published a book Punjabi Folks Songs that my grandmother could recollect. It has been bestselling in the US for the past 4 years.
We revived a public domain book on Guru Nanak Dev ji. We found success with this book as well.
We republished an out-of-print book where the rights had returned to the author after the initial contract with the publisher. We only had the hardcopy then and it was a technical book. We had to redraw the diagrams, tables, type equations, it was a cumbersome exercise, but definitely worth the effort.
What are your metrics for success?
Our metrics for success are:
- Author satisfaction with the publishing process in the form of feedback on Google. We are proud of our 4.8 rating on Google.
- Reader engagement with the books we publish in the form of reviews on amazon and Instagram and number of sales per title.
- Author retention rate in the form of number of books an author publishes with us. We have authors who are in the process of publishing their 13th or 20th book with us.
The value of the content we publish, the type of product we present in the market, how readers perceive our books and how authors feel about the end product in their hands drive our success. We do not run after numbers – so many authors, so many books. We work with limited authors and limited books but meaningful. When we get an amazing book to publish, we feel excited. Publishing books on artist Raja Ravi Varma, artist Trilok Singh, for Godrej, G.V Prasad, actor Inderpal Singh reflect the trust our authors put in us. We have authors who are publishing their 14th or 20th book with us. Every time, our authors and readers appreciate the quality of the book in their hands, we achieve success. When our books are requested by the Library of Congress for distribution in their libraries, are procured by distributors and bookstores to fulfil international orders, are shortlisted in lit fests and get literary awards, we achieve success.
How does White Falcon protect the author's copyright and ensure plagiarism-free work is published?
The company has developed advanced systems to enhance transparency and trust, including state-of-the-art blockchain technology that time-stamps books on a decentralized network—making it the only publisher to offer a Blockchain Authorship Certificate to authors.
Plagiarism check tool is also in place to review the percentage of content taken from public sources. Informed decisions are taken given the reports for academic titles, specifically.
What is the future of self publishing?
Given the quality and premium, personalised support available at White Falcon for budding and experienced authors, the future of self publishing is shinning bright. As more and more writers indulge in writing, self publishing offers them the right wings to take the literary leap as no one is immortal but words.