Publishing
Westland: an Amazon Company
Founded in 1962 and acquired by Amazon in 2017, Westland is one of the largest English-language publishers in India. Known for its best-selling books, for readers of every stripe.
Co-Publishing Partners
Golden Pen and Westland
The inception of Golden Pen is the very idea to give a holistic platform to writers who have an array of gritty, unique, and untold true stories to present to the readers. Golden Pen’s collaboration with Amazon Westland as a co-publishing partner only bolsters this approach in launching Golden Pen’s “Writers First” initiative. With this alliance, we will be presenting riveting, untold tales of the criminal world.
There has been growing popularity for the crime-thriller genre and with visceral storytelling, Golden Pen with Westland will be bringing some of the most riveting stories of conspiracies, corruption, murder, deceit and other aspects of criminal nature by exposing its cynical and despairing characteristics.
Gautam Mengle
Author
Gautam S. Mengle has been a journalist on the crime beat for eleven years and counting, and has worked across newspapers during this time. He joined The Asian Age as a trainee reporter in September 2008, and within two months was thrown into the biggest story of the year—the 26/11 terror attacks, an experience which went a long way in shaping him as a crime reporter. It was also during his four-year stint with The Asian Age that he worked under S. Hussain Zaidi, who was then the Resident Editor, and went on to assist him on some of his books in a minor capacity. From The Asian Age, he moved on to The Indian Express in 2012 and then to The Hindu in 2015 to be part of the pilot team for its Mumbai edition.
Fiction writing has been a hobby since his teenage years.
Gautam took up stand-up comedy as a hobby in August 2018 and has performed at enough open mics to be able to identify as at least a part-time, if not struggling, stand-up comic. Other hobbies include mentoring journalism interns, sly-tweeting about them and calling out sexist jokes on social media platforms.
BooK Name: Intersections
Jigna Vora
Author
Jigna Vora, former crime reporter who has previously worked at the Free Press Journal, Mid-day, Mumbai Mirror and the Asian Age. Jigna also practices healing, tarot card reading and astrology. She is currently researching for and writing web series and movies. Her debut novel, Behind Bars in Byculla traces the intricate web of power dynamics that govern the inmates of a prison and what it takes to survive behind bars.
Book Name: ConStars
Kashif Mashaikh
Author
In May 2018, Kashif Mashaikh’s writing skills earned him an internship with S. Hussain Zaidi who is India’s number one author in the crime genre. Kashif has assisted S. Hussain Zaidi on key projects starting with “Behind Bars in Byculla”, which is an autobiography of crime journalist Jigna Vora.
Kashif has also assisted S. Hussain Zaidi with “Class of 1983.” The book is based on the trials and travails of encounter cop Pradeep Sharma and his colleagues from the Mumbai Police. A saga of cops and gangsters, the novel was adapted into a Netflix original by Red Chillies Entertainment.
Book Name: ConStars
Book Name: The Mortuary Tales
Jyoti Shelar
Author
Jyoti Shelar is an award-winning journalist based in Mumbai. In 15 years of her journalism career, she has worked with some of the prominent Indian dailies such as The Hindu, Mumbai Mirror, Daily News & Analysis, and Hindustan Times.
Her first book, The Bhais of Bengaluru narrates the history of lesser known Bengaluru mafia. It chronicles the journey of the underworld dons in the IT city. The book explores how the kushti culture, Kannada language movement and the massive fandom of actor Rajkumar played some role in giving rise to rowdyism in the city in the 60’s and 70’s. It goes on to narrate stories of dons who rose, committed heinous crimes and have now turned white-collar.
Book Name: Diamond Heist
Vibha Singh
Author
Vibha Singh is the writer of ‘Dharm’, the National Award Winning Film 2009 (Best Film on National Integration). In a journey that started as a script and dialogue assistant to Vidhu Vinod Chopra for ‘Mission Kashmir’ about ten years ago, she has variously written dialogue or screenplay for films including, ‘Sur’, ‘Chura liya hai tumne’, ‘Aap ka Suroor’, ‘Parineeta’, ‘Kismat Konnection’, ‘Toh Baat Pakki’, ‘Housefull’ and ‘Mardaani’. She has had the pleasure of working with stalwarts of the Indian film industry like Mahesh Bhatt and Aziz Mirza.
Besides films, Vibha Singh has written acclaimed OTT series like ‘The Test Case’ & ‘Bewafaa sii Wafaa’, TV shows including ‘Saas Bina Sasural’, ‘Bidaai’, ‘Jasoos Vijay’ (BBC, detective), ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’ (horror), among others. She is also a lyricist and author of books: A thriller, ‘A Convenient Culprit’ (Penguin Random House) and a children’s book, ‘Princess Pernita and her voyage to the land of Plenty’ (HarperCollins),
An MBA from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, Vibha Singh worked as an advertising professional in agencies like Ogilvy and Mather, Mudra and R K Swamy BBDO, before taking up writing as a full time occupation.
She is married and lives with her husband and son in Mumbai, India.
Book Name: Web of Deceit
Sandeep Saket
Author
Sandeep Saket has been working in the Mumbai Film and Television industry for more than 10 years. He graduated from Satyajt Ray Film and Television Institute in Film Direction and Screenplay writing.
Films made as part of the curriculum at SRFTI has been screened at festivals like, Belgrade (Serbia), Mumbai International Film festival (MIFF), Kolkata International Film Festival, IFFI Goa, Twilight international films festival, Osian’s Cinefan among others.
His notable work in the film industry include Creator and Writer of an upcoming Amazon Prime series for Rohit Shetty. Writer of Hindi feature film Saat Uchakke. Writer of series Dilliwood on MensXP and a couple of series in development for various OTT platforms.
The War that made RA&W will be his first book as an author.
Book Name: THE WAR THAT MADE R&AW
Anusha Nandakumar
Author
Anusha Nandakumar is an independent filmmaker and a graduate of Direction and Screenplay Writing from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata.
She is one of the founders and producers of Bharatiya Digital Party – BhaDiPa, a Marathi entertainment YouTube channel. As a director Anusha has directed a comedy series called ‘Pandu’ for MX Player. And is currently working on her upcoming series called Radical for Endemol Shine.
Her documentary film ‘The Boxing Ladies’ won the National Film Award in 2010 and her short films have been screened at various national and international film festivals. As a writer, she works closely with Sandeep Saket and at present they are the creators and writers of an untitled Thriller series for Amazon Prime to be directed by Rohit Shetty.
The War that made R&AW is her first book as an author
