From the Introduction to the book.

Stories at the Coffee Table was an idea mooted at a time when Caferati was still the Bombay Writers’ Cafe, a newly-formed group of writers struggling with their craft, their ambitions and their need for like-feathered friends.

All we had in common then (and, possibly, all we have now) was a love for writing, and coffee. We meet online every spare minute, and once a month in the real world. Since August 2004, when about ten awkward strangers made it to the first rain-swept meeting at Bandstand in Mumbai, the forum has grown to over 2000 members, with read-meets in at least fourteen cities.

Not everybody who signs up to join Caferati is a writer, though. Some are just in love with the written word and are curious and excited about fresh writing emerging from sources other than what is visible on bookstore shelves. Some write, but dare not share their work with others; these are the ‘lurkers,’ who hang around our virtual spaces, feel their way about before slowly, very tentatively, testing the waters. And there is a smaller core, dedicated writers all, relentlessly expose their writing to criticism, however harsh, demanding feedback when none is forthcoming, developing their writing muscles by throwing themselves into a delightful array of literary exercises.

Today, Caferati resonates with distinctive, original voices that deserve to be heard. We hope that many of us will find our audiences over the years. Indeed some have begun to do so already, through contests we have run and helped promote, through anthologies, and our ‘read-meets.’

And now, there’s one more platform, our own publishing house.

The book you’re holding—and have paid for, we hope—is a symbol of our commitment to publishing good writing in all genres, whatever it may take. It is the first step towards acting on this resolve. In September 2004, we were already talking of bringing out a collection of short stories by about thirty new authors. To make it more democratic, we threw it open to everybody through a contest: there were no rules except a 3000-word limit and no entry fee.

By the end of the year, hundreds of entries had poured into our inboxes. However, it took us another two years to see the project through. Several changes took place in the interim, including the composition of the panel of judges and our source of funding. Deadlines stretched and dissolved, but our commitment, thankfully, did not.

And so, finally, here we are, with our first book. It comes to you with some corporate support. You see, this is one of our experiments with different publishing models: advertising-supported books. And it is partly financed out of our own pockets. After all, we couldn’t ask hard-nosed brand maagers to put their clients’ money where our mouths were without showing that we were willing to take the chance with them.

We learned a lot in the process. About collaborating online. About working with people we’d never met. About editing. About ourselves, our tastes, our limitations, our hitherto undiscovered strengths. We squabbled happily about the stories at every step of the way, with each other and with our writers. We fought about this introduction. (We’re still close friends). We bored our friends to death extolling the idea, our plans and our dreams. We shamelessly harassed them into promoting the book, promising to buy it, helping us find ads, and getting them to do it to their friends too. (They’re still our friends too. Or so they say.) We rediscovered the joy of doing a good job for fun with no guarantee of monetary reward (though it must be said, we hope to make our money back).

And, as we were saying before we got all eloquent and flowery, at the end of it all, we’re finally here, with Stories at the Coffee Table.

Did we say ‘end?’ Correction. This is just our first book. We have a few more ideas up our sleeves for the near future. Watch this space!

Peter Griffin, Manisha Lakhe, Annie Zaidi