SWIPE WRITE: Yashraj Sharma, founder of writing services platform Wyzr

The reading habit is dying, the publishing industry is declining — we have been hearing this for a while. And yet, here are two entrepreneurs who have bravely entered the challenging industry after spotting white spaces, confident in their ability to monetise.

Meet Ranjeet Pratap Singh, a techie from Rae Bareli, born very near where poet Nirala wrote about ‘todti pathar’, whose digital platform Pratilipi has given a voice to storytellers in multiple languages. Founded in 2015, the Bengaluru-based startup has attracted several rounds of funding, acquired Westland from Amazon in 2022, and is expanding in many exciting directions. Its topline is about ₹200 crore (a jump from ₹85 crore a year ago), and while there are losses (₹40 crore), these are reducing every quarter. There are plans for an IPO.

Also meet Yashraj Sharma of Wyzr, an IIM-Indore graduate who felt that not enough domain experts in India were writing books and this could be rectified if someone could assist with writing services. Self-funded, Wyzr was founded in 2021 and has so far published 16 titles (14 are out in the market); it targets quality rather than volume. “We are cash-flow positive and comfortable,” says Sharma.

Both Singh and Sharma describe themselves as voracious readers and their enterprises were born out of their discontent over the available literature in their interest areas. Singh could not find reading material in Hindi online and decided to start Pratilipi, which is actually less like a kindle and more of a YouTube for books. Here, anybody with a story can upload it. “We build the tech, other people come and create, and others come and consume,” explains Singh. There are 1.8 crore stories across genres — romance, thriller, suspense, paranormal, horror and more. Over 18 lakh authors are on the platform, and Singh says some of them make more money than him. Authors here monetise similar to YouTube creators.

As for Sharma, he runs a more conventional publishing enterprise. His discontent stemmed from the fact that most of the business books he was reading seemed written by foreign authors, and the local context he was seeking was missing. “I thought what could I do to make Indian experts — the CXOs and practitioners — write more?” he explains. The major friction for CXOs, he discovered, was lack of time. But when Wyzr offered to help write the book, do the secondary research, and speed up the process, it managed to interest a few. That’s how Atomberg CBO Arindam Paul’s best-selling Zero To Scale came into being. Of course, the book sales are not the reason Wyzr is profitable. Apart from the writing service, its revenue comes from a thought leadership consultancy.

Pratilipi has six business units — online literature, Pratilipi Comics, podcasts (IVM Podcasts), audio (Pratilipi FM), Westland Books and Write Order (a self-publishing platform); publishing contributes the largest chunk of revenue, but the other streams are growing. From micro-dramas to overseas expansion, it has many ambitious plans. And there is growth everywhere. For instance, audio grew 400 per cent last year, albeit on a smaller base, says Singh. Next year’s target is ₹300 crore and less burn.

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Published on November 10, 2025