Daastan’s delegation led by Founder Syed Ommer Amer, and its executive member Nauman Shahid, had the opportunity to present for a micro grant at the PeaceTech Lab, which is locally run by Technology for People Initiative and United States Institute of Peace. The pitch was worked on for days and prepared to perfection, then finally presented at the event of PTX project. The event was a three-day conference which had over 20 organizations present, battling for a grant of 2500 USD funding, to execute a project which would help promote peace across multiple regions of Pakistan. It was a moment of great honor when Daastan was chosen as the winner of the said grant of 2500 USD, to conduct the second season of its story writing competition, “The Stories Untold ”, on the theme “The War Within”.
The PeaceTech Exchange Workshop:
The PeaceTech Exchange is a program by the PeaceTech lab, which helps the local community address frequently posed challenges by equipping their leaders with the ability to carve out solutions for said challenges based on technological tools. The program encourages hands-on activity of technology to tackle a variety of issues including but not limited to women and youth empowerment, education, social inclusion, etc.
The Stories Untold Season Two:
Daastan launched the competition within a few weeks of receiving the grant and the results were announced after a month of strict and diligent judging. The competition turned out to be a great success, and had more than 150 writers who participated and sent in their stories. The winners were shortlisted through three rounds, starting from the top 30 down to the top ones in each language, i.e. Urdu and English. The competition helped the writers in developing characters and plots from which the readers could take home viable lessons, of people that went through strenuous external pressures, and had to face or overcome harsh aftermaths because of it.
A War Within, Season Two of The Stories Untold.
Keep an eye out for our updates on Facebook, if you want to participate in the upcoming competition and prove yourself as a writer.
Just a few days after Daastan’s self-publishing portal Qissa went live, Tooba Arshad, whose debut novel ‘Unveiling the Unknown’ would be published through us, messaged our team on the page and requested that we help us realize her dream of being an author of a book published both digitally and in print. A little while later, she would become the beneficiary of Daastan’s first ever crowdfunding campaign. Her novel of 600 pages required a minimum of PKR 30,000 to go into print, which neither her nor Daastan had the resources to fund. Daastan’s Founder Ommer being a dreamer and whose book was also rejected due to technicalities, decided to take on this mission and help her gather enough capital so as to bring her dream to life, and that is how Daastan’s first ever crowdfunding campaign was launched. The campaign was a success, and at the end of one month of struggle and efficient marketing strategies, the author finally had the amount she needed which was collected through more than 30 pre-orders of her upcoming book.
The author, Tooba Arshad:
Tooba Arshad, is an undergrad in BioMedical Engineering at NED, a part time teacher having taught at many private educational institutes, and an excellent public speaker. Her artistical talents are not limited to writing only, as she also has experience in directing many theatrical plays in both English and Urdu over the course of her years of schooling. Her debut novel, ‘Unveiling of the Unknown’, is a masterfully written mystery thriller which pulls the reader in with its imagery and keeps them glued until the last page of the book is flipped. Order her book now to support the author and experience the thrilling journey by yourself.
Tooba Arshad’s book, Unveiling the Unknown
Book Launch:
After the printing of her book was complete, Tooba became the first ever author to have her book launched through Daastan. The book launch ceremony took place at Nest I/O and was inaugurated by Jehan Ara, President of P@SHA and Founder of Nest I/O. Tooba has had much to say about Daastan, some of her words are quoted below:
“I would like to sincerely thank team Daastan, because if it weren’t for them, I would still be like those hundreds of rejected, discouraged, and unpublished authors who never got the chance to start their professional career. What they are doing here, is basically shaping a better future for the society, and I urge them to continue doing so!”
If you are an author who is looking to get published, reach out to us at Daastan, or upload your manuscript to Qissa by signing up, to let the magic begin.
A year and a half into the struggle that was Daastan, and very many rejections but also quite a few notable achievements later, Daastan finally launched its self-publishing website by the name of Mera Qissa. The website was to be a writer’s as well as a reader’s one-stop-solution for publishing their work in print ready formats, which would then be refined and edited to perfection, ready to be read online by the thriving amount of readers that visited the website in search for quality literature. It was an all in one solution for writers across the country as it helped them build a profile by putting up a bio, garnering readership, and also enabled the readers to give the authors constructive reviews on their work. It also helped the writers earn revenue from opportunities furnished by Daastan’s client base, which ranged from various genres of content writings to digitizing handwritten works or ghost writing for their clients.
The Plans Offered:
The services offered by the portal were categorized into three plans according to their needs, and could cater to any and all of the writers who wished to get published. The Basic Plan was free, it only required that you sign up on the Qissa website, upload your work, wait for the editorial process to be completed and voila – at the end of all this your work would be published online for all Qissa viewers to read, and you would also get access to other writers’ work published on the website. The Pro and Pro+ plan came at a minimal cost per month and with it your account would be upgraded to receive additional benefits such as the ability to sell services online, as well as getting advertising credit. It also included a pro online reader which offered more features while reading eBooks, and the pro plus members also got to receive a monthly swag box featuring all the raging goodies of Daastan’s literary empire.
Baby Steps Turning into Leaps and Bounds:
The portal upon its launch had more than 30 stories available online, most of them from Daastan’s recent story-writing competition ‘The Stories Untold’. It also had works published by Daastan throughout the previous year. By the end of 2016, we aimed to have published more than 100 books and signed up over 1000 writers. Within Qissa’s first few days of initiation, it received more than a thousand visitors, with 5 minutes being the average time spent per person on the website.
Qissa aimed to be a medium which gave voice to those among us whose voice remained unheard, and words unspoken. If you have ever felt the same way, learn more about what we do by signing up on Qissa.
Daastan launched its very first story-writing competition in 2016, providing the writers of Pakistan with a chance to prove themselves and let the tales that they carry inside them out. With the launch of this competition, Daastan was on the hunt for the emerging stars of the literary industry of Pakistan. It was targeting the storytellers who keep their world concealed from the rest of us, carrying within themselves a plethora of stories and scenarios which never see the light of the day.
The Criteria for the Competition:
The theme of the competition was ‘Perfect Imperfections’. The Stories Untold expected the authors to talk about the people or sections of the society deemed as ‘imperfect’, and how they are above any such label and rather are very much worthy to be branded as ‘perfect’. The authors were encouraged to write about local characters, settings and plots, so as to make it relatable for the readership of Pakistan. The target also was highlight and in turn humanize the transgressions against minorities and any other convention violating body that is ostracized for its inability to ‘fit in’. The entire concept of the theme was to present everyday harsh realities in a way that would spread awareness about the social issues plaguing our society, and for the authors to develop their characters in a manner which would enable them to face and beat the odds.
The word count was limited to 4000-6000 words, and the language of entries was specified to English only. Almost around 100 submissions were received in a short span of five weeks, making the competition a monumental achievement for the team of Daastan.
The winners:
What followed was days and weeks of meticulous and careful analysis, which carried the top stories through various rounds of the competition. Initially, the top 30, followed by the top 15 of the entries were announced. These would go on to be published on the Qissa website, and made available for everyone to read. The winner, Wafa Zaka writer of ‘Cursed and Healed’ was selected from the top 5 after her story was put through a grueling contest. She was awarded a cash prize of PKR 10,000, along with publication both digitally and in print with a designated ISBN.
The winner of The Stories Untold Season 1
If you want to participate in one of our writing competitions, keep an eye out for our updates on our social media pages such as Facebook, so the opportunity doesn’t pass you by.
After a gruesome year of rejections and heartache for the founders of Daastan, we finally had our break when the company and its vision was incubated by Plan9 in 2015. Since then Daastan has been rising to the top and jostling the otherwise stagnant and dying literary industry of Pakistan. Earlier in 2016 Daastan published its first novel and has already started working on the publication of its second novel, all the while having already shipped out its very first orders. All this, however, was just the stage being set for a groundbreaking achievement that was yet to come – being selected as one of the Top 25 Startups in the Pakistan Startup Cup Challenge.
What is this Challenge?
The Pakistan Startup Cup challenge is a business model competition, which welcomes all kinds of business ideas from all over the country to compete among each other, meanwhile empowering them from a grass-root level to grow and flourish their business, and provide them with insight of the experts on how to build sustainable ecosystem. The challenge is a brainchild of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Islamabad, and is held in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan.
Daastan rising to the top:
The Startup Cup Challenge received almost a thousand applications from all over Pakistan. Only 130 of those were called to be a part of the challenge and participate in round one, i.e. Build a Business Workshop, and after a tough competition the top 25 made it to the next round, Daastan being one of them. Daastan eliminated more than a hundred mature startups, which were assumed to be better in theory by those who thought literature is dead end when it comes to business. It was the winning of this cup, that proved everyone who thought that way wrong.
Our team consisting of Founder Daastan Syed Ommer Amer (right) and Co-Founder and Editor in Chief Sidra Amin (left)
Team Daastan exhibited Qissa Self-Publishing launched by Daastan for Pakistan’s budding authors, which enables them to bring their work into print ready format and get it published, without the hassle of going through the legalities themselves. If you have a manuscript and are looking to get published, reach out to us through our Facebook or sign up on Qissa.
