Zoe Heller still remembers the criticism following the release of her debut novel especially the one which predicted "no future" for the fiction writer, but the author asserts she was never disheartened.

"I think it was my ego that helped me then. I wanted to write my next novel and do a better job despite the criticism," the journalist-cum-author said on the sidelines of Jaipur Literature Festival here.

Her second novel Notes on a Scandal was shortlisted for Booker prize in 2003 and even adapted into a movie in 2008. Of late, the author has been fielding a lot of questions about her scathing criticism of Salman Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton in the New York Review of Books.

But just as she does not mince words in her columns, she does not mind speaking her mind when asked about the protests against inclusion of certain authors at the JLF before the inaugural day as well as after the award of DSC prize to Jeet Thayil.

"I can only say that speech must be free. If you don't like what I am saying then let's talk. But there should be no gagging," Heller said.

The novel Notes on a Scandal, a story of a female teacher at a London school having an affair with an underage student, was made into a film starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. Both the actors received Academy Award nomination for their role in the film.

"When the movie came out, I suddenly was somebody. People started recognising me as the person who had written this book," Heller said, admitting that the original ending in the big screen version was changed but added that she did not worry too much about it.

Heller believes that women authors do not receive as much respect as their male counterparts when it comes to "certain kind" of fiction writing.

"A male writing certain kind of fiction is taken more seriously when compared to his female counterpart," she rued.

"In fact, the very fact that we use the term 'woman author' tells us that we are not quite there yet," Heller said in response to a question about the status of women writers in the fiction world.

Her column on Salman Rushdie's memoir has since been nominated for the hatchet job of the year.

"Well, that kind of suggests that I had some malicious intent behind writing that piece. But I did not write it with that kind of feeling," Heller explained.

Zoe Heller, born in London studied English at Oxford before moving to US to study at Columbia University. She has worked for the Independent, Vanity Fair, Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, besides having written three novels.

She currently resides in New York with her two daughters and is now working on her next novel.