In a rather brilliantly creative move, James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of the acclaimed young adult novel The Order of Odd-Fish, has developed a classroom guide for the novel which is intended to be used by school teachers in class with their students.

In James’ own words:

Some schools have put The Order of Odd-Fish on their reading lists. That’s great!

So I’ve put together a classroom guide for Odd-Fish. It’s 44 pages of discussion questions, lesson plans, and projects. It also features Odd-Fish fan art by enthusiastic readers—art that was featured in our Odd-Fish gallery show in Chicago in April 2010.

This curriculum does the strangeness of the book justice, I think. Aside from the chapter-by-chapter worksheets, there are also activities such as inventing your own Odd-Fish specialty, writing your own articles for the Eldritch Snitch, researching Japanese rituals that inspired the Odd-Fish festivals, baking avant-garde pies, creating urk-ack music, and inventing one’s own Eldritch City mythologies.

It’s also gateway to other fields of study. The knights of the Odd-Fish are, after all, scholars as well as warriors. This curriculum touches on topics as disparate as cockroach anatomy, Shinto and Hindu mythology, the KGB, Wikipedia, foppery, real-life historical eccentrics, and more.

Download the guide for free here. And of course, I always enjoy visiting schools, either in person or by Skype.

Go pester your teachers now! I’m doing this for you, people!

And in JetWit’s opinion, while the novel is in the young adult category, it’s also one of the funniest books you’ll ever read as an adult.  To read more JetWit posts about James, click here.  And watch the below video to see James doing an extremely dramatic reading from the book at last year’s JET Alumni Author Showcase in New York:

“Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder’s writeup about Tonoharu: Part One on Boing Boing, the book has made it into Amazon.com’s Top Ten Bestselling Graphic Novels today!”

Here’s the link to the review:  http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/27/tonoharu-excellent-g.html

Here’s a quote from the review:

“Published in 2008, and a winner of the prestigious Xeric Award, Tonoharu is a story of isolation, frustration, and mystery, with just the right amount of black humor to keep it from being depressing.”

For fans awaiting the next installment, Tonoharu:  Part 2 is due out in December.

A quick book recommendation from current Hiroshima-ken JET Gail Cetnar Meadows…

Now and then I read a book that’s so good I want to tell everyone I meet about it, and I’ve recently finished one such book. For those interested in learning more about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, I highly recommend a graphic novel written by atomic bomb survivor Keiji Nakazawa. Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima is a 10-volume graphic novel loosely based on Nakazawa’s experiences and those of other Hiroshima residents who survived the bomb. The book taught me a lot about what happened in Hiroshima in the year’s following World War II — things beyond what I learned visiting Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Museum or listening to the accounts of hibakusha. For those who are interested, I’ve written a piece on the Wide Island View talking a little more about it and encouraging others to check it out.

Here is a practical list of organizations, market guides, and networking opportunities for jump starting your writing career.  My apologies that it is heavy on the America and Speculative Fiction side, but that is who I am and what I write, so that is what I know best.  But hopefully everyone can find something useful from this list:

Your best friend for meeting publishers and agents is writers’ and fan conferences, especially if you can get one-on-one consultations!  Every state in America has at least one per year.  The one I always attend is the Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc. conference the first weekend in May (http://www.owfi.org/).  Next year it will be May 5^th-7^th.  It`s one of the best in America.  If you happen to live near the Oklahoma area, there is also Tulsa Nightwriters, CrossRoads Writers Critique Group, Oklahoma Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers, Fellowship of Christian Writers, and the Conestoga conference, all of which can be googled.  If you live in other areas, simply google “(your state/province/country) writers” and you will no doubt come up with a host of organizations, conferences, and events. 

Here are some groups in Japan:

Osaka Readers and Writer`s Club: Meets every Saturday to read and critique:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=84878668917&topic=13137#!/group.php?gid=35793654598&ref=search

 Nagoya Writers: http://nagoyawrites.wordpress.com/

Tokyo Writers Salon: http://ja-jp.facebook.com/posted.php?id=16353897846

Japan Writers Conference: http://www.japanwritersconference.org/ (This year being held in Tokyo October 10^th-11.) 

The best writing reference, in my humble opinion, is Writers` Market.  It comes out every September and you can get it at almost any bookstore (where English is the main spoke language; and where not, you can buy it online).  It features over 8,000 book, magazine, script, and poetry editors and agents to buy your writing. You have to get the latest one because it becomes totally obsolete in six months. For a more fluid, long-lasting reference, you can subscribe to www.writersmarket.com.  There`s a similar one for Christian Writers called Christian Writers` Market Guide: http://www.stuartmarket.com/ and for kids and teens called Children`s Writers and Illustrators Market: http://www.cwim.com/

Libraries often host events for writers and contests.  By winning a number of these contests, I’ve gained some really useful contacts. 

A really prestigious sci-fi/fantasy writers group is Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America- commonly called SFWA. http://www.sfwa.org/  In order to join you must have sold three short stories, a novel, or a screenplay in one of those genres to be in it, but it`s really worth it.  Even for non-members they are a vast resource for markets and other information.

This is a link to Australian Speculative Fiction markets: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mslee/mag.html.  And this one is international: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/markets.html

Fangs, Fur, and Fey (http://community.livejournal.com/fangs_fur_fey) is an online community for urban fantasy/paranormal authors.  They’re great for networking and critiquing.  The Absolute Write is another great online group of critiquers for any writer.   

Some agents with very helpful blogs about the industry are Nathan Bransford, Miss Snark, and Kristin Nelson.  They actually tell step by step how to submit your work and write a professional query letter, including examples, along with other essential writing, selling, and marketing tools.  The Guide to Literary Agents blog is my personal favorite, especially the new agent alerts! http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com

The international Writers of the Future Contest is how a lot of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers are getting started these days.  If you win (hard, but doable) they really promote your work and send you to a week-long conference with dozens of agents and editors present.  http://www.writersofthefuture.com/   

For more general genres, there is the international Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest held in February every year.  The odds at winning (with 5,000 entrants in both adult and young adult categories) are very low, but even making it to the quarterfinalist round is something you could put on a resume or a query letter to a publisher/agent.  That goes for all contests, actually.

Four small to medium press publishers interested in fantasy, science fiction and horror are Zumaya Publications, Yard Dog press, Double Dragon, and Baen Books.  They don’t require an agent to submit work to them.

Society of Children`s Book Writers and Illustrators is one of the most prestigious international writing groups in the world and is for authors of work for toddlers to teens. There are three levels of membership depending on your level of publication. They host events, critique groups, and conferences all over the world.  I am a member of both the Tokyo and Oklahoma chapters.  Here is their website: http://www.scbwi.org/.

For freelance writing opportunities, try checking caigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.  I`ve had a number of friends who got gigs this way. Here`s a link to an interesting submission request for science fiction writing out of Osaka: http://osaka.craigslist.jp/wrg/1780784902.html. Elance is another one that looks to be quite useful to us writer sorts.

And hopefully that will keep you busy for awhile!

Laura Popp (Mie-ken, 2009-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker.  Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi.  To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.blogspot.com. (And check out the Authors/Books section of the JetWit Library for a list of more writers in the JET-o-sphere.)

Tired of submitting queries to agents and editors and simply getting form rejection letters or worse, NO RESPONSE?  Wondering if they`re even bothering to read your stuff?  Frustrated by wanting to submit to publishing houses that only receive submissions from agents and “referred” writers? Consider meeting publishers and agents at a conference!

Recently I returned from a writers` conference in my home in Oklahoma and came back with some great success stories to tell.  Even better than the wonderful presentations on writing, polishing and marketing were the opportunities for networking and industry contacts. One literary agent asked me for the first fifty pages of my middle grade novel Dargon, another agent requested a proposal for my young adult novel Treasure Traitor, and a publisher from Simon and Shuster asked to see the full manuscripts of BOTH. A travel publisher also requested a proposal for a non-fiction travel-essay book on Japan, and best of all, a Christian magazine publisher accepted one of my stories on the spot! Of course, most of these are just birds in the bush, if you will, but they are certainly a good start.

So how did you do it? you may be wondering. Well, let me tell you…

Do your homework

Many conferences post information about editors and agents who will be attending in advance. Research them and pick the ones that look like they may be interested in your completed fiction projects or non-fiction ideas. Note that most agents and publishers will ONLY consider finished fiction works and proposals for non-fiction articles and books.

Try to make an appointment

If you have the option to make an appointment, get one early because they tend to fill up fast.  If you can`t make an appointment, join them for lunch or dinner. If all else fails, try to catch them after or before a presentation but NEVER corner them in the bathroom. Try to be considerate. They are probably worn out from traveling and busy thinking about their upcoming presentations, so try to catch them at a time when they`re relaxed and not stressed out. At the hotel bar during happy hour is always a great option. You`d be surprised how many deals are made over a beer.

Practice your pitch

Write a two to three sentence pitch that reveals the main character, the main conflict, and the audience for your book.  A good way of formulating these is the “Wrath of Kan meets The Little Princess” method, only using books the editor has published or the agent has previously represented. This shows them you know about them and aren`t just throwing your stuff out there to anyone. You don`t have to do it this way, in fact I find it far too formulaic.  Here`s two examples of pitches for my books:

Treasure Traitor: Fifteen-year-old Renagada wants nothing more than to live in peace with her best friend.  There`s only one problem.  Her best friend`s a vulture.

Dargon the Human Slayer: Dargon dreams of becoming a Master Human Slayer like his grandfather.  What more could an awkward adolescent dragon want? But when he meets to human siblings who accidently traveled back in time to his prehistoric home, his whole world turns upside down.

From these two pitches, what do we know about the books?  In the first one we learn the main character and her problem and also figure out this is probably going to be a book for young teenage girls who like birds. In the second one we learn the main character and his problem and that this is going to be a book most likely to appeal to adolescents who like dragons. There`s our hook and our market, all in one. That`s what the publisher wants to know most. What makes this story interesting and who`s going to read it?

Now the first one is actually a science-fiction/fantasy novel, but I was pitching it to a publisher whose emphasis lies on angsty female teens and their tumultuous relationships.  So that`s how I pitched it and when I got into the fantasy elements during our conversation, they didn`t turn her off because I had emphasized the core conflict of the story as Rena`s relationship with her bird.  If I were to pitch the same story to a fantasy publisher, I would start with something more like this:

Fifteen-year-old Renagada lives in a pre-industrial world of superstition, where a woman’s only hope of power lies in her ability to control animals and use them to fight in the horrific war tearing her world apart.  Rena longs to live up to this legacy, but when she forms a particularly strong bond with a carrion-eater bird named Acha, whom her people fear and hate, she must choose between a life of honor and a life on the run.

Same book but totally different emphasis. These aren`t the greatest examples, but hopefully they give you an idea. If the publisher likes action adventure, put that spin on it. If the agent likes strong female protagonists, throw that in. Practice your pitch until you have it memorized and can say it slowly but with measured enthusiasm.

Stay calm

Nothing ruins a good pitch like an author who simply rattles it off at torpedo speed.  Just breathe, smile, and be sure to give the publisher or agent a friendly handshake when you say hello and goodbye.  Eye contact is also important, of course.  If you stare at your notes while you`re rattling off your pitch, you won`t make a good impression.  A very wise agent once told me that ten minutes is not enough to know whether or not he likes a book, but it is enough to know whether or not he likes a person and will want to work with them in the future.

Listen!

After the pitch, it`s a good idea to explain the main plot points of the story in its entirety (don`t make them guess at the ending), but keep it brief! Try to shoot for less than a minute. Allow for a conversation to begin; that`s where the gold lies.  Allow them to make comments on your story and ask questions. If they aren`t thrilled, don`t be discouraged! It might not be for them, but this is a golden opportunity to receive professional comments about how you can improve the story or your pitch.  And be sure to ask questions of them!  What is their favorite book, how does their editing process work, do they actively promote the careers of their authors? You too want to make sure this is someone you want to work with on your life-long dream!

Jackpot!

If all goes well, the publisher or agent will ask for one of three things:

1.) A proposal (and be sure to ask exactly what they want because it does differ)

2.) A partial (up to fifty pages or five chapters of the manuscript)

3.) The full manuscript!

So be sure for fiction works that you have the full manuscript already completed! Most publishers will give you only a six week window to submit after the conference. Be sure to keep to whatever deadline and guidelines they give you. Doing so shows you are a professional and will be easy to work with.

And there you have it! Happy conferencing!

He recently interviewed Shane Acker, director of the animated film “9” and Richard Kelly, who most recently directed “The Box,” a thriller starring Cameron Diaz. He also reviewed the manga “Hot Gimmick.” Here are some excerpts:

Shane Acker

[The characters in the movie are all animated dolls with numbers instead of names.]　A different personality aspect is dominant in each one. Rigid orthodoxy is represented by leader 1 (voiced by Christopher Plummer), creativity by inventor 2 (Martin Landau), bravery by warrior 7 (Jennifer Connelly) and so on. Elijah Wood does the voice of 9, the truth-seeker of the group, and John C. Reilly voices his timid friend, 5…

The most amusing character is 8 (Fred Tatasciore), who embodies sheer physicality. In one scene, he achieves a moment of strange bliss by stroking his head with a large magnet, an activity that Acker called “degaussing himself.”

“In film school, especially in the days of video, if you had a videotape and you wanted to just wipe it clean, there’s a degaussing machine, which is basically like a supermagnet, and you would wave the videotape over the degausser and it would just take off all the footage that’s on there,” Acker explained. “So that’s the kind of idea, he’s sort of wiping his memory banks. You realize why he’s so dumb.”

Read the full article here.

Richard Kelly

Imagine that a mysterious stranger has just handed you a wooden box with a red button on top. He explains, rather convincingly, that if you push the button two things will happen: Someone whom you don’t know will die, and you will receive a payment of 1 million dollars…

In writer-director Richard Kelly’s movie The Box, based on a short story by Richard Matheson, the stranger’s name is Arlington Steward (Frank Langella), and he is conducting a high-stakes social experiment by visiting the homes of middle-class American couples and offering them the choice of pushing the button or not.

“Tonally this movie crosses a lot of genres,” Kelly, who previously wrote and directed Donnie Darko (2001) and Southland Tales (2006), told The Daily Yomiuri in a recent phone interview. “It’s a science fiction film, it’s a domestic melodrama, it’s a suspense film, there’s elements of horror in it, and there’s also some black comedy inherent…The conceit of pushing this button on this contraption and someone you don’t know dying is very mischievous. Anyone who would build this contraption and make this offer is smirking when they do it. And Matheson was smirking, I’m sure, when he wrote this short story.”

…[The story is set in the 1970s because] the mysterious stranger is a character type whose day has passed, according to Kelly. “When I set out to write this screenplay, I initially was trying to figure out how to make it work present-day, but when you introduce modern technology and the Internet, social networking sites, Google maps, satellite maps, reality TV, just our media-saturated world that we live in…there is no such thing as a real stranger anymore. Everyone can be found on the Internet. You can find anyone’s house, you can go onto a satellite map with a 360-degree view.”

Read the full article here.

“Hot Gimmick”

[In this manga, a high school girl’s seriously unhealthy relationships with her would-be boyfriends is presented as perfectly normal.]

For example, the day after one of her suitors is unable to reach her by phone (for reasons that are no one’s fault), he slaps her across the face so hard that bystanders rush to offer first aid. But Hatsumi chases after him to make the following speech, which he receives in stony silence: “I’m sorry. For being so clueless. For…never being able to get your calls…I’m so sorry. I’m really sorry. For not understanding how you feel about me. I’m sorry.”

Later, when one of the boys proposes to her, she thinks, “Maybe if we got married, he’d finally be nice to me.”

She seems unaware of some basic principles of healthy human interaction, such as this simple standard: If a friend arranges for you to be gang-raped, that person is not really your friend.

Read the full review here.

Rock & Roll Jihad

Robert Schroeder (Shizuoka, ’92-’93), a JET alum and journalist based in Maryland, has released a book he co-wrote called Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star’s Revolution (Free Press/Simon & Schuster).  After Schroeder wrote a piece in The Wall Street Journal profiling the Pakistani musician in 2007, the star asked him to be his writing assistant on his memoir.  And now, just a few months after publication, the book has already garnered high praise, both from celebrities like physician Deepak Chopra and Amazon readers.

The memoir follows the life of Salman Ahmad — founder of the “U2 of Asia” Sufi-rock band Junoon, a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, and teacher of South Asian poetry — who is now credited as the first musician to bridge the gap between the West and the Muslim world.  He brought chart-topping rock & roll riffs to new ears in his home country of Pakistan, but also reined in listeners from around the world, including those at the UN General Assembly and the Nobel Peace Prize concert.

Ahmad, with the writing assistance of Schroeder, chronicle the cultural and political intricacies of navigating the politically tense Middle East, along with the post-9/11 world as a whole, as he continues to educate through music the true diversity of the Islamic faith and its art to the rest of the globe.

Schroder himself is not new to crossing national borders.  A former NHK producer and now reporter at Marketwatch, he has contributed pieces about Japan in numerous American periodicals, including a review in The Washington Post of a Virginia inn with Japanese style ofuro baths and traditional breakfasts.  Another first-person piece in The New York Times Magazine recounts the shock of eating whale sashimi in Ayukawa.  To read more of his pieces, click here.

To preview the first few pages of the book, read here.

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents

Friday, April 2, 2010

Details, Details: The Snap, Crackle, and Pop of Good Writing with author Jane Kurtz

Time:    Friday, April 2, 2010, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Place:                 Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Conference Room 1 (5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo;

by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University. For a map see www.scbwi.jp/map.htm

Fee:                    1,000 yen SCBWI members; 1,500 yen nonmembers

Reservations:  Contact info@scbwi.jp by Thursday, April 1, 2010

This event will be in English.

American novelist John Gardner called details the lifeblood of fiction. Many an editor has said the absolute key to a piece of writing she fell in love with was its voice…but what creates the “voice” of a piece other than its distinct details? Award-winning author Jane Kurtz will give ten keys for coaxing vivid, shimmering, gripping details into our drafts and will show why certain mistakes around details are the kiss of death for any piece of writing. Q&A will follow the talk.

Jane Kurtz spent most of her childhood in Ethiopia—and now travels the world talking about writing, reading, and the magic of books. Her recent speaking has taken her to all but eleven of the U.S. states, Europe, the Persian Gulf, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Romania, and East and West Africa. School Library Journal called Jane Kurtz a “superb storyteller.” Her books have gathered accolades, starred reviews, and awards. Since 1994, she has published twenty-nine books: nonfiction books, professional books for teachers, picture books, and novels for young readers that draw on her own childhood memories of growing up in Ethiopia as well as surviving the Red River flood of 1997. Jane has taught writing at the elementary, secondary, and university levels and is currently on the faculty of the MFA in children’s and young adult literature out of Vermont College. Her passion for books and reading and her love of Ethiopia came together in Ethiopia Reads, an organization that is establishing the free libraries for children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with Yohannes Gebregeorgis, one of CNN’s Top Ten Heroes (www.ethiopiareads.org). For more on Jane Kurtz visit www.janekurtz.com.

www.scbwi.jp    info@scbwi.jp

Here’s the flyer with all the relevant info for the event:

He recently appeared on ABC’s World News Tonight.  And even more recently he was commissioned to write an op-ed for the Christian Science Monitor to clarify some of the vast cultural misreadings evident in the Congressional Toyota/Toyoda hearings.

• Toyota and trust: Was the Akio Toyoda apology lost in translation? Stung by Toyota recalls, Toyoda had to convey sincerity – and bridge the gulf in communication styles between Japan and America. http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0225/Toyota-and-trust-Was-the-Akio-Toyoda-apology-lost-in-translation

• Roland is also quoted in this AP article on Toyota:  “Toyota President Battles Crisis in Family Company“ http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/02/19/toyota_president_battles_crisis_in_family_company/?page=full

And addressed the topic of Toyota in an interesting way in his recent Daily Yomiuri column on The Super Bowl, Toyota, Anime and Hollywood:

• SOFT POWER, HARD TRUTHS / Anime must eventually transcend Japan ‘national’ brand http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20100219TDY11003.htm

And if you’re looking for commentary on non-Toyota topics, then you can listen to Roland’s recent appearance on NPR discussing a wild relic of Japanese popular culture, a viral video of Japanese ‘Jazz Opera,’ produced in 1986 by Tamori, the great comedian:

• http://www.theworld.org/2010/02/17/japanese-jazz-opera/

Chin Music Press, the Seattle-based publisher owned and run by Bruce Rutledge (MEF Program Chiba-ken, 1985-87) is thrilled to host several reading events this week in Seattle and Vancouver for their newest release, Big in Japan: A Ghost Story.

The debut novel from Hawaii-based author M. Thomas Gammarino is a deadly funny story of haunted progressive rock composer Brain Tedesco. The book has already received rave reviews; PF Kluge says it’s “seductive and devastating” and Ron Currie Jr. calls Brain “the perfect hero for the Age of Anxiety.”

******************

If you’re near Seattle or Vancouver, catch Tom and the Chin Music Press team at one of these events:

1/6 Third Place Books Ravenna, 6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 7pm

1/7 Sophia Books, 450 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, 6:30pm

1/8 Big in Japan: Bold In Seattle. Little Red Bistro, 400 Dexter Ave. N, Seattle, WA, 6pm

Big in Japan: A Ghost Story is designed by JET alum Joshua Powell (Saitama-ken 2005-07) and marketed by fellow alum Jessica Sattell (Fukuoka-ken 2007-2008). The book is available through the Chin Music Press website with promotional free shipping to the U.S. and Canada or at major booksellers.

For book reviews and more information, visit Big in Japan’s website. Check out previous JetWit posts about Bruce Rutledge and Chin Music Press here.

Author, manuscript consultant and blogger Liz Sheffield (Hokkaio-ken, Sapporo-shi, 1993-95) has a great post on her blog Motherlogue about a new book out titled Midori by Moonlight by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga.  Here’s Liz’s explanation of the background:

About a year ago I read Wendy Nelson Tokunaga’s debut novel, Midori by Moonlight. I was thrilled to see that she had a new release out in November — Love In Translation. Both of her books cover topics near and dear to my heart: Japanese culture, the expatriate experience and cross-cultural romance.

Love In Translation intrigued me because the story is told from the perspective of a foreign woman living in Japan, something with which I have personal experience! As I read the book, I had a wonderful sense of being reconnected to my own experiences in Japan — from the visits to a ryokan (Japanese hotel) to eating delicious shu-cream to blunders in communication through a foreign language. I was also reminded of what I learned about myself thanks to the joy and hardship of navigating a culture so different from my own.

In my interview with her at Motherlogue, Wendy offers insight about her experiences in Japan, about publishing two novels and combining her vocal talents with her husband’s musical talents to create an enka song (“Nozomi No Hoshi“) as the soundtrack for Love In Translation. Details about how to request a copy of “Nozomi No Hoshi” on CD, are included in the interview.

• Read the interview with Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, author of “Love in Translation.”
• Read an interview with fellow JET alum Suzanne Kamata about Suzanne’s book Call Me Okaasan:  Adventures in Multicultural Mothering.
• Follow Motherlogue here:  http://motherlogue.wordpress.com

http://www.fantopro.com/blog/2009/12/book-review-japanamerica.html

Just in time for the holidays, in case you’re looking for that special gift for that special JET friend or Friend of JET!

Chin Music Press, the Seattle-based publisher owned and run by Bruce Rutledge (MEF Program Chiba-ken, 1985-87) is excited to host several reading events this upcoming week in New York and Philadelphia for their newest release, Big in Japan: A Ghost Story. The tour continues this January to Seattle and Vancouver.

The debut novel from Hawaii-based author M. Thomas Gammarino is a deadly funny story of haunted progressive rock composer Brain Tedesco. The book has already received rave reviews; PF Kluge says it’s “seductive and devastating” and Ron Currie Jr. calls Brain “the perfect hero for the Age of Anxiety.”

******************

Catch Tom at one of these events:

East Coast:

12/16 “I Had It Bad” Reading Series. Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street, New York, NY, 8pm

12/17 St. Joseph’s University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 3pm

12/21 “Asia In The Age of Anxiety” with Xiaoda Xiao. KGB Lit Bar, 85 East Fourth Street, New York, NY, 7pm

12/23 Rocky Sullivan’s, 34 Van Dyke Street, Brooklyn, NY, 7pm

1/2 Chester County Book and Music Co., 975 Paoli Pike, West Chester, PA, 7pm

West Coast:

1/6 Third Place Books Ravenna, 6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 7pm

1/7 Sophia Books, 450 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, 6:30pm

1/8 Big in Japan: A Celebration with Pilot Books. Little Red Bistro, 400 Dexter Ave. N, Seattle, WA, 6pm

Big in Japan is designed by JET alum Joshua Powell (Saitama-ken 2005-07). The book is available through the Chin Music Press website with promotional free shipping to the U.S. and Canada or at major booksellers.

For book reviews and more information, visit Big in Japan’s website. Check out previous JetWit posts about Bruce Rutledge and Chin Music Press here.

Laura Popp (Mie-ken, 2009-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker.  Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi.  To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.blogspot.com. (And check out the Authors/Books section of the JetWit Library for a list of more writers in the JET-o-sphere.)

Hello again!  This week I would like to report on the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference in Yokohama.  It actually occurred on November 14^th, but, alas, I have been ill with swine flu and other “opportunistic infections” so I was unable to report.  But now you get to hear all about it!

For those of you who don`t know, SCBWI is a great group to get involved with if you write for kids.  They have lots of events, critique groups, contests, and resources.  Here is their website: http://www.scbwi.jp/

A note on transportation. There are many events for writers and translators in Japan, but most are confined to the big cities. For those of you who live in a small town like me, you may be wondering how you will ever get to this wonderful career-building opportunities and still stay within your tight school-teacher budget.  Fear not!

There is a wonderful, often overlooked form of transportation in Japan called the night bus.  It may seem like a pain, but the bus I took from my home in Nabari to Yokohama was very comfortable.  The bus ride was about eight hours, so if I were more accustomed to sleeping on a bus, I probably could have been well rested when we arrived very early in the morning.  The earliness gave me plenty of time for sightseeing before the conference, and since my bus home didn`t leave until 11:00pm.  Plus it cost less than half than taking the shinkansen, and there`s no need to pay for a hotel!

That said, I was very tired when I arrived back in Nabari at 7:00am.  Fortunately it was Sunday, but I would not recommend taking the night bus if you have to go to work the next day.  Also, be warned, not all night buses are created equal. Check to see if the bus you want to ride has reclining seats or not, and if there is a bathroom on board or if they stop ever few hours, turn on the lights, and have people jostling past you trying to get in and out constantly.  If you are interested in taking a night bus somewhere, I would recommend contacting the main bus station in your town.  Most of them don’t speak English, but a Japanese friend helped me get the information and make reservations over the phone.  You may be surprised how many places offer night buses to common destinations such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc.

(FYI, Yokohama is famous for its beautiful gardens and harbor, but if you want to see pictures of that, you`ll have to check them out at my regular blog.)

The conference itself was very beneficial.  The main speaker was senior editor Alvina Ling from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.  In the first session, she described her own path to becoming a publisher, and how her father met and married her mother.  “We both had very clear goals,” she said.  “And so should you.  The five steps to becoming a published author are to set your goal, do your research, outline a step by step plan, work hard and preserver, and network like crazy!”

The next session was about her day to day life as a children`s publisher.  Turns out she spends most of her time in meetings with other editors, the marketing team, designers, illustrators, etc.  Any free moment is spent checking and answering email, though she admits that she, like most publishers, is always 2-3 months behind on this.  Most of the actual reading of manuscripts goes on at home, after hours.  So in other words, she really loves her job, because it`s her life.

There are eight stages to “bringing a book to life” she said.  Acquisitions, editing, transmittal, copy editing, design, galley stage, marketing and publicity, and post production. 　In acquisitions, she reads the manuscript to see if she would be interested in taking on the project.  She has to be really passionate about it, because it will take at least two years before the book is actually on the book shelves in Borders or Barnes and Nobel making money.

Also, she has to come up with a publicity pitch for the production and marketing staff and the head publisher to make everyone excited about it.  It`s sort of like bearing your soul, she said.  She admitted that there were a few times she was really in love with a project but it was rejected by other employees in the house, and she actually went in the bathroom and cried.  It was really reassuring to hear that publishers know what it`s like to be rejected too.  That`s the sort of publisher you want, she said.  One who will be so dedicated to your work that he/she will fight for your book.

A lot of times she knows something is good, but she just doesn’t feel she`s passionate enough about it to be the right publisher for the project.  From personal experience, it can take six months for the publisher to get back to you about whether he or she is personally interested or not.  Then it can take another six months until they tell you whether the whole crew is on board or not.

The second stage is editorial, which usually takes six months, but can last as long as a year.  She said that, contrary to popular opinion, editors do still edit.  That doesn’t mean you should send in your first or even second draft. You want the book to be as good as you can make it, but then expect the editor to make massive revisions if he/she sees fit.  (Sometimes the editor may even ask you to rearrange plot points, take out or add characters.)  Does that mean you have to accept all his/her suggestions?  No.  If an editor agrees to a project, that means he/she believes in it, and is usually willing to make compromises.  But don`t just dismiss what your editor says either. Editors are insiders to the business and know what will sell and what won`t.  Their primary concern is keeping the company in business, and the way they do that is by making the book as good and sellable as it can be.

The third stage is transmittal.  This is when decisions are made about how to produce the book, how many copies to make, etc.  Then comes copy editing, which is basically checking for typos and minor errors in grammar and spelling.  Hopefully by this time all the major editing is done.  Half way through the process there are meetings about design.  Another “contrary to popular opinion” point, nearly all children`s books are assigned illustrators after the text is accepted by the publisher.  Author/illustrator duos are very hard to break in.  If the author is also an illustrator, that`s another story, but even then, for a new writer, publishers usually prefer to assign them a well-known illustrator.  Sort of how a producer might package a new screenwriter with an experienced director.

Little Brown`s head designer, Alison Impey, talked quite a bit about this stage throughout the conference.  In addition to your typical illustrated children`s book for 2-8 year-olds, for middle grade novels (ages 10-14) the publisher might want half-page illustrations at the beginning or end of chapters, illustrated inserts with small text, ornamental lettering, maps or diagrams (especially for fantasy and mystery) a character bio page with pictures, an illustrated glossary, any number of things. This was really exciting to me, because I always pictured these sorts of things for my middle-grade novel Dargon, the Human Slayer that I`m submitting to Little Brown, but a lot of publishers don`t do that sort of thing for middle-grade novels anymore, especially in the older (12-14 year-old) range.

After design come the galley proofs. I used to work for an anthology publisher, and if this is a universal term, galley proofs are long sheets of paper with all the text and illustrations and designs, a final draft to check before the real thing is put to press and book bound. Advanced reader copies (ARCs) for reviewers come from this stage.

Last of all, Ms. Ling talked about marketing and publicity.  She said another common misconception is that publishers don`t do anything to promote their books anymore and leave it all up to the author.  This is simply not true. There is a lot they do behind the scenes.  At Little Brown they get it into all the major book stores, into the school catalogs and major libraries, book a few primary interviews and school visits, and get reviews.  But alas, a lot of the publicity is up the author.  She recommended doing school visits like crazy and charging for them, as this is how most professional children`s authors actually win their bread and butter.  Only about 1 in 100 children`s authors make it on writing alone and even then most of them choose to do visits anyway to get more kids to read their books.

I`ve had a number of old-time writer friends tell me that the best way to become a published author is to quit your job and do some decent starving.  I hate to break it to you, but these days even if you were to sell a story the day you quit your job, you wouldn`t see that paycheck for at least six months.

Even in the short story market, it`s not pretty.  Of the ten “on spec” stories (submissions without commission) I have been paid for, I have never received a pay check sooner than four months after sending in the story, and in that one case, the publisher was less than a twenty-minute drive from my house.  I receive my average paycheck about six months after I send in the story. Most “professional paying markets” only pay about one cent per word, so a three thousand word story gets you $30.  Woohoo.  You probably spent half that much on paper, ink, and postage just to get it to them and receive their response, not to mention the sample copy of the magazine you had to read or any hard copies you gave your friends to edit before you submitted the story.  Ms. Ling said, and I quote, “Either find yourself a day job that leaves you plenty of time to write, be a paid speaker every weekend, or marry somebody rich.”

Not that I`m trying to preach doom and gloom or that it`s impossible to become a professional author.  I`m just trying to emphasize that if you want to make a living at it, you have to be creative about marketing and publicity, not just your writing.　Also, on a brighter note, commissioned work is much better.  I`ve done two writing jobs on commission, three if you count a presentation on business writing that I wrote and presented myself.  All of them paid me within a week after I turned in the final draft, and, except for the fiction script, paid at least ten times as much as I`ve ever received by simply sending stuff in on spec.  Even the fiction movie script paid more than twice as much.  So commissions are awesome!  If you`re willing to give up a certain amount of artistic freedom, and know how/where to get them. That`s another topic entirely.

For lunch, I took my bento to the rose garden and ate in the gazebo.  I`ll go ahead and tantalize you with one picture:

Then I walked along the harbor view again. On the way back, I passed by a shop titled in English “The Best Cheesecake Café.”  If you find yourself in Yokohama, try it out.  It was expensive, but incredibly melt-in-you-mouth smooth and rich, and float-off-your-feet light.

In the next section Ms. Ling discussed the “good, the bad, and the ugly” of the publishing business.  There were a lot of good pointers in this one.  First of all, she said if you want a good publisher, you need a good agent, because most publishers these days don’t take unagented submissions.  There is the small press route, but the chances of “hitting it big” with a small press are next to nil.  They just don’t have the distribution and marketing. I asked her about self-publishing, e-publishing and vanity press, to which she replied with words along the lines of, if you want something for your friends and family to enjoy, those are great, but if you dream of the world reading and enjoying your book, your best bet is still large or mid-sized traditional presses.  She said e-publishing has more than quadrupled in the last year at Little Brown, but still accounts for less than 1% of their sales.  The same is true for most big houses.

She also mentioned that it’s better to have a small advance (money upfront) and a good royalty (percentage of profits after you earn out your advance).  The last thing you want is to have a big advance and not earn it out.  In the end, publishers` decisions are based on profit and loss charts, and if they paid you more than the book sold, they are not likely to work with you again.  And neither is anyone else. A good advance is about $5,000, and a good royalty rate is about 6%.  Of course, this varies from publisher to publisher.  Ms. Ling said you know you’re doing well when a royalty check can pay the mortgage for that month.

After that session, Ms. Ling got together with Little Brown’s head designer, Alison Impey, to talk about how they pair books with illustrators and cover designers.  It’s a really interesting process.  They look at an illustrator’s style, themes, past projects, notoriety, and of course whether or not they have the time.  Interestingly, Ms. Impey said she finds most of her illustrators through on-line forums and networking, not through submitted work.  Also, the person who does the interior illustrations might not be the same person who does the cover, or other interior work such as text ornamentation or maps.  Writers at Little Brown have some say in the cover, especially if they have an agent or a general idea such as “I want a dragon” or “could this be a collage?” But writers almost always go with what the publisher suggests.

We had Q&A from 4:00-5:00, but the only question that stuck out in my mind was “How long should you wait after querying an agent or publisher before you ask them about the status of your book?”  She said four months.  Sounds reasonable.  She said if they don`t respond within a month to that question, you have every right to start submitting to other publishers, even if that publishers says “no simultaneous submissions.”　Then if the first publisher gets back to you a year later with a yes that you haven`t gotten from anyone else, you can still follow up with them without feeling as if you acted unprofessionally.

If you have gotten a yes from someone else, that`s when you seek out an agent in earnest, and they negotiate an auction.  Auctions can be good or bad.  Sometimes they make publishers competitive and they`ll bet as high as they can to get the book, other times they`ll back out of the competition. Overall, an auction is a good thing.  If nothing else, it boosts your reputation and career, making it easier to get an agent and publisher in the future.

Personally, I feel that I gained a lot from the conference.  I was afraid it might be a waste of time, because I`ve been to so many already, and there`s only so much that can be said about improving characters, plotting, editing, etc.  But this conference was different, because it gave me a clear view of what exactly goes on in a publishing house, and what an editor does on a day-to-day basis.  It was very encouraging.  All writers need a reminder every once and awhile that editors are people too.  They`re not out to rob you of your dreams.  In fact, they really want you to succeed, because they love books.

At the end, Ms. Ling mentioned that there should be no reason why we can`t at least begin our published careers here in Japan.  Later on it might put a damper of publicity and sales, but many English writers find creative ways around this, such as holding book signings at international schools, doing week-long tours twice a year in their home countries, and of course, lots of internet publicity. She said living in a foreign country does not affect a publisher`s decision to publish an author. We also received a list of resources such as online critique groups, publishing and writing conferences in Japan, support groups, and useful English market guides we can get in Japan.  This was the most encouraging thing of all, because I was thinking I wouldn`t have the resources I needed to publish a book while in Japan.  It`s going to happen.  It`s just a matter of time…

Speaking of that, as with over 90% of publishers these days, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is a closed house.  They only take submissions that are represented by an agent, or ones that receive a recommendation from someone they trust.  But for being at the conference, Ms. Ling gave us permission to query her through March 15th!  She`s looking for middle-grade books (ages 10-14), so first I`m querying her about Dargon, the Human Slayer! If she dosn`t like that one, I`ll query Treasure Traitor.  Wish me luck!

Here`s the group photo.  Unfortunately, not everyone’s in it because some people had to leave early, but most of us are here.  Ms. Ling is second from the left in front.  Holly Thompson, the woman who organized the conference, is on her left.  She`s president of the Society of Children`s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Tokyo chapter.  The woman on Ms. Ling`s right is Alison Impey, senior designer at Little Brown.  I am in the front row wearing the black suit, with my head tilted to one side.

After the conference, I went to Yokohama Chinatown!  But to read about that and my other adventures in Japan with pictures and video, visit my regular blog at  http://laurajanepopp.blogspot.com/

Here’s the link:  http://bit.ly/3hix5A.

Have a look and feel free to share your thoughts on Twitter as well.  Also, you can follow JetWit via Twitter at http://twitter.com/jetwit.

Thanks to a post on the JETAA Texoma (Chapter 9) yahoogroup, just found out about JET alum Taylor Chapman, a professional photographer who has a new book out titled People of the 21st Century:  A Portrait of Japanese Society.  Additionally, Taylor has a book signing coming up in Houston, TX.  (Details below.)  Meanwhile, if you know of any other JET alums out there with published books, by all means let JetWit know and we’ll post about it here to let everyone know.

Here’s the info from JETAA Texoma:

Hi All,

I am excited to let you know about a book signing by photographer and JET alumnus Taylor Chapman that will take place at the River Oaks Bookstore on Friday, November 27 from 5pm-7pm. Taylor would love to have folks stop by to say hello, even if you haven’t bought his book.

Taylor Chapman spent the last two years living in Kumamoto, Japan with the JET Program, teaching English at a local high school. As his Japanese proficiency grew, he became increasingly fascinated by Japan’s distinctive culture, and decided to embark on a unique photographic project to document Japanese society.

Having pursued photography for ten years now, including extensive study at Yale University, Chapman developed a specific methodology, adapted from a 1930′s German photographer’ s approach. He classified all members of Japanese society by their occupations and societal roles, and set out to create a portrait of Japanese society as a whole by photographing as many of its component parts–in other words, these individuals- – as possible in their natural environments.

In his last six months in Japan, Chapman went out shooting almost every single day, ending up with an archive of thousands of pictures spanning hundreds of individuals and social roles. Included are bakers and butchers, salarymen and snack bar girls, farmers and fishermen, teachers and students.

In July, he held an exhibition of his work in Japan; this Thanksgiving, he’ll be having a book release/signing party at the River Oaks Bookstore in Houston (across the street from Lamar High School, next to Baskin Robbins). Please come! There will be wine and hors d’oeuvres from 5 to 7.

The book (there are mini and deluxe editions available in-store and online:  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/950612 makes a great Christmas present.  But please feel free to just drop by, say hi, and have a glass of wine– the author is happy just to share his work and his love of Japan, and there’s no need to buy anything.

If you’d like to get a feel for the work in the book, here are some of the images posted online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31959446@N07/sets/72157622321556815/

Finally, for any comments or questions, feel free to contact the author at taylor.c.chapman [/at/] gmail [/dot/] com.

Here’s a radio interview Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, did in Tokyo this past weekend with Tyler Brule, founder and editor of the UK-based Monocle magazine, about manga in Japan and overseas, and Japanamerica:

http://www.monocle.com/The-Monocle-Weekly

The Japanamerica segment is introduced at 1:00 and starts at 22:00