http:\/\/www.scbwi.jp\/<\/a><\/p>\nA\u00a0note 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.\u00a0 Fear not!<\/p>\n
There is a wonderful, often overlooked form of transportation in Japan called the night bus<\/strong>.\u00a0 It may seem like a pain, but the bus I took from my home in Nabari to Yokohama was very comfortable.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The earliness gave me plenty of time for sightseeing before the conference, and since my bus home didn`t leave until 11:00pm.\u00a0 Plus it cost less than half than taking the shinkansen, and there`s no need to pay for a hotel!<\/p>\nThat said, I was very tired when I arrived back in Nabari at 7:00am.\u00a0 Fortunately it was Sunday, but I would not recommend taking the night bus if you have to go to work the next day.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 If you are interested in taking a night bus somewhere, I would recommend contacting the main bus station in your town.\u00a0 Most of them don’t speak English, but a Japanese friend helped me get the information and make reservations over the phone.\u00a0 You may be surprised how many places offer night buses to common destinations such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc.<\/p>\n
(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.)<\/p>\n
The conference itself was very beneficial.\u00a0 The main speaker was senior editor Alvina Ling<\/strong> from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers<\/strong>.\u00a0 In the first session, she described her own path to becoming a publisher, and how her father met and married her mother.\u00a0 \u201cWe both had very clear goals,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd so should you.\u00a0 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!\u201d<\/p>\nThe next session was about her day to day life as a children`s publisher.\u00a0 Turns out she spends most of her time in meetings with other editors, the marketing team, designers, illustrators, etc.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Most of the actual reading of manuscripts goes on at home, after hours.\u00a0 So in other words, she really loves her job, because it`s her life.<\/p>\n
There are eight stages<\/strong> to \u201cbringing a book to life\u201d she said.\u00a0 Acquisitions, editing, transmittal, copy editing, design, galley stage, marketing and publicity, and post production. \u3000In acquisitions, she reads the manuscript to see if she would be interested in taking on the project.\u00a0 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 <\/strong>or Barnes and Nobel<\/strong> making money.<\/p>\nAlso, 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.\u00a0 It`s sort of like bearing your soul, she said.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It was really reassuring to hear that publishers know what it`s like to be rejected too.\u00a0 That`s the sort of publisher you want, she said.\u00a0 One who will be so dedicated to your work that he\/she will fight for your book.<\/p>\n
A lot of times she knows something is good, but she just doesn\u2019t feel she`s passionate enough about it to be the right publisher for the project.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Then it can take another six months until they tell you whether the whole crew is on board or not.<\/p>\n
The second stage <\/strong>is editorial, which usually takes six months, but can last as long as a year.\u00a0 She said that, contrary to popular opinion, editors do still edit.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t 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.\u00a0 (Sometimes the editor may even ask you to rearrange plot points, take out or add characters.)\u00a0 Does that mean you have to accept all his\/her suggestions?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 If an editor agrees to a project, that means he\/she believes in it, and is usually willing to make compromises.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nThe third stage <\/strong>is transmittal.\u00a0 This is when decisions are made about how to produce the book, how many copies to make, etc.\u00a0 Then comes copy editing, which is basically checking for typos and minor errors in grammar and spelling.\u00a0 Hopefully by this time all the major editing is done.\u00a0 Half way through the process there are meetings about design.\u00a0 Another \u201ccontrary to popular opinion\u201d point, nearly all children`s books are assigned illustrators after the text is accepted by the publisher.\u00a0 Author\/illustrator duos are very hard to break in.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Sort of how a producer might package a new screenwriter with an experienced director.<\/p>\nLittle Brown`s head designer, Alison Impey<\/strong>, talked quite a bit about this stage throughout the conference.\u00a0 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<\/strong><\/em> 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.<\/p>\nAfter design come the galley proofs<\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\nLast of all<\/strong>, Ms. Ling talked about marketing and publicity.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This is simply not true. There is a lot they do behind the scenes.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But alas, a lot of the publicity is up the author.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nI`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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Even in the short story market, it`s not pretty.\u00a0 Of the ten \u201con spec\u201d 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.\u00a0 I receive my average paycheck about six months after I send in the story. Most \u201cprofessional paying markets\u201d only pay about one cent per word, so a three thousand word story gets you $30.\u00a0 Woohoo.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Ms. Ling said, and I quote, \u201cEither find yourself a day job that leaves you plenty of time to write, be a paid speaker every weekend, or marry somebody rich.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not that I`m trying to preach doom and gloom or that it`s impossible to become a professional author.\u00a0 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.\u3000Also, on a brighter note, commissioned work is much better.\u00a0 I`ve done two writing jobs on commission, three if you count a presentation on business writing that I wrote and presented myself.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Even the fiction movie script paid more than twice as much.\u00a0 So commissions are awesome! \u00a0If you`re willing to give up a certain amount of artistic freedom, and know how\/where to get them. That`s another topic entirely.<\/p>\n
For lunch, I took my bento <\/em>to the rose garden<\/strong> and ate in the gazebo<\/strong>.\u00a0 I`ll go ahead and tantalize you with one picture:<\/p>\n![\"Waterfall](\"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Waterfall-and-gazebo1-300x225.jpg\")
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Then I walked along the harbor view again. On the way back, I passed by a shop titled in English \u201cThe Best Cheesecake Caf\u00e9.\u201d\u00a0 If you find yourself in Yokohama, try it out.\u00a0 It was expensive, but incredibly melt-in-you-mouth smooth and rich, and float-off-your-feet light.<\/p>\n
In the next section Ms. Ling discussed the \u201cgood, the bad, and the ugly\u201d of the publishing<\/strong> business.\u00a0 There were a lot of good pointers in this one.\u00a0 First of all, she said if you want a good publisher, you need a good agent, because most publishers these days don\u2019t take unagented submissions.\u00a0 There is the small press route, but the chances of \u201chitting it big\u201d with a small press are next to nil.\u00a0 They just don\u2019t 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The same is true for most big houses.<\/p>\nShe also mentioned that it\u2019s better to have a small advance (money upfront) and a good royalty (percentage of profits after you earn out your advance).\u00a0 The last thing you want is to have a big advance and not earn it out.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And neither is anyone else. A good advance is about $5,000, and a good royalty rate is about 6%.\u00a0 Of course, this varies from publisher to publisher.\u00a0 Ms. Ling said you know you\u2019re doing well when a royalty check can pay the mortgage for that month.<\/p>\n
After that session, Ms. Ling got together with Little Brown\u2019s head designer, Alison Impey, to talk about how they pair books with illustrators and cover designers.\u00a0 It\u2019s a really interesting process.\u00a0 They look at an illustrator\u2019s style, themes, past projects, notoriety, and of course whether or not they have the time.\u00a0 Interestingly, Ms. Impey said she finds most of her illustrators through on-line forums and networking, not through submitted work.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Writers at Little Brown have some say in the cover, especially if they have an agent or a general idea such as \u201cI want a dragon\u201d or \u201ccould this be a collage?\u201d But writers almost always go with what the publisher suggests.<\/p>\n
We had Q&A from 4:00-5:00, but the only question that stuck out in my mind was \u201cHow long should you wait after querying an agent or publisher before you ask them about the status of your book?\u201d\u00a0 She said four months.\u00a0 Sounds reasonable.\u00a0 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 \u201cno simultaneous submissions.\u201d\u3000Then 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.<\/p>\n
If you have gotten a yes from someone else, that`s when you seek out an agent in earnest, and they negotiate an auction.\u00a0 Auctions can be good or bad.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 If nothing else, it boosts your reputation and career, making it easier to get an agent and publisher in the future.<\/p>\n
Personally, I feel that I gained a lot from the conference.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It was very encouraging.\u00a0 All writers need a reminder every once and awhile that editors are people too.\u00a0 They`re not out to rob you of your dreams.\u00a0 In fact, they really want you to succeed, because they love books.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It`s going to happen.\u00a0 It`s just a matter of time\u2026<\/p>\n
Speaking of that, as with over 90% of publishers these days, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is a closed house.\u00a0 They only take submissions that are represented by an agent, or ones that receive a recommendation from someone they trust.\u00a0 But for being at the conference, Ms. Ling gave us permission to query her through March 15th!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Wish me luck!<\/p>\n
Here`s the group photo.\u00a0 Unfortunately, not everyone\u2019s in it because some people had to leave early, but most of us are here.\u00a0 Ms. Ling is second from the left in front.\u00a0 Holly Thompson, the woman who organized the conference, is on her left.\u00a0 She`s president of the Society of Children`s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Tokyo chapter.\u00a0 The woman on Ms. Ling`s right is Alison Impey, senior designer at Little Brown.\u00a0 I am in the front row wearing the black suit, with my head tilted to one side.<\/p>\n
![\"Group](\"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Nice-conf.-pic-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
After the conference, I went to Yokohama Chinatown!\u00a0 But to read about that and my other adventures in Japan with pictures and video, visit my regular blog at\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/laurajanepopp.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"************** 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.\u00a0 Her short work includes a short story titled \u201cIn theShadow Realm\u201d and a documentary she made in Malawi.\u00a0 To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[73,4,7,40,10,53,45,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-articlejournalism","category-blogs","category-books","category-career","category-events","category-networking","category-writers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-2wB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9709"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9715,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9709\/revisions\/9715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}