[quote=“matthewh”]Would there be a market in the States ? I’m sure weirder and worse books have been published, and there is Taiwanese market there, and there must be some people interested in Chinese/Taiwanese culture…
Then we can import it [/quote]
Poagao, I think your book would sell well in certain pockets of the US/Canada. I’ve been to Chinatowns in New York (Flushing and Manhattan), LA, D.C., San Francisco, Philly, and Toronto. In all of those places there are bookstores that sell Chinese language books, magazines and newspapers. I think your experiences in Taiwan would be fascinating for Taiwanese people living in the US/Canada, and thus, I think your story would sell very well in selected markets in North America. And those markets needn’t be limited to the Chinatowns… any university with Taiwanese students could also be a market (although one book might be passed around by a bunch of students).
Heck, you could even see whether Reader’s Digest or some other magazine would be interested in publishing your story in condensed form in serial installments, or just the first chapter … that would spur interest in your book. Who knows?
You people are thinking too small. Why would they market the book for the overseas Taiwanese? The book,as I wrote, has the universal theme of all travel books. Jes, would you market Marco Polo only to Italians who had travelled to China?
What makes this book special is the twist it gives on the usual foreigner goes to foreign country and learns about the local culture. It takes either a great stylist or wit, or a unique plot to lift such a story above the pack. I think Poagao has such a plot. I think his story would be of great interest to non-Chinese, because it would resonate with their own experiences travelling or adapting to another language or culture. It would resonate with the universal fear of being a fish out of water. For the chinese it is simply a novelty item.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]You people are thinking too small. Why would they market the book for the overseas Taiwanese? The book,as I wrote, has the universal theme of all travel books. Jes, would you market Marco Polo only to Italians who had travelled to China?
What makes this book special is the twist it gives on the usual foreigner goes to foreign country and learns about the local culture. It takes either a great stylist or wit, or a unique plot to lift such a story above the pack. I think Poagao has such a plot. I think his story would be of great interest to non-Chinese, because it would resonate with their own experiences travelling or adapting to another language or culture. It would resonate with the universal fear of being a fish out of water. For the Chinese it is simply a novelty item.[/quote]
I agree. That’s why I suggested Jay Leno, Oprah, Letterman and Reader’s Digest.
Yes, but Marco Polo didn’t give up his Italian nationality, did he?
I don’t think it’s the best time to be touting a book in the US in which an American decides he doesn’t want to be American anymore. Just not the time, the US is too gungho and jingoistic these days, no criticism of Poagao whatsoever.
publish it yourself, paogao. like Ross and Crook. And it will find its English language audience, just like those other books did. and are still doing. just do it.
Michael Moore, to name but one writer whose work is as anti-jingoistic as you can imagine, is doing quite well with sales. Remember, only about half the population supported the war. That’s a whole lotta people leftover to buy Poagao’s book. Besides, books don’t go fromthe editor’s desk to the printer in a fortnight. Even if he got a contract now his book wouldn’t likely be out till next spring or later. With the war in Iraq over people will settle down again.
Tigerman, I didn’t mean to include you in the list of people thinking small. But you’re thinkign too big, and unrealistically. An unsolicited manuscript sent to people like that would never reach them. Hell, an unsolicted manuscript sent to a publisher these days almost never reaches an editor (have you ever heard of the slush pile). Most publishers refuse to even look at a book unless it’s through an agent or recommneded by someone they know. That’s just the industry. Too many Popo’s clogging up their mail boxes.
Poagao, you really should reconsider the EFL/ESL angle. You don’t need to rewrite the book at this point. No one writes an entire work out unless it’s a piece of fiction. In this case, what you’d be doing is a cross between a textbook and fiction. So what you do is write a proposal, explaining among other thigns, the uses of the book, what kind of market sector it would fall into, age group, level, why and how it’s different from other books on the market, and so on. You also need to include a sample chapter or two, and a breakdown of the content of the other chapters. Since you’ve already written the book, a proposal wouldn’t take you more than a month or two to write. As I said before, work with an experienced teacher to help you rewrite the sample chapters. Even hire someone to write the proposal for you. If no one bites you haven’t lost much.
You could also approach your chinese publisher with this angle. See if they can introduce you to Caves, Oxford University Press, Longman, or one of local companies that publishes textbooks for senior high. If you can arrange a meeting with an editor you can pitch the angle verbally without having to write a proposal. If they don’t like it you’ve only lost a couple hours.
I’d give it a try. English as a second language is the biggest market out there.
I work in EFL publishing and I know Poagao well. Poagao would hate to do this. There’d be tons of pedagogic crappola for him to write to support his ‘story’. Besides, I’ve already approached him to write a 2500 word story for us and he turned me down. Also, it would take 2-3 years to get it on the market anyway. EFL is like that. And I doubt Poagao would want to go around Taiwan promoting his story/materials as authors typically do with EFL. I’d recommend he stick to regular fiction. Turning his story into EFL learning materials is no easy road, and doubtfully one Poagao would want to go down. Nor would I encourage him to do so.
Here are some recent books which have been self-published. There may be others which I am not aware of. Printing costs were generally low but distribution has been a problem for all of them.
1999? A Hiking Guide to Taiwan Lyndon Punt
1999? Black in Taiwan Paul DeJoy??
1999 Four Years without Socks Chris Murphy
2001 Keeping up with the War God Steven Crook
2002 Formosan Odyssey John Ross
Taiwan is poorly represented when it comes to books. There is very little available. Brian Kennedy is working on a book about martial arts. I’m working on several books about Taiwan’s wildlife. Need-less-to-say there is no money in, but that is not the motivation. I would love to see more English-language material published in the next few years.
Well get your thumb out your arse, your browser off Forumosa, and get TO IT! I’ll buy copies of anything in this vein that you publish on their day of issue, I promise. And make sure they have tons of colour plates. About the only wildlife book I have right now is a field guide to Asian birds, but I WANT MORE!
Not at all. Go to Caves and check out the novel adaptations.
Almost all publishing is like that. But so what? It takes time to build your fortune.
And you think making a living solely as a fiction writer is easy?
I’m not trying to be a dick here. Poagao can do what he wants. But if he or anyone else thinks he will be able to make a living as a writer doing only what he wants, he almost certainly is being naive.
Anyway, I know nothing of Poagao’s life ambitions so I’ll just shut up now.
I agree. I created a webpage with a list of some of the few books that are available about Taiwan. While there are probably more academic titles the number of travel books, biographies, memoirs, etc. is terribly small. Cheers to Steven Crook, John Ross, Chris Murphy and any others who have gone to the effort to self publish books about Taiwan. It is a pity that major publishers haven’t picked them up so they could be more widely read. Anyway good luck to Poagao in his search for a publisher.
Poagao, I know it’s alittle late to discuss contracts (what the hell, this is Taiwan), but one thing you might be able to change.
See if you can buy the unsold/remainders at the pulp price. A long time ago in another life, I found out that you could buy back (5 cents paperback, 10 cents hardback) the remainers and then sell them yourself at the cover price. It’s better than the your work ending up being pulped.
Anyway, it’s something you might be able to renegotiate.
I’m supposed to be talking about the book on the Rick Monday show tomorrow (Wednesday) morning on ICRT, where I will no doubt say many stupid things and make a complete fool of myself. Feel free to tune in and laugh at me.
Reading the book at the moment. Haven’t got very far, but I agree with H that it’s not too hard if you have a few years’ Chinese. Since SARS has put Taiwan on a few maps, an English version must be worth thinking about.
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