It has been a mad mad mad mad year

It sometimes feels like all news coming out of the book industry these days is bad.

Publisher's Weekly reports on a pre-Christmas Bowker PubTrack Consumer service survey in the US: "... 34% of Americans have reduced the number of books they are buying, while 19% of consumers are either buying more used books or swapping books with others. Other ways consumers are looking to save money when buying books include buying fewer hardcovers and more paperbacks, and only buying books that are being sold at steep discounts or that are on sale. And in a direct contrast to the hope that consumers might buy books as an inexpensive form of entertainment, only 2% of consumers said they are buying more books as an alternative to more expensive kinds of entertainment."

News reports also suggest that the tiny e-book market is booming, but it is difficult to say how much of it is hype. Besides, we have to approach the numbers with caution. If a company sold 1 e-book last year and sells 2 this year, it reflects a growth of 100%, but not quite enough to set the world aflame. To make things worse, a recent PC World report says that we should brace ourselves for e-book piracy. "We are now seeing large volumes of e-books being pirated on everything from file-sharing networks to Websites," says Ed McCoyd of the Association of American Publishers, and the Hachette Book Group says that e-book piracy has grown "exponentially" over the past year. PC World has found virtual bookshelves full of with pirated e-book titles ranging from popular fiction and nonfiction, to college textbooks and how-to e-books for the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, or Barnes & Noble Nook.

But there are those who have found opportunities.

Although massive advances that used to be the norm have dried up, publishers are looking desperately for the next 'insanely great' first novel, says Alan Rinzler in his blog post. He has been speaking to Jay Schaefer, a publishing veteran, who says: "Everybody's looking for the next big thing -- a work of great literary fiction from an unknown writer who's never been published ... No question, good debut novels are getting snapped up and published." Well, writers, what are you waiting for? But he also says. "We've declined a lot of well crafted but empty stuff. You know, I think too many writers have been influenced by American Idol. They want to leap out of the chute, and win the literary lottery without working that hard."

He also has some useful tips: "Don't be in a rush to publish. Make sure it's as good as you can make it. Get some reliable feedback before you show it to an agent or publisher. Consult with a professional, a literary coach, take an advanced class in writing, or hire an independent editor."

And another story in the Daily Finace says Vanity Publishing Is Booming, and the Big Houses Want In (at a Price). Apparently, there is a lot of money in POD, although this is not necessarily from book sales. One report says that on an average around 41 copies of a POD book are sold in total, mostly by the authors themselves. So, there is real money to be made from writers who are willing to pay to be published (and to buy their own books). On-demand and short-run services are making a lot of money, with an approximately 132% sales jump in 2008 while the rest of the industry is in doldrums. Recently, romance publisher Harlequin announced it was getting into the pay-to-publish game with a new imprint, DellArte Press. (Some writers' and readers' groups have down-graded Harlequin as a result, but hey, go where the money is.)

Finally, Chinese writer Mian Mian, author of Panda Sex about China's underworld of sex, drugs and nightlife, (most of her work is banned in China) is suing Google for digitising her book without her approval. She wants 61,000 yuan (US$8,950) and a public apology. Yet, another good way to make money.

With that, we wish all reader a Happy and (in true Asian fashion) a Prosperous New Year. 2010 should be a good year. After all, it is the year of the Tiger.

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a German word that derives from Schaden, "adversity, harm", and Freude, "joy". It basically means deriving joy from other people's misfortune. That appeared to be the case of this gentleman -- not a regular -- who came into the shop last week. I was not in, so this is the story I was told.

He walked around the store for a bit and picked up a book. Then, at the cashier's counter, he hesitated, hemmed and hawed for a while before popping the question that was burning his brain:

"Do you have that book?"

"What book?"

"The book that has been taken off the shelves."

"You mean banned?"

"No, no, the other one ... the ... the one that was plagiarised."

"Sorry. They have all been withdrawn."

"But you are the publisher ... don't you still have stock of it?"

"No."

"Not even one?"

"No."

But, this gentleman has been the exception. It's not that shadenfraude is un-Malaysian. (I mean, we do love to stand around and watch train wrecks and motor accidents, like everyone else.) Most of the messages we received have actually been supportive. But as Robert says, "...being so smart how can she be so stupid." Sharon maintains, "...I don't think the girl should be tarred and feathered - it doesn't serve anyone's interests," and Kok Yee's reaction is, "I can't believe this!!!!What was she thinking?...Sigh. Such a sad waste of her talent."

Some have wondered if the book could be reissued without that story. But, we disagree. It is a sad situation, but now, everything else she has written becomes suspect. Some have expressed exactly that view, and no one can blame them for it.

For the record, all copies of the book have been withdrawn from circulation and will be pulped, and the author has made her public apology. She acknowledges that she was wrong and does not defend her actions except, perhaps, plead naivete. Maybe she -- due to her age -- didn't realise just how serious a matter it was. But, now she knows. (In addition to that posted on the net, she has sent me a personal letter.) It is a lesson learnt -- a though one, but a lesson nevertheless. She is only 18, and it will hurt like hell, but she must have grown up one hell of a lot in just one day.

We will never know why exactly she did it, considering that she is actually very talented. Maybe she is not sure of the reasons herself.(Her parents have accepted that what she did was wrong.) But she deserves to be allowed to get on with her life (and there is still much of it left), and we sincerely wish her the best.

Waiting for Utopia

And now for something completely different. (Apologies, Monty Python.) The last time there was so much excitement over the launch of an operating system for a microcomputer -- that's what they used to be called before IBM started using the term Personal Computer, or PC, that soon came into general use -- was during the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 (generally considered a ripped-off version of the Macintosh operating system, although the latter lost the resulting court cases). Reading the write-ups about the soon-to-be-released (though not for another year) Google Chrome OS, one could be forgiven for thinking that this is going to be the next coming of a messiah.

The main reason Chrome OS has generated so much excitement is because, one thinks, it is coming from Google -- a company that seemingly makes no mistakes. (There are those who, despite all its success, still dismiss Google as a one-trick pony, but that is another story -- or is it actually part of this one?) It is also believed by many that Google is the only company on the planet that can teach the evil Microsoft empire a lesson, and to give them a good whupping! Apple appears to be quite content to control the BMW corner of the computer market. Linux is still considered very much a geek's tool, although its actual penetration is quite amazing and most computer users interacted with it on a daily basis without realising it -- online shopping, forums, web surfing, office backend systems and so on.

But that is not the sort of anonymity Google seeks. They want to change the world. They want to do what Apple did in 1984 with its "Big Brother" commercial (directed by Ridley Scott): shatter the old world order. Big Brother at that time was IBM and the screening of that ad (more than even the Macintosh itself) is now considered a watershed event in the history of the microcomputer. (I have seen it several times, and even now it gives me goose flesh -- you can still watch it on Youtube.) The euphoria that surrounded Microsoft when it launched Windows in 1990, was more a collective sigh of relief at being released from its own DOS operating system rather than the slaying of a monster dragon. (Macintosh' computers were way too expensive then, costing an equivalent of a present-day space tourism flight -- relatively.)

The Google PC operating system is open source, meaning it will be available free of charge. Application programmes (also generally free but supported by ads) will be available in the cloud, as will storage. So computers will come in entirely "potong" modes! No hard disc, no CD-Roms, and definitely no floppies. Completely wireless. No native software, only the web. Sounds too good to be true?

But some, like Wired.com are wondering if Google should not be showing some humility instead of crowing like they are. But crowing is very much a part of their DNA (and in the DNA of most computer companies where the hyperbole rules, with the possible exception of Linux), and the louder you crow the more famous you are. (See how Amazon crowed itself to profit.) Google says that they are initially targeting lightweight Netbooks, which will come preinstalled with the operating system.

It is an idealistic vision; a future where only the web exists, and computers become cheap throwaway machines, but many say it is realistically several years away. Initially, it will be a toy. (But then, so are most computers now!) The first concern most people will raise would be software, but Google says there are web alternatives for everything. Really? For my Illustrator, my Photoshop?

Google wants us to give up the computing environment we are used to, as we know it and leave everything on the web. Everything? Including that novel you are writing? That would take a serious paradigm shift, indeed! Unfortunately, my personal concerns are more mundane. I am a creature who likes to own things. Okay, I am a greedy materialist. I like to hoard stuff. If it is on my computer, I own it. Steve Jobs knew that when he introduced the wildly popular iTunes and iPod, and he has been proven right; most people like to own their music, not rent them. No one has managed to come up with a successful music rental model yet. But then, there is the radio. How do we explain that? Don't we mostly listen to it when we are not paying attention? But it is free. Free! That word again.

Times are a-changing, and it is getting interestinger and interestinger, and scarier. But for now I'll stick to my trusty MacBook, and perhaps install Chrome on Parallels, or Boot Camp partition to play around with it a bit. I don't think I am quite ready for Utopia yet. It's scary.

Missing ingredient in Malaysia: culture

I do like to see what Dato' Johan Jaafar has to say every Saturday in the NST, especially about literature, though I do not necessarily agree with everything he says. In a recent column entitled Literature may be missing ingredient in our lives, he suggests that, perhaps, this is the fundamental difference between Malaysia and Indonesia: that they take their culture seriously, while we don't. He was referring to the brouhaha about the use of ketoprak and tarian pendet to promote local tourism, and the furore over our alleged propensity to menklaim Rasa Sayang and Suliram as our own. (He was writing in reference to the Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah's suggestion that 'science stream and engineering students' should be offered literature as part of their curriculum).

So, are we finally ready for some sort of intellectual debate then?

Culture is sancrosanct

He says: "... to the Indonesians, culture is sacrosanct.

"We erroneously believe that the ones protesting are in the minority ... (but almost) every scholar, artist and journalist in Indonesia is adamant that Malaysia has no right ...

"... they (the scholars) all agree, carrying bamboo spears and 'hunting' for Malaysians in the markets ... and ... carrying banners to ganyang (crush) Malaysia do not represent the majority.

"But the argument that Malaysians menklaim their culture is more than just about national pride. It is about sending the message that they take their culture seriously."

Absoutely. We certainly do not take our culture seriously. How long will us take to understand that tourism promotion dances are tourism promotion dances, not culture? There are others who can make a much better case for makyong, menora, wayang kulit or even bangsawan, for that matter, than I can, so I shall confine my comments to literature.

Cultural identity

Dato' Johan continues: "We were 'brought up' in a different manner, if you like. The Indonesians developed a strong cultural identity ... They believe in 'oneness' ... and the articulation of a single bangsa -- Bangsa Indonesia.

"... Our priorities are different. We believe in diversity, in fact the mantra 'strength in diversity' has put us in positions of difficulty at times."

Really? Haven't we heard this enough times? Was it 'strength in diversity" that put us in difficulty, or was that due to something else altogether? Granted diversity is our strength, but what have we used that strength all these decades for, apart from making us an economic powerhouse, and a nation with an unhealthily high corruption index?


The baby is dead

For decades we were told that only one form of writing was acceptable, with war cries of nationhood built into it. Anything not written in bahasa could not be considered as our writing, we were told. But what has happened to literature in bahasa? I remember how it used to flourish in the seventies and the eighties. Congratulations to Dr Anwar Ridhwan for being made a National Laureate this year. The last person to receive the award before him was S Othman Kelantan in 2001. Is it fair to assume that no one else deserved it in the eight-year period in between? Surely, the good Dato' can see the sad state bahasa literature is currently in. Imagine this. A baby has been put in the charge of a minder. The baby dies (from neglect or abuse, no one knows). But, the minder not only continues to coo and dandle the swaddled bundle, but still celebrates birthdays and anniversaries with extravagant public displays, like everything is hunky dory. Is anyone fooled? Aren't there enough people saying that the emperor has no clothes?

Fortunately, there is still a lot of writing in bahasa out there, though much of it would not be classified as literature. Not yet, anyway. I have seen a lot of passion, wit and vitality in them, and the last thing they need is to be swaddled and smothered. They need to grow. They need to be allowed to grow. They are produced mainly by fringe groups now, and are a little uneven, works in progress, but they may be the only hope for the future of writing in bahasa in this country. Anyone who has read Kasut Biru Rubina will tell you that it is so. And, believe you me; they shun the institutions like poison.

Fostering book mindedness

India too has a national book institution: The National Book Trust of India (NBT) was set by their first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1957. From the website:

"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru believed that India could develop as a democratic self-reliant and forward-looking society only in an environment of intellectual stimulation. In this context, he felt that effective measures should be taken to foster book mindedness amongst people of different ages and walks of life.

"The National Book Trust was never visualised as just another publishing house, competing with other Indian publishers.... (but) as a catalyst to encourage publishers ... "

The NBT supported writing in all languages used in India. The rest, as they say, is history.

Singaporean envy

Ironically, after all these decades of what can only be described as suppression, Malaysia has become somewhat famous internationally for writing in English! (So much so that some Singaporeans are somewhat envious of us.) I receive queries from (sometimes I get badgered by) foreign publishers and literary agents all the time for manuscripts by Malaysian writers. They cannot understand that Malaysian writers who write in English are simply those who do so despite the system, those who have fallen through the cracks, so to speak, and that there are really not that many of them around.

Chinese and Tamil

Some years ago an academic from a local university said this: "Who says there is no Malaysian literature? Of course, there is. It is only that it's in Chinese."

Malaysian Chinese literature, I have been told, is of international standard, on par with works originating from Taiwan and Hong Kong, but better than that from Singapore. (Since I cannot read Mandarin, I have to take their word for it.) The biennial international competition run by Sin Chew has been called the Chinese Booker -- an exaggeration, perhaps. But never mind. I was once shown a literary pullout from a local Chinese daily. Like I said, I cannot read Mandarin. But two words in Roman alphabets, within brackets, stood out on the same page: [BORGES] and [BUKOWSKI]. I have yet to see any other local daily discuss anything remotely more intellectual than Harry Potter.

As for Tamil literature, I have been told it still exists, though barely. I understand that circulation is poor and authors attempt to recover costs by organising book launches and holding 'auctions'. There are, apparently, fewer and fewer Tamil readers nowadays. A ray of hope seems to be coming from a rather unlikely corner though: with the abolition of the teaching of science and maths in English, more Indian parents are beginning to send their children to Tamil schools!

Chili crab

So, is there such a thing as Malaysian literature? Yes there is, but it survives in many forms. What is vital is some acceptance and recognition. Perhaps then we can lay claim to our very own cultural cachet. In the meantime, I guess we will have to continue to live with Indonesian condescension.

And, while we are at it, let's drop the chili crab nonsense right now.

New Straits Times

The McBook wars

The one important lesson history teaches us is that 'history teaches us nothing'. (I guess the big guy also needs to laugh and entertainment himself now and then. Look at those fools ... look at 'em shooting themselves... look at 'em.)

Wal-Mart started by offering upcoming hardcover releases of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue and John Grisham's Ford County, amongst others at US$10 with shipping.

Amazon.com matched it. Wal-Mart took its offer to US$9. Next morning, Amazon.com also had US$9 books.

Richard Nash, Indie publisher and literary tweeter, says "Since Amazon/Walmart/Target prices lower than wholesale @kashbk suggests indie cancel orders from pblshers & order them from giants!"

Absolutely!

In the Klang Valley in November alone, some half a million books will be available at warehouse and remaindered prices with (rumour has it) a third from local publishers and distributors including a substantial quantity from Singapore. Yes, its called dumping. It is probably illegal. As far as we know there are strict laws governing 'sales', although anything can be 'arranged'. This is kow thim country. But, what's really going on? Is someone big going down? Sure sounds like a closing down sale to me, even if it is done by proxy.

Meanwhile, if you are a book retailer, you should know where you need to be.

Most people think that the current form of the book industry has been around forever. Actually no. The Net Book Agreement in the UK was ruled illegal only in March 1997 and, and by 2009, 500 independents closed down as a result. (Dillons and Waterstones actually started offering books on discount in 1991 -- still, not all that long ago).

The book, then, officially became a shoe in the UK, and thus entered the McBook.

Book retailing once used to be seen as an interaction of a consumer with a specialist shop. That model is, largely, not applicable anymore. By the late 1990s only 45% of sales were by specialists whose core business was bookselling.

I looked at history and dug up some interesting facts, that it always takes a crisis to inject some sense into the industry. The current pattern of the book trade was, more or less, defined in England at the start of the nineteenth century -- publishers injected the risk capital, wholesalers distributed and retailers sold the books to the public. (The practice of remaindering also began around then, in 1790, to clear old stock to make way for the new.) But the industry was bedevilled by cash flow and undercutting, particularly, at the booksellers end. In 1829, in the aftermath of the banking crisis of 1826, a group of major publishers and booksellers tried to impose some sort of stability into the system with the Bookselling Regulations, which fixed trade and retail prices. Unfortunately, the committee that formulated the Regulations did not fully represent the industry. Then in the expanding economies of the 1830s, these Regulations were deemed no longer necessary. (Talk of short memories.)

There was another attempt at reviving the Regulations in some form in 1848, but the protesters (who included Charles Dickens and Alfred Tennyson) won the day. The times were too good. Free trade and laissez-faire were the buzzwords of the period. Unfortunately, but predictably, this defeat was extremely bad for the industry. By 1880, it became a major crisis for booksellers, with publishers threatened with the prospect of being cut off from the market due to a shortage of retail outlets.

Then in 1890 Frederick Macmillan, who inherited his well-established family business, proposed that books should be published with 'net' retail prices with a discount to the bookseller to ensure a reasonable margin. Retailers who broke the rules were cut off. Despite initial protests, this 'net agreement' spread through the industry ensuring stability and growth. The industry could not ignore the enthusiasm for Macmillan's initiative. A London Bookseller's society was formed around then and, in 1895, the society became the Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland (which later became the Booksellers Association).

The Net Book Agreement survived up to 1997.

Biblio: A History of British Publishing by John Feather.

Understanding the Google deal

In her weekly video podcast, German Chancellor Merkel appeals for more international co-operation on copyright protection and says that her government opposes Google's drive to create online libraries full of scanned books.

Last month French publishing house La Martinière, the French Publishers' Association and an authors' group asked a Paris court to fine Google €15m (£14m) and €100,000 for each day it continued "to violate copyright" by digitising their books.

In the US, the Authors Guild and the American Association of Publishers have asked for the Fairness Hearing into the Google Settlement to be postponed as they seek to address concerns raised by the US Justice Department last week.

So is Google the new evil empire?

The more I read about the reactions to the 'Google Deal' the more it sounds like it. I am confused. But when Microsoft and Amazon complain about it, I cannot help but get a little suspicious. What the hell is going on?

Depending on which report you read, Google has so far digitised 7 to10 million books from major libraries, with many of the out-of-copyright (OOC) books made available for free limited browsing, with links to libraries that have them and bookstores where one could buy a copy. That's one heck of a lot of work with little monetary benefit to Google as far as I can see. (It's a pretty good service, and I use it often for research). Altruism? Or is there another motive?

Then after years of negotiations (in an effort to resolve a 2005 lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild and others) a deal was announced according to which Google would pay US$125m to create a Book Rights Registry with which authors and publishers could register works and be paid for books and other publications that are put online.

Microsoft, together with Yahoo, Amazon, some professors and state attorneys (calling themselves the Open Book Alliance), warn that Google and America's publishers are "misusing the judicial system" to create a "monopoly in digital books." And the whole project is now in jeopardy.

The Open Book Alliance -- or “Sour Grapes Alliance,” as Google calls it -- says: “The mass digitization of books promises to bring tremendous value to consumers, libraries, scholars, and students ... The Open Book Alliance will work to advance and protect this promise. And, by protecting it, we will assert that any mass book digitization and publishing effort be open and competitive.”

The Alliance claims: "Many startling challenges to copyright and competition policy lie buried in the settlement’s 300+ pages ..." It spells out how the settlement is not good for consumers and book-lovers, libraries and schools, authors and small publishers (especially Google's opt-out deadline), and that it sets a dangerous precedent.

I am all for open competition, serving schools and libraries, and hate that Google deadline thing. But why are Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo involved? As Marcellus says to Horatio: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

As far as consumer interests are concerned, I cannot disagree with Tim Wu of Slate. A project such as this can only be a boon to academics, researchers of all kinds and even the curious lay-reader. It would allow one to venture far off the beaten track, to dig up obscure, but extremely, useful material that would otherwise disappear from our culture for good.

But is the deal exclusive to Google? Can Microsoft and others not establish their own digital libraries of scanned material -- if they are willing to spend their time and money?

From the Cork Republic

There are too many things I hate about travelling, especially flying. I hate the packing, the initial drive to the airport, the waiting, the checking-in, the crotch-grabbing security frisk, the crammed seats, the taxiing, the take-off, my ears popping and my head feeling woozy, the constant drone, the plastic drinking cups, the stale micro waved food, the toilets and the dreadful shaking of the plane just as you are trying to aim, the inability to 'go' because your entire rhythm is upset, the entertainment system that never works right when you want it to, the moron sitting in front who is insistent on reclining his seat and the one next to you on the inside going for a pee every 30 minutes, the fasten-your-seat-belts sign during a turbulence that convinces you that you are going to die, the inability to sleep but getting a crick in the neck regardless, the waiting at a foreign airport in transit, finally arriving and having the immigration officer look at you like you are a terrorist, waiting for your bags while you are dog tired and hoping it has not travelled to another city, and finally getting a taxi to your hotel. So I cannot understand why people travel, especially those who do it entirely for bragging rights ... 'oh, you should have been there, it was so-oo won-der-ful' type.

My journey to Cork was all of that except for the last part: Jennifer Matthew was there at the airport to pick us up -- me and my wife -- and Pat Cotter came to visit at the hotel as soon as I got there. With that special touch of Irish hospitality, my tiredness and irritation vanished. (Actually, I was really surprised to see Jennifer because I hadn't told anyone which flight I was taking exactly -- they simply worked through some assumptions and got it right, spot on. Incredible.)

I missed Shih-Li's reading because it was on the 17th and I arrived only on the 18th, but from what I heard from the others, it went off very well. Shih-Li said that everything was pretty low-keyed, and I didn't understand what she meant until I went to one of the readings. It was at four in the afternoon, and there were about thirty people. I get a bigger turnout at Silverfish readings, I thought, and Shih-Li confirmed that this is how it was. Where are the people of Cork, I asked? Maybe they have too many events like this, she said. I couldn't buy that. This was a major international event for God's sake, with one of the biggest prize money, and there are posters everywhere too. Not to mention that the Irish have such a rich literary tradition. Why, even the restaurant we had lunch in, had a whole wall dedicated to handsomely mounted poems by Irish poets -- Seamus Heaney and Pat Cotter amongst them.

Cork is not a big city, population about 200,000, maybe the size of Subang Jaya but less crowded -- no traffic jams were noticed. (The whole of Ireland only has about four and a half million people.) All venues were within walking distance, especially the official pub where we met every night -- kindly sponsored by the 'Bank of Frank'. We were told that there was a Gaelic Football final between County Cork and County Kerry (which apparently always wins) and to expect a 'fever'. (Gaelic football, I am told, is a cross between football and rugby, except that the ball is round, and scoring is done over and under the crossbar -- very useful, that.) Frankly, I saw more Man U and Liverpool T-shirts (Roy Keane is from Cork) than that of the Cork team (known as the Rebels) on the streets, and I had to walk into several shops before I could buy a souvenir for my son.

The turnout for the events later in the evening -- those at 7.00pm and 9.00pm -- were better, maybe more come after work, but still it was nowhere near our Litfest crowds. But, significantly, almost all those attending were either authors themselves or writers working in other forms. It was mostly a 'literate' turnout with few fans and 'groupies'. Maybe, it was a deliberate policy by the organisers, writers and poets themselves, to organise a festival by authors for authors. Not a bad thing, that. But, for once, I couldn't help wondering about a more commercial approach. Yes, there would be that certain amount of silliness that goes with it, but more books will be sold, more book will be signed, and the better media coverage for the authors could perhaps even take the art of the short story up one notch in the eyes of the public. (God forbid that I am developing a longing for 'Tan Sri-Tan Sri, Puan Sri-Puan Sri, Dato'-Dato', Datin-Datin ...' speeches, rows of plastic flowers in pots, cold teh-tarik, sickly-sweet air bandung and stale karipap!)

Cork is like any other European city -- they use the Euro but drive on the left. One Irish writer told me that most of the bookstores are owned by independents. But not independent minded, unfortunately. Waterstone's is there. Boring. Window dressing on all I saw was The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's latest (except for one second hand shop in Kenmare, but that was closed). Still, I braved myself to walk into a couple. They looked like any other bookshop in the UK or the US, and Kuala Lumpur, apart from that one tiny section for Irish Lit. The sameness was numbing. (I remember a time when a visit to a bookshop was exciting; one never knew what one would find.)

But the Irish are amazing, so curious about outsiders and so hospitable. Yes, the hospitality won it for us. Thank you Pat, thank you Jennifer, for such a wonderful time in Cork. I know what goes into organising these events.

Watch a slideshow.

How to promote your book

Now you have written this masterpiece, and it has been published. But it is not selling the way you think it should. What do you do? A writer was in the shop just the other day asking us about how to promote his book. I told him to write another one.

Well, as most writers know, the most difficult part is not writing the book, but selling it. If you have a publisher, you could well blame them and their distributor, call them names, tell everybody what a useless bunch of wankers they are, that you have been to this great bookshop in the city and they don't even have it on their shelves, that you have 'had it' with them, and how your friend in Timbuktu, Ulu Kelantan wants a copy but can't find it in his local bookshops, etc, etc. (But while you are at it, don't tell your friends that the same publisher has another book by another writer that is selling by truckloads. It will not be good for your ego.)

If you are self-published, another set of problems emerges. After walking up and down several flights of steps, you will find out very quickly how difficult it is to even get your books on the shelves of the major stores, and how almost impossible it is to get a review, or even a mention, in the newspapers. (Having said that, I was indeed pleasantly surprised to see 4 -- yes, four -- Malaysian books reviewed last Sunday in StarMag, the Sunday Star pullout. Let us hope it is a sign of things to come.)

So why don't some bookstores stock your book? There are a few reasons, and all of them have to do with economics. The first reason is shelf space: they would rather stock a book that moves, and in large quantities too, than one that does not. They will stock a limited quantity of your books for a short while to see how it does, before they decide if the space could be made more useful, or return your book to the publisher. The second is demography: that is, the manager of the store does not think your book will do well at certain locations, whatever you might think. Thirdly, the book you are still flogging was first published twenty years ago (or thereabouts). (At this point, I am often indignantly confronted with the assertion that Harper Lee wrote only one book and it is still being sold, to which my reply would normally be in the form of a question: are you Harper Lee? That works wonders as a reality-check, try it.)

As for why newspapers and magazines don't review local books, there could be several reasons. For one, the editors could decide that readers would prefer the 29th centre-spread feature of Harry Potter's latest, than one about your book. Two, they cannot find anyone willing to, actually, read and review your book. (This may be due to many reasons: you are not glamorous enough, the pay-per-review is too little,or there are too few reviewers and they prefer to read a 'more interesting' imported book rather than yours.) Thirdly, given our small market size, local publishers generally cannot afford to buy 'adverts' in the periodicals, so any concession given is considered charity, unless it helps circulation. (Many may well argue that the potential of the latter has been grossly under-sold.)

Coming back to my advice to the writer to come out with his second book, the reasons are simple. First, it is for name recognition: when you have a new book out, bookshops and readers will also look at your past work. Secondly, you write because you have to write, and if it turns out to be successful, be surprised, genuinely surprised. (No one was more surprised about being short-listed for the Frank O'Connor Award than Shih-Li herself.)

And finally, I remember reading an interview with KS Maniam in a newspaper several years ago: talking about writing is not writing, thinking about writing is not writing, writing is writing.

So, there.

(BTW, Shih-Li will be in Cork by now. Her reading is on the 17th. I am going to miss it though, because I will be travelling on that day. The awards event will be on Sunday, 20th of Sept. I will be taking my camera along. Hope I remember to take pictures.)

How to setup an online bookstore for free (with little computer knowledge)

(We launched our all-Malaysian online bookstore on the 1st of August. And we have been surprised. In the first month of operation -- and without including bulk sales to universities, libraries and bookshops -- Malaysian books made up over 70% of our retail sales! We hope this is the sign of things to come, and that we are seeing the signs of the blossoming of the Malaysian book industry.)

My only computer knowledge when I first started on the project about two months ago, was how to use word processors and spreadsheets, basic Photoshop, and some Illustrator. I have built and maintained a website for ten years with the help of NVU and Serif Photo Plus, both free downloads from the internet. In other words, I knew how to use a computer, like a lot of regular Joes, but not how to write any code. (The last time I did any of that was in the university over 40 years ago when I learnt Fortran 4 using punch cards.)

Like I said, I did have a website, but since I have always used wyswig HTML editors, my knowledge of even that was minimal. (I new how to do italics, bold, line breaks, paragraphs, tables, that sort of thing, but I didn't even know what

codes were about. But, to paraphrase what they say, I have never been one to let ignorance -- or my age -- stand in my way. (I know, I need to be institutionalised.)

One day, I looked at the number of Malaysian books I had at Silverfish and decided to open an All Malaysian, Only Malaysian bookstore -- possibly the only one of its kind in the world (since no one else were likely to be so foolhardy. So that was the first step -- think of a concept and come up with a catchy title, the catchier the title the more committed you are despite your stupidity. Secret: that's how bosses work, except they expect others to read their minds and understand their stupid concept and implement it for them.

Now, at this point, it is possible to go out and pay plenty of money to a 'professional' to build your online store for you. There are two things I don't like about this. Firstly, the money part -- they would charge you more for the software than it would cost to insert four stents in your heart at an expensive private hospital. Then they will come up with all sorts of excuses why the module is not working, and 'privately' blame your parentage if you get insistent. And thirdly, they will have no idea who you are when you report a problem at a later date.

So, if you want good service, do it yourself. Your 'bestest' friend in all this is Google, and it is free. (Now you will notice that four letter 'f' word cropping up every now and then in this story. Let it become your mantra.Free.) I searched for articles to find out how to set up a store, and learnt that I had to have a shopping cart and a Payment Gateway. Of the latter I had an idea, having used one for a while -- that is, I new how to cut and paste strings provided by them, and send it back to them for processing, modified as required. (I used a shopping facility provided by the gateway, but it is a workable solution only if I have a handful of products. (I am still not sure the proper term for it.)

Then, I started by looking at Payment Gateways. After spending a couple of days I realised that there were not many available locally. Focussing on (yes, you got it right) the word 'free', only one came close. They offered a package with a one time registration fee, no monthly maintenance, but with slightly larger percentage commission on sales, which I decided I could live with.

But more usefully, they had on their webpage a list of shopping carts they supported. Ah, it was getting warmer. Even so, what the hell was a shopping cart in cyberspace, and how did it work? I was quite familiar with those in supermarkets with the wobbly wheels, but how did the ones for e-commerce work? After a week of googling I learned a few things. Again using the 'f' word principle I managed to find out that there were such things as open source shopping carts! I zeroed in on Zencart, because I liked the name and, secondly, the repeated use of the word 'easy' all over their website, though I was not fooled for a moment. (I lie.)

It was not long before I discovered that the Zencart was written in PHP. Panic! I give up, I can't do this! I creid. No way! Then I told myself to relax and breathe. Breathe. Count one, two, three, four, five, six ... I was letting something called 'easy' to defeat me. I gritted my teeth and went on. Soon I was coming across words like Unix, Apache (servers), Perl, Cron jobs, phpMyAdmin, and SQ -- words I had vaguely heard before but had no idea what they were. But strangely, soon, I was on a roll. I began enjoying the buzz. I downloaded the main module, set up a test site, discovered a book add-on, a search sphider add-on, a back-in-notification programme, and a few sundry bits and pieces. I modified the template to look like the rest of my site, tested it and viola! I am a glutton for punishment.

But, the thing is, you do not have to do this entrely on your own. I got help from online forums, my web host and my payment gateway people. Now, here is an important piece of advice. When you speak to any of these techies, do not do it in person. They will know you are bluffing from your body language, and they can smell fear. Sometimes you will have to speak (especially over the phone) like you know what you are talking about (please learn the proper pronunciations for some of these acronyms, or you will be caught out), but sometimes you have to speak to them as if you are really very stupid. Both methods work depending on the cirumstances. The trick is to know when to use which.

You will also come across some who are really kayu. My shipping providers were like that (and they are the ones in the position to make the most money out of e-commerce). I consulted two about a suitable module for my cart. One had no idea what I was talking about. (I might as well have asked them how to fry pisang goreng.) The other one knew what I wanted but was of zero help.

The site is now up, zero cost. (Okay, there is a cost involved in populating the database but that can be done in-house at quite minimal expense.) I think the online shop looks spiffy. Of course, I will say that -- I am biased. But, honestly, it is really not all that bad?

Moral of the story. If you want some programming done, try DIY. Save some money and learn something while you are at it. Does wonders for your ego too, almost like a one night stand. The site is http://www.silverfishbooks.com/buybooks/. Give it a whirl.

Watch out for your copyright

The launch of Silverfish Books' Books Malaysian, all Malaysian, only Malaysian online bookstore a fortnight ago appears to have attracted quite a bit of attention, but that is not what this article is about. What the over 750 books featured (it is a very small portion of all the Malaysian books in print -- but a start) indicates is that Malaysian publishing is not only alive and well, but thriving. Currently, three of the major bookstore chains are either holding or planning to hold Malaysian 'promotions', underscoring the importance of local books to their bottom-line. That is the upside.

But now comes the downside -- protecting authors' copyright. Now -- we at Silverfish feel this quite passionately -- no author, or creator of any intellectual property deserves to be deprived of his or her copyright. Unfortunately, please be warned, there is a lot of this going on, and writers are being deprived not just of their royalty. A lot of it has to do with ignorance (since we are not all lawyers) and quite a bit to do with corporate greed and bullying.

Some years ago the spouse of a leading Malaysian author came to see me with a draft agreement (on behalf of the author, because he himself was incapacitated at that time) to ask me about a couple of clauses. She had been told by the publisher's representative that these were 'standard', but she was not satisfied. One clause required the author to surrender his copyright to the company. And another clause said that the company had the right to change the manuscript in any way it wanted without consulting the author! Jahat-nya!

I told the lady that these were definitely not 'standard' clauses. In fact, there is no such thing as a standard agreement. After that incident, I looked at the copyright pages of several books by that publisher and realised that it was standard practice for them! So, Rule number 1: read your contract thoroughly. Don't let them bully you. What you should offer is only publishing rights, and that to only in the agreed form. Copyright should remain with you, which means you should be free to sell your work for movies, plays, comics, serialisation, video games, or any other. But the problem is most authors are so eager to get published that they would be willing to sell their soul. DON'T!

Now, the problem gets more complicated. It has come to our notice that books by several leading authors is currently being 'remaindered' by a publisher. (The practice not very long ago was to pulp unsold books so as not to 'spoil' the market.) Here are three cases:

Author number one. We received a phone call from the publisher asking if we would like to buy several hundred copies of a book by this author for RM5.00 each. We declined the offer. Later when we met the author we asked him if he knew of this, he said that he was totally in the dark and even claimed that he had never received any royalty from them. So, who got the royalty?

Author number two: We wanted to order several copies of the book because it was being used by students at a university. We were quoted the usual price by the publisher and we were about to place the order when we heard from other sources that the same book was being offered to a 'remainder' bookstore in Klang Valley, possibly to be sold at RM5.00! It would been really grand if we had sold the books to the students for RM32.90 while it was being remaindered elsewhere for RM5.00. We intend to tell the student where they can buy the book cheap. At least let them benefit. Again, the author was not told.

Author number three. He discovered that his plays were being remaindered only after a friend told him about seeing a whole stack of his work at a 'remainder' store. He called up the company to ask about it, and was told that he could buy up the remaining stock at SGD0.50 each. He agreed to take all six hundred but received only 100.

In all three cases, several issues stand out. One, authors do not receive any royalty on the remaindered books. (I have heard it said by many that that they didn't mind buying books from remaindered stores because it was cheaper. Yes, anonymity is a wonderful balm for the conscience. Okay, but what if you see a book by a dear friend of yours at a 'remainder' bookshop? Would you buy yourself a copy knowing she is being completely stitched by the publisher? Deprived of her main income as a writer?)

Secondly, what happens to the publishing rights? (Or, in the case of those who have inadvertently signed unfair agreements, their copyright?) Can the author republish his own book? No? So is the book completely dead?

Thirdly, why is this remaindering being done without notifying the authors, without giving them the first right of refusal? If their books are to be remaindered should they not benefit from it? Or, do they simply deserve to be swept up and trashed with the rest of the garbage?

Of course, there are cases when someone other than the author owns the copyright.

1. If an employee creates a work in the course of his or her employment, the employer owns the copyright.

2. If you are employed as an independent consultant (or contractor) to create a work and the former meets all expenses, the employer owns the copyright.

3. You have sold your entire copyright to another person or business, that buyer becomes the copyright owner.

All of the above also applies to those who publish in periodicals. Do not sign anything that surrenders your copyright to that periodical. You only give them 'one-time' publishing rights. Clarify the copyright issue from the start. Don't be seduced by niceties (aiyah, don't you trust me? bullshit) or succumb to bullying. There is no such thing as an industry standard or a moral right. If you sign your copyright over, you are dead. End of story.

(I wrote this article after talking to a couple of lawyers. Maybe some of my arguments are flawed because I am not a lawyer myself. Please post your comments or pass this story around. But niggly bits aside, what is important is that Malaysian writers must be protected from predators. Perhaps the Director of Majlis Buku Kebangsaan Malaysia -- the Malaysian Book Association-- has a view.)

Books Malaysian, all Malaysian, only Malaysian

After being under construction for almost two months, our online bookshop has now reopened, bigger and better. For starters we are featuring over 750 titles -- all books written and published by Malaysians or written about Malaysia (or Malaya and Borneo, in the case of older titles) -- currently on our shelves, but we expect the numbers to rapidly rise by year end. In other words, it is meant to be a one-stop site meant for anyone -- researchers, scholars or interested readers -- looking for material about this country. (The main reason for the delay was that I had to learn and understand the fundamentals of PHP coding and migrate the entire site to an Apache (Unix) server which I thought would be easy, but was not. Then I discovered that Unix server names were case sensitive. Arggggh! I mention all that just to impress you.)

It is not infrequently that we receive requests from Embassies and Universities for our list of Malaysian books. In the past we have kept them satisfied with spreadsheets. But this is becoming increasingly difficult to generate, seeing how the number of Malaysian titles in print has grown exponentially these last few years.

Most would have heard the story of Ron Klein's first visit to Silverfish Books (I think this was in the year 2000) at our old premises in Desa Seri Hartamas, asking to see our Malaysian 'collection'. That was one embarrassing moment: here we were calling ourselves a Malaysian bookshop with a two foot shelf of local books, with a little over two dozen titles (most of them from Skoobs and Rhino Press, and the rest from Pa' Chong). That was one of the reasons we decided to go into publishing.

But that was then. Currently, we have almost an entire wall lined with Malaysian books, which make up almost 50% of our sales. (Maybe, the entire shop in future!) We have now put it all online for easy browsing, and buying. (For the purposes of this site, we are interpreting Malaysian books as those written by Malaysian authors, books published -- and/or printed -- within the country, those by others writing about their experiences here and books on history.)

In the (online) bookstore, you can browse books by the author, subject or publisher. I have also a sphider installed (similar to what Google uses) for quick indexing and searches. Although the default currency we use is MYR, browsers can check prices in USD, GBP, AUD or the Euro. We accept Credit cards (Visa and Mastercard), Alliance online transfer, CIMB Clicks, FXP, Hong Leong transfer, Maybank2u, Meps cash, Mobile money, Paypal (only in USD), RHB online and Webcash.

You can also put yourself on our 'Back in stock notification' system if you come across a book that is out of stock but you'd like a copy. We hope you understand that many of our books are the last surviving anywhere in the world, so we might not be able to put every book back in stock. But we shall notify you of these.

Well, do give the site a whirl. Although we have checked the site quite extensively (but that is always relative), I are sure some of you might encounter glitches. Please send us your feedback and we will try and rectify those. Of course, there are certain features we cannot modify without a major reprogramming.

Creative Writing Software Programmes

Many would have heard of these and wondered about the big deal, being quite satisfied with their trusty word processor. After all, word processors nowadays can do almost anything, except make coffee. But therein lies the problem; all the bells and whistles can get so distracting. If you are writing a relatively short piece that you have already thought through, it works just as well on a word processor. But if you have a more complicated piece with many timelines, characters, subplots and scenes, Microsoft Word can make it a right royal mess although all the tools you need are actually available in the programme. Hence, the Creative Writing Programmes where you can stash away all your research material (be they notes, websites, photographs, videos, or whatever) just a click away. You can switch from one scene to another at the other end of a novel for consistency and compare facts, all in one click. Or even view them side-by-side (or top and bottom), or write in full screen mode for minimum distraction. And then, after everything is done, one can format the whole thing in a fancy word processor.

MacWorld reports that Ulysses 2 writing program has just been released. I have never used Ulysses -- I have only taken Scrivener, Z-Write and Writers' Cafe for a spin -- so I can't say much about how good it is, but it appears to be worth a try-out at least. It comes with a full 60-day trial. (The full licence costs around RM200.00 -- a bit pricey compared to some of the others.) The report says that it sports a brand new interface, as well as new project templates, project-wide search and replace, enhancements and improvements to the browser and editor to include the ability to add bookmarks, wider export format support, and more. According to the Ulysses 2 website: "Whether you're a blogger, a poet or a published novelist: Ulysses 2.0 is the definite package for all your creative writing needs. Brainstorm, draft, revise, submit; distraction-free and fully focused. No strings or styles attached." But, it is a Mac-only programme

Literature and Latte's Scrivener is my favourite. Says the website: " Writing a book, short story or research paper is about more than hammering away at the keys until it's done. Research, scrawling fragmentary ideas that don't seem to fit anywhere yet, collecting faded photos from old newspapers, shuffling index cards to find that elusive structure -- most writing software is only fired up after much of the hard work is already done. Enter Scrivener: writing software that stays with you from that first, unformed idea all the way through to the first - or even final - draft. Outline and structure your ideas. Take notes. Storyboard your masterpiece using a powerful virtual corkboard. View research while you write. Track themes using keywords. Dynamically combine multiple scenes into a single text just to see how they fit. Scrivener has already been enthusiastically adopted by best-selling novelists, academics, lawyers, scriptwriters and journalists - whatever you write, grow your ideas in style." It cost RM140.00 and does everything it says, and comes with a 30-day free trial. Again, a Mac-only programme.

Before readers start wondering if Windows and the word 'creative' can exist in the same sentence, let me introduce Writers' Cafe.

"Writer's Cafe is a set of power tools for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer's Cafe is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay.

"Designed by published novelist Harriet Smart, Writer's Café also includes a notebook, journal, research organiser, pinboard, inspirational quotations, daily writing tips, writing exercises, name generation, and a 60-page e-book, Fiction: The Facts, distilling 20 years of writing experience."

I have given Writer's Cafe a spin as well. While I can see where they are coming from, it does not address the way I think or write. I find it a bit too structured for my comfort, but I am sure others will find far more potential in it than I did. It is available as a demo download with no time limit on it, but with a few key features defeated. The licence costs approximately RM160.00 and is available for Windows, Macs and Linux.

Z-Write costs about RM120.00 and is another Mac-only programme. The website says: " Z-Write is a unique word processor designed for creative writers. In the process of writing a story, writers tend to create dozens or even hundreds of pages of notes, character bios, rewrites, reminders, and bits of research info. Organizing all that material within the linear structure of a traditional word processor is awkward at best." All that is true, but when compared with the rest, it is pretty basic. Try it for yourself. It comes with a two-week trial, after which it reverts to a 'demo' mode.

Bottom-line: if you are serious about writing, perhaps you'd like to give these creative writing programmes a spin. It is quite an enjoyable experience.

Frank O'Connor short story award

I had just left the office when Patrick Cotter, Director of The Munster Literature Centre, called on Monday. Phek Chin took the call and politely told the gentleman that I could not be contacted because I had already gone home. Gone home? It is only eleven o'clock here, he said. Whereupon, Phek Chin inquired where he was calling from. Ireland! And ... He was just calling to tell Mr Raman Krishnan that his writer, Shih-Li Kow, has been short-listed for the Frank O'Connor award!

The silence that followed must have been deafening. Phek Chin was petrified. She was speechless. She was afraid to say anything lest she sounded like a blithering idiot.(Oi!!! she protests to me, loudly.) But he assured her that it was a perfectly normal reaction and that he had been confronted by it several times before. He made her promise to tell me about it, as soon as possible, and gave her his email.

She says she was still frozen in shock for a while after she put down the phone, not knowing what do or think. Finally, after recovering some of her senses, she called my house (I was not there yet as I had some errands to run), then my wife's mobile and my house again, and managed to leave a message for me. Then, when I called her it was my turn to be gob-smacked.

Apparently, Shih-Li came in a while later that evening and Phek Chin made her sit down before telling her. Are you sure? It can't be, lah. Maybe it is a hoax, Aiyoh, I am going to pengsan ... and so on and so forth. Anyway, Phek Chin and I walked around the whole day, the next day, grinning from ear to ear, as if we had been smoking something. I cannot begin to imagine what Shih-Li must feel, but we are so incredibly happy for her.

I first met Shih-Li almost three years ago at the third Silverfish Writing Programme. News from Home was published about one year after she finished the Programme, and Ripples, another year later. She is unpretentious, she is level-headed, and she is prolific -- such a wonderful writer to work with. As I worked on Ripples, I felt that her work was very good -- a sort of prize-winning good, if you know what I mean -- and I was determined to nominate her for an award, any award. But still, when I received the news that she was short-listed for the Frank O'Connor (I mean the Frank O'Conner), it left me in a state of shock, in a daze -- though in a nice way.

Well, now she has to be in Cork, Ireland on the 20th of September for the awards presentation at the end of the Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival, which starts on the 16th of that month. Win or lose, it does not matter any more. She has already won. Malaysian writing has already won. Malaysian readers have won.

Let us bask in the warmth for a while more, then we shall resume prowling the streets for more hidden gems that we can polish. Congratulations again, Shih-Li Kow. You have blazed the trail.

With a little help from my friends

I wish I could sing, "It was twenty years ago today ..." but we can't. So it has to be, "It was ten years ago today ..." But I can say definitely I got by with (more than) a little help from my friends.

Yes, that's right. Silverfish Books first opened its doors in Desa Seri Hartamas in June 1999 in the midst of a recession. Now, ten years later, we are in the middle of another one. I never thought of setting up a bookshop when I first quit engineering. At least, not until my wife suggested I set up a store to sell all my books 'cluttering' the house. Then Faris and Joan helped me with the planning and insisted that I called the shop Silverfish Books. Thor, of Skoob Books, gave me some advice, but told me not to expect to grow rich, the soundest advice I have received.

When I first realised it early this year, I thought, "Well, the tenth anniversary is just another date." I mean, ten years will pass by even if you do nothing. Like Saidah was saying just the other day, "You sit around and yada yada in a mamak shop (or anywhere) every night, and before you know it ten years has passed, and you have done nothing." It is quite scary, that thought. So, yes, ten years is a time to take stock, have a party, renew friendships and, perhaps, talk of the next ten years, if nothing else.

I would venture cautiously that, in the case of Silverfish Books, it has not been a total waste of time. That's how I feel mostly, but sometimes it does all seem a little futile; at least until a friend drops by to visit, chat over tea and buy books. And, that's what has kept us going. Friends.

When we first set up shop, we were a little less focussed, perhaps. "Why are you selling books like that?" Huzir scolded me quite early on, looking at a row of John Grishams. (For the record, we couldn't sell even one copy, our customers just wouldn't have it.) Several others would come in and say, "You must have this title", or "You must have that author". In a way, one could say that the character of the bookshop, as it is now, was determined to quite a large extent by the customers.

It was the same with publishing. Guat was the one who gave me the nudge (though she has probably forgotten). Then, after I spoke about the idea, several of my regulars simply took it over. Thus was conceived, Silverfish New Writing 1. Amir came in and said that he'd edit the book and wanted no payment for it, Amri and Irman did the cover illustration and design, and they -- together with Bernice, Danny, Dhogee, Lorna and Pang -- proofed it, working through the night on occasions, all for no reward. Every one was so eager, like it was every individual's own personal project. After the book was published, the media simply took it over (it was their project too), not just in Malaysia but also in Singapore. The buzz was amazing. If ever there was a moment of pure spontaneity, with absolutely no self-interest, that was it. That is one event worth reminiscing about. Ah, but that was the age of innocence.

(Most of the subsequent editors of the Silverfish anthologies also worked for free; only a couple were paid an honararium.)

But before Guat nudged me, it was Ron Klein, of the Department of English Studies at Hiroshima Jogakuin University, who planted the initial seed. I remember how he came in one day when we were in Desa Seri Hartamas and asked to see our Malaysian section. It was quite an embarrassing moment for me, as I recall. Here we were in a bookshop in Kuala Lumpur, in the capital city of Malaysia, with one two-foot shelf of books by Malaysian writers. The fact that the other bookstores in the city were no different was hardly a consolation. Ron was excited nevertheless, because he found several titles he hadn't seen before. He still drops by to look for books by Malaysian writers, now and then. (He has apologised for not being able to make it for the 'Tenth'). I have to thank him for planting the initial idea: if I cannot buy Malaysian books, I guess I will have to publish them myself.

So, apart from publishing more than thirty books and a dozen authors, and after two international literary festivals and numerous other literary events, what have we done? Not much I guess. Still, it has been a fun ride (a few upsetting potholes, notwithstanding). What am I planning for the next ten? I, honestly, don't know. I cannot think that far ahead. (Some don't believe me when I say that.) Who knows what my friends will nudge me into?

But, I sure hope to be able to sing: It was twenty years ago today ...

(Silverfish Books will be holding its 10th anniversary party on Saturday, 27th June 2009 from 5.00 to 7.00pm at 58-1, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru. KL. Farish Noor, Dina Zaman, Rumaizah Abu Bakar, Shih-Li Kow, Chua Kok Yee, Robert Raymer, Salleh ben Joned, are Silverfish authors who have confirmed attendence. Huzir Sulaiman, Antares and Ganese Jaganathan are definite maybes. A surprise for the evening will be Addeline Lee from Ipoh who, at 18, is the youngest Silverfish author to date. Her book Lethal Lesson and other stories will be released on the day. All welcome.)

An idiot's guide to Silverfish bashing

Silverfish bashing has become an annual sport. I thought this year's season was over. But looks like I was wrong, judging from a book review in the Sunday pullout of a major daily. (The fact that a major English newspaper actually allowed someone to use its pages for a blatant personal attack raises many other questions. Did they not read it? I have written to them but have not received a reply.)

The questions I have had to field over the last week have been the obvious ones. Who is Amy de Kanter? Do you know her? Why is she attacking you like that? Outraged as my friends are, I am actually quite amused. She probably popped a couple of blood vessels writing that. First, I was taken aback. Then I got a little annoyed. Then, when I came to the faulty microphone part, I laughed out loud. I couldn't help it. It was so lame. Dear Amy, you are one unhappy bunny.

As for the first question, my answer is, "I don't know who she is," which also answers the second. As for why she is attacking Silverfish Books and me, I can only speculate. She says that our editing is so bad and compares it to a singer using a bad microphone, or a dancer on a wobbly stage! How poetic. Ironically, on the next page of the same magazine section was a story of another Silverfish title vying for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the richest of its kind in the world!

Actually, the book she 'reviewed' was released eight months ago and has been read by thousands of people, and is very popular. Silverfish Books has published over 30 titles so far, sold over 100,000 books some of which are used as college text in over 20 local and overseas universities (including the University of California in Berkeley). And, now, Amy de Kanter compares the standard of our editing to a faulty microphone, or a wobbly stage. Oh, she wounds me, I fail, I fall, I die! (Sorry, Tash Aw.)

So what does she have against me? First of all, I am not even sure this is a real person. Or one person. It could be a pseudonym. She has neither an email contact, nor a bio in her story. Maybe, she does not want her boss in her own newspaper to know that she is moonlighting with another. It happens. Or, she is one of those who prefer to hide their hands after throwing stones. She could be reacting to a perceived or imaginary slight, or she could be carrying a torch for someone else, or sucking up to them, or she simply wants to teach this 'uppity native' a lesson.

There are several reasons for hating Silverfish Books. Firstly, we are publishers and we reject manuscripts. We have, on several occasions, had friends coming in asking why so-and-so is saying (or writing) this about you. All I have to do is, go into my room and pick out a manuscript and ask, "Is this the person?" I have been right many times. There are also those who post comments anonymously, but one can, sort of, guess what their problem is from the tone of the comment. I have even had nasty emails from people who have not had their one short story selected for an anthology. But these are the tiny minority, the loony fringe. (Thank God for the delete key!) Most people send me a 'thank you' note.

Then there are those who want to self-publish, and are quite willing to pay (until they know how much). (Is this a norm in Malaysia?) They ask to use the Silverfish imprint. I say we can't do that unless it satisfies our criteria, in which case we will not charge them. But, we could help them self-publish under their own names, I say. They insist on the Silverfish imprint. I resist. They are surprised that I prefer not to take their money. They get angry and leave in a huff, sometimes with expletives trailing. Difficult.

Virulent strains of the 'basher' virus include envy and inferiority complex. Some people just can't come to terms with this 'uppity native' being able to do things they dare not even dream about. On one hand they hate this native. Yet, on the other, they want to be part of the trip. It is a real dilemma. So in between, they bash.

Let me tell you a fairy tale. Once upon a time, in a land far away, a man was working on a rather large project, he was organising a festival so grand the likes of which had never been done in the land, for he wanted the people to rejoice. He had a small dedicated team. This lady would to hang around and watch them with a hangdog expression obviously wanting to be a part of it. He was reluctant to rope her in because he knew she was panic prone. But he relented eventually. He felt sorry for her, found the simplest task and asked her if she could 'help' them. He though she couldn't possibly mess it up. He also offered to pay her a 1000 smackaroos a month, a sum he could ill afford, and which he should have given to another member of the team who was doing amazing work. Anyway, two months later when he asked her about it, she had done nothing! It was a simple job, but she couldn't handle it. She had panicked. She had icicles on her feet. The event was only three weeks away, and they needed to go to the printer immediately. They were desperate.

The man lost his head and hollered at her, took the job back, and worked on it himself through the night with a hundred other things to do. She was upset. He pacified her and gave her even simpler jobs to do he while still paid her. He soon forgave her for the incident, for he was not one to hold a grudge for long. After a successful festival, that saw poets and writers from the world over converge to the land, that saw people rejoicing with much merriment, he returned to his castle. That's when he noticed that many of his wells had been poisoned. He was confused. He couldn't understand who would do that. Why, he asked? This went on and on for years, this poisoning. He still couldn't understand it. In the meantime, she went around telling everyone how ungrateful he was for not thanking her for her help. For what, he retorted, when people told him, and dismissed it.

Then she changed. But he was too buried in his work to notice. She transformed into a Cik Zahirah of Shih-Li Kow's story. She lost her face. Or rather, acquired the ability to choose any face she wanted at will. She mastered the art of huggy-wuggying and kissy-wissying the man in public, and then badmouthing him the moment his back was turned, in the same breath too. She was good. Nay, she was brilliant. She could praise a book (or people) in one breath, and rubbish it (or them) in the next. Once, she sat in his castle and rubbished a book (and its editor) by another publisher. He wondered what that was all about. Then he found out. Not much later, she picked up something else totally unrelated that he had written, completely distorted and misinterpreted it, and led a hysterical knotted-knicker frenzy (don't try to imagine that) making him the villian, creating a crisis with the other publisher. Soon, everyone joined in the bashing. The evil mist spread ...

The land became divided. Sometimes, he would laugh at her clumsy antics. Mostly, he was sad. The people were split into two: winners or whiners. Those who could, did; those who couldn't, whined. And that continues to this day.

Tools for Writing

Many people, when they talk about wanting to learn creative writing, basically want the magic pill.  They don't believe it when you say that there is no such thing. They will think you are trying to keep it for yourself. If there was e a magic pill for writing, some of us will get quite seriously rich.

Roy Peter Clark's blog, PoynterOnline, offers toolbox, maybe the next best thing to a magic pill, with plenty of discussions on  provides tools for your writing reporting, writing & editing. He also has a book, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. Not quite 5 easy solutions to writing but 50. In case, you hate reading, there are podcasts too.

Fifty Writing Tools is divided into four part: Nuts and Bolts, Special Effects, Blueprints and Useful Habits. The first advice is: Begin sentences with subjects and verbs -- Make meaning early, then let weaker elements branch to the right. Interestingly, isn't that what we were taught in primary school, but soon forgot in our 'hurry' to become clever?

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." George Orwell -- 1984. What an incredible opening sentence! With no phoenixes or dragons, no dark and stormy nights, it was straight to the point, shocking to the core, yet simple. But contrary to the advice above, he did not simply let the weaker elements drift to the right. He positioned his sledgehammer there. (Of course, no one knows how many times he rewrote that. Our own Salleh ben Joned, laboured for three months over just one word! But that is another story.)

Many of these would be classified under commonsense, but one would equally disagree with others. Here are ten -- naturally, many of there rules are to be broken, but not for beginners (but if you think you are a genius without ever having written a book, then good luck to you):

. Activate you verbs -- Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal the players.
. Be passive-aggressive -- Use passive verbs to showcase the "victim" of action.
. Order words for emphasis -- Place strong words at the beginning and at the end, and so on.
. Set the pace with sentence length -- Vary sentences to influence the reader's speed.
. Tune your voice -- Read drafts aloud.
. Learn the difference between reports and stories -- Use one to render information, the other to render experience.
. Use dialogue as a form of action -- Dialogue advances narrative; quotes delay it.
. Write from different cinematic angles -- Turn your notebook into a "camera."
. Prefer archetypes to stereotypes -- Use subtle symbols, not crashing cymbals.
. Recruit your own support group -- Create a corps of helpers for feedback.

Unfortunately, I feel he has left out the most important advice of all: Read, read, read and read some more. (Or does that come under the writing workbench rule?).

Poynter

What it feels like to be a boy

Alison Flood writes in The Guardian of how the judges for the Carnegie medal, Britain's oldest children's book award, have drawn up a shortlist consitingo of entirely 'boysy' stories. She says: "Magic and monsters are conspicuous by their absence this year from the shortlist for Britain's oldest children's book prize, the Carnegie medal, which is dominated by titles featuring ordinary children dealing with the pitfalls and adventures of everyday life." (The Carnegie is in its 72nd year and is seen as the most 'the kids' Booker.)

Getting boys to read for pleasure has, of course, been the subject of much literary angst. Girls have always appeared to gravitate more naturally than boys towards books or anything literary. I am currently one of the judges for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Young Malaysians for 2009. I was sent the final shortlist of twenty essays/short stories to grade, out of which, interestingly, 16 were by girls. But as a bookseller I, notice that I have as many customers who are women as men, although their buying habits are different.

Keith Gray, one of the authors on the list says: "People have said it's quite boysy -- I say hurrah for that. There seem to be quite a lot of books out there for girls, about what it feels like to be a girl in modern times, whether it's Jacqueline Wilson or pinker, fluffier books. Whereas a lot of books aimed at boys are about being a spy, fighting monsters, being a vampire. It's great to have some which are about what it feels like to just be a boy ... So many books for boys are about being X Box-style heroes -- it's so nice to have more down to earth heroes."

But is the problem all about books not appealing to boys? I know why I started reading -- the pictures. Then when I was in primary school, I had the most wonderful history teacher a boy could have. Mr Selvaratnam was his name, and the twelve-inch ruler was his game. And with his ruler he could transform from a sword-wielding pirate to a Portuguese commandant with a blunderbuss or a Japanese soldier with a bayonet. He would prance about in front of the class swishing and shooting and stabbing with his ruler, setting free our imagination. So I was more than a bit surprise when, during my Form 4 years, some of my classmates decided to 'drop' History and Literature. How could anyone not like history and literature, I thought?

Going back to the Carnagie, Gray describes himself as a reluctant reader as a child. He says the first book he was persuaded to pick up was the Carnegie-winning The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall. "I can remember seeing the Carnegie medal stamped on the front cover. Just having my name on the shortlist is great," he says. "The Machine Gunners got me reading, and that's what got me writing, so you could say the Carnegie turned me into a reader and a writer."

My son grew up in the eighties, amply distracted by the television and video games. (Internet was not available then). Interestingly, what started him reading were the movies. I remember queuing for the tickets for Jurassic Park because he was into the dinosaur phase too at the time. I had never read Michael Crichton before, but I decided to get a copy of the book just for the heck of it. He saw it lying around the house and asked if he could read it. He never looked back after that. So boys do read for different reasons, but I suspect having books around the house does not hurt.

One frequently asked question we get at Silverfish Books is from parents who want to know how they can get their children, especially boys, to read? We generally manage to huff and puff round that question. But what we really really want to say is: "So what books do you read?"

Turning boys into bookworms

A story in The Independent by Warwick Mansell, Power of words: How a children's writer is turning boys into bookworms, tells how writer GP Taylor is making pupils read by telling them stories, with some remarkable results.

Which comes as a bit of surprise. It should be expected, one would have thought. Common sense. But when bureaucratic educationists get into the act, I should think they'd be able to committee anything to death, including common sense. I started reading because it was fun, because I could go places I never could in real life. My memory of childhood is all about story-telling by my parents, my uncles, aunts and older cousins.

Graham Taylor is an ex-vicar, ex-policeman, and exorcist turned multi-million selling author of fantasy novels who has visited more than 150 primary schools this year to tell children stories, for which he does not charge. His object is to get students, especially boys, reading for pleasure.

The British Government's national literacy strategy has been accused of focusing on teaching reading mainly through extracts of books, and drilling pupils to pass tests. " ... the literacy strategy, introduced in 1998, which emphasized the teaching of reading and writing as the acquisition of discrete skills -- such as word decoding, analysing sentence structure, spelling and grammar -- without actually getting pupils wanting to read in the first place."

Professor Teresa Cremin, president of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, says: "Children were shown a text and asked to find the adverbial clause, or asked what complex sentences they could find in a paragraph. This approach can get a bit farcical."

You bet. Who cares what part of speech a word is, or how a sentence is structured. What's important are the stories they tell and the joy a child gets when he reads them. Reading is entertainment, but if there is one thing the school system does well it to take all the joy out of it, and make it  a chore.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, says: "There was an overemphasis on skills and an underemphasis on the reason why you would read. Reading for pleasure suffered."

Professor Cremin agrees: "The pressure to achieve the level fours and level fives in tests is so great that teachers have felt that there is not the time to engage in reading for pleasure".

Which is kind of funny because children who read for pleasure will surely do better in tests, as results show at St Peter's Church of England primary school in Ashton-under-Lyne, outside Manchester. Last year 83 per cent of pupils gained their expected level, well ahead of the school's 43 per cent target.

The Independent

A new publishing model?

Shelf-Awareness.com touts it as a publishing model for the 21st Century. "The [publishing] industry seems to want a return on investment, quickly and guaranteed," Stephen Roxburgh says. "The difficulty is that the people at the end of that chain, paradoxically enough, are artists and authors who need time to develop a project."
 
Roxburgh is the pioneer of namelos (nameless), a "consortium of independent publishing professionals." Kara LaReau has launched Bluebird Works, which offers creative services that include editing and manuscript evaluation. Both companies strive to help creators of children's books develop projects at their own pace and until they're ready to be submitted to an agent or editor. Agents or editors (instead of authors) may hire these companies for their projects.

So what's new about this publishing mode? This used to be the traditional role of publishing houses before big business took over. Silverfish books has been doing this for over two years now. The Silverfish New Writing series was going nowhere. It was started as a platform for discovering new Malaysian writing talent, but after seven years and no sign of any sustained talent emerging (except for Mathew Thomas) we decided to stop.

We have argued before that in Malaysia we cannot expect authors to come out with their own manuscripts without some assistance -- both editorial and creative -- particularly considering that English is often the second or third language. So we started the Silverfish Writing Programme. The focus is on story telling, and writing what publishers look for. We have currently published four writers and working with one more. It is a slow process and the current crop still have some way to go, but four writers in two years is still way better than one in seven. We continue to dream of a time in the future (not so far away we hope) when a couple of dozen Malaysian writers start producing good quality books on a regular basis, creating a supply and a demand, and perhaps even attracting a glance from publishers overseas. (We have been approached for local manuscripts by more than one international literary agent.)

We hosted a literary event last week with readings from Dua Lauk and Perempuan Simpanan. About 50 people turned up for the reading despite the rain. They appeared a little intimidated in the beginning (our reputation has probably travelled far), but they soon settled down. They were well organised, they had an enthusiastic leader who preferred to remain in the background, they were all very supportive of one another, and there was not one pretentious arty-farty literatti 'air head' in sight. Of course, they still have a long way to go, literary wise. But, I do wish them well and I sincerely hope they succeed for we do need a strong Malay literary scene. Syabas to this wonderful group. And, thank you Irman for introducing them to us and bringing them to Silverfish Books. They are welcome anytime at all. Drinks and bites on us. (A slide show has been posted for those who could not make it.)

The Shelf-Awareness article continues, saying: 'Their companies' model shifts the financial responsibility to the authors up front rather than the traditional model under which, after paying an advance, the publisher works with them to develop the project. "That will happen with increasingly fewer people," said Roxburgh. "The industry's capacity to serve and cultivate and develop the talent is much diminished in the face of the contraction and consolidation it confronts now. The model [namelos is] proposing is to acknowledge the hard truth, but I think it also happens to reflect the evolution of the industry."'
 
In the case of Silverfish Books, we currently do not charge authors anything to work with them, although many are willing to pay. (But, we do have a nominal charge for the Silverfish Writing Programme.) All we ask is they be willing to work hard. We look at their sample work, talk to them and then decide if there is a book.

Karen LaReau, hopes to have two books out in 2011. (It is a slow process.) She is not sure where the industry is going, but she says: "People are always going to want good stories ... all I can do, is to continue to provide that."

Shelf-Awareness

Innovate, innovate, innovate

The news from the book industry appears to get worse with every passing week. Let's leave that aside for a moment, if we can, and see how some are coping and read some of the good news for a change, without talking about shopping malls across the US that have become community centres and libraries. Three trends appear to be emerging. They are: innovate, innovate and innovate.

A Publisher's Weekly story recently was about David L. Ulin, book editor of the Los Angeles Times who joined the Los Angeles Times in October 2005. Unfortunately,  the stand-alone book review section, The Sunday Book Review, died six months ago due to the shrinking newspaper business and falling ad revenues. But Ulin took the challenge upon himself and created the Times' online book presence.

"When I came on board, all we did was to load whatever was in the paper about books to the Web site. No one was tending it," Ulin says. "When the stand-alone was threatened, our online presence became a priority." He then decided to feature Web-only material, beginning with a blog. "We had no idea what we were doing, but tried to figure it out as we went along." A year ago, Ulin brought in Carolyn Kellogg as the dedicated blogger; she has helped him understand what he refers to as "the emerging style of blogging about books," a more immediate, conversational approach.

In addition to the Jacket Copy blog, David Ulin also has five online columnists writing about paperbacks, mysteries, sci-fi, children's and mythology. In March, Ulin will debut an online-only weekly essay by writers on writing. Contributors will include both new and established authors covering a wide range of voices and aesthetics. "While the book industry seems to be focused on contracting, we're expanding online. We think of book coverage in the paper in a complex mix of ways," says Ulin.

"I'm committed to both print and Web. There are two readerships, and I'm not sure they're the same. My main interest is, how do we get the most book coverage to the most people?" Ideally, Ulin would welcome a return to the stand-alone book review. "But we don't have one now, and we're not going to have one," he says. "One of the things that worries me about the book culture is the notion that all change is bad."

In another posting, Hugh Mcquire of The Huffington Post asks: "How can publishing maintain its financial viability when fewer people are reading books? Especially when everyone wants everything for free?" He says, "I recently attended O'Reilly's Tools for Change in Publishing conference, a yearly gathering of publishers, technology providers, developers, thinkers, visionaries. The TOC conference is built around technology, with an objective to help 'decipher the tools of change in this industry and help cut through the hype for a more profitable future in publishing.' In 2009 the focus was decidedly philosophical, not technological: what is the future of the book, and how might publishers build successful business models around the coming changes?"

And then he notes: "Still, one thing that worried and puzzled me was how rarely the reader was mentioned at TOC. There was talk of the future of the book, the network, Google, and self-publishing models. And of course DRM. But the reader was largely absent."

"One of the problems for publishers is that they have never had much to do with their readers. Their clients, traditionally, have been book stores, who in turn managed the relationships with readers."

"The question every publisher should be asking themselves every day is: how can we provide more value to our readers? I suspect the ones that start each day with that question will find the right answers. At least, I think they'll be asking the right questions."

Another story in Publisher's Weekly is about Thomas Nelson who has announced the launch of NelsonFree, a program that allows readers to receive content in multiple formats -- physical book, audiobook and e-book -- without making multiple purchases. With NelsonFree, the price of the hardcover book includes both the audio download and the e-book. The first two NelsonFree titles, including Michael Franzese’s I’ll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse, will go on sale later this month. Another 10 Nelson titles will be available in the format before the end of the year.

Joel Miller, vp and publisher, said Nelson currently has plans to release a dozen format-free books in this and related categories, and will monitor consumer response to determine whether or not it adds more titles. He also said Nelson will not raise the price of hardcovers in the NelsonFree program.

Nelson president and CEO Michael S. Hyatt said, "I believe that the industry is shifting and we, as publishers, need to explore new methods of getting our content into the hands of customers," said. "NelsonFree will give readers a new level of value and flexibility. It will enhance their literary experience and allow greater employment of the content without breaking the bank."

And then finally, Amazon unveils a Kindle app for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch that displays books in color. So, one does not have to spend US$359 on a Kindle electronic book reader from Amazon.com if one owns an iPhone or iPod touch (as a new application will let you access the same content on your Apple device).

"The program, which can be downloaded from Apple's online application store, lets iPhone and iPod touch users read the same electronic books, magazines and newspapers that Kindle owners can buy on Amazon.com. As with the Kindle, the iPhone app lets users change the text size on the screen, and add bookmarks, notes and highlights ... The application does not connect to the Kindle store, however, so users must access the Web browser on their iPhone, iPod or computer to buy the content."

So, has Amazon.com finally seen the light? (With an iPhone installed base of well over 10 million the light couldn't get more glaring.)

The central premise of all business is: stick to what you know, and what you are good at. Leave the manufacturing of pencils to those who do that well.