Back from Frankfurt

It was a pretty good haul this year, with requests for nearly thirty manuscripts from Germany, France, Italy and Turkey. Not to count chickens, but a two-and-a-half-dozen egg haul is pretty good considering the 'soft' book market, and small inquiries in the last two years. Isa Kamari, Farish A Noor, Rozlan Mohd Noor, and Shih-Li Kow were amongst the authors who attracted the most interest (and Shih-Li's new book has not even been published yet)! But, while Singapore's NAC provides translation grants, Malaysia does not (and certainly not for books in English), so Malaysian books might be slightly handicapped.

In general, at the Bookfair, despite all the grumbling, the industry didn't seem all that soft; well, not in Halls 3 to 6 at any rate, but at Hall 8.0 the exhibits looked a little sad and crowds noticeably smaller this year. But then, Hall 8.0 has always looked a little sad when compared with the others, design-wise. This year, about 20% of the hall was devoted to digital content, and the rest was described by one Italian publisher as rubbish. For those who are wondering, Hall 8.0 is the largest, and where all the Anglo-American publishers are; that is, it is the hall for mainstream books in English. (Picture shows a 'wall of books' erected at a German stand.)

The publisher I had an appointment with in Hall 8.0 confirmed that there were fewer trade visitors at their hall this year. She said that things were slower. It was quite an interesting appointment, this one. I got an email from her asking for an appointment at Frankfurt. I had never met her before. She had a Russian sounding name and I do find European book designs and subject matter quite fascinating. In a subsequent email, she suggested Hall 8.0 for the meeting. I should have known better. Enough people have warned me over the years about Hall 8.0, that they were only interested in selling not buying, that they were not interested in trade.

When I walked into their stand for the meeting, I realised that they were really children's-book publishers, and we are not. I told her (I am not mentioning any names, here) that I did not publish children's books (why did she email me then?), but I knew a friend who did. I asked if I could take away some catalogues, which she readily agreed, and gave me two printed ones and a CD containing their full list. I asked her what type of books she would be interested in; "Folk tales, or stories of indigenous people?"  She replied, quite directly, "Oh, we only sell, not buy," whereupon we shook hands and I left. There was really no point in prolonging the conversation.

When I asked her for the catalogues earlier, I had been serious about passing them onto a friend. But after hearing her reply, I decided to simply toss it. I mean, "Why should I?" With that kind of attitude, why should I bother to help her? Maybe, that's why the traffic in Hall 8.0 was so slow!

At an earlier meeting with another publisher, this time from Turkey, the visitor went through our list and requested PDF versions of several titles to be sent to her by email. Then, I asked for her list, which she showed me. Out of many, I saw three titles, detective stories, which I felt might be of interest to Malaysian readers. I asked her for a copy of her catalogue, to pass on to Arief of PTS, and he was delighted. This is what trade is about. This is what networking is about. Unfortunately, publishers from Britain and the US are not quite clear on that concept.

Notwithstanding all that, Frankfurt is a fantastic place to be. You will have no idea how big the book industry is until you have seen it.

Oh, by the way, a Malaysian publishing industry leader told me that the London Book Fair is no different from Hall 8.0. So, I guess I shall give it a miss.

We are the sum of what others think of us

We received an email yesterday with the subject, "I am Alvin Tan, the man the media loves to hate." Yes, the same Alvin Tan who uploaded pictures of himself and his girlfriend on the internet and got into trouble in Singapore, and the 'buka puasa' photo, which got him into trouble in Malaysia. (The email was BCCed to Silverfish Books, so we assume he has sent it to other publishers as well.) He also sent several links to newspaper articles about the ... er ... his events, in case we didn't know who he is. I couldn't help but smile. It seemed like this guy now wants to make some money out of it all (maybe to pay his legal costs).

The email was about a proposal for a book (yes a proposal, not a manuscript) he wants to write, with chapter headings and links to Facebook notes. I would have normally rejected emails like this outright, because I'm only interested in completed manuscripts. But I decided to look at his Facebook page, because such people are often immensely talented, and I am really not interested in their personal lives, no matter what I think about them.  Maybe we'll discover a new literary genius, I thought.

Unfortunately, not. Aiyoh! Our friend is a regular Aunt Agony, lah! His writings are on parenting, self-improvement, media management, social skills, dating, etc. A bit ironic, that. But that's not the reason we sent him a  rejection letter. We don't publish self-help, or motivation, or business.

When I told someone about this inquiry I was met with the response,"Why would anyone even consider publishing a book by 'this stupid child'." Why not? Who am I to judge him? Hey, I don't care if he's a porn star if he writes well! As a publisher, our friends often decide what type of books we publish, or don't.

A shopkeeper's life isn't easy either. Our customers like to decide what we should and should not sell. One customer, who came last week, said that he attended one of our events some years ago and left with the impression that Silverfish Books was a 'lefty' hangout! He was appalled at the anti-government rhetoric. "They can only see it from one point of view." Oh boy! I wanted to tell him that not all our events, or customers, are like that, but decided not to say anything. As a shopkeeper, I had to shut up, no matter what, and keep my thoughts to myself. And, let him think I agree.

We have a few customers who do get carried away sometimes, especially at events. They are a minority, but noisy enough to send out wrong signals. The truth is whatever they say. This was particularly scary just before the last general elections. Hey, this is Bangsar, okay? I was afraid I'd get beaten up if I had a contrarian view about anything, and I was certainly not going to tell them that some of my very intelligent customers were ministers and wives from, yes, the blue half! (Even, if they leave me gob-smacked a week later, due to some statement in the press.) I have met some lovely people from that group, but don't tell them that. (Oh dear, are some people going to stop coming?!)

As a friend, we sometimes feel that we're not entitled to an opinion, and that we should agree no matter how wrong and silly the argument. Boo hoo hoo, how can you say that? I thought you were my friend. You should agree with me. Well, you should try becoming a shopkeeper then, particularly of a bookshop. Have you read this, have you read that, what do you think? If it is a local book ... you die, man, no matter what! Tell me now! Right now! What's you're opinion of this? And it had better be the right answer!

Bookshops and publishers are the sum total of whatever their customers think they are. We can't possibly have another opinion, or, God forbid, disagree. That would not be allowed.

Life is so-oo difficult.

Who are these Xlibris people?

An author whose latest manuscript I'm working on asked me the question above. I said I had heard the name before, but I really didn't know. This was about a month ago. He said he got a call from someone claiming to be from Xlibris Australia (she talked funny, so he believed her) and started giving him some hard sell about why he should publish with them. It was the usual: worldwide reach, thousands of copies, etc, etc.

'How did they get my number? How do they even know me?" he asked.

The question is easy to answer in these days of Google. The first one stumped me. "Not from us, I said unnecessarily."

"I know that." I thought he sounded a little annoyed that we thought he would even think we'd give his contact to anyone without his permission.

A week ago when we met again, he said that they were hounding him again. "They have called me four times, including two calls to my wife at home." They were all again from Australia and the usual hard sell: why go to a small publisher, we are international; don't you want to sell 50,000 books? We do e-books, too."

I told my author that if they promise him 50,000 copies, ask them for an advance instead of paying for their services. MYR100,000 thousand will be nice, thank you! MYR200,000 thousand, would be better. But, that's not going to happen, is it?

I am surprised at two things. One, how did they get so much information on the author? Do they have commission agents or spies or scouts in Malaysia? In any case, phone calls to someone's house, to me, borders on intrusion and bad ethics. Two, why are they so desperate? Is the self-publishing market that cut-throat? Or are they merely playing the volume game: print thousands of books in the hope of finding the next Fifty Shades? And what better way to do that than getting the authors to absorb publishing costs themselves. As P T Barnum famously said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

I decided to google them. The first entry was their official website. I found a quote on the sponsored link that said, "As of 2000, The New York Times stated it to be the foremost on-demand publisher." Okay. The next link was to their on-line book-store. The third link, a Wikipedia entry, was probably written by them, too. The fourth was the first independent link. It was from GoodReads, from one Mrs D whose basic message was: beware, Xlibris is a POD publisher from hell with bad  editing and are unprofessional. The 'comments' section was revealing. I saw one from a Rueben (who appears to work for Xlibris), "I notice that your concern with the poor level of service, and professionalism didn't detrimental you from using them for your other books." Wow! Fantastic! Is he a recent English graduate from a Malaysian university?! Doesn't quite boost you confidence in their editing, does it."

Okay, that's not fair. Maybe, they are not always that bad. They are probably better, although it's scary to think that they could be worse. Whatever it is, beware. POD publishers are on the prowl promising you riches. This Forbes story (August 1, 2013) puts it in perceptive:

"Here’s the problem with self-publishing: no one cares about your book. That’s it in a nutshell. There are somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published every year in the US alone, depending on which stats you believe. Many of those – perhaps as many as half or even more – are self-published. On average, they sell less than 250 copies each. Your book won’t stand out. Hilary Clinton’s will. Yours won’t.

So self-publishing is an exercise in futility and obscurity. Of course, there are the stories of the writers who self-publish and magic happens and they sell millions of books, but those are the rare exceptions. How rare? Well, on the order of 1 or 2 per million."

The good news is that the figure was 125 copies (according to the New York Times) in 2003, up 100% in ten years. (The latest figure probably takes Fifty Shades into account.)

Consider this: If an average POD customer pays USD2000.00 to publish a title, and 300,000 of these are published ever year (conservatively), that will make it a USD600,000,000 industry in the US. Is that all? I must have got my sums wrong. The total size of the book industry in the US in 2012 was USD 15 billion.

Oh, by the way, google 'Xlibris complaints' for lots and lots of dirt.

Why we publish

I had a meeting in Singapore recently with personnel of the National Arts Council over there. It appears that they liked some of the work Silverfish Books is doing and asked if we would collaborate on more projects in future. Of course, we'd like to collaborate, I said, but I'm very picky. I added that, to Silverfish Books, there was no such thing as 'good enough'. If a work was considered'good enough' than it was not 'good enough'. It is either good or bad. (My friend Joan told me that years ago.) There is simply no point in becoming champion of Subang Jaya.

Anyway, that, at least, is our ideal. When Silverfish Books started publishing, we set out to put Malaysian writing in English on the world literary map. (We hoped Malay and Chinese literature would be handled by others because that was not our core competence.) That we have done to a certain extent. (Apparently, the Silverfish Books' 'footprint' in several School of Oriental Studies in international universities is 'huge', according to some travelling academics. So, we have the 'fame', but I can't help thinking that a bit of 'fortune' would be good too!)

That was the other reason I was in Singapore. NAC has given us money to translate, edit and print a series of books. And they want to us to do more, their only condition being they have to be Singaporean authors. Is that selling my soul to the devil?

The kaya syndrome

I grew up in Johor Bahru and Singapore was my backyard (or the front-yard, depending on which direction you faced when you woke up). I have friends and relatives in Singapore. We share common experiences, at the non-political level at least (although some in Malaysia may regard that as almost blasphemy). But, most importantly, they are willing to give me money to help establish Singapore literature to the world, and they are serious. What are the chances of Silverfish Books (or any other independent publisher) getting assistance from any such institution in Malaysia? Are there any we can take seriously? (I can hear all sorts of sarcastic remarks coming up, but you get my point.)

To Malaysian government institutions, anyone in business is kaya, rich. And this kaya syndrome is killing the country. They have no idea about the sacrifices we make (not to mention our frequent 14-15 hour days). They think we exist to support them, when it should be the other way round. They cannot understand that without businesses, government servants won't get paid.

Why we write

So why do we persist? It's almost like the plot of a Bruce Willis Die Hard movie (but then he always win in the end). I recently read an article on Why we write? George Orwell listed the reasons as sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse and political purpose. Others have suggested other reasons like: an access to her own mind (Joan Didion); for fun (David Foster Wallace); to find a gateway from the darkness to light (Joy Williams); springing from the soul like a rocket (Charles Bukowski); and for the comfort of belonging to a collective enterprise (Italo Calvino), amongst others.

Strange, how all this applies to publishing, and I guess to many other enterprises except maybe crass commerce where the only motivator is greed. Okay, here I go:

• Publish good Malaysian works that will last for years, no decades -- sheer egoism (Orwell)
• For the enormous buzz something good creates -- aesthetic enthusiasm (Orwell)
• Record snapshots of history before it's all lost -- historical impulse (Orwell)
• Says something important about us -- political purpose (Orwell)
• Says something new about ourselves that we didn't know (or shut out) for whatever reason -- access to our mind (Joan Didion)
• For entertainment -- for fun (David Foster Wallace)
• For empathy and acceptance -- darkness to light (Joy Williams)
• For the 'wow' factor -- like a rocket from the soul (Charles Bukowski)
• Stories about us -- for the comfort of belonging to a collective enterprise (Italo Calvino)

So, there. Like the good troubadour said: If my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine.