Blow by blow account of a book project

This is a new strategy of the Silverfish Writing Programme. We are often asked if there will be a second (or advanced) module, and our answer has always been that they should start writing first. This new system is to end the Writing Programme with a book project. This new system  is to set them on each other. Let them decide what is good enough and what is not. And it seems to be working. Can you feel the enthusiasm? We can. As YM says: Awesomeness!

Can't wait to read the stories.Let these guys inspire you; they have the same problems you have: motherhood, jobs, social commitments, etc. Any of the former SWP students can get together and see us at Silverfish Books for suggestions and support. (BTW, surprisingly, we still have places for next month's intake of the Silverfish Writing Programme -- we are normally booked up within the first week!)

Below: a blow by blow account
YM: ... The task is for us to each come up with 5 stories that he will publish as a group compilation.
So if you are keen to be a part of this group publication..drop me a line so that we can clue you in for meetg dates etc..to kickstart things, we are each to write a story a week. (September 25, 2013)

TS: I would love to be a part of this. Let's discuss soon.

AZ: Thanks YM. Count me in!

VD: Hi all, Apologies, I wont be able to make it again tomorrow and im afraid wont be able to commit to the writing project.

LW: Count me in! I am so sorry as I am still in Singapore currently (last min interview today) and I won't be here tomorrow as well. But do keep me in the loop for future meetups. I do want to be a part of this.

YM: Hi, all, as follow up to last saturday's discussion...Dec 31st is deadline to submit min 5 articles and more..
Please create dropbox and share the logins later so that we can all access each other's dropbox and read the articles..or maybe (pls let me know which is better way) we can one dropbox which we share..( haha i hv never used dropbox before) Addil, pls advise us.. Later when AZ n TS are back we make a date (maybe just before CNY) when LW woudl be ard to meet upop , discuss n critique the articles...
This is an open forum, pls feel free to respond, suggest, comment etc...
Lets be committed to the objective and also to get the best out of all of us and be open to all possibilities..

YM: Thanks for taking the lead on organising this Yet Mee. I'm excited! Teja (October 01, 2013)

SAK: Hi YM, Thank you. By the way, I wont be available from beginning of March onward as I am pregnant and have a baby due at that time. Hopefully we can get things done by then :).

TS: All, Congratulations Shazwani! I also need to wrap things up by March. I think we can do this if we are disciplined.

YM: Ok people..we hv a new deadline for completion n publication. .congrats Shazwani!

YM: Hi, all , how are yous doin'? Been almost two months since we last communicated, hope things are going well and creative juices are flowing, and putting pen to paper hehe (confession, a bit struggling here hehehe, got idea no 3 and now need to write it down.) But nonetheless, (hear the crack of the whip people? :-) dont forget our date on 31st december..btw, anyoen know how to create dropbox acct for all of us, I am a bit of a comp dunce, am afraid..
Cheerio.. (November 06, 2013)

LW: Ill help create it tonight !

YM: Awesomeness.

TS: Hi guys, Was out of town and didn't have email access. The deadline is getting closer and closer but I can't wait to read all your stories.

LW: hi guys, I've sent all of you a dropbox invite. please let me know if you have not received any (November 12, 2013)

TS: Just downloaded it. Thanks for setting this up!

SAK: Received it. Thanks Liwun.

YM: Thanks so much..

SAK: Hi guys, How is everyone?
As the deadline is approaching, just want to catch up with you all on how your writing is going :)? (December 14, 2013)

YM: Heya..SAK..I hv 3.5 pretty stories which i m still fine tuning. Hope to drop into dropbox by next weekend. ..oh pressure. .hehe

SAK: hehe...just started my 4th one. hope can meet the deadline.

YM: Hi, all, yes last minute rush as well..

AZ: hi guys! so we just put in the files in the dropbox folder right? correct me if i'm wrong :). i've already put in 3. i'm leaving for somewhere today and might not have internet connection til 1 jan. so maybe you'll only see my other 2 on 1 jan. happy new year everyone!

YM: Ok..yes..awesome. ..
Gotta finish up mine. ... How r the rest doing?
Happy new year btw...

Malaysia: Theme Nation at Tokyo International Book Fair 2014

A Bernama report carried in the mainstream newspapers (but largely ignored online) says that Malaysia has been chosen as the Theme Nation for the Tokyo International Book Fair 2014 from July 2-5, 2014, apparently "in recognition of the nation for achieving the status as Asia's largest book hub." Really? Larger than Japan, India, China, Singapore ..? Biggest in what way?

To most people in the Malaysian book industry the Tokyo International Book Fair is not very well known -- Frankfurt, London, Bologna, Delhi and Beijing are the famous ones. But Tokyo must be huge, and it's our loss that we do not engage with them more.

The official 'showcase' website says: "The largest international book fair in Japan, organised by the TIBF Executive Committee, which is comprised of major publishing associations and Reed Exhibitions Japan. Ideal platform for rights negotiations, co-publishing projects, and direct exports." At least they are not bragging that they are the biggest in the world, or Asia, or whatever. Guess they don't have an inferiority complex. The official website has very little by way of information, except that Malaysia is the 9th theme nation, and the coming fair appears to be the 21st event.

There is very little news about the TIBF in general, but the following is culled from the internet:

1. A 2-year-old Publishing Perspective report: "The TIBF used to be popular because if offered consumers the opportunity to buy books at a discount, typically 20% off the catalog price – this is more important in Japan because of its fixed book prices in bookstores." Ah! so it is a consumer fair.

2. A current Biztradeshows report: "Tokyo International Book Fair will be visited by exhibitors and visitors coming from different parts of the world. They will come from more than 25 countries such as Japan, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark and many more." This sounds like boring sales talk.

But it is easy to guess what the Malaysian stand will look like. It will be well designed (ie., expensive). Food will be served every day (as much for the Malaysian staff as for the visitors.) There will be wau bulan, bunga mangga, gasing spinning, wayang kulit, makyong, and tourism brochures. Books will be a sideshow, with the usual suspects exhibiting.

Why does anyone think we have a vibrant book industry? We must be the most anti-intellectual nation in the world!

Silverfish Writing Programme for spring 2014 now open for registration

Silverfish Writing Programme for 15 February, 2014 now open for registration


The next intake for the Silverfish Writing Programme will be on Saturday, Feb 15, 2014, and will run for 10 consecutive weeks (except for holidays) from 10.30am to 12.30pm. Registration will open on Dec 1, 2013. The past few programmes have been extremely popular and we have had to turn away many late inquiries, because the maximum number of participants we can accommodate is 10 (ten). We have, to date, received 30 inquiries already. So we encourage those who are interested to register early and avoid the last minute rush. (Please, tell your friends who are interested, too.) The registration fee will be RM1000.00 per participant for the full ten week programme, but an early bird discount of 10% will apply until (and including) January 1, 2014.

The world is full of stories. Humans are the only storytelling animals on the planet. We may miss meals (ask your teenager buried in a book or your aunt or mum hooked on a television soap) but not our stories. Even in famine-stricken zones, while people wait for the food trucks to arrive, they tell one another stories to keep alive. In war zones, where life is in danger every single minute, people cannot resist telling stories. All religions have tons of stories that are constantly repeated. Stories are part of our very being, our claim to be human.

We are surrounded by stories every waking minute of the day. When we turn on our radio or television to listen to the news, or to watch a drama or sitcom or even a cooking show, when we open our newspapers or surf the net for news, when we go to the movies, to a dance, listen to a song, or look at a painting, when we go to the office, pitch a proposal to our boss, our clients, meet our co-workers when we relax over tea and gossip, or tell them about our day, or listen to their stories. When we read books, we read stories. And stories will make us laugh or cry, or be angry, and invoke dozens of other emotions. We will love characters, or we hate them. Good stories never leave us indifferent. We have a desperate need to tell stories in whatever form. That’s why some of us want to become writers: to tell our stories. But what do publishers want?

That's what the Silverfish Writing Programme is all about: what publishers look for.

READ MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMME and REGISTER

Year-end offers -- 50% off

We have changed our site layout (again). (Yes, we have itchy fingers). We have decided to make the online bookstore the home page. Why? Because it comes with a nifty little slideshow and we thought it would be great for advertising. And it's FREE!

We know what it's like to be a small publisher. We certainly don't have huge budgets, and mainstream media often ignore us. So we're offering the space on our website 'home' page for book related advertisements for free for one week (renewable on request, subject to availability). So if you have a new book, or an offer or an event; send us a visual (550px by 250px -- landscape -- in png or jpg format, about 50k) and we'll put it up for you at no charge. Call it our small contribution to the book industry in Malaysia. (And hence the caveat; the ad-space is offered for books, offers, services or events pertaining to Malaysian writers, authors or publishers. Eg. a new book or event by Tash or Twan Eng will be welcomed, but not Fifty Shades. Fair? Ah, yes, one more thing. The book or offer must be available at Silverfish Books.)

To celebrate the new website and year end, we are offering 50% off (yes, 50 % off) on all titles three Inspector Mislan titles by Rozlan Mohd Noor and the three books by Isa Kamari. You'll have to pay for the postage, of course, but if you are a resident of Malaysia that will come up to RM12.00 for up to 3 kilos! That is, it will cost you RM8.00 for one book, or up to 10 books if it's like Rawa (and fewer for others). Please check the postage online before you order. Since you can mix and match (and kongsi with friends) you can save yourself a bundle. Of course, if you want to pick it up from the shop then you save the whole lot on postage. There are no limits as to how many you can order (or who can order), but it will be subject to the availability of stock. So enjoy.

Publishers turned booksellers

I read this in Goodreads: "With the advent of digital reading and the popularity of social media interaction with bestselling authors, an interesting phenomenon is taking place. Reading consumers are developing not only a loyal following of their favorite authors, but also developing a measure of brand loyalty to certain publishers. For their part, publishers have responded with shopping websites where readers can purchase digital and print titles, as well as other potential perks like being selected to read content before it is officially released."

Well, well, well. Silverfish Books started this trend 12 years ago and have been advocating the creation of strong brand-recognition ever since. There was a time when book imprints meant something. In the seventies, one never went wrong choosing a Faber and Faber for good contemporary (literary) fiction and a Penguin for the classics. Later, big houses came out with premier imprints like Vintage and Picador. Then there were the Serpent's Tails and Harvills for the even more eclectic. Then everything disintegrated and became a boring soup, making book discovery a real pain. Fifty Shades was published under Vintage. Need I say more!

The book industry (the Anglo-American version at least) became a fast-food outlet selling burgers and oily fries to the masses. That market will not go away; there will be enough children to keep it profitable. But adults, after showing some initial interest, will crave for something more in their lives. New restaurants will open for them to enjoy good meals, instead of a pizza takeaway everyday; an occasional haute cuisine, even.

The book industry will evolve likewise."... UK-based publisher Five Leaves Publications is opening an actual brick-and-mortar bookstore in response to the need for more independent book shops, as well as a way to further the discovery of its client list. This will be the first independent bookstore to open in the store’s area of Nottingham since 2000."

Three cheers to Five Leaves Publicatons. Hip hip hooray! x3

Ban lifted on Irshad Manji's book

This is old news by now; it was reported in The Malaysian Insider on the 5th of September. More importantly, is this the end of the story? TMSI reported, "In her decision, Zaleha questioned that if the book (Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta) was prejudicial to public order, why was there no action taken to ban the English version of the book?" The book was in circulation for about two weeks before it was banned, while its original version in English has been in the market since June 2011.

All this is not new any more. But another point made by the Justice Zaleha is. "Every legal power must have limits, otherwise we will have a dictatorship." Wow! Is anyone listening?

However, we know what the reality is. Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta will never be available to the public in this country because there are other ways of restricting the circulation of books without following the legal route. Harassment is one; walk into a bookshop when it is full of customers in the pretext of looking for contraband and disrupt business. Harass book importers at customs checkpoints, delay clearance, make them open every container in front of the enforcement officers. Harass transporters. In other words, make life hell for anyone trying to sell it.

Would that be akin to a dictatorship? Look out for interesting arguments here, possibly involving Jews and Zionist! Everything is their fault!

Jorge Luis Borges on Writing

Jorge Luis Borges' influence on modern writing is immeasurable. It is so ubiquitous that many authors don't even realise that what they are writing is Borgesian. (From Brain Pickings: 'Jorge Luis Borges was the most celebrated and influential Latin-American author of the twentieth century ... In 1972, when Borges was in his seventies and completely blind, a bright and earnest young Argentinian man of letters by the name of Fernando Sorrentino, only thirty at the time, sat down with the beloved author for seven afternoons ... Published in 1974 as Seven Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges (public library) ... (it) couldn’t be commercially distributed until the overthrow of Isabel Perón in 1976 ...')
Here are some extracts, but you should really read all of it. (I found some parts really funny.)

• Writing as amusement: A writer’s work is the product of laziness, you see. A writer’s work essentially consists of taking his mind off things, of thinking about something else, of daydreaming, of not being in any hurry to go to sleep but to imagine something . . . And then comes the actual writing, and that’s his trade. That is, I don’t think the two things are incompatible. Besides, I think that when one is writing something that’s more or less good, one doesn’t feel it to be a chore; one feels it to be a form of amusement.
  
• Literary schools; I no longer believe in literary schools now; I believe in the individual.
  
• Psychological literature: I believe in psychological literature, and I think that all literature is fundamentally psychological.
  
• Anecdotes and jokes: Each year a person hears four or five anecdotes that are very good, precisely because they’ve been worked on. Because it’s wrong to suppose that the fact that they’re anonymous means they haven’t been worked on. On the contrary, I think fairy tales, legends, even the off color jokes one hears, are usually good because having been passed from mouth to mouth, they’ve been stripped of everything that might be useless or bothersome. So we could say that a folk tale is a much more refined product than a poem by Donne or by Góngora or by Lugones, for example, since in the second case the piece has been refined by a single person, and in the first case by hundreds.
  
• Shakespeare: I think of Shakespeare above all as a craftsman of words. For example, I see him closer to Joyce than to the great novelists, where character is the most important thing.
  
• Publishing: Alfonso Reyes said that one published what he had written in order to avoid spending his life correcting it: one publishes a book in order to leave it behind, one publishes a book in order to forget it.
  
• Ageing: To reach the point of writing in a more or less uncluttered manner, a more or less decorous manner, I’ve had to reach the age of seventy.
  
• Judging a writer: A writer should always be judged by his or her best pages.
  

Read more here: http://goo.gl/91lvPA

Can indie bookstores be saved by chocolate?

Well, Belgian researchers apparently think so. The report in PS Mag says that the aroma of chocolates is so enticing that shoppers stick around longer, and boost sales of certain genres. That will be something Amazon won't be able to do: make computers smell like chocolate. Or, will they?!

And the book-stores won't even have to sell real chocolates, which is both good news and bad news. (Go figure.)

“Retailers can make use of pleasant ambient scents to improve the store environment, leading consumers to explore the store,” the report in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, a research team led by Lieve Doucé of Hasselt University for the 10-day experiment in a general-interest bookstore in Belgium, says.

Researchers found that sales of books on food and drink, and romances, increased, but history and thrillers dropped. This is not too good for Silverfish Books then because we don't sell romances and carry few cookbooks.

Still, it is worth a try. But we'll go for real chocolate though; if nothing else, we'll get to eat the merchandise.

Translating

I saw this story in Authors and Translators after I had finished translating Isa Kamari's three novels from Malay to English, and I was surprised how close my experience was to theirs. I had always thought that my Malay was not good enough, but after reading some of the dreadful translations we had to edit, I was convinced that I'd do a much better job. The thing about translation is that you can (and, according to MacLehose who gave us Harvill, you should) treat the translation as you would an original. What often happens is that very soon the novel you are reading becomes very much your own, and you feel obliged to give the reader the best experience possible.

Translating a novel line by line and word by word is not possible. So all such works are either a rendering or an adaptation. You'll have to read the entire novel first to understand what's going on, and then plan your strategy. I fumbled about in the beginning, and decided that I preferred to work on one chapter at a time. The trick is to retell the story to your readers with all the tensions and emotions intact, and this can often be done only if you are not a hundred per cent faithful to the text. For example the Malay language works best in the passive voice, while English is certainly far more comfortable in the active. (I'm uncertain if this is due to the evolution of the language or due to other inherent qualities.) So it's important to read the entire paragraph before deciding how you'd phrase it. Sometimes, it would sound better for later sentences to be brought forward, because it sounds better that way in English. Another thing I found is that English thrives on an economy of words, whereas Malay language likes elaborations and repetitions. Again, I'm not qualified to say if it's due to evolution or some other reason. Maybe it's purely stylistic.

It was tempting to tweak the story a little to give it a better zing, but fortunately for me, Isa Kamari (who reads English) was on hand to curb my over-enthusiasm. I wonder what happens when a work is translated into a language the author does not read at all. I guess it's better not to know. Just keep the cheques coming!

Showrooming

Showrooming happens when people browse a brick-and-mortar bookshop, compare prices and then buy it online at Amazon.

A story in City AM says that almost two thirds of shoppers in the UK admit to showrooming. As for the other one third, one can only guess if they were lying. The advantage transnational book stores have had is in the touch and feel of the books. Comparative shopping is not a crime, nor is it unethical, but what happens when traditional bookshops become mere showrooms for Amazon? Is it unfair? It certainly is not fair. Is the government going to do anything about it? Maybe in France!

"Today, everyone has had enough of Amazon which, through dumping practices, smashes prices to penetrate markets only to then raise prices again once they are in a situation of quasi-monopoly,” said Aurélie Filippetti, the culture minister in a story in The Telegraph

It appears that in the US and in Britain they are already in a position of quasi-monopoly. The interesting point is, what happens when there are no more shops to showroom off? Will Amazon be able to support the entire industry by itself? Or will publishers set up their own bookshops (like Apple does with its Apple store), or publisher authorised stores, and control the entire experience? One may soon find Penguin stores, Random House store, Faber stores and so on, all over the world, discounting the hell out of Amazon. And why not? It's either that or apocalypse of the book industry. No one seems to be interested in the return of the Net Book Agreement (NBA), or have I missed some threads in the argument?

At Silverfish Books, we opted out early when we saw the madness and predicted the carnage. We sell mainly Malaysian books, many of which are self-published or short print-runs, that Amazon and other big bookstores don't carry, although we can't say we are totally safe. The only way to survive now is to go small and local. That is, very small and very local, and wait for something to happen. It certainly will.

Why authors self-publish

From the Digital Book World. According to a new report based on a survey of nearly 5,000 authors of all kind, What Authors Want: Understanding Authors in the Era of Self-Publishing, nearly two-thirds of hybrid authors said one of their reasons was that self-publishing helped them exert more creative control on the final product. Some 40% said one of their reasons was because of the ease of the self-publishing process, and nearly 40% said it was because they could make more money self-publishing.

This caught me by surprise at first, then on second reading I spotted the term 'hybrid authors' -- authors who have previously published the traditional way, but now self-publish -- then it made sense. Many authors feel that publishers mutilate their story. Yes, many publishers, particularly the big ones, are too market driven to retain any form of integrity. They publish what sells. Period. (We have all read books and sometimes wondered about the purpose of some scenes with gratuitous sex, rape, incest, bondage, pederasty, homosexuality and violence in an otherwise good book. Many books have nothing but that, which is another industry altogether called pornography.) It is important to note though that this is the feeling of hybrid authors only (that is, those who have moved to self-publishing), not all authors.

Many smaller publishers, especially the independents, however, love their work too much and are very careful about preserving the authors' voice and intent, although they also have to keep their ledgers black. Integrity is all that counts, as does every book. There was an interesting story in the Guardian online on September 27, 2009, that asked, "Raymond Carver was one of America's greatest writers. But was his razor-sharp style created by his editor?" His editor was Gordon Lish. The story is long, complicated and dramatic as it sounds, but the important question is this: would Carver have been read at all if not for Lish's editing? Would have Carver been Carver? (A customer, who has read both, said he thought the edited version was much better. Maybe, the original didn't read like 'Carver'!) The extent of editing that was done to one of Carver's stories can be seen here in the New Yorker.

To be sure many world famous authors have benefited from astute editing for as long as publishing has been around. But, many have suffered too.

Now, how many feel that KS Maniam's 2003 novel, Between Lives should have been vigorously edited, although you are too polite to say it?

Would you have bought these books?

This is from BookRiot. It is one thing to judge a book by its cover, but how about buying books by judging its title? Although, many are now considered classics, how many of the following would you have passed up in the bookshop?

• TRIMALCHIO IN WEST EGG (The Great Gatsby -- Scott Fitzgerald)
• MULES IN HORSE HARNESS (Gone with the wind -- Margaret Mitchell)
• THE EYE AND THE EAR (A Movable Feast -- Ernest Hemingway)
• THE SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION OF FREDERICK HENRY(A Farewell to Arms -- Ernest Hemingway)
• TWILIGHT (The Sound and the Fury -- William Faulkner)

Conversely, how many book have bombed because the publishers chose a wrong 'title'? We'll never know, will we?

Silverfish Writing Programme: 13 July, 2013 intake

Silverfish Writing Programme: 13 July, 2013 intake now open for registration

The next intake for the Silverfish Writing Programme will be on Saturday, July 13, 2013, and run for 10 consecutive weeks (except for holidays) from 10.30am to 12.30pm, and will be opened for registration on June 3, 2013. The past few programmes have been extremely popular and we have had to turn away many late inquiries, because the maximum number of participants we can accommodate is 10 (ten). We have to date received 30 inquiries already. So we encourage those who are interested to register early, and avoid a last minute rush. (Please, tell your friends who are interested, too.) The registration fee will be RM1000.00 per participant for the full ten week programme, but an early bird discount of 10% will apply until (and including) July 1, 2013.

The world is full of stories. Humans are the only story telling animals on the planet. We may miss meals (ask your teenager buried in a book or your aunt or mum hooked on a television soap) but not our stories. Even in famine stricken zones, while people wait for the food trucks to arrive, they tell one another stories to keep alive. In war zones, where life is in danger every single minute, people cannot resist telling stories. All religions have tons of stories that are constantly repeated. Stories are part of our very being, our claim to be human.

We are surrounded by stories every waking minute of the day. When we turn on our radio or television to listen to the news, or to watch a drama or sitcom or even a cooking show, when we open our newspapers or surf the net for news, when we go to the movies, to a dance, listen to a song, or look at a painting, when we go to the office, pitch a proposal to our boss, our clients, meet our co-workers when we relax over tea and gossip, or tell them about our day, or listen to their stories. When we read books, we read stories. And stories will make us laugh or cry or be angry, and dozens of other things. We will love characters or we hate them. Good stories never leave us indifferent. We have a desperate need to tell stories in whatever form. That’s why some of us want to become writers: to tell our stories. But what do publishers want?

That's what the Silverfish Writing Programme is all about: what publishers are looking for.

READ MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMME and REGISTER

Online retail

A recent US Census Bureau News indicates that online retail accounts for only 5.2% of all retail in the US. That is, 95% of all purchases are done in brick-and-mortar stores. A story in Wired says, "Forrester Research surveyed 4,500 U.S. adults online and found that in every major consumer category other than travel, shoppers said visiting a store served as the most important source of research before buying." The research suggest that no one in the selling business can afford to ignore the primal satisfaction of touching and holding something in your hand before you buy. "Human toolmaking and trade both started as hands-on endeavors; as much as we now love Amazon Prime, we as a species aren’t likely to give up in-person consumption anytime soon."

Is it the same for books? Two interesting recent stories come up. A story in Digital Book Wire story Ebook Best-Seller Price Average Plummets to Lowest Level Yet says, "... the US$9.99 price band, which was the most popular among consumers just six months ago, has fallen out of favor." Now, the average price is closer to US$5.50 per book. How low will it go? Elsewhere, The Association of American Publishers released 2012 sales figures, that showed a substantial increase of 7.4% in overall total sales in the book industry, of which 19% were digital. With plunging e-book pricing will that last percentage fall lower or rise? Digital Book wire seems to think it will stabilise between 20-25%.

So, contrary to popular belief, the book is not only alive and well, it is thriving, albeit in several different forms. This figure is all the more given the way mega book chains are closing all over the world.

Chinua Achebe passes on

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, 82, died in a hospital in Boston after a brief illness, on March 22, 2013. He was widely regarded as the father of modern African literature, and lived and worked as a professor in the United States in recent years, most recently at Brown University in Rhode Island. Nobel prize winner, Wole Soyinka; poet, John Pepper Clark; fellow Nigerian who died in the Biafrah war of the 70s, Christopher Okigbo; and Chinua Achebe were the 'brother' African writers of the 50s and 60s.

There was a minor 'literary' furore in Malaysia in 2006 about Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the news of which took a trip around the world. Malaysia had banned Things Fall Apart.  This is what happened: we had ordered copies of the books, which we had kept in stock since we opened in 1999, but were told by our distributors that they could not supply us because the book had been 'banned' by the government. So, because the book was being used in schools, we had to tell that to many of our customers who were teachers and students. You can imagine their reaction. Blogs were the 'in' thing at the time, not Facebook.

'Banning' books in Malaysia has many dimensions, not always done in accordance to the law. One can speculate, from past experience, what happened at the customs this time though. I'd go with arbitrary confiscation (because we checked and didn't find the title on the 'banned; list), to scare the hell out of the importer. Why? We have absolutely no idea. Maybe, he said something wrong, or didn't do something right. Or, he did nothing at all. But, it appeared to have worked; after that the importer became a little paranoid about bringing in anything. Proscribing books by harassment works, and is effective. And the Minister can honestly say that the book is not on the 'list', foreign do-gooders will be happy with the reply (tick), and the importer will never see the books again.

I have checked the latest KDN list, and Things Fall Apart is not on it. Maybe, it never was. Or, maybe, the cynic in me says, they did a Winston Smith on it and erased the past, changed history. I notice that the title on breast feeding I saw several years ago is not on it now, either.

Walmart technology

A Reuters report in September last year (which we reported in this column) said,  "Wal-Mart Stores Inc will no longer sell Amazon.com Inc's Kindle eReaders and tablets, severing its relationship with a major competitor." We predicted Walmart would introduce their own gadget and give it away free to replace that trojan horse. What's happening now is that they have developed an app for the iPhone as a free download.

While Walmart is almost a half-trillion dollar company with annual revenues of $466 billion for its fiscal year 2013, which ended January 31, its online sales revenue is only 9 billion dollars compared to 61 billion for Amazon. Walmart want's to compete and win.

"Walmart is a technology company. Let’s just put that out there right now. The company has crushed all competitors through its mastery of supply-chain logistics and inventory management, which above all are engineering problems," says a recent Wired report.

In August last year, Reuters reported that Wal-Mart Stores Inc was testing a system at a Walmart supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas, near the company's headquarters that would allow shoppers to scan items using their iPhones and then pay at a self-checkout counter, a move to trim checkout times and costs for retailers.

The latest news is that Walmart's  app-based self-checkout is available in more than 200 stores in the US, Wired says, "When you open Walmart’s location-aware main app in a store that has iPhone self-checkout, the so-called “Scan & Go” option becomes available. You scan the barcodes on items as you put them in your (physical) shopping cart, and the app keeps a running total. When you’re done, you go to a standard self-checkout station and choose the “mobile” option on the terminal next to the card swiper. A QR code appears on the screen. Scan the code with your phone, and the app transfers over the contents of your (virtual) shopping cart. Pay as usual, and you’re done." (Watch the Walmart video.)

Yes, anyone who gives Amazon some competition deserves our support.

History of Book Vending Machines

Saw this in the Huffington Post, and thought we'd share it.

Did you know, "The first book-dispensing vending machine was built by Richard Carlile in England in 1822. Carlile was a bookseller who wanted to sell seditious works like Paine's Age of Reason without being thrown in jail. His answer was a self service machine that allowed customers to buy questionable books without ever coming into contact with Carlile. The customer turned a dial on the devise to the publication he wanted, deposited his money, and the material dropped down in front of him ... but that didn't stop ... from convicting one of Carlile's employees for selling "blasphemous material."

There are no pictures of that machine, unfortunately, but you can see one of the 1937 Penguincubator, which appeared in London in 1937, conceived by Allen Lane, the founder of (surprise) Penguin Books, and dispensed classic literature in paperback form for about the price of a pack of cigarettes. Cool.

There are others pictures like:

• the 1947 book vending machine called the Book-O-Mat, which featured a selection of 50 books any one of which could be purchased for USD 0.25 each.
  
• the modern day one in Japan that has success in dispensing a variety of items including beer, pornography, wallet-sized books and comics the size of a phone directory;
  
• A Novel Idea at London's Heathrow airport that went bankrupt in 2010. 
• a paperback vending machine in a Barcelona subway station filled with Spanish translations of Nora Roberts and Victoria Holt.
• the Readomatic at the Stockholm airport 
• and lastly, and most interestingly, the BIBLIO-MAT that debuted last year by the Toronto bookshop named Monkey's Paw, the world's first vending machine to dispense a randomly selected second-hand book for the price of two Canadian dollars. You'll never know what you're going to get!

Indie Bookshop Survival Guide

Is the fate of book stores a cliffhanger? this is suggested in a report in The Economist headlined The future of the bookstore: A real cliffhanger. The reason for this question is apparently due to the onslaught of e-books and e-tailers like Amazon, with the inevitable comparison to the music industry.

First, for the bookstore, the report says: 'For a bookstore to remain successful, it must improve “the experience of buying books," says Alex Lifschultz, an architect whose London-based practice is designing the new Foyles. He suggests an array of approaches: "small, quiet spaces cocooned with books; larger spaces where one can dwell and read; other larger but still intimate spaces where one can hear talks from authors about books, literature, science, travel and cookery." The atmosphere is vital, he adds. Exteriors must buzz with activity, entrances must be full of eye-catching presentations and a bar and café is essential.'

Weren't most book stores already doing these things? Quiet cosy nooks, areas for talks, grand entrance displays and cafe's. Borders started this trend, and was very successful initially; people loved it, and everyone else imitated them. But they were also very silly about it, and went broke. Why did they go broke? Was it a problem with the management, the book-retail model, or the industry? Improving the experience of buying books is good. Loyalty is good. But what do customers really want? Unfortunately, only real book buyers know what they want in a book store. Mr Alex Lifshultz, are you a book buyer? Do you read? Do you have a library in your house? How big is your collection? Do you like hanging about in bookshops? What do you expect them to be?

The book seems to be the only commodity that is sold by people with little or no product knowledge. No none would buy electrical or electronic goods from someone who does not even know where the 'on' switch is. I remember my visit to Foyles many years ago, and how I was immediately impressed by how much the staff knew. For one thing, the book is not a commodity to start with. For another, change is not going to come from the big boys; they are the reason for the mess we're in.

I just read about an Indie Bookseller Award short-list in the UK. That's where I believe the change will take place.  The indies will have to make many sacrifices of course. Many have told me that they've always loved the idea of setting up bookshops. Here are some suggestions:

• don't set up a bookshop because you think it's cool; or because you think you won't have much to do; or you can read all day; or because you have nothing better to do. Set it up if that's what you absolute want to do, and be prepared to work like a slave.
  
• go local, cater to your town/region, build an in-shop/online community, promote your local writers, hold events, stock their books, even if they're self published, go to the universities and colleges, both faculty and students make good markets if you stock the type of books they want.
  
• pick a niche you're good in, could be anything, but know it well, give it your best shot.
  
• choose your books carefully, they should reflect the character of the owner; browse in remaindered stores for good bargains, forget about stocking current bestsellers unless the publishers are willing to give you the same terms they offer Amazon (even if you're buying only two copies), there's no need for you to become Amazon's showroom, but provide the option of back to back orders; consult your customers (they may know of books you don' or have missed), will also help build the community.
  
• don't spend a fortune on fancy architects (whether they read, or not). A friend down the road might be able to help you at a fraction of the cost.

Learning grammar from books

 There was a story by Julia Eccleshare in The Guardian recently, "Can children learn grammar just from reading books? There's plenty of evidence that the best children's books contain all the grammar young readers need. They also make learning enjoyable – unlike textbooks."

I remember I used to hate English grammar in school. (This was in the sixties). I used to hate Malay grammar, too. (How's that for non-discriminatory hate!) Guess, the truth was, I hated memorising facts. But I read quite a bit. So, while I'd do badly in the grammar part of the paper, I'd get an 'A' for my karangan (and essay writing). Now, I'm editing books in English (some of which are good enough for international award short- and long- lists), but I dread anyone asking me what part of speech anything is in, or any other detail. If it sounds right, that's good enough for me. We have a proofreader in the UK who advises and corrects me, but, seriously, it does not happen that often.

Eccleshare says: "Why have schools been told that reading doesn't help you to learn grammar? My child is being prepared for the new Year 6 grammar test. Suddenly, a lot of literacy teaching time is focusing on that at the expense of time spent on "reading for pleasure". I can't help feeling that the children could learn the grammar better if they read more."

Have schools really been told that reading doesn't help grammar? Jeez. I have been out of school too long. Sure, we didn't have too many 'native' speakers teaching us English, but no one said that to us, though that didn't stop them from trying to drill rules of grammar into our heads (which I have duly forgotten after I left school).

She quotes S. Krahsen's The Power of Reading: "When children read for pleasure, when they get "hooked on books", they acquire, involuntarily and without conscious effort, nearly all of the so-called 'language skills' many people are so concerned about: they will become adequate readers, acquire a large vocabulary, develop the ability to understand and use complex grammatical constructions, develop a good writing style, and become good (but not necessarily perfect) spellers."

And, "Although free voluntary reading alone will not ensure attainment of the highest levels of literacy, it will at least ensure an acceptable level. Without it, I suspect that children simply do not have a chance."

And how high a level of literacy is that?

Digital round-up

1. Apple's iPad helped students score 23% higher on exams
2. New Jersey firefighters sworn in on iPad Bible app
3. Why Japanese readers don't like e-books

Apple's iPad helped students score 23% higher on exams

A report by Daniel Eran Dilger in AppleInsider say, "After launching a new iMedEd initiative built around Apple's iPad, the University of California at Irvine reports that students in the program have now scored "an average of 23 percent higher on their national exams" than previous classes, "despite having similar incoming GPAs and MCAT scores."

Wow! This is better than those useless 'brain enhancements tablets' parents spend so much money on. Under this Apple Distinguished Program, "incoming UC Irvine medical students receive iPads that provide digital copies of all textbooks, along with access to podcasts of all lectures and other instructional materials. The iPads also provide secure access to patient records and recorded data from "digital stethoscopes, bedside diagnostic ultrasound units and a variety of other medical devices."

Guess it makes a lot of sense. Students can listen to a lecture (especially a bad one) several times at home to understand what he or she is saying. (Students can even skip classed entirely and listen to the lectures!) How I wish I had them when I was in Engineering school.)

New Jersey firefighters sworn in on iPad Bible app

From another AppleInsider report.  According to an NBC 40 newscast, officials at the Atlantic City Fire Department had scheduled a ceremony to promote several firefightes to Battalion Chief and Fire Captain, but upon commencing the proceedings they  noticed that no one had a bible. One person, however, had an iPad, and the owner pulled up -- or downloaded -- a bible app. The firefighters then swore their oaths, each placing his hand on the iPad with the bible app open.

God moves in mysterious ways.

Why Japanese readers don't like e-books

A CNN Money report. The Japanese have always been regarded as a people living on the cutting-edge of technology. Sci-fi writer William Gibson considered Japan as a country with a "default-setting-for-the future".

The report says, "Japanese consumers still seem dead set against adopting e-books, showing less interest in them than even the print-worshipping French. According to an R.R. Bowker study, 72% of Japanese consumers said they had not tried e-books and did not want to try them. That compares with 66% of French respondents polled. Overall adoption rates in Japan remain the lowest in the developed world. Only 8% of Japanese readers have downloaded and paid for an e-book compared with 20% in the US."

Tokyo based e-publisher Robin Birtle notes, "The Japanese do like to have something physical."

Boy, does the Luddite in me want to cheer. E-books are such poor second cousins.

Saudi Aramco World

I vaguely recalled an interview (but I had forgotten if it was two or three years ago) when I got an email from one Jimin Lai, a freelance photographer, assigned to take photographs of me and Silverfish Books for an article written by Richard Covington about the arts scene in Malaysia for the Saudi Aramco World magazine. That was six months ago.

I was used to the usual Malaysian press style photographs, the posing-posing type, with the forced smile and pointy finger. (Ever wondered why pictures in local newspaper always have dignitaries pointing stupidly at something or other? Apparently, that’s the editors’ way of being creative! Duh.)

Jimin Lai was quite different. He didn’t even want me to smile. The magazine had sent him the article and he was required to interpret it. I was fascinated when he told me what he was going to do. He made me stand at three different spots (no posing) and stitched the three photos together for a panoramic view of Silverfish Books here.

The story titled New Art Mix featured several Malaysians associated with the arts, including the Islamic Arts Museum, Nurul Izzah, Malaysian National Arts Gallery, the Matahari gallery, film producer Zarul Albakri, composer Johan Othman of USM, Valentine Willie, Joe Sidek, and the city of George Town.

Read the full article here.

Expat Women in Asia: Call for Submissions

Editor Shannon Young is seeking contributions from expatriate women in East Asia for a new anthology from Signal 8 Press in Hong Kong. This collection will feature the writing of women who are currently expatriates or who previously lived in an East Asian country. For the purposes of this anthology, we construe East Asia to include Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and the ASEAN countries. All submissions should be creative non-fiction and/or travel memoir pieces that speak to the expat experience in modern East Asia. Potential topics include travel, work, relationships, gender roles, safety, family, and repatriation. We are looking for stories with a strong and personal narrative arc, not just travel guides or descriptions of the places you’ve lived. We hope to make this anthology as inclusive as possible, as well, and we welcome submissions from women from different parts of the world.

Contributions should be between approximately 2000 and 5000 words in length. Each writer will receive two copies of the completed anthology and a percentage of the royalties to be determined by the final number of contributors. Please send all submissions, with a brief paragraph about the author, to Shannon [at] typhoon-media [dot] com. Submissions should be in Microsoft Word, .doc or .docx format, and in a standard font. The deadline for submissions is 28 February 2013. This title will be released in paperback and e-book formats in the spring of 2014.

The link: http://akindleinhongkong.blogspot.hk/2013/01/expat-women-in-asia-call-for.html

Christopher MacLehose --Editor/publisher extraordinaire

I smiled when I saw Christopher MacLehose’s photograph with his Hungarian dog when I was reading the story, Christopher MacLehose: A life in publishing, in Guardian Online. That’s the way I remember him, proper in every way, a tall gangly teenager full of enthusiasm who had grown up to become a tall and gangly adult full of enthusiasm.

I met him in Sharjah during the book fair. I was in the hotel room looking through the list of other attendees to the ‘rights’ sessions when I saw his name. (I had received the list in KL earlier but I hadn’t had the time.)

MacLehose was the name I had associated with the Harvill Press (which he acquired in a management buyout in 1995), that wonderful independent publishing house that introduced me (and several other Silverfish regulars) to José Saramago, Haruki Murakami, Claudio Magris, Javier Marías, Giuseppe Lampedusa, Mikhaíl Bulgakov and Raymond Carver, amongst others (some of whom are household names, now). I would buy books by imprints in the nineties, and it was during one of my trips to India that I discovered the Harvill Press. I was fascinated by the range of authors and bought every title with a line drawing of a tiny panther on the spine.

I became fascinated with the publisher/editor and Harvill became one of the inspirations for Silverfish Books, not so much for books in translations but for books of quality; one could pick up a Harvill and not be disappointed. Harvill became my vision for Silverfish Books. And with MacLehose in Sharjah, and staying in the same hotel, I felt like a schoolgirl with a crush.

I wondered if I should talk to him. If truth be told, I find celebrity authors quite insufferable and generally avoid them -- whether they are world-class writers or not, I’m not interested in them defacing my book by signing them -- and I expected Maclehose to be the same (quite unfairly). I saw him during tea, after a session, talking to some people. (We all wore name tags, so I could identify him). Something about him made me drop my guard and approach him, and I was glad I did. It was like he was genuinely glad to meet and chat with me, and this went on for much longer than I had expected. He sounded a little bitter about the sale of Harvill to Random House -- "... it was not my idea" -- and of his life in the Random House wilderness, but was glad to have founded the MacLehose Press, and continue where he’d left off. He asked to see some of Silverfish’s books and to keep in touch. (We talked more during bus rides later.) He was totally down to earth.

Many people might know the MacLehose Press  as the one that published Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’m certainly not one who’s interested in hero-worship or vicarious living, but if anyone comes high in my esteem, it’s Maclehose, for sticking to his guns, and introducing such wonderful and exciting authors and books to the boring, mind-numbing bookshelves of Anglophone readers, and for being such a staunch independent.

I’d like us to be that with Malaysian readers one day – pick up any Silverfish Book for a guaranteed good read. Books that make you feel more intelligent after you have read them.

Silverfish Writing Programme

Limited places still available for this programme

The next intake for the Silverfish Writing Programme will be on Jan 19, 2012, and run for 10 consecutive weeks (except for holidays) from 10.30am to 12.30pm, and will be opened for registration on Dec 1, 2012. The past few programmes have been extremely popular and we have had to turn away many late inquiries, because the maximum number of participants we can accommodate is 10(ten). We have to date received 30 inquiries already. So we encourage those who are interested to register early, and avoid a last minute rush. (Please, tell your friends who are interested, too.) The registration fee will be RM1000.00 per participant for the full ten week programme, but an early bird discount of 10% will apply until (and including) Jan 1, 2012.

The world is full of stories. Humans are the only story telling animals on the planet. We may miss meals (ask your teenager buried in a book or your aunt or mum hooked on a television soap) but not our stories. Even in famine stricken zones, while people wait for the food trucks to arrive, they tell one another stories to keep alive. In war zones, where life is in danger every single minute, people cannot resist telling stories. All religions have tons of stories that are constantly repeated. Stories are part of our very being, our claim to be human.

We are surrounded by stories every waking minute of the day. When we turn on our radio or television to listen to the news, or to watch a drama or sitcom or even a cooking show, when we open our newspapers or surf the net for news, when we go to the movies, to a dance, listen to a song, or look at a painting, when we go to the office, pitch a proposal to our boss, our clients, meet our co-workers when we relax over tea and gossip, or tell them about our day, or listen to their stories. When we read books, we read stories. And stories will make us laugh or cry or angry, and dozens of other things. We will love characters or we hate them. Good stories never leave us indifferent. We have a desperate need to tell stories in whatever form. That’s why some of us want to become writers: to tell our stories. But what do publisher's want?

That's what the Silverfish Writing Programme is all about: what publishers are looking for.

READ MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMME and REGISTER

1-Day Children's writing programme

Limited places still available for this children's writing programme

Date: Saturday, 26th Jan 2013
Time: 10am-5pm (with a one-hr lunch break)
Place: Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
Fee: RM300 inclusive of all course materials.
Registration: Online (link) or at Silverfish books (Tel: 603-22844837, email: info@silverfishbooks.com)
Facilitator: Daphne Lee

Participants may also submit one manuscript per person for evaluation (which will be delivered via email not more than one month after the date of the course).

This 6-hr session is based on the many questions I receive from aspiring authors and illustrators who wish to create books for young readers, amongst them

    What should a children’s book be about?
    How many words are there in a children’s book?
    Should I write a picture book or storybook?
    Should I use difficult words in my story?
    Should I write in rhyme?
    Are there subjects I should avoid when writing a picture book/story book?
    What’s the difference between a picture book and illustrated book?
    What are the pictures in a children’s book for?
    What is a picture sequence and why is it important?
    Who will publish my book?

These and other questions will be answered and discussed with the aim of shedding some light on the art and science of writing and illustrating for children.

In this session, participants will also …

    Read and evaluate published and unpublished texts and picture book art.
    Learn the basics of creating good picture books/story books, including the fundamentals of planning plots, writing dialogue, creating characters, establishing a voice and deciding on Point of View.
    Be introduced to an interesting and wide range of picture books and story books.