Archive for the 'Writing & Publishing' Category

Chinese-English translator, Nicky Harman, who has previously written for this blog, emailed me last week with some information about a talk she is giving tonight on literary translation. I’m sorry for the short notice about the talk, but if you can make it, it looks like a really interesting insider’s view of the world of translation.

~~~

The Meridian Society/BBCN will be hosting a talk on Tuesday 17th November, 2009 in association with the CSSA of London School of Economics. The lecture will be delivered by Ms Nicky Harman Lecturer at Imperial College.

The many lives of the literary translator

Nicky Harman divides her time between lecturing in technical translation at Imperial College, London and translating literary works from Chinese to English. Her recent book-length translations include Xinran’s Letter from an Unknown Chinese Mother, and Han Dong’s Banished! (awarded a PEN Translation Fund Grant and long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Award, 2008). She also works on the website Paper Republic, which promotes Chinese literature in translation, and is actively concerned with the need to encourage and mentor beginning Chinese-to-English literary translators.

Her research interests focus on aspects of Chinese to English literary translation, and she was Visiting Scholar in the Chinese Departments of Fudan University, Shanghai; and Peking University, Beijing, in 2008, as well as at the Research Centre for Translation at Chinese University Hong Kong, 2006.

Nicky says: “This lecture talk will look at a number of different aspects of literary translation. I will draw on examples from my own work to illustrate the linguistic and cultural challenges of Chinese-to-English translation, and will also examine how the translator needs to present their work to the outside world, that is, publishers and, beyond them, the readers. Just as literary translators have to assume many roles - talent scout and promoter, as well as translator - so this seminar will touch on a whole kaleidoscope of issues. The aim will be to communicate to the audience some of the passion which I feel for translation as a whole, and Chinese-to-English literary translation in particular.”

Time and Venue

Date: Tuesday 17th November, 2009
Time: 7pm-9pm
Venue: D302 in Clement House
Address: The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Houghton Street, Aldwych, London, WC2A 2AE

Transport: The nearest tube stations are Holborn and Temple (both are 5 mins walk)
The nearest Main Line stations are Waterloo and Charing Cross (both are 10 mins walk)
Buses go to Aldwych: 19, 38, 55 59, 68, 91, 168, 243, 341 & 521
Alternative: For more options please go to:
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

Tickets are not required but you are urged to RSVP to reserve a seat.
Tel: 07973796866 or Email: themeridiansociety@gmail.com.
TMS/SACU Members free Non-members £3 donation
Note: This talk will be conducted in English

The Meridian Society is a registered charity (No. 1115664) and a company limited by guarantee (No. 5572806

Online bookseller, Amazon, has got the bibliophiles all a-quiver with excitement with its announcement that the Kindle will be sold internationally from mid-October. For those of you who haven’t heard of it yet, the Kindle is a digital book reading device, rather like the clay tablets of ancient times in size and look but electronic and able to store over a thousand books plus mp3s as well as blogs and digital newspapers and magazines. So far, it’s only been available in the US so this next phase is very exciting for book lovers all over the world.

I use the term “book” loosely, of course. Those book lovers who love physical books will not be excited at all by the Kindle on the basis that it lacks all the tactile qualities they love about “real” books - paper, page turning etc. But those who love the content of books and love the idea of being able to carry a thousand books in their pocket, the Kindle is the next big thing.

I fall into the latter group for various reasons:

• I’m lazy and feeble and I like the idea of holding one compact tablet that I can read lying down as well as sitting up.

• I like the idea of being able to carry a range of books around with me but without the weight of the physical books to give me backache and arm ache.

• I like the idea of the text-to-speech facility so that I can load the full text of a book and have it read to me while I sit on the bus. The digital voice might be quite irritating, however - so it will all depend on how life-like it sounds

However, I’m not going to jump in with my credit card immediately as I have some reservations:

• I believe the Kindle ties you to buying all your ebooks from Amazon, in a Kindle-specific format. What happens when my Kindle dies - as inevitably it will, like all electronic devices? I guess I’ll have to shell out for another one - we’ll all start having to think of books like music: but with mp3s or CDS, I can buy my player from any supplier, not just the one company. With the Kindle, am I now stuck forever having to buy it from Amazon?

• I still need to be convinced by the screen quality and how quickly it refreshes when you turn the page - I had a look at the Sony Reader and what put me off is that the screen turns black for a second before it opens onto the next page: ugh.

• It’s a pretty steep price at US$279.

• I remain to be convinced about it’s usefulness outside the US. At the moment, a huge number of e-books from other ebook sites which are available to US buyers are not available to non-US customers due to geographical rights restrictions. Also, if you look at US Audible.com compared to UK Audible.co.uk, the number of audiobooks available in the UK is a lot less than those available in the US - and in particular, major latest releases in the US are glaringly missing from the UK list. I haven’t been able to find anything definitive on the Amazon.com site that gives me any clarity either way about geographical rights restrictions - can anyone help me with this question?

Speaking of geographical rights restrictions, the Kindle will not be available in some countries, including Malaysia - see the list of no-Kindle countries. So my litblogger, book loving friends there are still stuck with the tree-pulp versions of books - although Amazon did reply to blogger Sharon Bakar’s email query to them to say that maybe, perhaps, sometime in the future, the Kindle might become available there…

What about you? Are you going to get a Kindle? Or are you a hard and fast paperbook person?

Photo: thanks to jink (Derek) on Flickr.com (CCL)

Writing books is an odd thing. I’ve now just published my third, as regular readers of this blog will know, and my co-author Silvia Cambie and I have been busy over the summer doing all the related publicity for it - writing articles, giving interviews and presentations. Now that we’ve had the big launch party, I feel that I can relax a bit now and get some of my life back.

Because when you write a book, whether it’s fiction like my two novels or non-fiction like this latest book, the whole process of each book dominates your life for several years. In the case of International Communications Strategy, it took about 18 months to 2 years from the point that Silvia and I first talked about it to publication in July this year.

She had been commissioned by Kogan Page to write a book on international PR and communications and invited me to co-author the social media aspects. We needed to beat out a strong concept and the main themes of the book to present to our editor so that the publishing house new what the produce would be when they got the final manuscript. We evolved the book together over several months, discussing the hot topics in global corporate communications as well as developments in online communications and drafting several versions of the proposal. Annika Knight, our editor, then took it through Kogan Page’s rigourous internal processes - while we were not privvy to these discussions, from what I know of the publishing process, this would most likely have involved getting the Kogan Page team behind the book ie the sales team, the publicity team, the international team and ultimately the senior management, such as Helen Kogan herself.

When we heard back that we had the green light, the next step was to negotiate the contract and agree a timetable for delivery of the manuscript and a deadline for publication. All of which takes time and forward planning.

And finally - we were good to go.

In the meantime, of course, Silvia and I had been collecting case studies, following up on leads and doing background research. This process, for me, continued for a little while longer before I felt confident to sit down and actually start writing. I had never written non-fiction before and was feeling a bit nervous about it all - so my solution was to put off the writing and to carry on doing the research! As a fiction writer, you can make things up and change the scenario if you find that your story is not working out as you had hoped. Or you can fudge some facts if they prove difficult for your narrative thrust. You are after all the god of the universe you’ve created. But non-fiction! You have to back up everything you say with real evidence and hard facts. You have to reference and footnote everything. Your opinions and extrapolations must be derived from reality.

Eeks.

But once I finally sat down to write up my research, I found it was not as scary or difficult as I had feared. It was actually rather like writing a blog post. Where I normally would put links to items I was referencing, I just inserted a footnote. In some ways, writing non-fiction is easier than writing fiction. I could always cross-check the facts or double check something with a respondent I had interviewed. I could quote their very words. The case studies were real, existing in this universe so I didn’t have to make up a world that I needed to convince my readers to believe in. I was still telling stories - but it was the stories of real people in the real world.

And I really loved it!

And then came the tedious part. Once we finished the manuscript, we had to make it lovely and tidy to submit to Kogan Page. Silvia had used a different font and layout from me and had set out her footnotes differently. So we had to amend the formatting to make it all match and sort out a contents page and pagination. We submitted it via Box.net in true Web 2.0 fashion (rather than on a CD as requested in the Kogan Page Author Guidelines). Next came the editing process where an editor and copy-editor went through the text line by line making amendments, raising queries, checking for errors and inconsistencies - and engaging us as authors in the process. So we went through the manuscript yet again - and again, and again!

When the final text was signed off, there was still the blurb and author bios to do. There was the author questionnaire from the marketing and sales department so that they would have all the information they needed to hand to do their jobs of selling and marketing the book. We also had a long discussion about the book title - should it have the word “PR” in it? “Cross cultural”? “Strategy” or “Strategies”? and so on - and after several weeks of to-ing and fro-ing settled on the current title. Whew!

But no, it’s not done yet. In the lead up to the time of publication and in the few months afterwards, we’ve been talking and writing endlessly about the book and its key concepts as part of the publicity process. Don’t get me wrong - it’s very exciting and satisfying when other people (the media, bloggers, business people and professionals) are interested in our book and it makes all the hard work worthwhile. But for me, I finished writing the book last year so in my mind, it’s a completed project - so the whole publicity process feels strange. I know from speaking to a number of writers that many of us feel this same sense of disorientation.

So, now that our book launch went off with such a bang, I feel finally the sense of having achieved a wonderful thing together with Silvia. I guess I just needed the big party to celebrate and put a marker down, like planting a flag at the top of Everest or on the moon. Aaah, the long journey is done!

And I can now move onwards to my next project….

Photo: thanks to Marc Wright

I blogged about Mobile Phone Novels awhile back and got this email recently from a writer who had only just come across the post.

There’s been a resurgence recently in the short story, ever since the success of movie adaptations of them, such as Brokeback Mountain, so this trend towards short literary forms in innovative formats strikes me as part of that move towards bite-sized reads.

Congratulations to TP Keating for his/ her success in this fascinating new genre!

~~~

.

Hi Yang-May,

In answer to the question on your blog, “Do you know of any writers in English who have a written mobile phone novel?”, I am putting my hand up!
As you say, “…one could write it on a PC, blog-style, and then post it to whatever mobile phone novel site there is around.” That’s exactly me.

Textnovel affords readers the opportunity to follow along as I add new chapters to my latest work. Readers can post comments and vote on my stories too, once they have registered (which is free).

US romance publisher Dorchester Publishing, in conjunction with Textnovel, is currently running a contest, where the author with the most votes will
secure a $2,000 advance, along with a publishing contract. My contemporary romance, London by Chance, is in contention for this prize.

My previous stories, Twilight Journey (supernatural) and Robinson “Zombie Killer” Crusoe (horror) have been Editor’s picks, and I am amongst the
top ten most popular authors on Textnovel.

According to feedback I have received from readers, the stories on Textnovel have been successfully accessed on “a native browser on a small-screened LG handset and the browser on the large-screen T-Mobile”, amongst other options.

Thank you for your very enjoyable, informative blog.

Kind regards,
T.P. Keating
London
www.tpkeating.com

Photo: thanks to Ed Yourdon on flickr.com (CCL)

One of the early uses of the internet was as a networked space for academics to communicate with each other. In the subsequent rush of businesses online with Web 1.0 websites and now with the rise of social media in the form of Web 2.0, it’s easy to overlook what academics are continuing to do in this virtual space.

Back in 2007, I blogged about the Oxford University project that has put online fascimiles of Wilfred Owen’s poetry via the Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive.

Now, the University and the Municipal Library of the city of Rouen in France has created an online archive for the original manucript of Gustav Flaubert’s novel, Madame Bovary, the original desperate housewife.

The site is in French but if you go to the navigation bar on the right and click on “Feuilleter”, you will get a further selection of “Plans et scenarios” and also “Brouillons 1- 6″. Click on any of those subselections and you’ll be given the option to view different parts of the book. Select any of those and a new screen will show you a fascimile of the original handwritten manuscript on the left, with Flaubert’s amendments, and a typesccript version with his strikeout and additional text also shown.

As a literature grad and also a novelist, I find it fascinating to look at writers’ manuscripts - to see their original words and how they may have changed a word or sentence here and there to better convey what they have imagined in their minds. In the British Museum, many years ago, I pored over some pages of the manuscript of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte that were on display in a glass cabinet in the manucript room. It was amazing to see the tiny handwriting and Bronte’s original words as well as the changes she had made. It was frustrating at the same time in that I could view no more than the few pages they had placed on display. The brilliant thing about the online Bovary fascimile is that not only are specialist scholars able to access every page of Flaubert’s manuscript but anyone in the world may do so also - with the assistance of the typescript alongside and without damage to the original.

I met travel writer Navjot Singh a few weeks ago at the Creating Value through Web 2.0 presentation that I took part in. I’m always taken by people with fusion lives so as we were chatting, it was fascinating to me to learn that he is a British-Indian who is somewhat of an expert on China and the Far East. It also turned out that we had both been to Dulwich College - I had attended the all boys school for one term to do the Oxbridge exam - and he had recognised me from the Old Alleynians Facebook page!

Navjot emailed me the following blog post:

Hi, Yang May

Many thanks for contacting me. It is a pleasure to be asked to write for your blog. Firstly, a bit about myself, as I am sure most of your audience may not be aware of whom I am.

My name is Navjot Singh (Pronounced “Navjaut Sing”, although to be honest on my travels around the world, I have been known in a variety of different accents!). I am a writer and freelance journalist. I was born in North India in 1980 and came to the UK as a young boy (around 3 years old), however, I am actually classed as a 3rd generation British-Indian because my late Grandparents were one of the first batch of migrants welcomed to the UK from the commonwealth in 1953. I have been back to India twice, once in 1989 and then in 1999, and on both occasions for about a month. I would love to go back again one day as a travel writer or for work and rediscover my roots.

Since childhood, I have always had a passion for travelling, taking photographs and flying (I adore planes). In my younger years, it used to be more for a personal basis, however nowadays that hobby has somewhat turned into a second career!. So, as an example, anytime I used to go travelling, I always took down notes on a daily basis of things which I saw, experienced and people I met. I always used to (and still do!) take photographs of anything that may seem interesting or extraordinary. To me life is a picture in itself, and I always feel that if you do not take a photo of something which may seem interesting, then most likely you have lost that chance and you may never see it again. Its amazing, because in the future, say, 10 or 15 years time, you can proudly look back and say, “Ah, I remember writing about this or that, or taking that photo”, and so on.

I wrote such a diary on my first trip to China way back in 2002. China has really opened my eyes the way I think about the country and the people. I remember even as I was preparing myself to go to China in 2002, I did not have any idea of how much of an impact the country would have on me. I did not intend to go to China for a long term basis; it was merely a one week’s vacation. Also I feel fortunate to have made the decision to go to China in those days, because so much has happened since then. Now everyone wants to go to China, and I feel privileged to have lived and worked in all the major cities (including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen), and to have witnessed at first hand the immense growth that’s almost ubiquitous.

Usually travel guides are written by a collection of different writers scattered all around the country or place which they want to write about, and it is not easy to write a travel guide. For me the great challenge was that I had no one to assist me, and in many ways I wanted to write it all by myself. In that way you have more control and freedom over timelines and research.

Sitting down and writing the travel guide is not that time consuming as is the research carried out for the chapters. I have had to speak with hotels, airlines, physically try out food at particular restaurants so I can write about it from my own experience, speak to various Chamber’s of Commerces and Embassies. More importantly I have tried to make my first guide book different by including personal stories about certain events that I have encountered. Writing a business travel guide as opposed to a travel guide for tourists is different because you have to pick things carefully, such as places of interest, hotels and restaurants, because business people don’t have much time for leisure and (usually) have more money to spend on corporate meals and hotels than tourists do.

If there are any would-be travel writers reading this article, my best advice to you would be to start with a short personal diary and note all the things that come across in your mind the first time you see them because its always your first impressions, your feelings and your experiences that will make your article different to other writers because every one has their own way of observing the world.

Always bear the reader in mind and put yourself in the shoes of a reader. When you feel you have compiled a full manuscript, then approach publishers with your idea. If they like it then you have done the hard work. Good luck!

With all good wishes

Navjot

Navjot is the author of “Newcomer’s Handbook Country Guide: China: Including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen” (First Books), and has also written “China: Business Travelers Handbook (Stacey-International)

Check out Navjot’s blog at http://navjot-singh.blogspot.com/

Photo: thanks to Navjot (with permission)

I met writer Miranda Gray at a Society of Authors do awhile back. She is also a coach, healer and a Company Director of a multimedia production company. She told me about her new book, The Optimized Woman, which encourages women to embrace the power of their menstrual cycle rather than viewing it at “The Curse”. I was instantly intrigued and invited her to tell me more by way of a blog post for Fusion View, especially in the context of women and writing!

Here is Miranda’s blog post:

We’ve all been there. Sitting at the blank computer screen, fingers poised above the keyboard ready to start… and nothing happens! Then, after a few attempts, the panic steps in: ‘Why can’t I write, what’s wrong with me?’, ‘What if I can’t meet the deadline?’, and ‘Am I really any good at this, should I get a proper job?’!

Women’s creativity has a unique element to it; it is cyclic. When we begin to understand this and work practically within this cyclic nature we find that writer’s block is simply trying to do the wrong thing at the wrong time! The cyclic aspect to women’s creativity lies in their menstrual cycle. Many women don’t realise that the menstrual cycle affects the way we think, our abilities and skillsets, how we communicate, and how we perceive the world and ourselves. And for women in the creative industry, the menstrual cycle can be either a huge challenge or a resource of powerful tools they can actively use to excel.

The menstrual cycle can be divided into four phases; pre-ovulation, ovulation, pre-menstruation and menstruation. In each phase we can experience days of heightened abilities and skillsets called Optimum Times. For example, the pre-ovulation phase is the Optimum Time for logical thinking and reasoning skills, the ovulation phase has heightened feeling-orientated perception, the pre-menstrual phase offers us inspiration and problem identification, and the menstrual phase is the Optimum Time for touching base with core values and issues.

So how does this relate to women writers and solving writer’s block?

A ‘block’ appears when we expect consistency of thinking and ability, and we expect to be able to do something not in line with our cyclic abilities. This is not to say we can’t do any task outside of out Optimum Time, simply that it can take longer, be more difficult and may be of poorer quality.

To get ahead, we need to apply to our writing the tools that our cycles give us.

We can use the pre-ovulation phase to build the structure of our work or book, to plan our plots and our work schedule, to break down the chapters into sublevels, to organise our files on characters or to categorise piles of research, and to give ourselves the basis on which to write creatively later in the month. It’s also the Optimum Time for analytical and structured writing, for editing and research, and for checking the small print on the publisher’s contract!

With the change to the ovulation phase comes heightened communication, listening and empathy skills, making it an Optimum Time to write dialogue, to interview people for their stories, to write from the heart and from our passion, to ask for people’s views and critiques, to empathise with our characters or our audience. It is the Optimum Time to network, contact publishers, market our books and proposals, and do talks and signings.

The pre-menstrual phase is often the most challenging for many women, but it offers us some powerful tools for writing. It can be an intensely inspirational and creative phase if we allocate time to day-dream and ponder, often providing ‘Eureka’ moments as ideas lock into place. The Optimum Time for creative writing and to explore ideas, it often takes only one small seed idea to start an avalanche of writing. The pre-menstrual phase is also the time to identify problems and create solutions. It is the time to analyse whether the plot really works, to explore why we are not happy with the structure, to cut away superfluous words and sections, and to brain-storm what would work, how we could approach things differently and how to re-write that awkward paragraph.

As we move into the menstrual phase our physical energies are often low, and mental abilities such as concentration and memory can also decline. If we have planned well in the pre-ovulation phase we are on track with our deadline and can afford to drive ourselves a little less for a few days. When we take the opportunity to rest in this phase two things happen; firstly, we come out of this phase into the next refreshed and full of renewed energy, and secondly we have the opportunity to connect to our deepest insight. This phase is the Optimum Time for touching base with who we are and what we are doing, not only in our life but also in what we are writing. Does the book feel ‘right’? Are we writing in a style, genre, method that feels ‘comfortable’ to us? Can we commit to the direction the book is taking, or do we need to go back to the core values of the book or of the publisher? Have we gone off track? Are we writing what we were asked to write? Is the deadline feasible? In this phase we can ask ourselves these potentially challenging questions without the emotional rollercoaster and needs experienced in other phases.

When the next pre-ovulation phase comes round again we are renewed in our energies, mental abilities and commitment to get started. We can plan our work schedule for the month ahead using our Optimum Time skills to their best possible advantage and knowing that just because we can’t write in a particular way right now, give it a couple of weeks and there’ll be no stopping us!

‘Writer’s block’ no longer exists - we simply do the right task at the right time.

~~~

Miranda’s website is http://www.optimizedwoman.com/
She blogs at http://optimizedwoman.blog.co.uk/

This post first appeared on Miranda’s blog.

Photo: from Miranda’s website, with permission

I received this email last week from a writer contact who is doing her bit to help Salt Publishing which is going under. It’s a desperate plea for help to keep the enterprise afloat.

I’m not sure what my views or feelings are about this “Save the Whale”- style campaign. The idea seems to be that you can do your bit by buying just one book from them - any book. It doesn’t matter if you want it or will read it, just do it out of charity or pity. Is this a good business model for the future of the publishing house? What happens after the charity donations are all used up - will they go round with cap in hand again? Why not forget publishing books altogether and just hand round the tin cup?

At the same time, I can understand their desperation. The publishing industry is at a cross roads at the moment, with the big J K Rowling type blockbusters make heaps of money and the lesser known gems just shrivelling away into nothing. Small publishers and small bookshops have their role in the community and in getting literary gems out to the public. I can also connect with the sentiment that “if you love literature, help keep it alive” - but if you’re just buying a book out of pity, does that really help literature?

I think we’re facing a huge shift in mindset and culture - people are no longer reading books but they are engaging in ideas and thoughts in other ways eg via multimedia and online. This is clearly evidenced in what’s happening to Salt Publishing. Is the way forward for publishers to rethink how they engage with their customers eg via e-books or re-inventing themselves as content publishers rather than purely paper book publishers? Or is it even more radical than that - that passive content is no longer enough but that people are looking for interactivity/ collaboration and all those other social media style ways of engaging?

I don’t know the answer. As a writer, I’m watching these developments closely as I have a vested interest in publishers surviving and thriving. But as a consumer, I myself prefer movies, TV series, downloadable content, blogs and other online multimedia. The only books I buy these days are non-fiction history, biography, business, running and tech or communications related books because they give me real value that I can’t find elsewhere. Sad to say, I don’t read novels anymore because they are made up - I want to know about the real world and real people and real events….

What do you think? Can you - will you - help Salt Publishing in the way they have asked? Or can you think of another way to help them - or any other small publishing house?

Here’s the email in full:

——

Saving Salt Publishing: Just One Book
Friday, May 22, 2009

As many of you will know, Jen and I have been struggling to keep Salt moving since June last year when the economic downturn began to affect our press. Our three year funding ends this year: we’ve £4,000 due from Arts Council England in a final payment, but cannot apply through Grants for the Arts for further funding for Salt’s operations. Spring sales were down nearly 80% on the previous year, and despite April’s much improved trading, the past twelve months has left us with a budget deficit of over £55,000. It’s proving to be a very big hole and we’re having to take some drastic measures to save our business.

JUST ONE BOOK

1. Please buy just one book, right now. We don’t mind from where, you can buy it from us or from Amazon, your local shop or megastore, online or offline. If you buy just one book now, you’ll help to save Salt. Timing is absolutely everything here. We need cash now to stay afloat. If you love literature, help keep it alive. All it takes is just one book sale. Go to our online store and help us keep going.

UK and International
http://www.saltpublishing.com/shop/index.php

USA
http://www.saltpublishing.com/shop-us/index.php

2. Share this note on your Facebook or MySpace profile. Tell your friends. If we can spread the word about our cash crisis, we can hopefully find more sales and save our literary publishing. Remember it’s just one book, that’s all it takes to save us. Please do it now.

If you want to follow the news story you can read more on The Bookseller site here: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/86331-salt-campaigns-for-survival.html

Or to our Facebook note here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=100619421203

Or to our spoof YouTube campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdcTqXaOD2s

Chris and Jen,
Salt

Translator Nicky Harman, whom I featured on Fusion View awhile back, emailed me a few days ago with some information about some cross-cultural literary events taking place in London in the next few weeks. They look interesting so I hope you’ll be able to go along.

Nicky writes:

Paper Republic (the website for Chinese>English translators and anyone interested in contemporary Chinese literature at www.paper.republic.org ) received an Arts Council, England, grant in 2008, to enable us to develop the website and promote Chinese literature in translation. As part of this work, Paper Republic will be coming to the UK, taking a Chinese author, HAN Dong, and organising a variety of literary events in April. Anyone who can come is most welcome. We will be blogging the visit, so keep an eye on the website. Also, we’ll transcribe/film major discussions and upload them.

Here is our timetable - please check with the venue, or with Paper Republic www.paper.republic.org before turning up at any of these events, in case there have been last-minute changes.

Sunday 19 April 2009 – London, International PEN literary festival, Free the Word. Han Dong will read some of his work at the Literary Lunch.

Monday-Wednesday 20-22 April 2009 – London, London Book Fair , Eric Abrahamsen and Nicky Harman will be at the London Book Fair, participating in seminars and meeting publishers with an interest in publishing translated Chinese literature.

Thursday 23 April 2009 – London, East meets West: Authors Talking to Authors, featuring Han Dong, Xinran, Aamer Hussein, Kate Pullinger, and Richard Lea of the Guardian newspaper. Venue: Oxfam shop, 91 Marylebone High St, London, W1U 4RB. Tel: 020 74873570. Please call in advance to book a place. 7pm.

Friday 24 April 2009 – London, book launch of Banished! Nicky Harman’s translation of Han Dong’s novel, at Probsthains Bookshop, 41 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PE. Tel: 020 7636 1096 Time: 6-8pm. RSVP to Nicky Harman n.harmanic@gmail.com OR Michael Sheringham (msheringham@hotmail.com).

Tuesday 28 April, Edinburgh, Scotland, New Words, New Roads: Chinese literature in the world - a lecture by the poet and novelist Han Dong, followed by a panel discussion with translators of contemporary Chinese work. Presented by The Scottish Centre for Chinese Studies and LLC Graduate School: Translation Studies. Venue: Lecture Theatre, Hugh Robson Building. Time: 5.15 - 6.30pm.

Photo: of Han Dong from paper-republic.org

I think the writers and book readers amongst you could find this behind-the-scenes process interesting in terms of seeing how the publishing world works and also, understanding the importance of a book title, whether in the fiction or non-fiction sector.

When I was writing my first novel, The Flame Tree, that was the working title I used and when I submitted it to Hodder & Stoughton, that was the title they went with. The flame tree is the central symbol of that novel and it also evokes the Asian setting of the book.

With my second novel, my working title was Mindgame but Hodder were not initially keen on it. I remember sitting down for days coming up with a list of over 30 different alternative titles in response to their feedback. In the end, they looked at my list of 30 something titles and came back to say that Mindgame was the best of the lot!

For the last year, my co-author Silvia Cambie and I have been using the working title New Trends in International Communications/ PR for the business book on cross-cultural communications that we’ve been writing. The title seemed to us to sum up what the book was about and whenever we talked about it to friends and people we met, they would nod in recognition and understanding so we wouldn’t have to go into a long-winded explanation.

Originally, our publisher Kogan Page were keen to ensure that the title included the words “Public Relations” but Silvia, an experienced business communicator, always preferred the word “Communications”. She explains that in the world of business communications, marketing and PR, “communications” is the wider expertise, of which marketing and PR are subsets and that a title that encompasses that wider context would have a wider audience. From my point of view, coming from the world of social media, I also prefer “communications” as, unfortunately, “PR” has a bad name in the online landscape, being associated with spin and hype without authenticity in the minds of bloggers.

So when we submitted the manuscript to our publisher Kogan Page, it was time to discuss the final title of the book in some detail. After some discussion about the issues around “communications” and “PR” with her marketing and editorial team, our editor came back agreeing with the choice of “communications.”

There was another issue, however, she told us. The problem was with “new trends.” The book is going to be published in July this year and the aim is to keep it in print with good sales over the foreseeable future. What is “new” now is not going to be new in a few years time. Similarly, what are “trends” now are likely to have become mainstream in time. But what we are writing about - the case studies, the concepts etc - which are the meat of the book will remain relevant for businesses and communicators because they have practical and useful applications beyond newness and trendiness. So the publishing team felt that the phrase “new trends” did not fully or accurately capture the thrust of the book.

So what to do? We batted some ideas back and forth in a series of emails and finally, we all agreed on the final title: International Communications Strategy: Developments in cross-cultural communications, PR and social media. We introduced the word “strategy” to capture the aspects of the book where we discuss how businesses can take advantage of developments in technology and cultural sensitivities. From the publishers point of view, the word also emphasise that the book is aimed at high-level executives within businesses and communications professionals who will need to be thinking strategically in today’s globalised world.