So many authors, so few readers
- From: goodgutgut@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 6 Jan 2006 08:20:48 -0800
So many authors, so few readers
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-03 13:26:52
BEIJING, Jan. 3 -- Author Harris Ng wants to dispel myths about
schizophrenia. Emily Tai wants to wean Singaporeans off junk food. And
Low Kay Hwa just loves to write.
The National Library of Singapore keeps copies of nearly all local
published work. (AFP)
So what do they do with all that pent-up research and emotion? They
write a book. And they publish it themselves.
Ng, 58, forked out US$4,807 to publish his autobiography,
"Recovered Grace," while Low, 20, paid US$1,406 to put out his love
story, "I Believe You." They have sold about half of their first
print-run.
Tai, 49, a former nurse-turned-housewife, has plonked US$12,019 of
her savings into 5,000 copies of "Will Your Child Eat A Tomato?."
The recipe book, aimed at helping parents coax children to eat
fruit and vegetables, was released in January and has sold only 220
copies so far.
While every author believes he or she can give J.K. Rowling a run
for the money, the reality is that most of these books will wind up in
the bargain bin, if they are lucky enough to get into a bookstore in
the first place.
Many writers underestimate the complexities of getting published.
It is not just about writing a compelling book, but about convincing a
publisher to take it on, a bookstore to carry it, and getting the
public to shell out money for it.
While Dan Brown's international bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" can
easily shift 40,000 copies here in a year, local publishers happily pop
the bubbly when a book written by a Singapore author crawls past the
3,000 mark.
Despite the stacked odds, Singaporean authors are penning a flurry
of books, and paying for them to be published.
Tai, a mother of two, spent more than a year scouring through
hundreds of books at the Ang Mo Kio Community Library and jotting down
the nutritional properties of apple skin, cucumbers and tomatoes.
She is not overly worried about the slow sales. "I wasn't thinking
of getting back the money," she says.
She considers it a worthy investment in getting people to eat
healthier.
The stakes are high too for Joanna Wong, 46, a former bank senior
manager, who liked spinning tales for her two sons so much that she
sank US$13,821 into publishing 10,000 copies of "Squeaky ... He's More
Than A Squirrel."
Only 1,800 copies have shifted since. But her comfort is that she
has at least "realized her dream of becoming a writer".
Advent of Self-publishing Inc
There are no official figures on the number of self-published books
here, as many are sold directly by the authors themselves over the
Internet or among personal contacts.
But many in the trade, like R. Ramachandran, executive director of
the National Book Development Council (NBDC), detect a growing
self-publishing fad.
Johnson Lee, director of MarketAsia Distributors, has been enlisted
to place about 150 of such self-published books in bookshops this year,
up 30 per cent from a decade ago. Such books form half of the 300 local
and foreign titles he handles each year.
Overall, more than 3,000 titles in English are produced in
Singapore each year. This means about 10 new books are born every day.
The National Library, which keeps copies of nearly all local
published work, says the number of English books published here has
gone up from 2,150 in financial year 1995 to 3,480 in 2003. It fell to
3,140 in 2004.
Local publishers Flame Of The Forest and Monsoon Books receive on
average of one manuscript a day. As few as two are accepted by each
publisher a year, which means a success rate of less than 1 per cent.
The majority of the dashed hopeful authors swear off writing.
But a few, Flame of The Forest's Chacko observes, refuse to take
"no" for an answer, and resort to self-publish.
There is a growing breed of writers, like Singapore Management
University business student Mint Kang, 22, who goes it alone to avoid
running into a wall of rejection from publishers unwilling to bet on an
unknown name.
"Singapore publishers are picky, fussy and tend not to give people
a good deal," says Kang, who has self-published a 72-page collection of
creative writing, on sale at Kinokuniya.
Traditionally, publishing houses undertake the cost of producing
and distributing a book, paying the author 10 per cent of the cover
price in royalties.
These days, authors like Kang have taken over this role, paying the
printers and distributors themselves.
The upside? They get to pocket the lion's share of the profits, if
any.
The snag? Upfront, they have to fork out at least US$1,803 to print
1,000 no-frills copies of 100-odd pages each, to more than US$4,807 for
editing and cover design.
They also have to forego about 60 per cent of the book's price if
they engage the services of a middleman, such as a distributor, to
place their books in bookshops.
Still, as NBDC's Ramachandran notes: "As Singapore becomes
wealthier, people are able to invest US$3,005 to US$6,009 and people
are venturing into it."
Usually, tell-tale signs of self-publishing are the name of the
author or an obscure publishing house on the book bind, thin margins
and grammatical errors.
To avoid these pitfalls, a support group for aspiring writers has
sprung up online.
The Singapore Writers Guild, set up last April by civil servant Sam
Choo, 46, now boasts 117 members. They pour out their frustrations,
share dreams, exchange tips and salve each other's wounds on
www.writers.sg.
Of course, many opportunistic individuals also use the website as a
platform to advertise their design or editing services to hopeful
authors.
It grew out of Choo's interest in getting feedback on how to
publish a book on surviving the workplace.
Groans the yet-to-be-published author: "Publishers are very
selective. You have to be a celebrity or famous. They don't want to
take a chance on an unknown author."
In their own defence, publishers maintain they have a right to be
picky as it is costly to promote an unknown writer.
The publisher's profit accounts for only 20 per cent, assuming all
the risks, from which it is expected to pay overheads like rents and
salaries.
If the book bombs as nine in 10 do the publisher is saddled with
the loss.
As such, many publishers here prefer to sit it out in the absence
of good copy.
"There's no hurry to lose money," quips two-man publishing outfit
Firstfruits' Enoch Ng, who has published only four titles this year.
Landmark, which sold 3,000 copies of socialite Miranda Eu's memoirs
"Shanghai Sisters" this year, has not published any local fiction over
the past three years.
Likewise, Ethos Books, which has carved out a niche for itself in
publishing poetry since 1997, has abstained from any poetry collections
or novels since 2003, due to the lacklustre economy and poor
manuscripts.
Undeterred by rampant rejection, poor reviews and returns on
investment, becoming an author remains a highly cherished dream here -
one many go to great lengths to live out.
(Source: China Daily)
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