Happy Summer! I hope this newsletter finds you well and you are enjoying the warmer, slower days of summer. I have a lot of news, including new author photos and updates throughout my enhanced website! Please take a look and thank you for following along!
Editing Progress
My cover is here! After three rounds with the cover designer, my agent, editor, and I finally agreed on an image that I believe captures the essence of WHITE MULBERRY. The way the figure is posed, the colors, the font, the details of the sun and leaves, and the mulberry paper texture in the background, were all intentional and well thought through. I love how the the protagonist is facing sideways toward the sun—a symbol of Japan—but not looking directly at it, wearing the youthful daenggi ribbon in her hair—an homage to her Korean roots as well as her growth—while her clothes are ambiguous and could be a hanbok, kimono, or Western dress. To me, the cover represents beauty, tension, and change. The designer did a terrific job, and I hope you like it as much as I do!
You can pre-order my book now. It’s thrilling to see it on the Amazon page!
My book made its way through production in other ways too. After copyedits, my manuscript went to the proofreading stage. The proofreader fine-tuned the manuscript for grammar, style and word-usage. She revised for punctuation, missed words or typos, small errors in consistency, and the isolated continuity blip. She also queried where a word or concept might need a minor adjustment for accuracy or alignment with other mentions in the text and highlighted a handful of word and phrasing echoes. I agreed with most of her comments and am happy with the result.
I read the book out loud to myself again too, this time backwards, to find any more last-minute errors. I still found a few!
I am just wrapping up the cold read, or the final review. Rather than another round in Word, the editor collected all final edits into a spreadsheet consisting of additional edits and author queries. There were only three additional edits, and two author queries, all which were easily resolved. Whew! From developmental editing, to line editing, to copy editing, to proofreading, and now the cold read, editing has been a process. I hope it shows in the final product!
In the meantime, I was assigned a Cultural Research Reader whose goal was to make sure that all the elements in my manuscript were represented as respectfully as possible. The themes the publisher asked her to look at were racial passing, the portrayal of villagers and rural life, the treatment of spousal abuse, and the role of Christianity. The only aspect that warranted a slight change was on the topic of spousal abuse, which my editor and I addressed. It was a very minor modification, but I’m glad I had a chance to consider it before it went to print.
I also had Korean and Japanese language readers who specifically looked at the spelling and usage of Korean and Japanese words that I use in the book. The Japanese language reader noted my use of the word “norimaki,” which is rice tightly wrapped in seaweed, and said the better word in that context was probably “gunmaki,” which is rice wrapped with a wide strip of seaweed around the sides to prevent the filling from overflowing. Again, it was a subtle difference, but to avoid any confusion, I decided to leave it as “rice roll” and not refer to it as one type of maki or another. I think this level of scrutiny shows the professionalism and care that my publisher has taken to make my novel as accurate and true as possible.
Next Steps, Blurbs, and Enhanced Website
The next step in the production process is to have the Advanced Reader Copy and NetGalley link available for review consideration prior to publication to create interest and buzz. The ARC is an uncorrected, hardcopy proof of my novel that has been copyedited but not yet finalized. NetGalley is a secure digital platform that allows digital review copies to be shared with professional reviewers, bloggers, media professionals, booksellers, librarians, and educators. Amazon expedited the process so I could have the ARCs ready for the American Library Association conference in San Diego which I attended in June, described below.
My 88-year-old dad is reading my ARC with his new magnifying tablet. He asked me to order it for him because the print was small, and he loves it. I think there’s something about holding a book that makes it real. It certainly feels that way for me. He’s also using a bookmark I got made for the book. I love the way it turned out!
I have already received some blurbs (praise quotes) from amazing authors who read a copyedited eGalley that I was able to share with them a while ago. They were so generous to read and review my book! I’m excited to reveal the blurbs to you in the coming months. These will be featured on the front, back, or inside cover of my published book. Even these quotes go through copyediting, so I’ll share them when they’re ready.
My author friend, Juhea Kim, was an early reader and you can find her blurb below and on my updated home page.
“White Mulberry is a beautiful and poignant novel of a young Korean woman’s coming of age amidst the turbulence of colonization and World War II. The resilience and self-determination of her heroine vividly mirrors the astonishing trajectory of her nation.”—Juhea Kim, author of Beasts of a Little Land (Ecco, 2021)
American Library Association Annual Conference
Last month, I attended the American Library Association Annual Conference in San Diego, the largest conference for librarians in the world. 20,000 librarians and library supporters connected for five days of workshops, author signings, interviews with celebrities who have or will have books out, and lots of swag! I attended as a library trustee but was delighted to spot my book “in the wild” at the Amazon booth and do a last-minute signing with my ARCs. I enjoyed dinner with the Amazon team and other Amazon authors too.
There were hundreds of events at the conference, including workshops on protecting the right to read and building more equitable libraries, but the number of sessions on the role of AI in information literacy really stood out.
I attended a workshop called “Literacy Reborn: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the Way we Read, Write, and Learn.” A quick survey of the room of 300 showed that the overwhelming majority of us were concerned about the ethics of AI literacy. The speaker noted, for example, that there are an abundance of YouTubers showing people how to avoid being “caught” using AI by employing certain tricks. On the other hand, an AI tool will take a book and make a song out of it. When reluctant young readers listen to the song, they are more likely to be enthusiastic about reading the book. There is a clear opportunity to help people understand the challenges and opportunities of using AI, and libraries play an important role in helping promote its responsible and equitable use.
On the trustee side, I attended a session called “Top 10 Things Every Library Board Member Should Know – But Often Don’t.” I was reminded that although boards are comprised of people with different backgrounds and expertise, the board acts as one in accordance with the mission and vision of the library. And the ultimate job of a library board member is to advocate for the library. That means we must “articulate in a compelling way why our community would be devastated if our library didn’t exist.” For me, that means standing up for the freedom to read, and sharing the message that we must have free and equal access to books, information, and education, for our communities to thrive. Libraries are simply the lifeblood of our country and democracy. I consider it a privilege and duty to serve my library, and I’m proud of it.
On the entertainment front, Trevor Noah was the opening speaker and discussed his new book “Into the Uncut Grass,” about a young boy’s discovery of the secrets of solidarity, connection, and finding peace with the people we love. I also had the opportunity to listen to Connie Chung, my idol in grade school and the person my mom most wanted me to emulate, talk about her forthcoming book “Connie: A Memoir.” Her memoir provides an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour of her singular life being the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian to anchor any news program in the U.S. Her lesson: “I won’t strive for perfection anymore and I won’t try to do everything.” Such a great message. And I got to take a picture with her too!
Publications and Publicity
I wrote a piece about my Asian Author Book Club and Medium accepted it for publication! Click the Medium logo below to learn about two books you must read if you’re traveling to Asia. These were the books my book club read in translation this past May: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by by Cho Nam-Joo and The Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Let me know if they sound interesting to you!
If you want to follow what our book club is reading, our next book is Paper Names by Susie Luo, which I recommend below.
Finally, I’ve hired an external publicity company to help me with my publicity and marketing efforts in the coming months leading up to publication. Although Amazon has a robust marketing team, as a debut author, I thought I could use some coaching in this area. I am fortunate to be able utilize the resources of Kaye Publicity to help secure media coverage for print, broadcast, and online media outlets, such as podcasts, newspapers, and book websites. They will also help me evaluate my online and social media presence and assist in coordinating community book events. They’ve done a terrific job so far, and I am so happy to have #KPCrew on my team
What I’m Reading
An unexpected act of violence brings together a Chinese-American family and a wealthy white lawyer in this propulsive and sweeping story of family, identity, and the American experience. Taut, panoramic and powerful, debut novelist Susie Luo’s Paper Names is an unforgettable story about the long shadows of our parents, the ripple effect of our decisions and the ways in which our love transcends difference.
Picture of the Day
I am writing this from our summer cottage in Maine where my husband, Mark, and his family spent summers barefoot, water-skiing, and enjoying the simplicity of lake life. We are blessed to see Mark’s cousins who live nearby, and have visits from my 88-year-old mother-in-law, Mark’s sisters and their families, and our own children who live in New York City and Salt Lake City, respectively. It’s a wonderful opportunity to gather and celebrate family, tradition, and nature in a glorious setting. I’m planning to write the first few chapters of my new novel, RED SEAL, here. What are your summer dreams?
Did I tell you that you can pre-order my book? Please do it now so you don’t forget!
And feel free to peruse my updated website. Thank you for following me on this journey and cheering me on. I always love hearing from you. Please comment below if you have time!
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