Thursday, October 01, 1998
An Author’s View of Publishing
Judith Clancy, author of Exploring Kyoto: On Foot in the Ancient Capital, spoke to SWET Kansai in June 1998 on her experiences in publishing this guidebook with Weatherhill and as a self-published writer of a book honoring her ikebana teacher. Upon setting foot in Kyoto when she came to Japan in 1970, Clancy promptly fell in love with the city and has remained a student of everything Kyoto offers. Her guidebook is still in print, and she updated this article in an interview in the SWET Newsletter, No. 109, September 2005.
The idea for Naturescapes, a photo book honoring Judith’s ikebana teacher, arose when she learned of the Japanese custom of distributing small, beautifully produced books of poetry or essays at funerals or memorial services; these “memorial books” collect the works done by the deceased as a hobby during life together with tributes by family and friends and are published by the family as a remembrance. In addition to her desire to honor Tamura-sensei, a teacher in the Ohara School who was approaching retirement, and introduce his work to ikebana artists and others, Judith thought it crucial to publish the book while he was still alive so that he could help determine its content as well as enjoy the tribute.
The cooperation of many was needed to produce such a book. After obtaining permission from Ohara school’s official Kyoto photographer to use photos of Tamura’s works going back nearly 50 years, she tried to interest others in the project. The typical response was, “Show us what you’ve done and we’ll see if we like it.” According to Judith, this is the Catch-22 of publishing: people want to see what you have done before they decide whether to invest in it. And working on this project brought two taboos to light: you don’t memorialize someone who is still alive, nor do you memorialize a person while his/her sempai (senior) is still alive.
It took Judith some time to come up with a plan for the book’s content. As her ideas expanded and grew, it became difficult to explain the focus of the book to her teacher’s followers, who had a fixed idea of what a biographical work should be. Eventually, she was able to find a direction and generate interest among Tamura’s family in the project as a bilingual and visual tribute. The family also agreed to contribute financially.
Judith wrote the English text herself, and “parceled out” the Japanese translation to several OLs at her workplace, but a Japanese editor was needed to harmonize the different styles. She then had to pay for production and find a printer capable of producing a photo book. A graphic artist in her neighborhood recommended the Endo Company, a school album maker. Judith’s friend Clifton Karhu, the well-known Kyoto-based woodblock print artist, offered to design the cover and inside layout. Endo took on the project, but the company had no understanding of how complicated editing English could be; many problems arose with the text.
The project budget allowed 500 copies to be printed, at a cost of ¥8,000 per copy. The book was sold at a special temple flower exhibition upon publication. Judith notified Kyōtō shimbun, which wrote a helpful article that generated orders, and word spread among the ikebana community. Today, only 100 copies remain; they are available from Judith for ¥8,500 and from a specialist ikebana shop for ¥10,000. Judith reported that, even with funding, the project cost her ¥1,800,000, of which a little more than half has been earned back. “I’m not sorry about that at all. I’m glad there is a book about this man who has since died. Without it, there would not have been anything at all, and I learned a great deal,” she said. “The good thing about self-publishing is the freedom to do things the way you want. The bad thing is it costs a great deal of money. The storage of unsold books also requires some planning. As much as I felt wonderful about that book when I had it in my hands, I also thought ‘Never again.’”
Inception of a Book
Several years later, while talking with Judith at a party and hearing of her bird-watching experiences in Kyoto’s Gosho, the then-editor of the Kyoto Visitor’s Guide, John Benson, suggested that she write about her “discoveries” for the Guide. This article turned into a monthly column on walks in Kyoto. The positive response she received from a wide range of people led her to consider collecting them into a book, and thus began Exploring Kyoto: On Foot in the Ancient Capital.
The Guide articles needed more research and detail so she turned for advice to Patricia Yamada, an amateur historian and Buddhist scholar in Kyoto with an excellent research library. She visited temples, photographed everything along each walk, and translated the signs; the JTB Kyoto Guidebook and temple handouts helped to supplement the text. Fact checking was more tedious because most old Japanese books have no index. When she had written enough material for a book, Judith started to search for a publisher.
Pat Yamada and John Benson recommended that she prepare three complete chapters and send them to publishers of books related to Asia and guidebook publishers. Names of publishers were gathered from trade journals, friends, and other sources. Along with the chapters she submitted, Judith sent the publishers detailed information on how many foreigners visit Japan annually, and how many of those visit Kyoto. She described the existing books on Kyoto and told the publishers why her book was unique, who was likely to read it, and why she was uniquely qualified to write it. Her objective was to leave no question unanswered.
While many publishers rejected the proposal, Weatherhill expressed interest and drew up a “boilerplate” (a pre-contract) in early 1995. The official contract, signed a year later, specified submission requirements, including the number of words allowed and the software to be used for the text and maps. Since the book was to be part of a series, the layout and typeface were to be determined by the publisher, although the content and style could be idiosyncratic.
Publishing Realities
After submitting one hard copy of the manuscript and her floppy disks, Judith heard nothing for almost two years. Then, in the spring of 1997, the book suddenly went into production. Judith was asked to confirm the details of the content, marking any revisions by hand on a copy of the manuscript. Besides the photographs of gardens which professional photographer Matsuo Hiroko had supplied, Judith was also asked to provide photographs for inner-city, gardenless walks To meet the publisher’s deadline, she submitted more than one hundred of her own “reference” photos.
In late spring of 1997, the edited manuscript arrived for correction and approval. Although she had been promised a look at the first proofs (and if time permitted also the second), she saw nothing more until the book was published in the fall. Surprises included the combining and removal of several walks; removal of the bibliography and all of the kanji; some startling typos; and different titles on the cover and half-title page. Other writers had warned her about loss of control over one’s manuscript when working with publishers, she said, and about the difficulty in communicating with a publisher located halfway around the world, so she was philosophical. Judith’s advice to other writers is to keep in mind that a book project is a business deal; some things will be sacrificed.
Fortunately, there was also much to be happy about: the book’s size, the publisher’s choice of cover photo, and its distribution by Yohan and Tuttle, two major distributors in Japan. The book was printed in Hong Kong, is warehoused in Connecticut, and is priced in dollars, which means the yen-dollar rate influences its future prospects. (A weak yen means the book costs more to reprint, but it also means more visitors to Japan and therefore more sales.)
Marketing Footwork
Because Weatherhill has no marketing staff in Japan, Judith took on publicity and marketing. She sent announcements to the newspapers. The Kyoto International Conference Hall, soon to host the Global Warming Conference, agreed to take 300 copies when she called. She received Weatherhill’s permission to reprint two of the walks on her website and linked her site to the Internet bookseller Amazon.com, from whom she got an excellent review. She also read publishing trade magazines, contacted libraries specializing in Japan-related materials, networked with friends to obtain marketing ideas, and collected reviews to use for marketing in the future. Some people read about the book and contacted her directly. Of the 5,000 copies printed, only 1,000 remain in the warehouse six months after publication.
Worth the price
Because sales to date have only paid back Judith’s advance, no royalty payments (set in the contract at 15 percent of cover price) have materialized yet. The Japanese tax system allows the expenses incurred in writing a book to be deducted up to three years after publication, so it is important to keep receipts. Temple entrance fees weren’t expensive, Judith said, but travel added up. She estimates she spent ¥500,00 for these expenses, ¥150,000 to contract out mapmaking (which was done by computer, in Adobe Illustrator), and ¥100,000 for editing. Admitting that she was at first sensitive to being edited, Judith stressed that editing—by more than one person if possible—is vital, as is making a style sheet to maintain consistency, especially with Japanese names.
Wrapping up her talk, Judith stressed that writers have to believe in themselves and the value of their projects. It took her almost seven years to complete her guidebook, and the sense of accomplishment was well worth it. She joked that it also helps to have a big ego, because it will be battered and stepped on along the way. One reviewer commented on the guidebook’s “prosaic English,” perhaps not realizing that it was also written for non-native English speakers. Judith recommends planning a publishing project to make a profit, and then if it doesn’t, it will merely break even. She was surprised, she said, to hear people questioning the need for “another guidebook.” She feels there is an enormous need for more books about Japan in English as too much information on the country has been relegated to “postage-stamp-sized tidbits.”
Asked about future projects, she said that Weatherhill has announced that Exploring Kyoto and Clueless in Tokyo were the last in its series of guidebooks on Japan. Consequently, its editors were not interested in other projects she would like to do, for example, a book on Nara and environs. Undiscouraged, however, she told the audience she feels there is always room for more books, and that the Internet and other new technologies will make self-publishing easier and more practical in the future.
From Newsletter No. 82 (October 1998)