To be, or not to be published? That no longer is the question
A new manual on self-publishing can help you over the
fences and stiles Japan Times
Sunday, July 2, 2006 By Donald Richie Self-Publishing in Japan: What You Need to Know to Get Started
Kathleen Morikawa
Forest River Press, 2006, 76 pp., 1,800 yen (paper).
The largest media development since the Gutenberg printing press is coming. The full force has not yet hit, but the waves are lapping our shores. Computers, scanners, printers and their possibilities have changed everything. How we write, how we distribute (and eventually how we think about publication) are already different. For example, we now have the possibility of becoming publishers ourselves. As any writer knows, the most difficult part of the creative process is getting an established publisher interested. Such publishers are almost impossible to simply approach. Instead you must use an individual or concern, known as your agent. He, she, or it approaches the publisher on your behalf and only then is the work considered. Since a publisher is also a bureaucracy, the various levels within are all consulted as well. Particularly powerful in these days of book-sale decline is the sales section, which attempts to ascertain whether your project has wide enough appeal. If it is guessed that your project will sell, it may then be approved. Once contracts are signed, you and the work are turned over to another individual, known as your editor. Sometimes these people are helpful, even necessary. At other times they are more interested in making a house product, something that will conform with their other publications. They are also interested in sales and may adapt the work to appeal to what is seen as a wider public. Others will also make decisions for you: the book size, the number printed, the font used, the cover decided upon. Every step along this dolorous way finds your book steadily taken away from you. The needs of the company are equated with, or surpass, the rights of the author. You may have, indeed, written your masterpiece, but to the average publisher, it is just another product. Authors have labored under this load for some time now, but help is at hand. It is now possible to print, bind and profitably distribute your work all by yourself. And here is the manual to show you how. You may write without censure and you gain all the profit, though you will also shoulder all the debts. You can be in print in a month rather than the year most commercial publishers require, though you might not be able to sell all you print. And you will never again get royalties -- indeed you will never get more than 10 percent of the retail price. You will also perhaps encounter a peculiar prejudice. Among those who believe that big publishers solve the problem of quality reading material, there is the feeling that self-publishing is just (merely, only) vanity press. Indeed, it used to be called that, with all the opprobrium that the phrase demands. (In Japan self-publishing is stigmatized as jihi shuppan ("you-pay-publishing"). There is, however, no reason for such discrimination: Mark Twain regularly self-published; Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and works such as "The Joy of Cooking" and "The Elements of Style" were originally self-published books. This new manual on self-publishing takes the author step by step through the compelling and complicated process. Finding your printer and binder, buying your ISBN numbers, how to set up your company, dealing with tax problems, and how to approach distribution agencies -- the possibilities of Kinokuniya, the "Perils of the Amazon," and so on. One of the sections of this manual is headed: "Is Profit Possible?" The answer given is "maybe." It is clear that if you have written "The Da Vinci Code," you are better off in the hands of the pros. But most of us have not written engineered block-busters, and for many of us, getting our work to readers is more important than making a profit out of them. Self-publishing is not all that cheap, but the costs are not prohibitive. This manual's estimates run fairly high, but it is possible to publish for less. The reader would do well to investigate the online printing options available. Kathleen Morikawa's excellent manual will point you in the right direction and help you over the fences and stiles. She knows the field well and has herself self-published "The Couch Potato's Guide to Japan: Inside the World of Japanese TV." With her help, you too can take your neglected manuscript and happily give it to the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE
COUCH POTATO'S GUIDE TO JAPAN
---Book Reviews--- From
JSelect (May/June 2004 issue)
"There is only one me!" proclaims the popular
Daily Yomiuri newspaper columnist Wm. Penn in his first
critical tour of the seemingly inaccessible world of Japanese
television, having written 15 years worth of nonstop views
on the subject. This is what Japan needs more of folks,
deep understanding of modern Japan by foreign residents,
and for this reason alone, you should pick up this charming,
thorough and ultimately satisfying book."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From ELTNews-The Web Site for English Teachers in Japan
http://www.eltnews.com
The Couch Potato's Guide to Japan - Inside the World of
Japanese TV
Author: Wm. Penn
Publisher: Forest River Press
ISBN: 4-902422-01-8. First edition, (2004) pp. 202
Reviewed by: Shawn M. Clankie, Otaru University of Commerce
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just in case you've missed the past 50 years of Japanese
television, or
can't handle the self-aggrandizing tributes on NHK this
year, William Penn
(the pen name of a prominent local writer) has brought together
a very
readable and often witty selection of the best and worst
that Japanese TV
has to offer. Penn, the Televiews columnist of the Daily
Yomiuri since 1987,
draws upon the vast experience of having endured all that
Japanese TV has to
offer. What is truly amazing is that anyone that has watched
that much
television can still write at an intelligent level. Maybe
TV isn't as bad
for us as we have been told? As
someone who constantly endures the endless supply of NHK
morning dramas,
senseless variety and wide shows, and the talentless tarento,
all for the
sake of a Japanese spouse, I can attest to a general apathy
towards Japanese
television. Give me cable or give me the radio, but please
not Japanese TV.
Yet, William Penn puts it all in perspective in one flawless
statement,
"...don't ever say: 'It can't get any worse.' It always
does." One
hallelujah later and the book had my attention. It is that
kind of humor
that makes this book so approachable, even for the most
jaded of us. The
book is organized into 10 readable chapters covering genre
such as
dramas, comedy, news, and variety shows. There is additionally
a very
thorough 11th section containing contact information for
broadcasters, as
well as important television-related websites and places
to go. Organized
as a journey around the important television-related locales
of
Japan (starting at Kansai International airport heading
for Kyoto and ending
at Sapporo's Chitose airport), a nice linear flow takes
us behind the scenes
into the wheres and whys of television as well as presenting
many memorable
(and some forgettable) shows. The first three chapters provide
ample
background into television, including important plot lines,
recurring
themes, and the hidden subtleties and innuendo that appear
again and again
in Japanese programs. Put it this way: you'll never look
at a bento the same
way again. Anyone interested in learning the techniques
of screenwriting
would find this book full of ideas and approaches to subject
matter. From
chapter 4 onward much of the writing originates from the
original Daily
Yomiuri Televiews columns of the author. This approach makes
the book very
readable as the longest portions (the background nuts and
bolts stuff) are
at the front of the book. From Chapter 4, the organized
columns are easy
reading. The reader can read one or two of the columns and
stop, without
ever losing one's place. This book is an ideal accompaniment
for a trip, or
as something to read on the daily commute. It could also
be adapted to
content-based English language classes specializing in comparative
television or media, and this is how I plan on using it.
Aside from the
entertainment segment of television, some of the columns
take us back to
important television events (the Hanshin earthquake and
coverage on Aids in
particular) and how Penn saw the coverage at the time. Penn's
book is a welcome and needed addition to understanding Japanese
television. I was quite surprised at how many of the shows
mentioned in the
book were actually familiar. Penn answers a number of questions
as well and
has an answer to many of those questions I've been wanting
to ask. How many
Mito Komon have there been? What's the big deal with SMAP?
Why is the 7:00
news on NHK sometimes only 8 minutes long? They're all answered
here. Both
long-time Japan residents and those new to the scene will
find the book has
something to offer. Even those who are turned off by some
of the program
choices will find a new way of looking at Japanese TV, and
maybe a new
appreciation, through Penn's book.
William Penn's book is available at Kinokuniya or directly
from Forest
River Press.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From http://japanvisitor.com
....Any diehard teribiko, though, will want to keep a copy
next to the
remote control. Christopher Stephens
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From The Tokyo Weekender, March 2004:
"Touring the Television The
Couch Potato’s Guide to Japan:
Inside the World of Japanese TV (2003)
Wm. Penn
Forest River Press
202 pages, ¥1,800 Chances
are that at some point in your life you have turned on a
Japanese television program, stared at it for a good five
minutes, blinked your eyes slowly and asked yourself, “Just
what the heck am I looking at here?” Whether you love
it, hate it or just plain fail to understand it, it’s
hard to be ambivalent about TV in Japan.
Enter
The Couch Potato’s Guide to Japan — a book for
anyone who has ever wished to better understand Japanese
small-screen culture. Written by Wm. Penn, television columnist
for The Daily Yomiuri, The Guide attempts the ambitious
task of pulling together and categorizing the diverse genres
and motifs of Japan’s popular programming, exploring
this vast barometer of cultural quirkiness. Penn
treats her subject with a light touch, making the book immensely
approachable. Even novice viewers are sure to recognize
the many familiar genres and benefit from such useful tutorials
as the dramatic importance of the bento lunch. For
the truly hardcore couch potato, The Guide offers a hearty
helping of television anecdotes, best-of lists and memorable
television moments. In
keeping with the theme of a guidebook, Penn examines the
huge arena of TV viewing with a vaguely geographic approach,
taking the reader on a virtual “three-day, two-night
guided tour” of Japanese television hot-spots around
the archipelago, complete with imaginary bus, chipper tour
guide and virtual traffic jams. From
Edo period samurai dramas to the ubiquitous variety show,
the reader is introduced to the programs and performers
that have become household names in Japan, as well as the
circumstances that got them there. Much
like a real tour, there are some flat bits between the more
spectacular sights. The italicized tour guide segments frequently
serve as Penn’s personal asides rather than smooth
transitions between chapters, reminding you that even a
witty tour guide can sometimes leave you longing for the
next rest stop. But
the highlights remain those scenic segments in which her
enthusiasm for the medium sheds new light on otherwise familiar
territory. From
Osaka to Sapporo, the 11 thematically organized chapters
will guide you along the winding road of Japan’s unique
television landscape. With Penn’s tongue-in-cheek
banter and several clever analyses of television’s
deeper cultural implications, The Couch Potato’s Guide
to Japan may be the perfect remote-side accompaniment to
your daily tour of the networks — and you’ll
never even have to leave the sofa."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From
The Daily Yomiuri, January 18, 2004
Tune in to Penn's TV guide
By Colin Donald Special to The Daily Yomiuri
If a nation can be judged by the state of its TV programming,
what can
we say about Japan? Any foreigner who spends time in this
country soon
notices that certain patterns of programs recur in the non-stop
frenetic
activity of Japanese television schedules, and may even
wonder if anyone
writing in English has ever made a systematic study of these
forms and what
can be deduced from them.
Now someone has.
Step forward, longtime TV critic Wm. Penn, whose observations
on
Japanese television programming in The Daily Yomiuri have
become a weekly
cultural institution. In "The Couch Potato's Guide
to Japan: Inside the
World of Japanese TV," Penn has produced a kind of
field guide to the
familiar types of program-making, from the sublime to the
ridiculous.
Nothing broadcast day or night is beneath consideration
of this
comprehensive study, be it soap opera, cookery, news, travel
or sport...... ------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Excerpted from The Japan Times, November 30, 2003
THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
A couch potato's guide from the experts' side
By DONALD RICHIE
THE COUCH POTATO'S GUIDE TO JAPAN: Inside the World of Japanese
TV, by
Wilhelmina Penn. Sapporo: Forest River Press, 2003, 202
pp., illustrations
by Julie Morikawa, 1,800 yen, (paper).
........"There is no such reticence in Wilhelmina Penn's
"Couch Potato
Guide" to Japanese television. She (a nom de plume
for a well-known and
highly regarded columnist) comes right out with it. The
first rule "of
Japanese TV viewing [is] don't ever say: 'It can't get any
worse.' It always
does. The networks are sure to come up with something even
more appalling
within a fortnight."
She should know, having been 30 years in Japan and spending
some 20 of
them in front of the telly, serving as the TV columnist
for "The Daily
Yomiuri" and writing of this "TV land of pleasant
superficiality where
connoisseurs of designer bags, cherry blossoms, hot springs
and tasty
noodles are able to tune out the real world almost completely."
Of TV drama she writes, "these provide a window into
Japanese
society," and goes on to prove it in a masterly exegesis
on the role of the
bento (lunch box) as a barometer of human relations. There
is also the
sociology of mere drama placement. Serials featuring the
problems of women
are shown in the morning, "designed as an early morning
break for women who
have just seen their families out the door." One such,
"Oshin" (1983-1984),
has gone on to play in over 60 nations, and is presently,
I recently read,
helping palliate the various worries of Iraqi housewives.
The author is equally clear-eyed on other aspects of life
in Japan. For
example, "katakana is that ingenuous writing system
that allows the
misspelling and mispronunciation of names of all nationalities
with complete
confidence."
My favorite description -- a masterpiece -- is her one of
Japanese TV
news as haiku. This poetic form is already "flash news,"
with no unnecessary
details required or sought. The haiku-like news spot always
features a kigo
(seasonal reference), is always in the present tense, is
totally fixed on
the moment and, like local news reporting in general, seldom
provides the
context of background or investigative reporting.
After two decades of brave and unremitting watching of Japanese
television, the author has created a guide so stimulating
and so
entertaining that only later do we relish its sound sociology.
The Japan Times: Nov. 30, 2003 (C) All rights reserved
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