Aunt Heather Hey Annabella! Sounds like you guys are having the time of your life! Hong Kong? WOW! All I know is that it rivals New York in terms of crowdedness. I hate the crowds, unless I am not working…then I LOVE them! I love to think about all the personal stories bumping up against each other, living in harmony. I also think that in Chinese culture, people tend to be very sweet, and also, very polite. I hope you find the same. Plus, Hong Kong has THE BEST kung fu history! We have a friend who was the founder of Hong Kong noir cinema. If you get to talk to some people, ask them if they know our friend, Chris Doyle. He is a real star in China! You wrote about publishing. I have published 3 books and am working on another one. I thought I could add to your educational process by telling you about my experience with publishing. A lot of people “self-publish” on the ‘Net, but you can also contribute to existing blogs, like those on major news sites – like CNN or the New York Times. I have done that kind of writing. Usually you have to get invited to write for those sites. Some people submit their work, but it’s very rare that they get published. Usually, there is an editor of the paper or blog and they decide to invite people based on their expertise on a subject matter. Usually the editor will give you an idea of the topic, then you have to write it. It is usually limited to a word count – that is, you will have between 800-1000 words to express yourself – so every word counts!! Once you write it, the editor decides if they like it. If they do not, you are OUT. And usually, they will not look at your work again, unless they liked it, but had a reason not to publish (topic, tone, etc). I have worked with editors and been very disappointed with them not publishing my work. But the good news is, I have a publicist who can usually find a place for it – publicists keep contacts of editors and can “pitch” your essay to them – they sell your work for you. My publicist is a really nice lady named Gina – she works REALLY hard and knows a lot of people in the Media, not just Internet and newspapers, but TV and radio too. Plus, she is really fun to be around. But if the editor likes your essay, they start the publishing process by cleaning up the writing. The first time I wrote for a blog, it was for the Washington Post, which is a big newspaper with a lot of political news. The first time, the editors did not change anything—and I was SO happy. But in articles I wrote after that, they changed things, which is fine. This is a very important process—the editor must be very skilled – because you want to make sure your words and your ideas are being protected. In other words, you don’t want the editor to change the meaning of what you are trying to say…just to make it sound better. Editors at big companies like the Washington Post are highly skilled – they spend years in school and years reading and editing books until they get to that level in their craft. There are a lot of editors out there, but very few good ones, and some of them are just as famous as the authors themselves. It can be a great job if you love writing! Next step, the article goes to a copyeditor who makes sure there are no typos or grammatical mistakes. For an article, this usually does not take too much time – for a book, it can take weeks if not months. It is very tedious work. But it is also a good job if you want to become a writer or editor, because you get to read a lot of stuff, which is great for expanding your vocabulary. There is no better way to have a good vocab than to read read read! Next step, the essay goes back to you, to make sure you approve of the changes they made to it. Sometimes you have to sign a contract, which says that the newspaper or online source “owns” the work. Once you give it the thumbs up, then it gets posted online – that is my favorite part because then the comments start rolling in! The Washington Post has 7 million readers, so I got a lot of comments! Even on sites with smaller readerships, there will be a whole lot more people reading than actually commenting. It is important to remember when you write in a public venue, that there will be all kinds of people reading it. You always need to make sure to be respectful– even if you are saying something they may not like. Another kind of publishing is print – print is becoming really tough these days since the Internet is much easier and cheaper. But we still have books, thank goodness! I did three books with three different publishers – so I had three different experiences, but there is a standard pathway—well, sort of. The first, and toughest part, is writing a book proposal and getting a publisher. Publishers, especially the good ones, only choose a certain number of books per year to publish, based on their budget, so they want to pick books that will sell. In my world, it’s mostly a question of whether they can sell the book for classroom use. Usually they pick people who have some sort of notoriety – they’ve been in the media, or they have published before and sold a good number of books, or have a GREAT story that the publisher can sell. Or, of course, if there is a breaking scandal! There is a standard proposal structure – an introduction, then chapter outline, then explanation of how the book is original, and then competing books on the market. I had a literary agent working with me on my last book, and it took us three whole weeks just to tweak the proposal I had written. So you can see, it is a very long, difficult process. And most publishers rejected the book, with the exception of one who had published my last book – a publisher called Palgrave Macmillan, which is in Britain, but also worldwide. But if the publisher likes your proposal, they will ask to see chapters so they can get a sense of the book and your ability to produce it. If they like what you have done, they will then meet with their editorial board to get approval---this is where your editor comes in and makes a pitch for your book on your behalf. In the academic publishing world—or any nonfiction—before the editor goes to his or her board they have to get peer reviews. This means that they send your book out to three to four experts to make sure the facts are in order. The reviewers write evaluations of your book – this takes about a month, sometimes more. Usually they have criticisms and you will have to write a letter or statement showing that you will address those issues in your book. Already you can see: it’s a very long process! I hate it because sometimes the things you write have changed over the course of the process, and you have to go back and account for the change. What a pain! Next, the editor goes into an editorial board meeting with the reviews and your book and makes the pitch. If they all like it, the publisher will offer you a contract. This is where it is good to have an agent (although it is REALLY hard to get a good agent – I wrote to about 20 of them before finding one that liked my work. Most of them did not respond until weeks after I contacted them. They are a tough bunch.). I did not have an agent for my last book and I got a bad contract – meaning, the publisher made more money on it than I did. But really: VERY few authors actually make money selling books. The contract is where you hand over the rights to your book and the publisher owns it. That means that the book has become a piece of property –the publisher’s property. That is why it is VERY important that any time you use someone else’s words, or even their ideas, from a book or article, that you give that person credit –you “cite” them – because if you do not, you are actually steeling property and the publisher could sue you. It is called plagiarism when you use words from someone else, but do not put quotes on the words, or mark that they are not yours (it is not enough to just put a bibliography, you have to show in the essay where you used the ideas/words). THIS IS THE ENTIRE POINT OF PUBLISHING A BOOK – to protect your words and your ideas, because other people might take them and try to sell them as their own. It works this way in music as well – people cannot just take melodies from songs and pass them off as their own. It’s not just cheating, it’s actually illegal ;-((( This is why it is very special when someone comes up with a new idea or a new song, because so much has already been done. One great thing about the world we live in is that there are so very many creative people – but the downside is, it is difficult to create anything new. And that’s what publishers and music companies want: something new ;-) Now to the fun part: after you sign the contract, the publisher begins to edit and copyedit your book, just like I talked about above. Then you get to choose a cover (usually they choose for you, based on marketing concerns), and then you have to make sure the copyedit is right and so on. They also send the book out for “blurbs” – well known people write a little comment about how great your book is, and these get printed on the back. Then, even more fun, you get to do the marketing…book signings, public talks, etc. – this is when you get in front of people and talk about the book you wrote. That’s fun, but also, people may not like what you wrote and they will criticize you – but that’s good too, because criticism is what makes our work better! For my first book, an editor came to me, because she knew about the stuff I was working on. The second time, I had to write a proposal and “sell” the idea—which was really hard and took a lot of time. The third time, they came to me as well. So you see, it can happen very differently each time. A lot of it is luck and who you know. Being in New York helps a lot because it is the center of the publishing world. Right now, I am doing the research for my next book. I keep notes, but not too many – for me, it’s better to have the experiences and reflect on them later…but everyone has their own process. Some people take copious notes. My book is going to be about democracy – based on my experiences over the last 20 years with protesters, but now, also working in the US senate, with high level leaders. I want to know why there is so much distance between these two groups. So I am spending an entire year working inside the Congress – getting to know the day to day life. I know a woman who wrote about the experience of domestic workers and how hard their jobs are. She spent 3 years working as a maid, then wrote her book. It is now a best seller. That reminds me: usually my process begins with a question. Then I set out to find an answer. Sometimes people begin with a theory, and set out to prove it. My last book took ten years to write – not the actually writing, but the research for it. The process of finding answers, then questioning their truth, then looking again and again—all this takes years. That’s my experience! When I was your age I used to write a lot of poems. I think that helped me get used to how lonely writing can be. Uncle Jeff used to write poems too – some day you should ask to see them – they are so very beautiful. He has an incredible talent that very few people know about! Gran writes essays, and is writing a book about her life. Tata used to write short stories, about all kinds of things. And now your mom is writing a book too—about your wild adventure around the world. We have it in our blood, I guess. Remember that every time you sit down and write, you are practicing. You are developing a unique voice (which is likely to change over time). It is a very long process developing any craft. But practice makes perfect, so GREAT job already !!! I LOVE YOU !! And, well, be safe but not too safe ;-)

World Rings Bell Thank you so much for taking you time to write Aunt Heather! I thought it was so interesting how writing a book takes that much time. I hope everyone likes your next book! Keep on writing, Belly