Reinventing Myself: Preserving and Sharing Some Chinese American History

by John Jung
(Cypress, Ca., USA)

Southern Fried Rice: Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep South

In the not so distant past, it was almost impossible to publish a book without enduring a long, drawn out process of submitting manuscripts to numerous publishers. Even if you wrote a book with merit, you could not get very far on your own unless you had deep pockets or expertise for formatting and designing a book, and then marketing and distributing it to the world,

The Internet and Publishing on Demand (POD) are two powerful tools that help an authors level the playing field for publication. With POD you incur no or minimal upfront costs if you use the right company, other than for time and materials to prepare your manuscript and any images. It isn't that difficult to do your own book at a reasonable price anymore with these resources.

As I entered retirement after 40 years of university teaching psychoilogy, I wanted to publish a memoir about a little known aspect of Chinese American history. I felt the topic would be of interest to many people, but no one was recording this history, which might soon be lost. Being told by two university presses that they did not think they could make any money with my book really challenged me to see just how far I could go on my own. It was not that I necessarily doubted their judgment or decision because I realized that the market for a book on Chinese in the Deep South was not exactly a hot topic. Still, just wanting to prove the skeptics wrong was a powerful motivator for me personally to write and publish the book.

As I wrote it, I gradually created several inter-linked websites, each dealing with different aspects of Chinese American history such as Chinese laundries, or my own family's experiences living as the only Chinese in a small town in the South. This exercise gave me a chance to test some of my ideas for writing my book. Finally, I was ready to take the plunge and publish with a POD company.

Writing and publishing a book is easy relative to marketing and distributing it. Selling a Book is not for the faint of heart! I soon realized that you have to engage in shameless self-promotion, something I did not relish at first, but I guess it grows on you a bit. How does one reach your target audience and convince them that your book is interesting enough for them to want to read it?

I was lucky enough to find Chinese community groups and churches, Chinese American history museums, Chinese American advocacy organizations, etc. that invited me to give book readings and talks. How to arrange these events and how best to speak to audiences are another story in itself. Having been a professor for 40 years gave me the poise and presentation skills needed for these events, even though I had not taught in the area that my book covered. Each time I gave a book signing event, I linked the publicity pages from the sponsor organizations, often with photographs of me interacting with my audiences, to my websites. Google and other search engines soon picked them up and listed my book, giving me some free advertising.

As an academic scholar, and having written several textbooks published by leading publishers, I had some savvy and experience and connections. I solicited promotional 'quotes' from prominent scholars in diverse fields including psychology, women's studies, Asian American studies, Black Studies, and history. These endorsements were a major boost to the book's visibility and credibility. Also, getting glowing blurbs from 'everyday readers,' and permission to use them in marketing, was invaluable.

I never envisioned 'reinventing myself' in this new endeavor. Not only did I puiblish my book, but it inspired me to find other aspects of Chinese American history that were worthy of research and write a second book last year, and I will be finishing a third book by the end of this year. Promoting one helps promote the others, and in fact, when I offer both of my current books at a discount for the pair, almost everyone buys the set rather than just one book.

Another strategy I have had some success with is getting University and public libraries to acquire copies. That approach does not sell many copies, but it enhances the status of my wprk I only have one copy of my book in the Harvard University library, among other prestigious places, but how many authors can make that claim about their books?

An unusual marketing approach involves a surprise video (posted on google) that a colleague made when she took a copy of my book and photographed it with different people in front of different locations along the Great Wall of China. The video may not sell many books, but every little bit of publicity helps. You just have to use your imagination and shamelessly promote your book.

Visit Reinventing Myself.