Here’s the BB site:

http://bananaboys.com/

You might have to go to Canada to get it. But it’s great. Here’s a review:

http://bananaboys.com/reviews.html

“This is absolutely a FANTASTIC book! I couldn’t put it down. After being sickened by other books about ‘three generations of Chinese women escaping the shackles of bond slavery,’ it is so refreshing to finally read this book about the Chinese Canadians/Americans in THE REAL WORLD TODAY. Thanks…”

Thanks also for the offer to exchange pieces. I may take you up on that in the near future!

B.

Traditional publishing gets the word out faster, and it probably helps to have more eyes on what you’re writing. The cool thing about print-on-demand though is that there is no money out of pocket. So you could go write in, publish, and not worry about the finances.

But the traditional route would be cool too.

Hey, have you read Bananaboys? It was done through a really small press, but it’s a fun read.

I checked out some of Alpha’s work but don’t really have the spare change to buy them. I workout a lot so I’m sure it would be beneficial in some way or another. I checked out the link on Epstein. I’ve heard of people getting bought out by publishers after examining their success stories. But then again, that’s pretty rare.

But with the decline of books sales at traditional outlets outside of BN and Amazon, and the widespread plunge of newspaper circulation sales, I’d put all my money — or what’s left in my pocket — on internet publishing via blogs, news sites, and e-books any day.

I was going to mention James, but it looks like he beat me to the punch! He already has two books in his name!

I just finished reading a really good book by Jason Epstein on the publishing industry. It’s called “Book Business,” and the author was a bigshot publisher who dealt with the likes of Nabokov and Norman Mailer. See it here. It tells you everything about what has happened in the industry during the last generation. Epstein mentions self-publishing and print-on-demand, and while he’s somewhat ambivalent on it, he does say that it will help empower people who ordinarily would not get a shot. He doesn’t specifically mention Asian Americans, but I think we’re the kind of people he’s thinking about.

The thing that I would worry about is exactly what James mentions, namely the publicity and promotion. If it’s a long work of fiction and you would like it to make a huge impact on society, it’s hard to compete unless your book is in every Borders and Barnes and Noble (Epstein has an interesting opinion on this too), and it’s hard to get it there unless you go through conventional channels. There are few people who can do this without selling out, so it’s a bit of a Catch-22.

Maybe we could talk about this during our next teleconference.

Congrats on setting up a fiction workshop. That’s definitely useful. Are your people mostly Asian? Are they activist? What’s the common bond? (Is there one?)

The tough part for you will be promoting your book and getting people to buy. I write magazine articles (online and print) and that is how I promote my books. Don’t ever pay for advertising. Free advertising is good, but when you are paid to advertise (as in getting paid for an article), that is the best form of advertising. Most online mags do not pay, but they will allow a link to your blog or Amazon listing.

If you do self-publishing, then go with Create Space. They provide you with a free Amazon listing. Lulu is good, but that free Amazon listing sure helps.

What do you guys think about that alternate route?

I’m looking forward to having TMM at our next board meeting!

Larry,

I don’t know what to do with all these podcasts. I definitely have to get up to date with how it works. I’ve just been recording them, but I know there are a lot of other ways to get the word out. We should talk about that next time. We really do need to get the word out. I know that I should be getting them on to iTunes, but I haven’t had the time to look into that. If you see any tech tips, let me know. I really do need to get this done at some point.

It was actually the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. They actually halted the bombing the day before, but we’d already all mobilized in DC so we marched anyway! It was a multi-day event though. We handed out flyers one day in NY, and then we marched on another day in DC. That anti-war protest brings back memories. Wow.