Hopes For A New Dawn For Malaysian Bookselling

Several organisations in the Malaysian bookselling and book-publishing sectors were interviewed in this article in theSun regarding the closure of bookstores in the past few years and some trends in reading and book-buying.

The article has a hopeful tone and ends on a positive note. But how will bookstores capitalise on the supposedly growing print leadership, the quality of what's being read notwithstanding? What would they need to do to remain viable? Growing big may not be the answer as prices of books and the costs of running a bookstore keep rising, placing hurdles before the ambitions of the next mega bookstore.

Could one answer lie in being small instead? Instead of one or two major book emporiums, maybe a scattering of smaller bookstores all over, serving local patrons and their specific tastes and doubling as a community centre, where locals advertise rooms to let and more, organise local events and fundraisers, and spotlight products by micro industries?

I don't want to see the end of the brick-and-mortar bookstore in my lifetime. A good chunk of my life revolved around bookstores. They supported my hobbies and several became my haunts. One gave me a job. Some from my generation onwards don't feel that connection to many bookstores (any more), and I don't blame them. With the economy and the currency the way they are, staying afloat is taking all they have.

No hate for big bookstores. I just feel that in the current economic climate, they make less sense and are tougher to run. A mega bookstore that only offers a wide range of books and stationery won't get far. Also, BookXcess has a different business model that lets it sell books for cheaper, so I doubt we can compare it with other bookstore chains, and the falling ringgit has raised its prices too – been to its recent Big Bad Wolf sale?

Like small bookstores that end up catering to a community, megastores can be a high-profile platform to jump-start local literary initiatives through author events, readings, book launches and such. Having other non-book-related activities: micro-bazaars, career talks, blood donation and charity drives, etc., might make a bookstore more welcoming and more of a communal space rather than just a market for books. Bookstore chains can also hold pop-ups with targeted selections for where they are set up, especially in neighbourhoods without their outlets.

Instead of agonising over how much a promo will cost and what can be earned from sales, maybe just do it? That's how the smaller outfits lift their profile, because they are nimble enough to adjust and take risks to draw more people. Plus, their brands may not warrant protection, unlike those of established chains. The goodwill from such side projects accumulate silently and the results may take a while to manifest but if "everything" has been tried, what else is left?

Of course, bookstore-goers should reciprocate when the stores do their darnedest for them. Incidents of book vandalism, theft, and rubbish left on bookstore shelves demonstrate just how little regard some people have for bookstores and books. Such behaviour has no place in any book culture. While bookstores do have an obligation to their patrons, the sanctity of the store and the stock must be respected too.

Malaysia is still some distance away from having a book culture it can be proud of, but it'll get there.

Book Marks: Hugo Hiccup, Corrain, AI Book Fraud

The exclusion of several authors from shortlists in last year's Hugo Awards, held in Chengdu, China, was reportedly decided by the award's administrators because of the venue. "Leaked emails from the organisers of the prestigious Hugo awards for science fiction and fantasy suggest several authors were excluded from shortlists last year after they were flagged for comments or works that could be viewed as sensitive in China," the Guardian reported. Among the authors affected were RF Kuang and Xiran Jay Zhao.

Sci-fi news portal Gizmodo stated that Esther MacCallum-Stewart, the chair of the upcoming Worldcon in Glasgow, has apologised "for the damage caused to nominees, finalists, the community, and the Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards" and outlined "steps to ensure transparency and to attempt to redress the grievous loss of trust in the administration of the Awards."

Just another day of catering to Beijing's neurotic aversion to dissent. In the case of the 2023 Hugo admin team, not well handled either, apparently. Paul Weimer, another affected writer, was flagged for previously travelling to Tibet. "But Weimer said he had only been to Nepal," the Guardian stated.

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Cait Corrain, the author of Crown of Starlight, spoke to The Daily Beast about the apparent psychological breakdown, fuelled by substance abuse, that led her to review-bomb a bunch of novels by authors of colour on Goodreads. Corrain denies she's racist and that it was "an unfortunate coincidence" that her targets were writers of colour.

The authors Corrain targeted aren't convinced, however. The contents of the interview and the timing of the release (during Black History Month in the US) were criticised, and they don't seem to believe the reasons she gave for her behaviour or her denials of racism. On top of that, Goodreads review-bombs of certain BIPOC books commenced, probably by those who support Corrain rather than Corrain herself.

"Several of these authors previously got the chance to speak out in a separate interview with The Daily Beast," The Mary Sue noted. "Unfortunately, many have now been blindsided by that same outlet giving Corrain a platform. The interviews were even conducted by the same journalist."

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AI-written books keep flooding the market. The New York Times takes a peek at AI-generated biographies of people who recently passed on, noting the inaccuracies and errors in several and that some of these books were available just days after they died. And AI-assisted grifters don't limit their subjects to the dearly departed. A terse report stated that books "full of fake news" regarding King Charles III's illness, presumably days after his cancer diagnosis.

And like Jane Friedman, horror writer Brian Evenson learnt that he had published a new novel when he didn't. An impersonator is using his name to sell a shoddy AI-generated work, and pleas to have the book removed from Amazon fell on deaf ears. Instead, the retailer added a note to the product description calling it a "fake book" and a fraud. I feel that it's about as effective as Twitter's community notes because the book would have made its rounds and fleeced enough people before being flagged. Also, if it brings people to the site, why not?


Alright then, next up...

• In The Star, author, poet, and publisher Ninot Aziz speaks of her outfit Hikayat Fandom, the Dragonlore: From East and West anthology, and the magic of myths and storytelling. According to The Star, "The diverse offerings of Hikayat Fandom, ranging from themed anthologies to children's series, novels, and graphic novels reflect the duo's commitment to preserving and sharing cultural wealth of the region."
• "How well do you remember the 1990s?" Free Malaysia Today asks Malaysians, to introduce economist Hafiz Noor Shams's book, The End of the Nineteen Nineties, published by Matahari Books. FMT reports that "this book offers a view of the events at the end of that decade that shaped the present-day political, societal and economic landscape; a time of much hope and visions of unity, fraught with political upheaval and uncertainty."
• The market for same-sex romance books is growing, according to AlterNet. "From May 2022 to May 2023, sales of LGBTQ+ romance grew by 40%, with the next biggest jump in this period occurring for general adult fiction, which grew just 17%," the report stated. While it notes that LGBTQ+ romance books are still a small slice of the print-book romance pie, "the structural changes they've made in romance imprints have fostered an outpouring of more diverse love stories."
• Gerakbudaya has published an updated version of The Life in the Writing, a biography on the notable Malaysian scholar Syed Hussein Alatas by his daughter Masturah Alatas. This edition is almost twice as long as the original version by Marshall Cavendish and will be featured at this year's KL Alternative Bookfest at Central Market in Kuala Lumpur from 22 to 25 February.
• Penang-born author Daryl Yeap, author of The King's Chinese: From Barber to Banker, has released a second book titled As Equals: The Oei Women of Java. Malay Mail Online reports that the book "is about the lives of three Chinese women, Hui-lan, Ida and Lucy who are from the powerful Oei Tiong Ham family of Dutch-occupied Java."
• Has the bookbot invasion begun? BookBot, the latest venture by book retailer BookXcess, is part of a partnership with CoffeeBot, a Penang-based coffee-vending machine supplier. So far, the book-vending machines have been deployed at two locations: Subang SkyPark at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport and KidZania at The Curve, Mutiara Damansara. The report by The Star also noted that MPH Bookstores introduced the concept in 2011 but it never took off. Citing "high retail overheads post-pandemic", BookXcess boss Andrew Yap says now is the right time for this initiative.
• Seems Malaysians can't have nice things because we don't appreciate them. Recently, a thief stole some books from Books n Bobs in Taman Desa. "The bookstore, on its Facebook page, said the incident unfolded around midday when a criminal entered the bookstore premises and proceeded to fill a large bag with books before nonchalantly walking out without making any payment," the New Straits Times stated. Books n Bobs sells and accepts preloved books and has several branches in the Klang Valley. Theirs is a self-checkout system operating mainly on trust, which the thief exploited. The NST adds that the owner is asking the public for assistance in looking for the perpetrator.
• The inaugural Women's Prize for Nonfiction kicks of with its longlist of "16 titles published between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024," reports Publishing Perspectives. Titles include Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista, Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, and Shadows at Noon by Joya Chatterji. The winner will receive £30,000. The shortlist of six titles will be announced on 27 March and the winner will be revealed on 13 June. Nothing unusual about this, but ... published "between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024"? Shortlist out on 27 March? How does this work? Do they review advance reading copies too?
• Michiko Kakutani, "the most feared woman in publishing"? Dan Kois at Slate prefaces a short review of Kakutani's latest book, The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider, with a glowing overview of her career as The New York Times' book critic, then wonders, "Why has a respected and feared book critic turned to writing books, and particularly these kinds of books?" Kois asks. "Why does Michiko Kakutani want to be David Brooks, or Yuval Noah Harari, synthesizing potted history and the Way We Live Now between the pages of hardcovers?"
• Some feel-good news: In Voorheesville, New York, author Mark Cheverton spoke to some schoolchildren about his writing and publishing journey. The author of a series of novels in the Minecraft universe, Cheverton started writing novels for his son after the latter was cyberbullied while playing Minecraft online. Despite receiving more than 250 rejections (for real?) by agents, he persisted and self-published his first novel on Amazon, which became a modest success.
• "I've always been fascinated by the shape-shifting foxes of Chinese literature, so I did a lot of research about the ancient cult of the fox, which has its roots in northern China, and likely spread from there to Korea and Japan." California-based Malaysian author Yangsze Choo talks about her latest novel, The Fox Wife; myths about fox spirits, and whether she would write a novel set in the present.
• AI can't write books (yet), but can it edit? Four editors put ChatGPT to the test, and the results were predictable. While ChatGPT "can give credible-sounding editorial feedback", and may help with grammar and spelling, it cannot provide individual assessments or expert interventions that require human editorial intelligence. For the foreseeable future, human editors still have a job.
• "Though I frequently joke with my husband about how our dog, Stevie Nicks, and our cat, Meg White, are my children, sadly, I did not actually give birth to them. I did, however, recently birth a book of my life's work, and I'm still recovering from that labor." In Literary Hub, debut author Tawny Lara dives into her post-publishing blues and wonders if these feelings are similar to postpartum depression. An author's work isn't done once copies of the book is sent for print and this can impede their post-publication activities.
• Adélia Sabatini, commissioning editor of fashion titles at Thames & Hudson, is quoted in the Financial Times as saying, "Fashion loves a good story, so it's no wonder so many designers and fashion houses are looking to books for inspiration, and as a way of sharing their ideas." The FT report looks at the intersection between fashion and literature, which has been there for a long time.
• Esther Walker bought the "publishing sensation" Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros for her 12-year-old. Walker soon had second thoughts about that after looking at its contents. The Bookseller also ponders whether books targeted for YA readers should be adultified to that extent. More books for the young adult segment are getting racier but parents shouldn't panic. I'm not for censorship, but parents and guardians should think about gatekeeping what their kids are reading when they're of a certain age.

A Stormy Affair

Never delve too much into a stirring fantasy-romance romp between two enigmatic characters. Because that's what I did with Thea Guanzon's novel, The Hurricane Wars, and now I know it belongs to the romantasy subgenre and could be based on Guanzon's Star Wars fan fiction that ships opposing characters Rey and Kylo Ren.

Reading parts of it again, the parallels are hard to unsee. Stormships? Star Destroyers, maybe? Lightweave and Shadowgate? The light and dark sides of the Force. The in-story Kylo has a mask too. And the female lead wields weapons made of light, like lightsabers? The beginning kicks off with a battle between an alliance and an empire in a setting reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back. Even the title is a nod to the franchise.


The review continues here.

Don't Fight Sleep To Chill Out

So who else is having trouble returning to daily life post-holiday in the new year because they borked their sleep cycles, especially after being on leave for over a week? Or are you (still) losing sleep over having to return to a full five- or six-day work week?

Tips on sleep like this are all over the web, so picking one or two lists to fix our sleep cycles and get better sleep should be a cinch. But not all of us can be bothered with execution.


Go here for the full article.

Book Marks: Somewhere In The Kuala, Dalit Literature

A picture book with no dialogue, Somewhere in the Kuala, an illustrated children's book published by Suburbia Projects, takes readers around Kuala Lumpur. Readers follow two children who try to return home after being separated from their parents while on a tour of the city.

"Produced by illustrator Lisa Goh and lecturer/freelance designer William Chew, the book is a recipient of the Think City–PNB 118 Merdeka Grants Programme," The Star reports, adding that "the idea for the book was inspired by their love of walking in cities, a habit picked up during their time in university and working in London."


Elsewhere:

• "India publishes around 90,000 books a year," South China Morning Post reports. "Among these, around 150 titles in 2017, less than half a per cent, were by established Dalit authors, according to Frankfurter Buchmesse, which runs one of the world's largest book markets." Hence, small publishers in India are stepping up to push Dalit literature.
• "The stories of these time-honoured street vendors have always captivated me. Particularly my father's story, as he's been a hawker for the better part of his life." Tan Chew Ngee speaks about her debut novel, Sweet Braised Duck, which was launched at last year's Singapore Writers Festival. The book is loosely based on her father's life.
• "...a lot of social conservatives seem to believe that if their kids simply never find out about homosexuality or transgenderism, they're guaranteed to grow up to be cisgendered heterosexuals," writes Laura Miller at Slate. She then argues that teens aren't getting that knowledge from such books and that the book bans aren't about LGBTIQ+ issues.
• "In [Bianca Bosker's] book [Get the Picture], she dares to break down the strange codes and customs of the contemporary art world – why, for instance, it is entirely gauche to call something 'beautiful' or why must gallerists say they 'placed' a painting rather than announce that they 'sold' it?" This book sounds intriguing; hope it won't disappoint.
• Pro-Palestine authors continue to face censorship and punitive actions for their stance, and among the latest is Bosnian author Lana Bastasic, who, according to Middle East Eye, "cut ties with her German publisher over its 'silence on Gaza'" and has been dropped from a literature festival in Austria.
• "[Kristin] Hannah wanted both to shine a light on the nurses who served in Vietnam and to explore the larger context of a changing America. 'Americans were learning that their government was lying to them about really important facts, and the whole national consciousness began to change,' Hannah said." Kristin Hannah speaks to Seattle Times about her new novel The Women, women in war, political divides, and honouring and helping war veterans.
• "It was the right time for a book that pokes fun at the thoughtless way in which we've been building up images of other people, making assumptions about people's reputations and inner selves, and how we've had so much fun tearing them down." Ahead of her appearance at the Brisbane Writers' Festival, R.F. Kuang speaks to the Sydney Morning Herald about her book, Yellowface, and the themes behind it.
• Michela Wrong, a British journalist and author of Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, said she feared being attacked in her home after receiving online backlash. The Independent reported her claim that "an unnamed British public relations firm played a 'key role in orchestrating' an online hate campaign against her in response to the book, which includes strong criticism of rebel leader turned Rwandan president Paul Kagame."
• The BookTok phenomenon has undoubtedly led to more people reading. But has it also contributed to overconsumption in books? The Student ponders this question, pretty much arguing "yes", stating that "Much of the content on BookTok centres around reading as many books in a short time as possible", with less emphasis on the quality of what is read and more on what is popular. One antidote to this might be putting more time into the reading hobby: be selective about what one reads and to enjoy a book at one's own pace.
• Oh g*ds no, J.D. Barker, this is not how you promote a book on BookTok. Soliciting racy clips from influencers for your latest release? Barker claimed that a PR agency issued the call via email. He has distanced himself from it and apologised, but that was not enough for his agent, who dropped him. Seriously, folks, don't.

Tales of Heartache, Hurt, and Hope

Common threads run through the stories in Saras Manickam's My Mother Pattu, a collection of short stories that doesn't look like one from the outside. In the face of adversity and its accomplices: racism, classism, cultural differences, patriarchal attitudes, suffocating traditions and others, the characters struggle to maintain their dignity, ideals, individuality, and humanity.

The window into Saras Manickam's portrait of the human condition is the first story, "Number One, Mambang Lane", in which Meena, a precocious teenage Indian girl, is exiled to her relatives' quiet homestead in the fictional small town of Mambang after committing what her Tamil household considers cardinal sins: falling in love and getting a boyfriend.

As Meena settles in, she is slowly introduced to the community. Towards the end, we do not know of her fate or when her exile will end, which is fine because the thing about stories is that they just keep going – and in directions you least expect.


Read the full review here.

Book Marks: Local Author News, Hugo Exclusions

I know I've been away for a bit, dropping my pledge to update once a week. But the publishing sphere seemed to have been quiet at the year-end and beginning of January 2024, so there wasn't much of note happening.

Also, I caught COVID in early January. The worst I've ever felt in a couple of years and I had to go see a doctor for medication and get more RTK test kits while ill. To my dismay, the nasal swab returned a strong positive result, though I should have guessed from my feverish brow and limbs that felt like lead.

And who knew all the medical equipment I bought on separate occasions on a whim – pulse oximeter, digital thermometer, and blood pressure monitor – would come in handy?

So I'm taking it easy for now, and I'll only be posting as and when sufficient material is available, while I wait and see what else COVID has done to me. Back to the usual programming...


Ipoh-based teacher Aishah Zainal's debut novel Hades was nominated by the National Library for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award. Published by Gerakbudaya, the novel is about a delinquent called Kei who forms a bond with a young mother who's his neighbour in a dilapidated flat. "At its core, Hades is a tale of the underdogs – of those living in poverty and what it does to people, especially women," Aishah tells The Star.

Getting into the shortlist will be hard as the competition is tough. There's Eleanor Catton (Birnam Wood), Paul Harding (This Other Eden), Barbara Kingsolver (Demon Copperhead), and Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow), among others. Still, Aishah is with good company, and we wish her the best.

Also in the news is Vanessa Chan, whose debut novel The Storm We Made has been named the "Good Morning America: Book Club Pick" for January by US television channel ABC. Set in Malaya before World War II, it follows a Eurasian housewife who is lured into spying for the Japanese and the consequences that follow for her and her three children.

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RF Kuang's novel Babel should have been a nominee for last year's Hugo Awards. But the organisers of the award seem to have felt differently. Apparently, Kuang and fellow author Xiran Jay Zhao were excluded from the 2023 Hugo Awards that took place in Chengdu, China, as were several others.

The Mary Sue failed to get any explanation from the Hugo Awards for this exclusion, but speculates that politics may have been a factor. "Through their books and social media activity, Zhao has spoken out against the alleged Uyghur genocide in China and even once questioned if they would be allowed into the country for this reason, while Kuang has been open about how her father was a part of the Tiananmen Square protest."


Okay, what's next?

• "Writing about books means there is always something new I should be reading. But there is also always something old that I should understand—there are always books whose moment I might have thought slid past me, but it didn't, or books I just never saw before." Molly Templeton ponders why some books meant for their readers take so long to find them. Perhaps "the time wasn't right", as some would say.
• "Usually there are about eight or nine books per month that I'm interested in, that I note down on my trusty spreadsheet, and I get a chance to read four or five of them. But in March of 2024 there are 30 books on my radar that I want to read." Some might consider this a good problem to have but Maris Kreizman isn't so sure. In Literary Hub, she explores what's behind the deluge of new releases for March 2024.
• Associated Press reports that Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, "believes he found about 20 stories and poems written by Louisa May Alcott under her own name as well as pseudonyms for local newspapers in Massachusetts in the late 1850s and early 1860s." Best known for Little Women, Alcott wrote a whole lot under various pseudonyms, leaving behind a pile of material for scholars like Chapnick to go through.
• A Q&A with Lucille Abendanon about her debut middle-grade historical novel The Songbird and the Rambutan. "The book is inspired by the real life stories of my Oma ["Grandma" in Indonesian] Emmy," Abendanon tells The Nerd Daily. "She was a prisoner of war in Tjideng during WW2. I would visit her in The Netherlands from wherever I was living in the world, and we would talk for hours about her life during the war."
• A recent Twitter drama involves a poet called John Kucera who was revealed to have plagiarised the work of other poets, including local writer May Chong. Various journals and other publications have discovered evidence of Kucera's plagiarism and removed the problematic pieces. Dude was prolific, it seems.
• Speaking of plagiarism, a court in Turkey ordered Turkish author Elif Şafak and Doğan Publishing to pay a total of 252,000 Turkish liras for plagiarising the work of another Turkish author, Mine Kırıkkanat. "The case was brought to light by Turkish author Kırıkkanat, whose work 'Fly Palace' was copied by Şafak in her 'Flea Palace'," the Hurriyet Daily News reported. From the publisher's response, an appeal may be filed.
• "I never imagined that my own manuscripts would end up in the hands of an editor like Marek, much less be the last he ever worked on. In 2018, I was searching for an agent for my first novel, The Reflecting Pool. Connections and good fortune put me in touch with my agent, Judith Ehrlich, who, in turn, introduced me to Marek. I couldn't have known just how impactful this introduction would be." Otho Eskin recalls his publishing journey and Richard Marek, the editor who changed his manuscript and his life.
• "...sometimes research becomes an excuse not to write, because you can endlessly go down these rabbit holes. There comes a point when you just have to write." The Indian Express speaks to Abraham Verghese about his novel, The Covenant of Water, "a multi-generational epic inspired by his grandmother's memoirs of what it felt to be a child."