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A critical view of MP Ms Irene Ng’s advice
By Kelvin Teo ⋅ April 18, 2009
SINGAPORE - In an article published April 14th in The New Paper, MP Miss Irene Ng exhorted broke professionals out there who dreamt of writing a book to transform it into a reality. Miss Ng cited the success story of JK Rowling, then a single, struggling mother who finished her first novel when she was out of a job. The rest, they say is the stuff of legends.
Thus, the article’s title says it all:”During hard times, write”. I find there is nothing wrong with that advice because I believe in the freedom of creative expression. In fact, creative expression shouldn’t be limited to writing books alone. One can set up a web publication site like this one for instance. Even I write too, but that is for hobby purposes rather than a source of income.
There is no doubt that Miss Ng is trying to give her two cents worth in suggesting to Singaporeans a particular way of coping with the hard times. Given her background as a writer, I wasn’t surprised at her suggestion. While she has genuinely good intentions behind her suggestion, I find it lacking in substance.
From a pragmatic standpoint, a jobless professional would prefer to work in temporary positions for the short-term as opposed to writing a book. If the latter’s long-term goal is to land another permanent job, working in temporary positions would make more sense. A prospective employee who has proven his analytical and management skills in addition to an ability to integrate into a team in the temporary positions he has held would be more attractive in the eyes of an employer than someone who merely spent his days of unemployment writing a book. The employer would be more confident of the former who has demonstrated transferable skills in his temporary positions.
The obvious advantage of working in temporary positions is that the employee is at least guaranteed a source of income. The writer does not have any source of income whilst working on his manuscripts. His income will only come in after his published works hit the market. And for that to happen, he has to find a publisher in the first place. Another barrier to overcome is the public’s reception to the book, i.e. whether the book can sell.
What Miss Ng had also left out was elaborate details regarding publishing practices which may be informative to any budding writers out there. Any written work initially begins with the conceptualization phase. This may involve the author alone, or in certain cases, the editors at the publishers’ end might play a part too. The next stage would be the writing phase. This part can be very intensive and time-consuming, as the writers are required to research for relevant information and write their manuscripts at the same time.
What many budding writers take for granted is the role of the editors during the authoring phase. Good editors are are able to come up with positive suggestions on how to better improve the manuscript so that the final written work will appeal to the general audience. Of course, there are editors who go on an overkill, chopping and changing large chunks of a writer’s work until the whole piece becomes unfamiliar to the latter. Most of the time, this will not go down well among the writers especially if the modified piece is a huge deviation away from the latter’s original contribution. Needless to say, the good editors are the ones who are able to exercise a fine balance between modifying the writer’s work and preserving the original contribution. It’s an editorial art to modify a piece of written work to appeal to the audience whilst preserving the original contribution by the writer. The role of an editor is under-estimated, but the latter can make a difference between the success or failure of a book.
It is a common publishing practice for writers to be issued what is known as “false deadlines” by their publishers. The “false deadline” is usually on an earlier date before the actual deadline. The main worry about “false dealines” is that writers have less time to write or correct the manuscripts. Less allocated time to work on the manuscripts will generally have negative effects on their quality. Thus, the onus is on the writers to negotiate with the publishers a series of deadlines that will not compromise the quality of the manuscripts.
Last, but not least, is a matter of paramount concern to the writer - renumeration. Writers are usually paid by royalties from the sales of their books. And this will only happen after their books have hit the market. Thus, before a budding writer decides to work on a book, he would have to keep careful track of his personal finances. He has to ensure that he has enough to sustain himself and his family during the time he is working on the book up till the day when it is finally released in the market.
Whilst it is good to encourage budding writers out there to fulfill their dreams of publishing their own books in the name of promoting freedom of creative expression, the latter should also be armed with detailed knowledge of the venture he is about to undertake.
A note about the writer:
He has worked as an editor at one major publishing house, seeing six books from conceptualization to print, and as a freelance writer for another major publishing house. He was also a contributing author for a book aimed at junior level students, and sole author for two electronic learning resources.
----------------------------
Latest news update at Singapore News Alternative:
1. Singapore Economy in Free Fall Disaster
2. A critical view of MP Ms Irene Ng’s advice
3. Singapore gears up to tackle casino-related crime
4. Singapore's OCBC says no plans to raise funds-report
5. JBJ's son steps up to do battle
.
A critical view of MP Ms Irene Ng’s advice
By Kelvin Teo ⋅ April 18, 2009
SINGAPORE - In an article published April 14th in The New Paper, MP Miss Irene Ng exhorted broke professionals out there who dreamt of writing a book to transform it into a reality. Miss Ng cited the success story of JK Rowling, then a single, struggling mother who finished her first novel when she was out of a job. The rest, they say is the stuff of legends.
Thus, the article’s title says it all:”During hard times, write”. I find there is nothing wrong with that advice because I believe in the freedom of creative expression. In fact, creative expression shouldn’t be limited to writing books alone. One can set up a web publication site like this one for instance. Even I write too, but that is for hobby purposes rather than a source of income.
There is no doubt that Miss Ng is trying to give her two cents worth in suggesting to Singaporeans a particular way of coping with the hard times. Given her background as a writer, I wasn’t surprised at her suggestion. While she has genuinely good intentions behind her suggestion, I find it lacking in substance.
From a pragmatic standpoint, a jobless professional would prefer to work in temporary positions for the short-term as opposed to writing a book. If the latter’s long-term goal is to land another permanent job, working in temporary positions would make more sense. A prospective employee who has proven his analytical and management skills in addition to an ability to integrate into a team in the temporary positions he has held would be more attractive in the eyes of an employer than someone who merely spent his days of unemployment writing a book. The employer would be more confident of the former who has demonstrated transferable skills in his temporary positions.
The obvious advantage of working in temporary positions is that the employee is at least guaranteed a source of income. The writer does not have any source of income whilst working on his manuscripts. His income will only come in after his published works hit the market. And for that to happen, he has to find a publisher in the first place. Another barrier to overcome is the public’s reception to the book, i.e. whether the book can sell.
What Miss Ng had also left out was elaborate details regarding publishing practices which may be informative to any budding writers out there. Any written work initially begins with the conceptualization phase. This may involve the author alone, or in certain cases, the editors at the publishers’ end might play a part too. The next stage would be the writing phase. This part can be very intensive and time-consuming, as the writers are required to research for relevant information and write their manuscripts at the same time.
What many budding writers take for granted is the role of the editors during the authoring phase. Good editors are are able to come up with positive suggestions on how to better improve the manuscript so that the final written work will appeal to the general audience. Of course, there are editors who go on an overkill, chopping and changing large chunks of a writer’s work until the whole piece becomes unfamiliar to the latter. Most of the time, this will not go down well among the writers especially if the modified piece is a huge deviation away from the latter’s original contribution. Needless to say, the good editors are the ones who are able to exercise a fine balance between modifying the writer’s work and preserving the original contribution. It’s an editorial art to modify a piece of written work to appeal to the audience whilst preserving the original contribution by the writer. The role of an editor is under-estimated, but the latter can make a difference between the success or failure of a book.
It is a common publishing practice for writers to be issued what is known as “false deadlines” by their publishers. The “false deadline” is usually on an earlier date before the actual deadline. The main worry about “false dealines” is that writers have less time to write or correct the manuscripts. Less allocated time to work on the manuscripts will generally have negative effects on their quality. Thus, the onus is on the writers to negotiate with the publishers a series of deadlines that will not compromise the quality of the manuscripts.
Last, but not least, is a matter of paramount concern to the writer - renumeration. Writers are usually paid by royalties from the sales of their books. And this will only happen after their books have hit the market. Thus, before a budding writer decides to work on a book, he would have to keep careful track of his personal finances. He has to ensure that he has enough to sustain himself and his family during the time he is working on the book up till the day when it is finally released in the market.
Whilst it is good to encourage budding writers out there to fulfill their dreams of publishing their own books in the name of promoting freedom of creative expression, the latter should also be armed with detailed knowledge of the venture he is about to undertake.
A note about the writer:
He has worked as an editor at one major publishing house, seeing six books from conceptualization to print, and as a freelance writer for another major publishing house. He was also a contributing author for a book aimed at junior level students, and sole author for two electronic learning resources.
----------------------------
Latest news update at Singapore News Alternative:
1. Singapore Economy in Free Fall Disaster
2. A critical view of MP Ms Irene Ng’s advice
3. Singapore gears up to tackle casino-related crime
4. Singapore's OCBC says no plans to raise funds-report
5. JBJ's son steps up to do battle
.
