My Own Winding Path to Publication
How Gus & other stories of mine were made: A journey through submissions, rejection, acceptance, rejection again, & writing community
This Sunday, 29 September 2024, I’ll be on a panel at Book Bar Singapore with Prasanthi Ram (2024 Singapore Literature Prize Winner for English Fiction) and Max Pasakorn on The Winding Path to Publication: A Chaotic Breakdown.
We’ll be sharing our various journeys publishing our books, what it’s like to work with the stakeholders involved, such as editors and publishers, and our advice for emerging writers.
The game has changed and getting published and marketing your book is harder than ever. Writers need to adapt and be creative in finding new ways to reach potential readers (anyone for #booktoksg?). Although, I still believe contributing to physical communities of writers and readers will always be key. (Note to self to keep my own mailing list of potential readers and influencers up to date).
In order to provide some ideas of where people can submit their stories it is useful to reverse engineer your writing life and take a helicopter look at all the places you have submitted and participated in writing communities. To that end I set out below my own journey through literary communities, submissions and rejections.
In a subsequent post I’ll summarise some of the advice discussed on editors and publishers in Singapore and also other suggestions for submissions.
The key takeaways from my writing life
Build communities and give encouragement, advice and run activities to help beginning writers in their writing life. This hopefully builds profile and relevance.
Be tenacious, keep going & don’t get disheartened by rejection, criticism and gatekeepers. Enjoy writing as an end in itself. Social media and getting published, while important, are not the main game.
Understand that you do not have the right to be published and/or be read … so be humble, don’t feel sorry for yourself, and work harder and smarter to engage readers and keep them turning the page.
In the end, it’s not just you, your brain, a pen and a blank piece of paper. You are not alone. Historically, I learned my craft at Writing the City and by reading books. I tried to remain connected to readers and writers in Singapore by helping build Writing the City, Sing Lit Station and the Asia Creative Writing Programme. I’ll be off to Australia at the end of 2024 to continue my writing life and remain keen for new adventures.
My writing life summarised by publication and community
1996 to 2005 - Rejected from over 15 Australian writing competitions, literary journals & magazines
2004 - The current Singapore Writers Festival Director, Yong Shu Hoong, gave me a break by letting me read a story about things falling apart, We Rose Up Slowly, at the Book Cafe on Mohd Sultan Road. Kirpal Singh also spoke about creativity. I seem to be always writing stories about things falling apart. Dystopias, huh. Gotta love ‘em.
2010 - Short story published in Ceriph No1, by Math Paper Press, Eds Wei Fen Lee, Amanda Lee Koe and Winnie Goh, and published in my We Rose Up Slowly collection, Math Paper Press 2015. CeriphNo1 and BooksActually gave me my big break and encouragement to write.
2011 - Short story published in Coast, Math Paper Press Anthology, published in my We Rose Up Slowly collection, Math Paper Press 2015, and in another anthology, Singapore Love Stories, Ed Verena Tay, Monsoon Books, in 2016
2011 - Selected by BooksActually to participate in Synaesthesia: drawing words, reading pictures, a collaboration between 17 pairs of artists and writers at The Substation Gallery, Singapore
2012 - Short Story published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore in 2012, published in my We Rose Up Slowly collection, Math Paper Press 2015, and Quiet Loving, Ravaging, Search - 20 years of QLRS, Dakota Books, 2021
2013 - Submitted short stories to 5 places & rejected by 3
2013 - Short story published in Eastern Heathens, Ethos Books 2013, Eds Ng Yi-Sheng and Amanda Lee Koe, and published in my We Rose Up Slowly collection, Math Paper Press 2015
2013 - Short Story in From the Belly of the Cat, Math Paper Press 2013, Ed Stephanie Ye, and published in my We Rose Up Slowly collection, Math Paper Press 2015
2013 - Flash fictions submitted to and published in Twenty Four Flavours series, Math Paper Press 2013 including Dolphin Meat, A Pair of Century Eggs & Sushi Girl
2014 - Submitted short stories to 8 places & rejected by 7
2014 - Short short story selected for The White Trash of Asia in A Luxury We Cannot Afford, An Anthology of Singapore Poetry, edited by Christine Chia & Joshua Ip, Math Paper Press
2014 - Flash fictions submitted to and published in Twenty Four Flavours series, Math Paper Press 2014 including Sir Throws a Plate of Chicken Rice At Mam, In The Morning After We Spent Our First Night Together, When The Haze Came Back I Met Your Duck
2014 to 2018 - In order to try and add value to the writing community I took lots of photos of writers and literary events. I put these on my photography blog (All rights reserved. Do not use any image without permission). I also took photos of Book A Writer writers for Sing Lit Station and also for Asia Creative Writing Programme. I tend not to take photos any more because commercial and well funded arts and educational entities stole these images without asking permission nor providing adequate compensation. A dispiriting experience.
2015 - Submitted short stories to 8 places & rejected by 6
2015 - Short story collection We Rose Up Slowly published by Math Paper Press. July 2015, 2nd edition sold out. Third addition agreed in 2018 but postponed. Now out of print but I am considering self publishing an ePub version or trying to get it published again with another publisher. It will take me at least the next two years to make this decision.
2015 - Submitted short story, The Finger, to and published in Singapore Unbound, republished again in 2017
2015 - Finalist for a short short story, Exploring New Heights, submitted to the Montblanc x Esquire short story competition
2015 - Submitted and published Postcard from Singapore in SA Writers Centre, Adelaide, Australia. I really must write an update version of this article. A lot has happened since.
2015 to 2021 - Ran Writing the City creative writing workshops at Toa Payoh Public Library including over 70 workshops hosting Singapore writers and focussing on the craft of creative writing for beginning and developing writers
2016 - Co-founded Sing Lit Station where I worked until 2018.
2016 - Founded Book A Writer programme putting Singapore writers in Singapore schools. Ran Book A Writer until 2018.
2016 - Short short story, The Model, published in Esquire Singapore. Thanks Amanda Lee Koe, Literary Editor at Esquire Singapore.
2016 - Short story, The Looker, published in an anthology In Transit, edited by Ruihe Zhang & Yu-Mei Balasinghamchow, Math Paper Press. Thanks Yu-Mei for all your wonderful support and editorial and writing advice over the years. I can’t wait to read Yu-Mei’s forthcoming novel.
2016 - Submitted W, The worker from Jiangxi, and 'Old Man, Tekka Centre' a photo-essay which was published in This Is Not a Safety Barrier: An Anthology of Poetry & Photography, edited by Marc Nair and Yen Phang, Ethos Books
2016 to 2024 - A featured writer and presenter or moderator at the Singapore Writers Festival
2017 - Short story, Walking Backwards Up Bukit Timah Hill, from We Rose Up Slowly selected for Best New Singaporean Short Stories Volume Three, edited by Cyril Wong, series editor Jason Erik Lundberg, Epigram Books. This story was also selected for Best Singaporean Short Stories One, edited by Jason Erik Lundberg, Epigram Books, 2020
2017 to 2019 - Studied for Master of Arts in English Literature, specialising in Creative Writing at a local University (aka the Nottingham Trent University (joke alert)). Part of a thoughtful and encouraging, highly talented creative writing group including Arin Alycia Fong, Ng Yi-Sheng, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Prasanthi Ram, Gautam Joseph, Barrie Sherwood and Yu Chen
2018 - Submitted short stories to 2 places & rejected by 2
2019 - Submitted a Thai-Australian novel to the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize. The novel was not long listed as the book was not sufficiently Singaporean or South East Asian, or good enough. Epigram Books kindly offered to publish it but I declined as I would rather rewrite the whole novel.
2019 - Joint editor with Elizabeth Tan of the Singapore and West Australian anthology, In This Desert, There Were Seeds, Margaret River Press and Ethos Books. Thanks Yu Mei Balasingamchow for suggesting me to Ethos Books
2019 to 2023 - Assistant Director of Asia Creative Writing Programme helping to bring over 20 Visiting Writers to Singapore during a global pandemic, organising over 100 courses and events for over 1,500 participating writers and readers, building community and providing creative writing education and development for writers in Singapore and across Asia of the highest standard, providing courses and events in not just one language but four, and presenting Asia’s first Eco Literary Creative Writing Conference ‘Ecoimaginings’ involving 30 writers and academics from all over the world
2020 - Submitted short stories to 10 places in US & UK & rejected by 8
2020 - Short story, The Visit, submitted and shortlisted for The Short Fiction/Essex University Prize 2020. This story was published in The Transnational Journal, November 2020 and selected for Best New Singaporean Short Stories Volume Five, edited by Balli Kaur Jaswal, Epigram Books, 2021
2020 - Short story, Dog at the End of the World, submitted and selected for The Best Asian Short Stories 2020, Kitaab November 2020
2020 - Review of My Van Gogh in Moving Worlds: Translations, Vol 20 No 1, 2020
2021 - Submitted short stories to 8 places in Australia, US & UK & rejected by 8.
2021 - Submitted my unpublished Short Story Collection, Of Distance & Departures, to Ethos Books, Penguin South East Asia, Singapore Unbound and Epigram Books.
Ethos Books rejected the collection.
Singapore Unbound rejected the collection. They said: “We are again impressed by the excellence of the writing, but the somberness of the collection, although integral, feels rather relentless to us.” Although I profoundly disagreed with their view on the collection as ‘relentlessly sombre’, this did spur me ‘to play’ and have fun with story and write Gus.
Epigram Books agreed to publish the collection and we agreed a contract in 2022, but then they changed their mind in March 2024 and declined to be bound by the 2022 contract and said they would look at Gus’ sales.
Penguin Books South East Asia replied in July 2023 but I had to tell them Epigram had the rights to the collection. Post March 2024 & Epigram Book’s reneging on the contract, I am now considering my options. It will take me at least a year to work out what to do.
2021 - Short short story. Man & Wheelbarrow, selected for Call And Response 2, Math Paper Press
2022 - Submitted no short stories as I decided to focus on writing my Gus novel.
2022 - Draft novel, The Chronicles of Gus, submitted to Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2023 in August 2022. Gus was longlisted in September 2022, shortlisted in November 2022, and finally published in April 2024.
2022 - Essay, An Escalator Instead of a Lift, requested by the editor for the collection Letter to My Partner, Ed. Felix Cheong, Marshall Cavendish
2023 - Submitted short stories to 7 places in Ireland, US & UK & rejected by 7.
2023 - NTU School of Humanities requested an article so I submitted and NTU published ‘How I Wrote a Dystopian, Eco-thriller about a Talking Raffles’ Banded Langur' in NTU School of Humanities magazine, Constellations, Issue 11 2023.
You can read this article on my substack here.
2024 - To date in 2024 I submitted short stories to 4 places in Australia, Hong Kong, US & UK & have been rejected by 3.
One place is yet to reply … one lives in hope.
2024 - I help out on The Asian Bookshelf podcast. A lot of effort but rewarding to work with writer T A Morton and presenter, Devika Misra, and read some wonderful writing from and about Singapore.
2024 - My novel, Gus: The Life & Opinions of the Last Raffles’ Banded Langur, was published by Epigram Books in April 2024