How to sell your story in Japan?

Many of you must have been writing your experiences on Facebook, Twitter or blogs. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could actually sell those stories?

I would like to share with you how I was able to publish two books in Japan a few years ago and still receiving the royalty fees. I hope you can publish yours in Japan too! This is really a thrilling experience and most of all your name remains in history! Also Japanese readers are always looking for stories from different perspective.

I was an international trade and marketing specialist dealing with small medium enterprises in Japan and overseas. I encountered many failure cases which could have been avoided. I wrote about the sample cases and ways to avoid the failure on my blog for benefits of all. A friend of mine advised, “why don’t you publish it?” which I have never thought about!

I didn’t know where to start from. So I wrote a proposal to publishers which includes the following.

1. Why do I write this book?
2. What is your experience?
3. What benefits/experiences does this book bring to readers?
4. Target readers
5. Table of contents

Please remember, a publisher receives more than 10 proposals daily from future novelists and they don’t bother read them all because their daily work requires them to read more! Make your proposal as an elevator pitch. Make it concise and compact.

Also keep telling your friends or customers that you wish to publish a book one day. Seek then chances are given. Relationship and referrals matter the most in Japan, as you know. I gave my proposal to a friend of mine who passed to his friend who is a president of a printing factory. He then passed to one of publishers he was dealing with. This publisher liked my proposal! You never know what happens, right?!

Once contract is made with a publisher, write, write and write! I spent more than 200 hours on research and writing. You might want to write on your spare time after work or weekend. I wanted to focus on writing without being distracted, so I used public libraries and cafes.

I will be able to help you writing effective proposals for you in Japanese and pitch to my publisher contacts in Japan if my time allows. Let me know if you need my help!