Publishing Overseas

KURA provides support for researchers looking to publish overseas and acquire a wider audience for their research. We asked Associate Professor Saito Yoshiomi to share his advice and knowledge on the topic.

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SAITO Yoshiomi, Associate Professor,

What led you to consider publishing overseas?

I had already published a book for a general audience as part of Kodansha’s Métier series, and thought I’d be able to acquire a broader set of readers if I added more academic content to it.

Please tell us about this book.

It’s titled The Global Politics of Jazz in the Twentieth Century: Cultural Diplomacy and “American Music.” It considers jazz music from the perspectives of political, diplomatic, and cultural history.

The book is mainly about the United States’ Cold War “jazz diplomacy,” but it’s also a political history of jazz spanning pre to post-Cold War times. As you might know, during the Cold War, jazz played the role of a “sonic weapon” for the country to promote its freedom and democracy worldwide. For this reason, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and other famous jazz musicians were sent around the world as “jazz ambassadors.” Their mission was to eliminate America’s negative image associated with its racial problems. In my book, I make clear the contradictions inherent in this jazz diplomacy, as well as describe the development of the jazz scene outside the U.S., in places like Japan, Europe, and former Communist bloc countries. By doing so, I wanted to shed light on the effects of this state-deployed jazz diplomacy. Also, through a jazz-centered comparative political analysis, I was able to show how this music has been politically situated in different social contexts.

That’s quite interesting. When translating your Japanese work, was there anything you were particularly mindful of?

The Japanese version was originally published as part of Kodansha’s Métier series, so I had written it with a more general readership than scholarly monographs in mind. Since I wanted to publish an academic book in English, I added a lot of content. For example, in its Introduction, I discuss how the book is different from previous research, write about its academic originality, and highlight my new discoveries. However, I didn’t really change the book’s overall composition or arguments. I’ll touch on this later, but when submitting an English-language book proposal, I also contacted my editor at Kodansha to get permission to translate it. When publishing a translation, it’s the author’s responsibility to secure permission from the Japanese version’s publisher. Publishers probably handle this in different ways, but in my case, the editor reached out to the company’s legal affairs division, and I was able to get approval relatively quickly.

Was it a long path to publication?

The book came out from Routledge about a year and a half after I first talked with KURA about publishing it. My editor at Routledge said this was fairly fast. Using a table, I’ve actually chronologically outlined the publication process. It appears that it was right around the time when KURA began providing overseas publishing support. I was introduced to an editor through KURA in July 2018. First, I sent a draft proposal. Two months later, after exchanging emails, I submitted an official one.

What does one write about in a book proposal?

In my proposal, I included a tentative title, overview, table of contents, list of related books that have been already published, planned manuscript submission date, expected total word count, contact information, and so on. Typically proposals are not that long. Mine was seven pages. It appears that Routledge expects four to ten pages. Parallel with this, I acquired permission to translate my Japanese book.

It took me two months to submit the official proposal, mainly because I had to create sample chapters. Authors are expected to attach two or three to their proposals. I sent Routledge the Introduction and Chapter 6.

What happens after submitting the book proposal?

The draft proposal is reviewed by the publisher to determine whether the book is worth publishing. Then, one submits an official proposal. After I did so, the peer-review process began. It usually takes about two months, but I received comments from my two reviewers in five weeks. The first reviewer’s comments were relatively positive, but the second reviewer’s were a bit critical. I sent back carefully written responses to both of them. Then, the book was referred to Routledge’s publishing committee. It seems like they discussed whether it was publishable. I was ultimately presented with a contract around mid-October.

And then you began writing. How long did it take?

It took me sixth months to submit a final manuscript. In my case, I worked on translating. Also, at this point, it’s important to acquire permission to use copyrighted materials. For long passages, photographs, or lyrics taken from copyrighted works, you have to cite them properly and obtain approval for use. In my case, I decided to not use photographs and lyrics, and just got permission from surviving family members for letters written by musicians and so on. That was all by email.

― I see. So copyright permissions are also the author’s responsibility.

― English editing is a source of stress for non-native speakers looking to publish in English. What did you do about this?

I first translated the book myself and then asked an Australian friend with a Ph.D. in the same field to edit it. We used Kyoto University’s English editing rate. When I got an estimate from a company that does academic translation and editing, it was about ¥500,000 for 85,000 words. In the end, I asked my friend and used the university’s research operations funding. While it came out to about ¥700,000 at Kyoto University’s rate, I think it’s best to have someone in a similar field do it, even if the price is a bit higher. Editing companies might take your field into account to an extent, but a fellow scholar will be familiar with terminological usage and how to correctly choose between subtly different words.

What was the process after submitting your manuscript?

After I hired an editor, got the manuscript ready, and submitted it to the publisher, the publisher then began its own editing work. The manuscript that I sent them was basically complete, so this consisted of minor changes for stylistic consistency, as well as proper grammar and vocabulary usage. I also replied to questions about some unclear sentences when they came up. In June, three months after I had submitted my manuscript, I received a PDF of the uncorrected proof. At this point, I could only make minor changes. I corrected some important factual errors and the like. Then, the editor added my corrections, and I was sent a second proof. At this stage, it’s necessary to create an index. I should have hired an assistant, but I did it on my own. It was quite cumbersome work, and, in the end, it took about ten days. I regretted it. In this way, my book was finished in September.

That’s only one month after submitting your proposal—very quick.

Right. Even if you start counting from the time I talked with KURA, it’s still really fast—only a year and a half. While it depends on the field, often, a monograph in Japanese won’t get international attention. I had always felt that this was a shame, and think that by publishing overseas, my international recognition in my field increased. The hurdles to publication were actually not as high as I expected, so I think it’d be great if more people gave serious thought to overseas publishing.

Thank you for sharing your experience and so much detailed information.