Tangst... published? In something legitimate?

Yesterday, I got an email requesting permission to publish excerpts of Tangst in a book on American culture. The purpose of the book is to expose Japanese students to contemporary American culture through the use of blogs. Everything would be translated, with the original English on the same page. Tangst would be a part of the short-entry genre. Only about 600 words would be needed.

Here's the email I got from one of the editors of the book.

I am Dan Waldhoff, an English language editor working on a book to be published in Japan for students of contemporary English and American culture. I have found your writing on the web to be very interesting and would like your permission to include portions of it in a book on which we are presently working.

The working title of the book is “Journals of Thirty Americans Volume 2” and the anticipated publication date is March 2007. The book will contain several blog entries from 30 writers from various locations and demographics. We hope to show the Japanese reader a view of ordinary life in the USAEnglish-speaking countries and the use of English in everyday circumstances.

I’ll check with you to see if what I have chosen is acceptable to you. A Japanese translation of your writing will be included in the book along with the original English. You can view a sample of the first book, “Journals of Thirty Americans” at:

http://www.kosaido-pub.jp/longseller/index.html

Listed on Amazon Japan at:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language/product/4331510506/503-4518350-4467123?ie=UTF8&language=en%5FJP

These are both in Japanese only, so I have attached .jpg copies of pages for you to look over.

If the terms and conditions for the use of parts of your blog as described below are acceptable to you, please complete the section that follows and return to me by reply email with this text as part of the message by the end of November, 2006. Please include only the personal information that you want to have published in the book text and add, “I accept” at the end of the message. (Please accept our apologies in advance if we were unable to include parts of your blog in the Book despite that you reply to us with acceptance, which may happen for editorial reasons.)

Terms and conditions:
• We will use your blog entries only in the book “Journals of Thirty Americans Volume 2” (present working title, title might change) and nowhere else.
• We will use only text sections and will not use photographs or illustrations.
• Kosaido Publishing Co. will retain the copyrights to the Japanese text to be included in the Book.
• Your email address and website address will not be included in the Book unless otherwise requested by you.
• The inclusion of your blog entries in the Book is completely free of charge - there will be no charge or fee whatsoever.
• There will be no payment or remuneration whatsoever payable to you.
• Upon completion of the Book, we will send you one complimentary copy. (Mail may take at least a month.)

Your real name. (This will not be disclosed)
Name you wish to use in the Book. (You may choose the name by which you are identified in the Book.)
Age: (If you are under 18, please ask your parent or guardian to read this letter and write “I accept” with his/her name.)
Sex: (This information is not meant to be discriminatory but to assist the Japanese reader in understanding.)
Address (This will not be disclosed. This is only for mailing a complimentary copy of the Book.)
Profession:
State of residence:
Email address or web site address: (Only if you want them published.)


Thank you,

Dan Waldhoff, English editor
Sengen 1-5-1-203
Tsukuba 305-0047
Japan
(dwaldhoff@gmail.com)

Person in charge at Kosaido Publishing Co.
Takehito Ito, Director
Kosaido Publishing Co. website: http//www.kosaido-pub.co.jp
Address: Kosaido Building, 3-7-6, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo


I was wondering what everyone thought of this and whether or not we should do it. I already sent a reply saying I was interested in it, but that I needed to consult with the community (we're past the point of unilateral decisions). Please leave any questions or comments you have. I'd love to get as much feedback as possible.

P.S. If anyone wants to see the book excerpts he sent as jpgs, just send me an email (sith88@gmail.com or my.tangst@gmail.com) with "jps?" or "book excerpts?" or "excerpts?" in the subject line. Something like that.

Edit: He sent a reply to my email about notifying Tangsters. He wanted everyone to know that the first book sold about 5,000 copies. Not a large number considering a population of 300,000,000 in Japan ("manga and popular fiction sell many, many times more").

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go for it. Tangst is an interesting experiment in many ways, and this would just add another element.

I don't think that accepting this offer would be "selling out", especially with the notable "no payment or remuneration whatsoever" clause.

11/21/2006 11:18:00 PM  
Blogger PChis said...

Yes, this is a good thing. I'm all for it.

11/21/2006 11:29:00 PM  
Blogger thewordofrashi said...

Definitely go for it. That's pretty cool.

11/22/2006 12:38:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is really cool.
we should do it.

11/22/2006 11:46:00 AM  
Blogger knight_racer979 said...

I'm all for it. I do think that we should recieve a complimentary copy of the text, unless that would violate the "no payment" clause.

What parts exactly does he want to use?

11/22/2006 01:44:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This sounds like a scam to me.

If anything, get more information about this man and his books before you consent to anything, and try to speak to him in person or on the phone. The internet is a great place for scammers.

11/22/2006 04:30:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i just want to see ewhat he chose.

11/22/2006 08:09:00 PM  
Blogger TintedFragipan said...

Yeah, I don't think anything will come of this.

11/22/2006 09:04:00 PM  
Blogger Dan Waldhoff said...

Aloha from Japan,

Dan Waldhoff here to thank those of you who approve and assure those of you who have concerns. I have lived in Japan since 1989 and teach English. I currently teach part-time at Tsukuba International University and a national university for the hearing and vision impaired I also teach for the Ministry of Justice and two national research institutes. I moved to Japan from Hawaii. I'd planned to stay two years and am still here. I accepted the assignment of editing from a company which is doing the translation work for the book project and for which I do part-time proof reading and copy editing.

You can find my blog at:
http://tsukubadiving.blogspot.com/
and I welcome any visitors. I used to write a great deal more about the challenges of living in Japan but that became a bit tiresome for me and now I enjoy writing about what my wife and I do and where we live. My wife is Japanese, a dancer, works in a day care center and lectures at a Tokyo university.

I propose to use bits from TANGST that I have taken randomly from the archives. I've edited out any references to people, trauma, violence and poetry. None of the entries are identified by date. My reason for wanting to use entries from TANGST is to give the readers of the book a glimpse of what young people are thinking and/or experiencing. I have selected 25 other bloggers, all of whom are over 25. I do not want to impose unsolicited correspondence on users of MySpace and similar sites. TANGST gives me access to thoughtful people who are experiencing what I went through many years ago (I'm 60) and for which I had no creative outlet.

Mahalo Nui Loa,

Dan

12/13/2006 08:57:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dont do it
if you haven't already
i am more then one hundred percent against it.

12/17/2006 01:58:00 AM  

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