A cautionary tale says: You can study the market until it is perfect, but in the end, you can only write what you can write. - Nick Li Ang

The market provides writers with a recipe for writing bestsellers: one point of conception, two points of talent, three points of motivation, and patience. Remove excess fat from the conception, simmer in talent, mix with motivation, and cook until strong. If you are not patient enough, add fresh constraints until publication.

Someone asked me to talk about "writing for the market", so I picked up the microphone and asked my editor for advice.

"What are you going to say?" she asked me.

"Well, that's exactly what I'm thinking about," I said, "What do you think I should say?"

'E", she said, "I'm reading some mud. I hope everyone won't be too swayed by the market. I think people should write what is really needed."

"Can I quote you?" I asked.

"No, I have to be careful. I mean, writers must understand what is published and what is sold today, but going to the library is not enough, and going to the bookstore and figuring out what is being published and sold there. They should write what is really needed."

"Do you think the newcomer has a chance today?"

"Yes, but it's hard," she said. "Now, few editors are willing to read the mud. I can't understand this. If they don't read the manuscripts, how can they find a first-class novel?"

By comparison, I was so lucky that I met an amazing editor who made my novel stand out.

When people first met me, they would probably think so. Look, this is that woman, inconspicuous at all, but she was actually a famous writer. So they turned their surprise into a question: "Please tell me your writing tips, so that I will be as rich and famous as you."

If there is really a trick to writing, it is: I write what I need to write, what I want to write, in other words, what I can write.

There is a story about the writer Conrad Aiken. He won many awards in his life and was respected by the critics, but he had no money. From the 1930s, he was a rising writer, and his family was full of children in need of raising. He also published articles, but the reward was pitifully low, and what Aiken needed most was cash at that time.

He decided to forget literature and write something that could fill the table with daily necessities. He bought back all the magazines that could pay high royalties for the author: Saturday Evening Post, Payou, Corlia, etc., and studied and analyzed all the novels in the magazine until he figured out the key points and wrote a carefully written article to Saturday Evening Post. He was sure that the editor could not be attracted by this article.

As a result, the Post returned his "perfect" novel, and other magazines did not accept it (his "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" was eventually published in an unknown place, and after Aiken's death, the work was included in various anthology as an example of great literary short stories).

This cautionary story has a meaning, you can study the market until it is perfect, but in the end, all you write is what you can write.

Before I write a book, I would ask myself two questions: Is it worth all my efforts? And then, is it exciting enough? It has attracted me to it for two or three years.

During those harsh days of the first days, none of the things I wrote were published. A girlfriend felt sorry for me and asked me, "How about taking an adult education writing class?" It sounded great. The next year, I chose a course called "Writing for Kids". I thought, if I wrote a story every day, I could write a chapter every week, and by the end of the year, I would have a book. At that time, I would have to write a novel or a poem or something every week, but nothing was published.

I thought, I might as well write a novel with Japan as the background, because I had lived in Japan for 4 years and I missed Japan. At that time, I didn’t know that books with children as the background in Japan in the 12th century were not marketable.

But a novel is not enough except for having a charming background and compact plot. It must have an emotional core, and it must have passion. The core of my novel comes from my daughter who was only 5 years old at the time.

Lin was born in Hong Kong in the autumn of 1962. When she was three weeks old, the police found her on the sidewalk in the city and sent her to an orphanage in the New Territories where she lived for more than two years and was adopted by us. When she was 5 years old, her life was quite stable for her, but sometimes she would leave her home for no reason. This scared me to death. Where did she go? What exactly did I do to make her quiet? I tried various ways: coaxing her, begging her, and not allowing her to leave, was useless.

One night, I was making dinner in the kitchen, she walked in, climbed up a bench without saying a word, and sat down. I tried to chat with her, but she didn't answer, as if she didn't hear anything. The harder I tried, the more nervous she felt.

Finally, I finally lost my patience and screamed. "Lin", I shouted, "If you don't tell me what's going on, how can I help you?"

She widened her eyes, "Why did that woman give me to someone else?" she asked.

So everything started to talk endlessly. Why was she given to someone else? We never told her that she was an outcast. This seemed too sad, but her mother was not able to raise her and wanted her to have a home. I explained this repeatedly and added that I was sure that her mother never thought of abandoning her. She would take care of her daughter whenever possible. Is her mother still alive? Is she okay? I couldn't answer this question, but she asked me to try to comfort her and reassure her. Later, even during her teenage years, these questions still lingered her.

Now she has become a mother herself, a loving, interesting and amazing mother who has devoted all her love to our little grandson. She is a miracle, and I can't tell you how much I admire her.

What she gave me was not just herself, but the emotional core of a story.

I want to name this book "The Mark of the Chrysanthemum". The story takes place in the middle of the Japanese civil war in the 12th century. The protagonist is a thief who is looking for his father he has never met. The girl he loves finally entered a brothel. I did not write this way to shock the world, because in Japan in the 12th century, if it is not protected, a 13-year-old beautiful girl is likely to enter a brothel, and the boy who loves her is penniless and unable to save her.

To be honest, I had hardly read such books for young readers before this. When I wrote "The Mark of the Chrysanthemum", I didn't think about whether there would be readers. I wrote a story I wanted to write, and I did my best to write it out sincerely.

While I sent the book to the publisher, a bestseller with adult readers was also published, which broke all sales records since "Floating". The story of "Jonathan Livingston's Seagull" is sentimental and tells a seagull that surpasses its established goals. The author is Richard Bach.

So, when will my books see the light of day?

For more than two years, the book has been in various publishing houses, and then a miracle happened. A young lady who had just graduated from college discovered it from the seventh or eighth mud pile of silence in the publishing house. After reading it, she fell in love with the book. She gave the manuscript to the senior editor, a woman with a good eye for children's book publishing, who had just returned from a visit from Japan. She always dared to publish books that could open up new worlds for children. She didn't think the book would sell well, but she hoped that young readers would read the book and that the author would have the opportunity to write more books.

Although the hardcover version of "Chrysanthemum Mark" is not sold well enough, it is very satisfied with it. Because children and young people buy paperbacks, it means that its readers are the people I write for them.

The corporate giants that control most of New York publishing houses have no vision that my editors have, and you will have fewer opportunities to seize.

A few years ago, a frustrating article titled "Reading May Be Harmful to Your Children". The article lists 1990. This best-selling paperback children's book, in the top ten, has nine titles "Ninja Turtles". There are only two real books in the entire bibliography, one of which is "Charlotte's", which is ranked fifteenth, by E?B? White, published in 1952. The other is "Where is the Wild" by Maurice Sendark, published in 1963.

For this reason, I advise those who do not have the patent of "Ninja Turtles" to simply focus on what we really care about.

Remember, when you finish a book for the market, the manuscript is accepted by an editor until it is finally published. After the long process, the market may have moved elsewhere, but your book is left far behind. However, a book like Conrad Aiken, E. B. White and Maurice Sendark, written by meticulously crafted and expressing human emotions and profound beauty will never be outdated. I always believe that there will always be a few terriblely paid, sensitive and energetic editors who are willing to work in the mud. They are the few remaining excellent editors. They are brave enough to resist the trend and put a cover and back cover for your manuscript.

Of course, this requires miracles. But how can I deny the existence of miracles?
Chapter completed!