Activity

• Date: 11/23/2012
• Location: Small Small Bookshop
• Attendees: Sabrina and Ray

The Interview

• Name: You Rendao
• Job: Editor
• From/To: March 2011 - present
• Experience: Magazine Editor and Small Idea Publishing Company Editor

Contents of the Interview

Q：Can you tell us something about the establishment and history of the Small Idea Publishing Company?

A：Publishers and bookstores are interrelated. In 2010, the owner of the bookstore wanted more people to discover writer’s works. Using limited resources, the publishing company was founded and officially began work in 2011.

Q：How did you join the Small Idea Publishing Company?

A：I’ve always enjoyed reading and so I did a 2 year course at the community college. After that I bumped into Sappho who told me about her idea for the Small Idea Publishing Company. She asked if I would be interested in joining and so I became the editor.

Q：What is the main responsibility for editors?

A：Mostly I select the books.

Q：From inception to publishing, how long does it take to release a book?

A：Independent publishers have fewer resources and it usually takes a year to publish a book.

Q：How much does it cost to publish a book?

A：I think it’s a lot of money. Printing a simple 200 page book and adding a cover costs at least NT $30,000. You also need to pay for design, editing, tax, salaries, utilities, etc. One book costs at least NT $100,000.

Q：What direction will the Small Idea Publishing Co. take in the future?

A：Now we will publish a regular publication called Small Small Writing. We also hope to publish painting, comics and albums.

Q：What’s the most difficult thing about the planning process?

A：We don’t choose books, instead we look at writer’s manuscripts so we feel the most difficult part is rejecting and judging works.

Q：Have you ever come across something that made you want to give up? If so, what was it?

A：The hardest thing has been not being able to find a designer and having no money. This means we sometimes have to settle for second best.

After this interview, we realised that independent publishing is very different to the large and long established companies. Because they don’t have the same resources, they have to work much harder to produce one book.

After this interview, we joined in the Small Small Bookshop. This time Small Idea were one of the publishers present. When You Rendao told us about how difficult making that book was, I really felt like they were awesome!

Source : Yu-Tsai Bookworms interview