My Debut Novel Trust Me Baby is out!

 

A contemporary fiction about a Canadian Hong Kong Woman with a Secret Past Pursuing a Change in Life 

I got some really exciting news to share with you all…which is… the novel that I have spent the past 11 years working on is finally getting published!!! (Well it is at least on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing for both E-book and printed format in many international markets including US, Canada, European markets and Japan)

This project was conceived in 2012. It took me 4 years to finish the first draft (while juggling grad school and work) and 2 years to edit. I spent the past 6 and a half years editing and pitching (again as I work), edit and pitch, rinse and repeat. I’ve encountered so many rejections from literary agents that I’ve lost count it’s (it’s probably somewhere in the two hundred range). Some might be a template rejection email,  some don't even have the time to send a rejection email, some with specific advice and surprisingly there were about a dozen agents who wanted to see the full manuscript but in the end let it go or didn’t reply at all. In 2023 already I got three asks to see the full manuscript, which is great for traditional publishing. And traditional publish ca be really great—I don’t have to bear costs like editing, cover design, marketing and printing. But with the encouragement of my dear E-commerce husband (I call Amazon pundit with bias), I realized how Amazon has made self-publishing fairly easy.  And the fact that I am still getting asked for fulls means my constant editing has maybe brought me to a place closer to good enough to being published. 

This is a book about a woman trying to grapple with her past and present, finding her true self. A story about families, friendships and romance and the places that define us, challenge us and inspire us. You can see more about the story in the link here 

Kindle E-book and Amazon Printed Paperback Book

Those who enjoy reading these would also enjoy this one (I’m not putting myself on a pedestal but rather I try to learn from their story telling) Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, Free Food For Millionaires by Min Jin Lee and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. 

Check out the two covers I have: I designed the E-book cover from Canvas and formatted it myself. The print cover and internal formatting was done by a professional. 

Ways to support this book:

• the obvious two ones are either purchasing a printed copy online and because my set marketplace is US, Canada and a bunch of European countries and Japan (the only ones allowed on Amazon so far), you can choose whatever works for you or if you are not in those regions bear a small shipping cost. Kindle is also available right now as well. (I will see how things go here first before trying to branch into Kobo, and by perhaps September I will get my poetry and short stories collection on Kindle as well so look out if you are interested)
• and if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can of course read this for free already. If that's the case, it could be a win-win situation for you, you get a free book and (if you love the writing enough) give an honest review so my book can reach those few who like my genre.
• if you are skeptical of supporting a debut author with recession money (I get it) you can still support by browsing the first few pages on Kindle (the more people do this on Kindle, I get a very very very small fraction from what is called the Kindle Select--think all the authors globally earning money just by you flipping through the first few pages-waw!)
• as of all businesses--word of mouth! You might not be an English fiction reader of contemporary times, but hey, if you know someone who does? Pop in a word for me? Buy it as a gift? 
• I will be donating copies to the Toronto Fort York Library, the Toronto St Lawrence Library, University of Waterloo Library, Kitchener Words Worth Books store and downtown Toronto BMV store. So if you are interested in popping by to save cost, do express interest as the more people ask for it, the more they are persuaded to get more copies from me.

And if in the end you are too caught up with your own life to do any of this in the short future (again I get it), thanks for simply reading this blog to the very end, because at the end of the day, writers write to resonate and connect with readers. So thank you really from the bottom of my bottomless heart. 💗Doe jei, xie xie and merci beaucoup! 

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