Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Chinese Immigrater essays

Chinese Immigrater essays Interrogations of Chinese Immigrants at Angel Island Like Ellis Island in New York Harbor, Angel Island in San Francisco Bay was an entry point for immigrants in the early 20th century. The Angel Island immigration station processed small numbers of immigrants from Japan, Italy, and other parts of the world and was the key place of interrogation and detention for immigrants from China ("Angel Island Over View, CD-ROM). Angel Island in 1910 to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882 and renewed in 1892 and 1902. Despite Chinese contributions to building the American West before 1880, the U.S. enacted laws prohibiting the migration of Chinese laborers after 1882 and accepting only merchants, teachers, students, and the families of American-born Chinese. These were then 105,465 Chinese in the country, mostly in California. Under the Naturalization Law of 1790, Chinese immigrants were considered "aliens ineligible to cintizenship," but those born in the U.S were citizens under the 14th amendment. Modeled in its procedures o n Ellis Island, Angel Island was an outpost to sift the migration stream but also a barrier to bar Chinese save those who fit the exempt categories or were related to U.S citizens ("Angel Island Overview", CD-Rom). Chinese immigration, after being shut down for many years by governmental legislation and an anti-Chinese climate resumed quickly after 1906. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed most immigration records in the city, allowing many resident Chinese to claim U.S citizenship and many others to claim to be "paper sons." Chinese Americans who returned from visits home and reported births of sons and daughters thereby created slots, which were often used to bring in immigrants who masqueraded as sons or daughters. By this strategem, thousands of Chinese skirted intended American exclusion ("Male Detainees at Angel Island", CD-Rom). These paper sons and paper merchants increased the numbe...

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Publishing with a Hybrid Press

Publishing with a Hybrid Press Ever since I signed the contract with  She Writes Press  for the publication of my debut novel,  This Is How It Begins  (available now), writers have been asking, â€Å"Why did you choose a hybrid press?† First, what is a hybrid press? A hybrid press walks the line between traditional publishing (the â€Å"Big 5† of HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, Hachette and Macmillan) and self-publishing (CreateSpace, Kindle Direct, Ingram Spark), taking aspects from each. I chose a hybrid press for several reasons:   Ã‚     After 14 months of getting close but not close enough to land a literary agent, I got impatient with the lengthy process and decided to take matters into my own hands.   Ã‚     I decided against self-publishing because I wanted traditional distribution to bookstores, and that’s not something I could do myself.   Ã‚     I also decided against self-publishing because I knew I wouldn’t have the bandwidth to learn everything there is to learn in a timely fashion.   Ã‚     I wanted to work with a publisher who had ample experience with publishing and selling books, and I wanted a team to give my book its best chance. After much research, I chose the cream of the hybrid crop- She Writes Press (SWP). This innovative press is blazing quality ground in the publishing industry right now. Here’s what their hybrid model looks like:   Ã‚     Emphasis on quality books- they carefully curate their list;   Ã‚     Traditional distribution through Ingram Publisher Services (IPS)- that means a dedicated sales team from IPS sells SWP books directly to booksellers, so your physical books end up in stores;   Ã‚     Generous royalties- You invest up front for editorial, book production and printing, but you get a higher royalty per book sold than you would with traditional publishers (60% of the net profits on print books and close to 80% of the net profits on ebooks);   Ã‚     Respect for authors- Authors are partners in the publishing process, get an education in how best to sell books, have a say in how books look, and retain ownership rights;   Ã‚     Community- SWP fosters a supportive community of women authors, who learn from each other and support each other throughout the publishing process and beyond;   Ã‚     Housekeeping- they take care of all the â€Å"metadata,† which goes to all outlets where books are sold, they warehouse books, file copyright and Library of Congress numbers, fulfill orders †¦ all the stuff you don’t want to have to do from home. One thing I worried about at first was whether working with a hybrid would limit my book in some way - would booksellers consider the hybrid press a poor cousin to traditional publishers? Would I be eligible for the big literary awards and grants? In the case of SWP, I’ve seen no indication whatsoever that booksellers are thinking twice about carrying my book (my preorder numbers from bookstores were quite high). I’ve easily submitted, and been asked to submit, to many of the big-name book awards. There will be some grants that prohibit me from applying (the NEA Fellowship, for instance), but I’m going to try to blaze a new trail with those institutions Not all hybrids are created equal; there are other models out there to consider. Since I can’t speak about them from experience, I’ll leave you with some good articles for further reading:   Ã‚     Not All Hybrid Publishers Are Created Equal: How Authors Should Evaluate Their Choices, Jane Friedman for Publisher’s Weekly   Ã‚     The Indie Authors Guide to Hybrid Publishing: Hybrid publishers look to combine the best of traditional and self-publishing,