“The first offer that came in for the book was the Japanese translation. And that came in even a couple days before the American offers started to come in!”
Hello Loreates,
This week on Well Published! I had the distinct pleasure of chatting with debut novelist
Min about her book Shanghailanders’s journey to international publication. As you may remember, I interviewed Juli last month in print about this novel’s unusual structure and international cast of characters. Paid subscribers can catch up with that interview here:
But going live, I wanted to know more about the navigation of this project from MFA thesis manuscript to global phenomenon, with near-simultaneous release in the U.S. and U.K. and multiple foreign editions in the works. How does a brand-new author accomplish such a feat— from a home base in China, no less!
Our conversation did not disappoint. Not only is the story of Juli’s stratospheric launch incredibly encouraging for all literary writers, but I was blown away by the wealth of tips and intel she shared. While it certainly helped that Juli had written a dazzling book, she was methodical and meticulous in her approach to getting an agent and working with her editors. You’ll probably want to watch the entire video, but you can also find the most important lessons and take-aways below.
I want to thank
, , , , , and the many others who tuned in Thursday. I hope you’ll all join me for my next Well Published! live Substack event with publicist extraordinaire on September 18 at 12pmPT.
Loreate Salons for Paid Subscribers are now bimonthly!
By popular demand of our Zoom Loreates, we’re now going to gather online every two months on the third Saturday. This day and time seem to work for everyone from Hawaii to Switzerland, so…
Our next Paid Loreate Zoom gathering is Saturday, September 20, at 10amPT!
All paid subscribers are welcome. As we get to know each other, these gatherings will be less meet-and-greet and more discussion of the thorny issues bedeviling our collective writing life. Consider this online space our Loreate Salon.
“In publishing, money signals interest and commitment, so the publisher who is most committed, most excited and most likely support your book at publication is likely going to be the one who proposes the most money.”
Going Global with ‘Shanghailanders’!
Here are some of the highlights of my conversation with Juli:
Agent Selection and Querying Strategy
Juli took a systematic, data-driven approach to querying agents. She used Publishers Marketplace to research agents' sales records, deal sizes, and genre. [PM allows users to filter agents by these criteria, including literary fiction focus.] Once she had a list of solid picks, she front-loaded her queries, sending letters more or less at once to the top 30+, rather than smaller batches. She felt it was only right to stop querying after she got her first expressions of interest, so once she got her first nibble, she let all the others know there was interest. Most then wanted to see the whole manuscript. And this approach yielded 11 agent offers! [Who says interest in literary fiction is waning?!]
Juli went with Stephanie Delman at Trellis Literary Management in Brooklyn after hearing some of Stephanie’s other clients rave about her.
Auction! Auction!
All that enthusiasm turned out to be warranted. There were 6 bidders in an auction for the US rights to Juli’s book. She ended up going with Spiegel and Grau after meeting all the bidders and considering their visions for the book. She liked that S&G is a relatively new publisher, women-run, and independent. They also were the highest bidder, but as Juli’s agent explained to her, “In publishing money signals interest and commitment, so the publisher who is most committed, most excited and most likely support your book at publication is likely going to be the one who proposes the most money.”
Foreign Rights Sales Process
Licenses for foreign translation rights are sold in separate deals, with individual advances for each territory. These rights sales can multiply a book's total earnings well beyond the original publishing advance. Rights can be sold either by the publisher's foreign rights department or by the agency's team.
Typically, US deals establish the "waterfall effect," so foreign publishers will wait to see American deal sizes before making their own offers. But agencies with in-house foreign rights teams and book scouts can generate earlier international interest. That’s what happened with Shanghailanders. Trellis held the rights, and their literary scouts raised the buzz around the world. Thanks to those scouts, the Japanese translation rights sold even before the US offers came in, which is unusual.
Foreign sales are unpredictable, though. Arabic, German, Japanese, Norwegian, and Spanish rights sold for Juli’s book—but not Korean or Chinese. The book is neither political nor salacious, but publishers’ reasoning can be opaque. For a Korean-American author living in China, the absence of her book in these territories is disappointing. It could still happen, but seems unlikely, since foreign rights momentum typically peaks early after publication, then tapers off.
Simultaneous UK-US Release
Juli's novel was released simultaneously in the US (Spiegel & Grau) and UK (Dialogue Books) rather than the typical staggered approach. Simultaneous releases of English editions are sometimes done so that UK readers won’t import the American edition early and reduce the UK publisher's market share. But usually the lead territory (US) does the editing and all other publishers use that version as their master. In this case, the US and UK editors worked together with Juli in a combined editorial process, which is uncommon.
Having multiple editors gave Juli additional perspectives, which required more coordination, but it also gave her backup when she received a note she didn’t understand or agree with. It was like having a "high-level writing group" just for her book, and that helped her navigate editorial suggestions more confidently.
Practical Challenges of Global Publishing
Living in Shanghai created logistical challenges - 2 AM meetings due to time differences, difficulties receiving foreign edition copies due to Chinese customs. Juli handled most business through virtual meetings, but she did travel to New York and London in-person to meet her editors and agent. By attending the London Book Fair she was also able to meet other foreign publishers and sales reps.
Authors often must self-fund international travel for book promotion. Juli’s US publisher arranged and covered her 5-city tour in America. Then Juli paid her own way to England, where her UK publisher supported her tour in London and Manchester.
And now Juli’s back at home to Shanghai working on her next novel!
Special announcement:
Join me virtually or in person for an evening with the incomparable Maxine Hong Kingston and Pete Hsu, moderated by Lily Hoang at Commonwealth Club World Affairs in San Francisco on Thursday, September 11, 2025. We’ll be discussing the impact of America’s current politics on marginalized writers, readers, and independent presses. Without NEA and NIH funding, what is the fate of literary diversity in America? What can publishers do to prevent erasure of BIPOC perspectives? What can artists do to defend their legacy and protect the future for imagination, creativity, and radical inclusivity? And what rich reserves of literary history can we all draw upon to embolden the voices of resistance in our modern reckoning? We invite you to participate in an urgent exploration of the good, the bad, and the courageous in publishing today.
