How to Write about Your Culture/Heritage Part 2 by Tina Cho

traditional wedding

Welcome back to part 2 of writing about your culture. See part 1 here in which I listed three tips for writing for the cultural market. Here are the rest of my tips.

4. Plant a universal theme into a cultural setting. For example, every child in the world loses a tooth. But what they do with that tooth might be different in each country. In Korea, they throw it on the roof. An example that led to a sale is the theme of seasons. As a former kindergarten teacher I always taught about how the apple tree goes through the four seasons. I have gobs of apple tree books. (Just wait til fall, and you'll see them all on the school shelves.) In Korea, I don't see apple trees, but I do see Asian pear tree orchards. Their beautiful blossoms transform into juicy pears in time for the harvest celebration. So I wrote Seasons of the Asian Pear Tree, a picture book purchased by Schoolwide.

Asian pear

5. Write a "how to" cultural craft or activity. Many children's magazines request crafts from other cultures. I used to write educational activities and crafts for Education.com, and the editor asked me to write a series of crafts for Asian American Month (May). My kids & I had fun developing these.

Skyping with a 4th grade class in Indiana

6. Be known as an expert in your culture. Since I homeschooled this year, I participated in some teacher Twitter chats. When the teachers found out I was living in Seoul, they asked if their students could do a Mystery Skype interview with me and my son (4th grade). The students had to guess what country we were from, and they asked my son questions. If your neighborhood school is studying a country that you're an expert on, be a guest speaker!

a product I revised

Along that same line, an editor at Tuttle Publishing knows I'm somewhat knowledgeable about Korean culture. She asked me to revise their "Let's Learn Korean" flashcard product and write some new educational activities to go with it. I got our whole family involved, as my daughter illustrated paper dolls to go with one of my activities (her first publishing stint), and my son helped me write a script, and my husband sang a few songs for their CD. My daughter & I received our author copies in the mail today. Very exciting! Furthermore, that editor at Tuttle passed my name along to another editor at their Singapore office, and she asked me to proofread a Korean grammar book, which I got my husband to help me do. So my advice is that if you're bilingual or knowledgeable about your culture/country, make it known!  You never know the possibilities.

a guard tower and fence~beyond is North Korea

7. Try travel writing. Check your library for travel magazines, and the next time you fly, look at the airline's magazine in the seat pocket. Usually there are articles about special places in the world. Research their writer guidelines and requests. 

traditional ice sledding

8. Write a proposal. After all these tips, if you still don't see anything helpful, research publishers that interest you. Study their list of books, and send off a query of 3-5 ideas that fit. I did, and the editor liked one of the ideas. I wrote the book, and the contract is pending.

If you have other tips, let me know in the comments! Have fun writing this summer. Since it's almost my birthday, I'll leave you with a Korean Baskin Robbins cake.

Baskin Robbins Birthday Cake

How to Write about Your Culture/Heritage Part 1 by Tina Cho

Seoul, South Korea

Getting published is hard. You already know that. But there are ways to break into the market that I've written about in this Grog blog such as the educational market and Christian market. Another way to break in is the cultural market. Publishers are hungry for cultural stories and activities. 

Little did I know that this Iowa girl would marry a guy from South Korea and that we would move there! I've been in the Seoul area for four years now. And over the years we've been married, I have been curious about Korean culture. Now you might not have lived in another country or married into a different culture, but you do have a heritage to share with this generation. What are some traditions and customs unique to your family? 

Below are my tips to break into this market with real anecdotes from my writing life. Maybe something will strike a chord with you and plod you in the right creative direction.

sightseeing on Nami Island

1. Hunt for ideas.

• Read books about your culture.
• Sightsee (my favorite) A museum, a sign on a statue, or a cultural place might hold a golden nugget.
• Interview relatives~I ask my in-laws questions about their holidays.
• Look through your cookbook~A recipe from your heritage might spark a story. Or you can publish the recipe in a magazine.
• List folk tales from your culture~ Are there any that haven't been written about?
• Check the Google Doodle~Since my computer recognizes that I'm in Korea, I see the Korean Google Doodles as well as the American ones and always check them out. They list a famous person's birthday or anniversary of some cool invention. I've listed many ideas from these. 

wearing traditional clothing for Lunar New Year

2. Find that fresh angle that hasn't been done before. For example, Lunar New Year is huge, but there are already picture books about it. I googled the second biggest holiday in Korea and found only one picture book. So I wrote my story about it using a Korean poetic form.

one of my 1st publications, my kids on the cover!

3. Look for unique markets. As you know, I'm not a grandma, but one of my first publications was in Grand, an e-zine for grandparents! I checked their needs and sent off a query. The editor emailed that she wanted an article about a family with a set of close grandparents and a set of long-distance grandparents and how they kept the balance. (At this time, we were living in California.) I emailed the editor back and told her both sets of our grandparents were long-distance, one set in Iowa, and one set in South Korea so I wouldn't be able to help her. But she came up with the idea of my writing an article on how my kids kept a relationship with their overseas grandparents. This led to a contract, and my children were on the cover of the e-zine. She sent a photographer to my house to do a photo shoot with my kids! In the article I not only shared my ideas, but it also has a Korean cultural flair, and the editor asked for a recipe. I share this with you so that you'll look in unique places for getting published.

I hope this post has your brain thinking of some great story ideas. Stay tune for part 2!