Literary Agent Profile: Gray Tan at The Grayhawk Agency in Taipei

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Bruce Humes for Paper-Republic: Your PublishersMarketplace web page sports an impressive list of English best-sellers, mainly fiction, that you've sold to buyers in Taiwan and mainland China, including The Kite Runner, The Piano Teacher and Shantaram. But since 2009 you've begun representing Chinese writers internationally. Why?

Gray Tan: I’ve always wanted to represent Chinese writers in foreign markets, but my reading had been largely in foreign literature. Acting as a sub-agent for foreign clients, either publishers or agencies, is a good chance for me to handle big projects, learn the trade, and establish my credentials so that eventually I can "switch sides.”

The credit for my breakthrough in representing Chinese writers goes to Zhang Ling in Toronto. I picked up her novel Mail Order Bride back in 2007 and immediately fell in love with it. It has all the elements I love in a novel: beautiful writing, an engaging plot full of twists and turns, and great characters. As a tale about emigrating, it’s set in both Canada and China and involves many non-Chinese characters. I felt it would be accessible and attractive to Western readers, especially in North America. I contacted Zhang, who graciously agreed to let me represent the book abroad. I even got a translator interested in doing an English excerpt, but I was so inexperienced I miscalculated the length necessary for submission, and the cost was so astronomical that neither Zhang nor I could afford it. I had to call it quits.

Two years later, I walked into a big Beijing bookstore and saw copies of Zhang Ling's new novel, Gold Mountain Blues, piled high on the table. I bought one, devoured it, and absolutely loved it. I wrote to her again saying I wanted to represent it, then took it to the Frankfurt Book Fair a month later, and with the help of scouts and co-agents, managed to sell it in twelve countries—without an English excerpt—just based on reader's reports and word of mouth. You don't get that kind of opportunity every day and I took it as a sign that interest in Chinese literature from foreign publishers is high, and the time had come for me to seriously start representing Chinese authors.

Paper-Republic: Your stable of Chinese authors includes Zhang Ling (Gold Mountain Blues), Mai Jia (Decoded), Chi Zijian (Right Bank of the Argun) and Liu Zhenyun (My Name is Liu Zhenyun). What attracted you to their work?

Tan: Subjectively, I have to be absolutely in love with a book; objectively, it should appeal to overseas readers. While I care a lot for good writing and characterization, what matters more to me is a good tale that grips me and doesn't let go. I also look for a well-known foreign author/book as a point of comparison so that publishers can quickly position the book in their minds.

Zhang Ling's Gold Mountain Blues is the perfect blend of literary writing and brilliant storytelling, the subject matter is topical in the West (Chinese emigration), the format of a family saga is also an established genre, and many European countries are into big historical novels (such as Spain, Italy, and Germany).

Mai Jia's writing is amazing and the way he constructs his narrative is extremely smart. There's even a ‘Borgesque’ element there. Of his three novels I chose Decoded because it's the only full-length novel of the three (Covert Operation is composed of five linked stories, while The Message is like three novellas), and the story has an international espionage feeling to it. I was also attracted by the biographical story of a tragic genius.

Chi Zijian's Right Bank of the Argun is without doubt one of the most beautifully written and heartbreaking novels I've read. Oddly enough, its depiction of the Evenki reindeer-herding people—who are little known even in China—becomes something "universally exotic." To me this book appeals as a great novel in translation because it's about a way of life, a place and a people that is entirely unknown to me, like reading about the native peoples of Australia, America, or Japan. The story of love and death, and sacrifice and grief, captures the human condition in a way which I believe will move readers anywhere in the world.

Liu Zhenyun's My Name is Liu Yuejin is very funny, fast-paced and cinematic. I love the black humor and the twisting, circling narrative. It's also the most "urban" book of those I’ve mentioned. Many foreign publishers are interested in contemporary city life in China, and this book would be an ideal choice. It's about urban life in Beijing through the eyes of the underdog, and in a sense it is a classic David vs. Goliath story.

Paper-Republic: Ai Mi's Hawthorn Tree Forever was a fantastic commercial success from the very start. Within China, the novel's initial print run reportedly numbered a staggering 700,000 copies. More recently, Zhang Yimou began shooting the film. Then, within just ten days in April 2010, you managed to find buyers on three continents for this tragic Chinese-language love story set in the Cultural Revolution. Given her international reputation and the fact that she is based in the US and therefore has easy access to literary agents worldwide, why did she turn to you—a Taipei-based agency—to promote her novel Hawthorn Tree Forever as well?

Tan: Well, she didn't exactly come to me. I heard about the Zhang Yimou project early this year, and went back to read the book. Like hundreds of thousands of female readers, I cried my heart out at the end. I contacted Ai Mi, and she told me that translation rights were with People's Literature Publishing House. I wrote email, called, and eventually visited them in Beijing and persuaded them to let me handle this book.

By then it was very close to the London Book Fair and there was no way I could get a reader's report or an English excerpt in time. I did a one-page introduction and included it in my London rights list. A scout got word of it and reported this to her clients. Her Italian client, Rizzoli, immediately sent in an offer. That really kicked off the whole thing and made this officially our 'big' book for the fair (though attendance was way down due to the volcanic ash from Iceland). I spent a whole night working out a more detailed synopsis two days before the fair, and my translator put off everything he had on schedule and delivered a great English excerpt to me in a week.

Ai Mi writes only in Chinese and leads a rather reclusive life, never disclosing any personal information on the net. I don't think she ever tried to find literary agents in the US. I guess it was my enthusiasm that persuaded People's Literature to let me have a go. Also because I had already sold Gold Mountain Blues in many countries at the time so I had a ‘track record.’

The biggest advantage of being based in Taipei is having access to the most sophisticated publishing and the widest selection of books in the Chinese world. A lot of books either banned or censored in China are available in Taiwan, and it's very easy to buy simplified Chinese editions too. I am different from most other agents of Chinese authors in that I'm a native Chinese speaker who also has experience in handling international bestsellers. My understanding and appreciation of Chinese novels is probably very different from a non-native reader. I don’t need to rely on reader's reports to find books; I can always read the Chinese original myself.

Paper-Republic: You attend major book fairs including the London Book Fair, BEA, Taipei International Book Exhibition, Beijing Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fair. Over the last year, which of these fairs has been most productive for you, and why? Will you attend any international fairs in 2010-11 that you did not attend in 2009? What about publishing events in markets such as the Middle East, Africa and South America?

Tan: Frankfurt is definitely the biggest and there are more opportunities to connect with new people. But it is also ‘Eurocentric’, and English-language publishers, especially those from the US, prefer London as there's no language barrier. London is a great chance to meet with UK editors, and UK is a bigger market than the US for Chinese books. I went to the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico at the end of 2009 as a part of the inaugural FIL Rights Exchange program and it was an eye-opening experience. I'm hoping to attend the Buenos Aires Book Fair someday.

As for the three markets you mention, I don't see big demand for Chinese writing coming from them, largely because of the way rights sales work. Africa is often included in the UK/Commonwealth English language deal, while the former French colonies are included in the global French language deals. We are still basically dealing with publishers based in the UK and France. Same thing for South America: all the major Spanish-language publishers are based in Spain (Planeta, Santillana, Random House Mondadori) and have branches throughout Latin America, usually in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. These branches may have some autonomy, but very often acquisition, especially of foreign titles, is still done from the headquarters.

Paper-Republic: In the past, you worked as a translator, bookseller, reviewer and editor for several Taiwan publishers. I assume that you were mainly working from English into Chinese, and targeting the tastes of the Taiwanese reader. Now that you are marketing Chinese books for overseas readers—thus going in the opposite direction—how do you assess whether a Chinese best-seller will also appeal to readers in other societies?

Tan: I began as a sub-agent for foreign clients, and spent more than five years selling foreign titles to Chinese publishers in Taiwan and China, many of them bestsellers originally, and not only from English, but languages as diverse as Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Icelandic, Hebrew, and Turkish. So I've had many opportunities to study how international bestsellers work, and which genre is popular in which countries. I must react to a book very strongly before thinking about how to sell it, but sometimes I'm thinking about both when reading a book. I also like to have a book (or film) I can use as a point of comparison because that enables me to create a solid pitch.

Paper-Republic: All your high-profile Chinese writers live in or grew up in mainland China. Does that mean that Taiwan is a less than fertile ‘supply market’ for you?

Tan: It's a well-known fact that Taiwanese writers excel at essays and poetry, and more experimental fiction, often in the short story form. I like to say that storytellers in Taiwan write essays, not fiction; those who write fiction, write short stories instead of novels; those who write novels, are more interested in language and style, rather than telling stories. I'm a fiction person and basically read only novels and nothing else, so that's the genre I'm most familiar with and want to focus on. I've been reading lots of novels from Taiwan and Hong Kong as well, so hopefully I'll find something I love that will work internationally. But at this point there are far more novelists in China who are active and whose work has stronger appeal to foreign publishers. [end]