Stories Across Language & Culture with Amanda "Miss Panda" Hsiung-Blodgett

Do you ever wonder why book reviews are so important for authors? That's the question we get to grips with in this episode, and I must say, the answer might astound you. Not only do we shed light on the crucial role of both written and video reviews, but we also explore the most suitable platforms for leaving them. Our expert guest, Amanda Hsuing Blodgett, author of the delightful children's book 'Little Bun,' joins us to illuminate the significance of having young readers interact with multiple languages. 

Now, have you ever been curious about the nitty-gritty that goes into publishing a children's picture book? We dig into this complex process, discussing elements such as book trim size, page count, and even the inclusion of illustrations. We pull away the veil on the standard sizes of children's books, how to measure them, and where to find their sizes online. Amanda assists us in understanding the 32-page layout of picture books and why adhering to traditional writing and publishing guide rails is so crucial. 

Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett, the founder of Miss Panda Chinese. I am Netflix Word Party Chinese language consultant for its dual-language seasons. Other publications include “First Mandarin Sounds: An Awesome Chinese Word Book.” I'm the host of the Playful Chinese podcast. I've worked and taught on four continents. 
My mission is to make acquire the Chinese language simple and joyful for children and learners of all ages. 

Find Amanda’s books here: 
Amazon - eBook • Paperback • Hardcover   https://a.co/d/90ezZJ
BN - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/little-bun-amanda-hsiung-blodgett/1142550663

Connect with Amanda Hsuing-Blodgett here:
Website:  https://www.misspandachinese.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/misspandachinese
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/miss_panda_chinese/
Twitter:   https://twitter.com/MissPandaChines/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20884739.Amanda_Hsiung_Blodgett

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome back everyone to the Writers Parachute. We are guiding author and writer dreams to a perfect landing. Today we have with us another very special guest. We have with us Amanda Schoon Blodgett. We're gonna talk to her about her book Little Bun, a bilingual story about feelings, but of course, we always have the housekeeping to get out of the way first. So we would love for you to go ahead and hit that subscribe button, that subscribe to the Writers Parachute, either here on YouTube or whatever podcast channel you're listening to us on. That does help us with the algorithms so that other people can find us. Also, we'd love for you to hit that like and share button. Go ahead and send it to your favorite friends, anybody that you know that would like information here on the Writers Parachute. Also, you can follow us on the Writers Parachute on Facebook, instagram, twitter, tiktok and now on threads at Writers Parachute. That is Writers Parachute without an S. Also, we have our website, thewritersperachutecom, to get updates on any of the information that you would like. Of course, we also now have. If you would like to get new episodes in your inbox every week, you can go sign up for our newsletter at sendfoxcom. Slash the Writers Parachute. Of course, we'll have all of these links and many, many more that we'll discuss throughout the show in the show notes for you to go check those out. So we're gonna start the top of the show, as always, with our topic of the week.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Here on season two, we have been talking about reviews. We have talked reviews to death, but it's worth mentioning over and over again. Reviews are very critical and important to all authors in all books. So this time we're gonna talk about the different kinds and types and formats about reviews. So not how you write a review, not what's contained in the review, but how you would actually do a review. There are written reviews, there are video reviews and there are star ratings. You can do any of the three or a combination of those. If you would like to write a review, you can certainly do that. You can go to wherever you purchase the book and leave a review. Usually, if you're on Amazon, you would go through your receipt and write the review. That way you become a verified purchaser. If you cannot recall where you purchased the book, you can always go to Goodreadscom, find the book and leave a review there. Also we wanna mention we've kind of forgot here in season two, but there's so many places, which is great. Bookbub is another source that you can go on and find books and authors. You can follow the authors there. You can also leave reviews. Again, both of them will allow written reviews and or video reviews. So if you're not good at writing, you carry this little handy-dandy computer around in your pocket. Go ahead and record a video about what you thought of the book.

Speaker 1: 3:03

Reviews don't have to be complicated. They can be simply I like this book. I didn't like this book. I recommend this book to this person, this group, this age, whatever it is you want to say. Just make sure you do that. They are so important. It's one of the few ways that authors get feedback from the readers. So the next time you read a great book, go ahead and remember to leave a review. If you missed it, last week we talked about creating a review habit to remind yourself to write those reviews. So go check that out.

Speaker 1: 3:37

And now we want to get back to our guests. We have with us Amanda Shun Blodgett, and she is also known as Ms Panda. She is a children's author, intercultural language consultant and language teacher and trainer. Amanda Blodgett is the founder of Ms Panda Chinese. She has a Netflix word party Chinese language consultant for a dual language season. Her other publications include the First Mandarin Sounds and Awesome Chinese Wordbook, and she's the host of Playful Chinese Podcast, where she has worked and taught on four continents. Her mission is to make the acquisition of the Chinese language simple and joyful for children and learners of all ages. You can reach out to her through LinkedIn and we'll have that link for her in the show notes. Welcome to the Writer's Parachute, amanda. How are you today?

Speaker 2: 4:37

Here's so much, Donna. Always wonderful, it's just being such an honor to be on your show and then to hear all about your important work and how you share a lot of it very important knowledge with the authors. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Oh, you're very welcome, and this is such a passion for me. I think everybody can do anything that they aspire to, as long as they have the right knowledge, and I don't think that knowledge should be spared or held back. So I'm all about sharing what I know. I'm not the be all, end, all of all knowledge, but at least I can point you in the right direction.

Speaker 2: 5:19

I'm grateful for that. I didn't know. All the listeners feel the same way.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Well, thank you, I really hope so and, like I said, it's more of a passion project for me and I so enjoy it. Plus, I get to read more books and talk to more authors and learn even more as I go along, so it's a win-win all the way around. So your book features a dual language skills and I wanna know why you think it's important to immerse young readers in multiple languages.

Speaker 2: 5:49

Wow. We live in such big world but actually because of technology, the world is getting smaller and smaller. So immerse children in multiple languages actually is a way to help them to expand their world and their worldview and also connect with people within the community and also people around them. So we see a lot of children. They might speak another language at home or children are exposed to different languages as school or as a world language. So having these kind of a bilingual, multilingual resources and books for them that really helped them to solidate their worldview and to see if there are different and interesting things around them. The most important thing, it can inspire curiosity and help them to grow empathy.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Right and I agree with that, and I know this wasn't the one of the questions that we talked about, but I'm gonna throw it in there anywhere it's like. I mean, I have felt for many years that we probably needed to expand language learning in schools into younger classes. Typically, people don't learn languages until they get in the upper grade levels and I think sometimes that's almost a harder transition, whereas while they're learning English, even though they speak English or whatever language they're speaking, it is still much easier at that transition stage to learn these other languages and language skills before it becomes almost like set and ingrained, and because I feel like kids that learn as young languages, like it's just easy flow transitioning from one to the other. When you get older, it's almost like you have to think it in English and then translate it in your head before you can say it or write it, which is honestly the most difficult way to speak multiple languages. So what are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: 8:02

I agree. I think for little kids, when they learn a new language they have no fear. Let's say that I think most things, the most important thing, is a lot of time for older kids or for adults to learn languages. We have such fear because we are afraid to make mistakes. But for little children, if we look back, you know, for the first language acquisition they take the whole year just to listen and finally produce the first word and we were celebrating, we're so excited.

Speaker 2: 8:36

But then when you take kids to go to a language class, then we say now speak. But maybe they have only learned for a few hours. I said the easier, you know, when they're younger it's easier, it's simpler. And then even though we say, well, kids are like sponges, but we need to provide them that kind of source of water so they can absorb. So I also agree that learning a language at a younger age or any age, it's more like a brain workout because you actually your brain needs to work. So I will love to see younger kids can be exposed to different languages and to help them to hear the sound. So later on it's easier for them to retrieve that information, that sound, when they go into a formal learning.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Right and, as I said, as a former reading specialist, I do know that children who speak or are aware of multiple languages or exposed multiple languages, also read very well, because a lot of the words, even as English language words, are derived from many other languages and that makes it difficult for the understanding of pronunciation of those words. But if you're exposed to many languages then that is almost an obvious thing to that reader and it makes it much easier for them to be exposed to larger words and harder consonant sounds that a lot of readers struggle with. So do you find that that that to be true as well?

Speaker 2: 10:12

Yes, it's so interesting. Usually when you learn the second language and then the third language seems easier, and when you talk about the homophones, they sound very similar. For example, we hear a lot of Chinese words in English words as well, For example tofu actually, how do we say that in Mandarin Doufu sound very similar or is it like kung fu, Then in Mandarin is kung fu.

Speaker 2: 10:46

You feel like to play bowling and that's bowling. So actually you already know a lot of Mandarin words, but we just never make the connection. So how nice if we can give them something. They can connect those languages and say, wow, I'm amazed. Actually, I live in a place I can hear a lot of different languages and I know the meaning of those languages.

Speaker 1: 11:09

Right, and I think it's more important now because the world is becoming more diverse in not only culture and language, but in just things that we see. I can imagine 10 or 15 years ago I didn't see very many signboards or any kind of business items that had different languages, but now it's very common and you don't even think about it After a while, you just know what it says. But again, it's kind of through repetition You've seen it so much and they give you the English, they give you the Chinese, they give you the Spanish and you're just like, oh, I know what that means. So, and I think it's kind of the same way and I do love that, the language does really help connect readers to reading, which is kind of what I'm all about. So I'm excited to have you here today. So I want to know what the actual inspiration was for this book. Little Bun, a bilingual story about feelings.

Speaker 2: 12:12

Yes, little Bun actually was inspired by my daughter and how she embraces our big moves, international moves, how she embraces her new school, the changing of school, the meeting new friends, making new friends and also the cultures we have at home we are a bicultural family and then how she embraces her heritage, language, amanda and Chinese. So all of that inspired the writing of this book. And I also want to mention, because she loves to write and she loves animals, so she is actually the illustrator for this book and she's a co-author as well.

Speaker 1: 12:58

Wow, that's very impressive. We love children's authors as well, and I do mean an author that is a child rather than an adult writing a children's book. So that's amazing. So what's that you hope that readers will glean from reading your book, little Bun?

Speaker 2: 13:18

Little Bun. The title is Little Bun, a bilingual story book about feelings. So this book is for young readers, for parents, for caregivers, to help children to read the book, follow Little Bun and then to see what he does when he encounters big feelings and also what he says. And then it's almost like you follow the adventure of Little Bun through the big feelings and then ask the little kids what do you do when you are happy? What do you do when you are sad? Can you tell me?

Speaker 2: 13:58

I think that is just the hardest thing. Sometimes we all have big feelings but sometimes it's so hard to say. But our behavior reflects that. So little babies cannot talk. That's why it is so hard to see. Are they? Are they? Do they have a change of diaper or do they need to have more milk, or something is not wrong, or they are giggling. Why are they giggling? Something must trigger that happiness. So I want Little Bun to be a guide, that little kids, a little story, find simple words, simple sentences in two languages Mandarin and English and they can feel brave, and to talk about their feelings and tell people they need help and it's okay.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Alright, absolutely loved it and I think it's just beautifully illustrated. I'm shocked to find out that your daughter did that illustration work. It's absolutely beautiful. I love the fact that you do include English and Mandarin Chinese as part of it, because I think that is a learning skill so that they can learn the simple language that you're including in the book in a second language, which also makes it accessible for in the reverse. We have you know Mandarin speaking children wanting to learn English, or, you know, occasionally we will have you know people in a home that one only speaks English and one only speaks Mandarin, and we've got this together in a book which I think is just brilliant, and not to mention just the basis of the book.

Speaker 1: 15:37

And talking to kids about feelings I think it's one of the subjects that we avoid when talking to kids is why do we have these feelings? How do we deal with these feelings? How do you choose which feeling to have? You know, is it okay to feel this way? Should we not feel that way or should we feel a certain way when things happen? And sometimes, especially as a child and even as adults, sometimes the emotions are just so big you don't know how to name them and I think that that is a good start for little kids to kind of have a basis in understanding that you know emotions are emotions, feelings are feelings and it's okay which I think is amazing in and of itself without anything else that you added in there, but adding in the language factor to it and the beautiful illustrations, I think this is just a brilliant book and I would highly recommend it to anyone that has a young reader and I haven't said them down and talked to them about feelings, said them down and talked to them about bilingual language books and learning multi-languages, so I think that's an excellent starting point for any young reader to get them going.

Speaker 1: 16:52

So if you could go all the way back to the beginning, when this book was just a little teeny idea in your head, what do you wish you had known? Or that somebody had told you about writing and publishing a bilingual book? Wow.

Speaker 2: 17:07

That's such a small question, but it's so big. Well, this is my second book, so I thought my first start is like oh, this is great, we're going to do this, we are on top of this. Then I was like, as we're going, it's like because this is a different format and this is more like a picture book, and my first book is a word book, so it's a little bit different. And then we try to change the size. So when you change one thing, everything changes.

Speaker 2: 17:41

So I wish I had somebody guided me through the formatting, the trimming, and when you go printing there'll be something else. So I definitely think it will be really good to kind of have a plan for all the logistics. Then it becomes like your story becomes almost like secondary. You know it's very important, but you want to have the book published. There's certain format and then some dimension, certain things you need to take care of. I think that should be planned ahead of time and it's better to have somebody who really knows about your book and the size to help you guide you through that, or it'll be headache as you walk in on the path.

Speaker 1: 18:32

Yes, Well, and that's what I say, and I do a lot of coaching with authors to try and get them through the publishing process, and one of the things they're always surprised that I say is you should always pick your trim size or the size of your book. And so what we're talking about is the dimensions of your book. You know how far it is from the spine to the, to the front edge of the book, how tall is the book? So you want to know what that is. And then, secondary, you need to have some idea of either a word count or a page count. And then the third thing is whether or not you're going to have illustrations. And then, of course, if the answer is yes, how many illustrations? Now, those are all technical aspects and they don't necessarily have to be addressed before you write the story, but they are going to be the first thing you need to know after you have the story written, because it's going to affect everything else, is going to affect where the text of the story falls, where the illustrations are going to fall, and all of that becomes a very technical aspect. So, again, even if you don't have a choice, you know, if you're not absolutely sure, have some choices.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Like you know, children's books are kind of all over the map with sizing, and the reason for that is because young readers are not as dexterous in holding a book and turning the pages at the same time. It's why they're generally oversized. There are some standard sizes, but what I would say is, if you're thinking about writing a children's book or you're working on a children's book, go to a bookstore. You know, take your tape measure or ruler, measure some books. You know. Look at the different sizes, see what size you like, what you think is common for. You know, whatever topic or subject you're writing about, if you can't get to a bookstore, you can go on Amazon. If you scroll down right before the reviews, right before the reviews, you can see the product details. It actually gives you the size of the book and you can see common sizes and themes coming up in children's books.

Speaker 1: 20:43

So have some idea of that and I think that right there will help you kind of bridge that gap, because the problem does come in and where you think, oh well, I'd like to have this size, but then you realize, oh wait, I have to use premium color with that. Plus there's an up charge because they have to recalibrate the machine because it's an odd size. And, oh, does it fit on a shelf? Well, some shelves, but not all shelves. Are they going to have to set it sideways on the shelf? Yeah, so go to the bookstore, go look at what is available, how they fit on the shelf, how they may stick out or not, stick out from the other books, and then make your decision. I think that's always a wise choice and you're absolutely right, it can affect everything. But, as I always say, even if you get it completely wrong, it's not the end of the world. You can always go back and fix it.

Speaker 2: 21:44

Yes, juan, you just said a shared is so invaluable, and you also mentioned about the how many pages. That's what I learned the first time and that was also extremely important. And, combining all the information, it sounds like we're not talking about the story, the writing of the story, but all of these how you produce the book, and that was very important information.

Speaker 1: 22:11

Right, it's all the technical aspects of Formatic and publishing your book and, for, for general information, most picture books, which basically what that means is there's equal weight to the words and the pictures in the story, meaning the text and the illustrations of the story, although they do need to be able to stand alone. So if the text is removed, you still should be able to get a sense of the story from the illustrations. If the illustrations are removed, you still understand what the story is about. Those are generally done in what they call a 32 page layout, which means at the beginning, the story part of your book should cover about 32 pages, and then you have about approximately eight pages beyond that to do your front and back matters, such as your title page or publication page and a kind of dedication page about the author page. Come, follow me and, and you know, call me for this, that or the other thing. You know I mean it's not set in stone, as I like to say.

Speaker 1: 23:17

There are no rules about writing and publishing. There are only guidelines and guide rails which you need to listen to. Yes, you can go over the railing, but you better have a good reason for doing it. So, but but for the most part. You know, as long as you're writing a children's picture book, as long as this is stories contained within 32 pages approximately it could be a little over, a little under, but that your total overall page count, from between the covers, not including the cover, is no more than 40 pages. You should be just about perfect.

Speaker 1: 23:53

And you know, as far as the word counts, typically picture books are 1000 words or less, with the sweet spots coming somewhere in around 650 to 700 words, and it could be a little bit more, it could be a little bit less, you know, and I've seen people do picture books that go up to 1400 words, although I would not strongly suggest that, but you know it is possible. Again, like I said, you can go over the side, just have a good reason for it. All right. So what do you hope that readers are going to get? Are or going to say about your book, little bun, a bilingual story about feelings in like 10 to 20 years from now. Do you think this is going to be the normal way we do books, or you think this is still going to be an outlier?

Speaker 2: 24:42

Yeah, I think we talk about feelings now. We talk about feelings before. I believe we'll talk about feelings even more in the future. I want the readers to have read a book now and in 10 to 20 years I want to read this book to my child. I want to read this book, you know, to someone special because it is important. It helped me to talk about my feelings and I don't feel awkward.

Speaker 2: 25:07

I feel it's okay to ask for help, or because a little bun is a well-known Chinese dish. It's like the dumpling, but it's steamed with a savory or sweet feelings inside. So maybe they would like to make some food, some special dish. They are comfort food. They want to make it for the special little one and they want to, at the same time, share this book with their special little one and to talk about it. How do you feel when you eat this thing my mom made or grandma made? How do you feel why you feel this way? Does it make you happy or does it make you miss somebody? I want this book to be able to let people feel this is something they can hold on to, can pass on to the next child.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Well, I agree with you. I think sometimes when we don't deal with our feelings as young children, they come out in very unusual ways when we're adults. So I agree with you there. But I also wanted to ask you about the formatting, about doing it in a bilingual way. Do you think this is going to be more common going forward, in, say, 10 to 20 years, or do we think it's still going to be an unusual aspect for children's books?

Speaker 2: 26:23

Oh, that is such a beautiful question. We do see a lot of bilingual books. A lot of times they're not really textbook oriented but more like to teach the language per se. I believe, the story format, the storytelling format. I believe we're going to see more of that, and then not just all language.

Speaker 2: 26:48

English was another language combination, because we are already kind of seeing that and actually like we can see that in apps and some books, that you can see different kind of language combination in one book title. I think that is important because that will help kids to make connections with another culture, with another language. And more importantly, I think, is that when we read a book together, what make the story more interesting? So, if all kids can read English here in the US and then somebody can also read it in Chinese and they can share that book with their friends, and that's very important. So if you eat empanadas, then you can say, oh, I also eat this thing. And then, oh, how do you do that? How do you eat that? How do you prepare that? So Little Bun can spark a curiosity. What is Little Bun? Oh, little Bun actually is a Chinese food my grandma makes at home and maybe you should come over and try it one time. You know, let's read a story together, like we can read in English together. How about let me read a few sentences for you in Mandarin?

Speaker 2: 28:08

I think a lot of times when kids are exposed to a different language, that also helps them to understand the other person. Why? Because then you understand why sometimes some people, when they speak a language, they make mistakes in English because that's how that language constructs and they need to use a big brainpower to speak English, for example. So why is it a way to help kids, to develop empathy, to let them understand why sometimes people forget to add an S, you know in the third singular, you know situation person or you know plural and to add this because in that their native language, they don't have that Right Interesting. Why is that? Language is about thinking, it's about culture. So if we can just spark a little curiosity, I think we can go a long way.

Speaker 1: 29:03

Absolutely I agree with you and I think it also helps create a better community, because when we understand how each culture and language interconnects and stands separately from what we know and understand, then we can accept and understand the people in that culture. And we do have, you know, situations in this country where you know there are cultural dividing lines and we need to try and blur those. In what better way than to have you know the kids learn about each other so that there doesn't seem to be a distinction between yes, and I think they also probably get closer to their friends, even to their own heritage culture.

Speaker 2: 29:57

Is that okay?

Speaker 1: 29:58

if I share a story, no, go right ahead.

Speaker 2: 30:03

When I lived in Hawaii. Well, we want to send our you know all the positive things to our friends in Hawaii. I used to live in Hawaii for a little while and at that time my kids were little. So I would bring the Mandarin program into my children's elementary school and one year doing the loan, a new year, we decided to do a celebration. We want to make dumplings. So there were like over 100 students and the teachers are so wonderful and they say maybe we should invite families as well. We say sure, it was incredible. We have almost 150, almost 180 people come in the big school cafeteria. One grandmother I think they're the third generation or fourth generation Japanese, american, chinese, american kind of mixed family she said my grandchild never want to touch the dumpling I made at home. This is the first time I saw him trying it. He came to me, said this is actually very good, grandma.

Speaker 1: 31:10

Well, yeah, I think sometimes you know, you know as difficult it is for you know people who are, you know, just born Americans only speak English, and for them to understand children from families that speak other language, or maybe from other countries, I think also for that child they feel like they need to obscure or downplay that culture and that language, almost to fit in. So I agree that this is an excellent way for them to make a connection and to kind of erase that distinction and that need to hide being different. I think it's a way to celebrate our differences rather than to kind of point to them as a problem.

Speaker 2: 31:59

Is to celebrate together and taste more yummy food.

Speaker 1: 32:03

Absolutely. You know people ask me and they're like well, what kind of food do you like? I'm like all of it all of it.

Speaker 1: 32:12

I'm with you. Bring me food, bring me lots of it, and I will be a happy person. And it's like I always find it so interesting to just mix and match and find out like we know all the different flavors and it's just just the different ways basic food are prepared. It's just amazing to me how you know the same simple ingredients. You know egg, flour and water can be put together in every culture in a different way. So I do too. All right, so what was the biggest challenge for you in writing and publishing your book?

Speaker 2: 32:56

I think for this one, the challenge of what I said earlier about the dimension it was probably about how I took when I was writing the story with my daughter was fear, because how I deliver this, is this going to deliver the meaning, what I really want to deliver to the children, readers, in both languages. I think fear is probably the biggest challenge and I believe this is probably a big one, but this is so important. I think because of fear I also kind of helped me to move forward, because I have a co-author, I have an illustrator who is very important and that I want to show her this is possible. So, as Zed said, even though there's fear, I also see possibilities. So I have to move forward to publish this book.

Speaker 1: 33:57

Right, and what you mentioned here is pretty common. I mean, even I have these feelings of imposter. It's like we talk about the enough. Am I good enough, smart enough, fast enough, clear enough? Whatever it's the enough, it's all under the imposter syndrome because we worry about how it's going to be received and whether people are going to laugh. Because, let's be honest about it, it's like when you're writing a book, you are literally opening up your soul and handing it to people to shred to pieces, and it's really hard to do that, which is why most people don't end up publishing books. Out of all the people who want to write a book, there's only a certain percentage of them that actually do. There's only a certain percentage of actual feminist, and then there's only a very small percentage that actually publish exactly for this reason.

Speaker 1: 34:52

And so what I say to that is and I'm glad you said you did push through because you had more important thoughts is, oftentimes, when we're feeling these feelings, it's because we are succeeding.

Speaker 1: 35:06

Because, let's face it, if we were failing, I don't think our internal critics and our internal self doubt would come forward. It would just kind of let us merely go along and make mistake after mistake, because it knows we're not succeeding. It's only in those moments when you are actually succeeding, when you are doing something, when you are pursuing you know your goals and dreams, that those critics are going to come forward, and I think they're challenging you to see if you're serious or not, if you really have the passion to see it through. So I'm always here to celebrate with those who struggle with that and make it to the other side, because that is proof that you had the passion and, as we can tell, you certainly have the readers and it's being well received. So Bravo, thank you, you're very welcome. So I want to know what advice would you give to other authors and writers who want to offer their books in multiple languages?

Speaker 2: 36:06

The most important thing is that focus on your book, the story in your first language and so the language you're writing right now. When you're done with that, make sure you have a person, not just bilingual but can also, by cultural, understand the language, understand the culture, to do the translation of your book. And if you're writing a children's book, you need somebody who's really familiar with the children's literature. And if you're writing for older children, then you need somebody who also read that kind of you know a genre. And then, last but not least, you would like to have a master reviewer or consultant to read your book in both languages and to make sure can give you very solid feedback.

Speaker 1: 36:58

Right, and so we sort of talked about this a little bit in the green room and I want to start this off with telling you absolutely do not go to Google translate to translate your book into another language. It's not going to work. It's going to bring you a world of problems. Don't go there. Don't start there. I mean it's.

Speaker 1: 37:17

It's fine when you're trying to translate that some things written and you need to read it, or if you're just doing common language, but for a written book that's going to be published and out of the world for your lifetime and beyond, get it right. Get it right the first time you know. Go to someone who is a licensed language translator that understands the culture understands the culture not only of the language that you're doing, but the culture of that kind of story in that country and always ask for an interpreter or a translator in the country of origin you want to go to, not in the language we were talking about this. There's so many dialects of Spanish, there's so many dialects of Chinese and other languages out there. It's like so make sure you're saying I want to translate this for China or for Taiwan or for Vietnam or something of this nature, so you're making sure you're getting the right translator. Now you yourself said that you do not do translations, but that you are a review consultant. Is that correct? You want to go ahead and talk about that?

Speaker 2: 38:35

Thank you, yeah, so basically what I've been doing is I do do master review, which means that people have the contacts or book translated and then I will review the book in both languages and to make sure everything's correct. It's translate correctly. If there's any culture situation, I'll give feedback, I'll point out the problem and why. So that will give them an insight to work forward, to move forward with the project. And the other thing is I also should I recommend that if people are interested in finding multi lingual or you know translators, there's an American translators association in the US and then that's a good place to start. American translators Association. I used to be a member and then the members there. They're seriously with their work and they're proud of their work, because that's where you start and they are different languages, so so you will be able to find people who can work with you. That's so where you can start.

Speaker 1: 39:38

Yes, that is a valuable resource. Thank you for sharing that with us and we will have a link to that in the show notes for you as well, as we'll have a link if you want to reach out to Amanda about consulting. After you've had it translated, I'm not sure. Do you do all languages or they're just certain languages that you, that you do this review?

Speaker 2: 40:02

Right now I do reviewing in the bilingual books like English and Mandarin Chinese.

Speaker 1: 40:07

English and Chinese yes, so just English and Chinese languages, right, okay, alright, just want to make sure we're not sending you. Somebody is trying to translate it into Spanish or something like that. Alright, alright. So what keeps you motivated?

Speaker 2: 40:23

To share the joy of reading together with kids, to share with kids the amazing world of languages and cultures, because, as we are going into the next generation and then the AI world, people connections are actually even more important. To hold a book, to read a book, to tell a story, to connect with children and help them to understand others in a different language or both language or three, four, five, multilingual. I think that's a great way to bring joy to people and get us closer, not further, with each other.

Speaker 1: 41:05

I absolutely agree and I'm so excited. So what's next?

Speaker 2: 41:11

I am working on a project in my third book project. That's my first Chinese sentences. There are many stories, also bilingual, so kids can use simple words and simple sentences to tell funny stories. That is what I'm working on right now.

Speaker 1: 41:34

We're very excited. Any estimation on a release date? Should we be looking for that in 2023 or 2024?

Speaker 2: 41:42

2024 for the book, one for this series.

Speaker 1: 41:45

Okay, great, we'll be looking forward to that. Of course, we'll want to have you come back on and talk about that book when it's available. So here on season two, we've been focusing on reviews, so I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you to give us a review of Little Bun, a bilingual story about feelings.

Speaker 2: 42:04

Wow, little Bun. A bilingual story, a bilingual book about feelings is a book that helped kids to develop social, emotional learning with not just words but expressions and sentences, and understand. It's okay to ask for help when they have big feelings.

Speaker 1: 42:30

Awesome. I love it. Five star review there. So the reason we're doing that, the reason we're putting our guests on the spot to get them to write a review is number one. It's not easy to write a review about your own personal book. It's like writing a review about your style. How do you do that? But we're also doing that and they're succeeding in showing you how easy it is to write a review. If they can write a review about something so very personal to them, then you can write a book about one that you read. We've talked about this endlessly here on season two.

Speaker 1: 43:05

We want to encourage you anytime you read a book, whether you like it, whether you don't like it, whether you want to recommend it to someone else please, please, please, leave a review. You can leave a review where you purchased the book. If you cannot remember where you purchased the book or you receive the book for free, you can always go to Goodreadscom, find the book and leave a review. You can also go to bookbub, finding me, either the author or the book, and leave a review there. Also, you can leave reviews on social media as a recommendation for that book. You can also reach out to the author. I'm sure they would be more than happy to hear from you. And of course, we want you to tag an author anytime you put that out on social media. We always list that information for you in the show notes if you read one of the books that we brought to you here, so that you can tag the author and do reach out to the author. This is one of the few ways that they do get feedback on their books and they so appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 44:03

And of course, you can always go try and leave a review on Amazon. They do not require you to have purchased the book. You did get higher ranking for a verified purchaser, which means somebody who did purchase the book from Amazon. One of the few caveats that they do have on Amazon for a book review is that you must have spent at least $50 on products from Amazon within the last 12 months. So if you've reached that plateau, then you should be able to review the book. But if you're concerned, please go to the community guidelines that they have on Amazon and it will give you all the rules and guidelines for leaving reviews, and that applies to not only books but all products on Amazon. But, as I said, don't forget Goodreads, don't forget some of the other retailers, such as Barnes, noble, apple Books, kobo Books, walmart, target. There are so many different other retailers, and don't forget your small press and independent bookstores that they will also allow you to leave reviews for them there. So where can listeners find your book?

Speaker 2: 45:15

Yeah, I do have an author page on Amazon and my books can be found on Amazon and also Barnes, noble, I believe, other places, I think on Walmart. And one more thing is I want to support local indie bookstores. So shopbooksorg also sell my book so you can search for that, and then I definitely want to see the bookstores maintain. So we would like to definitely support our local bookstores and indie bookstores.

Speaker 1: 45:51

Okay, well, it looks like Amanda's books are available worldwide. So if you can shop independent bookstores, we do appreciate that. You can go to your independent bookstore. If they do not have it on the shop, you can ask for them to order it for you, and I'm sure Amanda would appreciate that. Also, do you have signed book copies, if people want to order those?

Speaker 2: 46:15

Yes, if they are interested in a signed copy, they can come to my website and you can go to wwwmisspandachinesecom contact and just send you a message and let me know and I'll be glad to arrange that for you.

Speaker 1: 46:30

All right, awesome. Of course, we will have that link for you in the show and, as always, you're also active on social media, so what platforms can they follow you on?

Speaker 2: 46:40

Miss Panda Chinese on Facebook, instagram, youtube and Twitter X and Thread as well.

Speaker 1: 46:49

Yes, so most active on Facebook and Instagram, all right we will have links to all of those social media accounts for Amanda Miss Panda Chinese and let you connect up with her so you can follow her and see her progress. Do you have any upcoming events, giveaways, newsletters or anything else to download that you would like to share with our audience before we jump over to our tip of the week?

Speaker 2: 47:17

Yes, so in October it is going to be the bilingual child months, so I team up with Multicultural Children's Book Day, I'm going to have IG live and also we're going to have a panel talking about why bilingual books are important, and I would love to have you to join me and share your thoughts, and then I have other experts joining me to talk about bilingual children months and also why bilingual books are important.

Speaker 1: 47:49

Awesome. Well, we will actually go ahead and add that to our show news so you can link up with Amanda for that event. Was there anything else that you wanted to include? Before we jump over and talk about our tip of the week, we're going to talk about the kid lit community.

Speaker 2: 48:07

Donna, I want to thank you and I'm so grateful for what you do and your treasure trove of all the amazing knowledge and interviews and resources and support to the authors. So thank you so much for having me. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:23

Oh you're. You're very welcome and thank you for that. As I said, you know I gather information because I'm constantly seeking more information and I feel like it's it's a gift to share with the world. So I try to do that. But I do appreciate you thanking me for that.

Speaker 1: 48:39

So we're going to go ahead and talk about our tip of the week. So we're going to talk a little bit about the kid lit community and how important it is to children's authors. You know there are many ways to reach your audience, but one of the particular ways for children Books, for especially picture books to get out into the world is a connection to other children's books, especially picture books. Picture books are quick reads and generally when a kid reads one or two, they're going to want another one and another one and another one. So connecting up with other authors in the kid lit community and doing a blast about multiple books whether that's newsletters, whether that is in sales dates or something like that, or offering them in a package deal or doing giveaways or that sort of thing are always very helpful. I know that some authors feel like you're in competition with your other children's authors. I refute that. I think that our only competition is the space on that bookshelf and trying to get each other there. If I'm on that bookshelf and I recommend you, then you end up there. You can recommend somebody else. Same thing if you're there and I'm not there, recommend me. It is a cohesive thing that we can do together. We're not in competition with each other, we're just in competition with the, the open space on that bookshelf. So do remember that and try to reach out and help fellow authors. You know, rising boats rise together, so try to lift each other up.

Speaker 1: 50:17

And then the other thing I want to talk about is something that we talked about a little bit in the show is about the versus, the difference between simplicity and overwhelm. And what happens is, you know, we see this process of writing a book as a big, overwhelming project, and this happens with anything in life. We look at the big tapestry and think I could never do that. But if you break it down and look at it one thread at a time, and how it's woven together, then it becomes much simpler. It becomes little, tiny tasks and steps that you can certainly do. So the next time you're feeling overwhelmed, try and step back and look at just what you can do in the next 20 minutes or the next day. That's all you need to worry about. Eventually, you will get the tapestry done, you will have climbed the mountain, your book will be ready. So take that into consideration. Think about simplicity, stay away from the overwhelm. Again, it's just because you're seeing it as the finished product and not seeing all the steps and the progress you're making.

Speaker 1: 51:37

And the last thing I want to say is share your experience. That's what I do. It's one of my call signs is to say that if I learn something, I want to share it. Share it with other authors, share it with other people who want to write a book.

Speaker 1: 51:54

There is nothing more uplifting to book authors and writers than to see more books, more diverse books, more ideas, more thoughts. The more that we can put out there, the more that we can encourage and entice readers to read our books and therefore, if we're working together, we can recommend each other, which is highly, highly effective above so many other things in the marketing and promotion sphere. So just remember, share your experience, tell the world, let them know, let them see you, because when we do that, as my mother used to say, when you drag the monster out of the dark and you give it a name, he's not scary anymore. So drag that experience out of the daylight, give it a name and share it with the world. All right, that's all I have for this week.

Speaker 1: 52:49

Of course, there's always so much more we could talk about, and there's so much more we could talk about all the topics and subjects that we brought up in the show. Of course, if you would like to know more information in detail about any of the topics or subjects that we've covered in this episode of the Writers Parachute, please do reach out to us and leave us a note in the comments. You can reach out to us at info at Writers Parachutecom, or you can leave a comment with one of the podcast shows what you're watching on. So just let us know and we'll be happy to get back to you. Of course, I'm always so thankful to our guests and I want to thank Amanda for being here today and, as always, I'm so thankful and grateful to be the host here on the Writers Parachute, guiding author and writer dreams to a perfect landing, and I hope that you find this as a safe space for your dreams to land well too. Until next time. Bye everyone.

Speaker 2: 53:43

Thank you.