Summary

The Asian American Book Club welcomes diverse, creative, and insightful writing focused on Asian American literature, with a preference for unique perspectives and engagement with the community.

Abstract

The Asian American Book Club is a platform that encourages submissions of generative, interesting, and educational writing related to Asian American literature, particularly from those who can provide a unique take or personal insight. Contributors are invited to explore a wide range of topics, including underappreciated books, personal experiences with literature, and the dynamics of the publishing industry. The club embraces a broad definition of Asian American identity, including transnational perspectives and works in translation. While professional writing standards are expected, one does not need to be a professional critic to contribute. The submission process involves following the publication, signing up as a writer, engaging with the community, and sharing a draft link for review before publishing. Accepted pieces may be boosted across Medium.com, and writers can join the Medium Partner Program for potential earnings based on views.

Opinions

The club values creative and insightful writing over AI-generated content.
Contributors are encouraged to share personal connections to Asian American literature.
The platform is inclusive, welcoming essays, book reviews, commentary, and lists from a diverse range of authors and perspectives.
There is an emphasis on the importance of spelling, grammar, and formatting in submissions.
The curator emphasizes the significance of the writer's unique qualifications or background when writing about Asian American literature.
Response times may vary due to the curator's other commitments, and detailed feedback may not always be provided.
Engagement with the community, such as commenting on published stories, is highly regarded.
The club's definition of Asian American literature is expansive, encompassing diasporic and transnational narratives.
The submission process is designed to maintain Medium's quality standards and to facilitate the boosting of high-quality content.
Writers are encouraged to be patient and persistent with their submissions, as the club receives contributions from many great writers.

Best Practices for submitting to Asian American Book Club

Welcome to Asian American Book Club, where you can settle in with a glass of wine and talk books, books, books but on your own schedule.

What kind of writing is invited? Almost anything as long as it’s generative, interesting, provocative, educational. In other words, no AI generated book reports. Excellent, creative, insightful writing is where it starts. Serious subjects are great, so is humor. Something on the dishy side is great too, especially if you know something a lot of people don’t. We have Asian American authors, professional book critics, but what’s your unique take? The place to try out your creativity — essays, book reviews, commentary, lists — is here!

Anything goes at Asian American Book Club, as long as it focuses on Asian American (women’s) literature. What does that mean? Tell me about a “forgotten” or “underappreciated” AAPI book. What book helped you first see yourself? Are you an author? What issues have you faced in a white woman dominated industry? Tell me the five best AAPI woman-authored books for Valentine’s Day, for a marriage, for a divorce, for coming of age. What book do you wish someone would write? Were you traumatized by The Five Chinese Brothers? What does AAPI women’s lit look like in sci-fi? Do you want to interview an author? Are there good books to read when you travel to special places in Asia? The possibilities are endless. It’s a conversation!

Asian American is a loose term for diasporic Asians and as such includes transnational literature (e.g., Asian Americans writing about Asia and vice versa) as well as work in translation.

You don’t have to be an Asian American woman author to write here, just write about them and their books.

If your story is accepted, as curator I can nominate it to be “boosted.” If the boost committee picks it, it will be pushed to readers across the entire Medium.com site. (read here)

Your stories must meet Medium’s quality standards. Spell check them. You don’t need to be a professional book critic or book person, but be a professional writer — spell check and read it over. Importantly, when you write it, make it evident why YOU are the person to write this piece. Having an activist background, being an avid reader, being a teacher, having read all the author’s books, this all counts.

Response time: I’m one person and also teach and write as well so give me a few weeks before you query about your piece. Given the volume it’s unlikely I can give you much feedback.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Follow the publication
Sign up as a writer here and even better, show your engagement by commenting on a published story. We want writers who will also want to be engaged in the community.
Write your piece: Just write! Pay attention to details such as spelling, grammar, and formatting to make your submission polished and professional. Adding copyright-free photos is so easy! Click on the camera icon and it will help you find free illustrative media through Unsplash.
Submit Your Article — PLEASE READ

See that publish button? Do NOT hit it. Medium’s boosting program favors unpublished drafts. Instead hit those three dots next to the publish button and the bell. A drop down menu will appear.

Click on “Share Draft link” (blue) so that you get the link below.

and send it to me at Marie Myung-Ok Lee (@AsianAmericanBookClub)

If your piece is accepted, you’ll receive a notification that we’ve added you to the publication as a writer, plus possible editing suggestions.

Then you will “add to publication” and choose Asian American Book Club.

That’s it! We want to have a nice mix of different pieces (reviews, essays, lists, etc.) so your piece may be scheduled to appear in a few days to a few weeks.

We have a lot of great writers submitting stuff, so if at first you don’t succeed, try try again!

If you are interested in being paid on a royalty schedule based on views,

Join the Medium Partner Program:

To become eligible for the Medium Partner Program and start earning money from your writing, you’ll need to apply for membership. Go to your profile settings, select “Medium Partner Program,” and follow the instructions to sign up. You’ll need to provide some additional information, such as your tax details and preferred payment method.

This is a good article explaining it (and Medium.com in general): https://smartblogger.com/medium-partner-program/

You have to have published an article within 6 months, but you can publish a dummy one full of Lorem Ipsums, join the program, and put it back in draft.