Making a Book and Other Extreme Sports

Okay, it’s official – I’m going crazy.

So now you’re probably thinking to yourselves…why am I going crazy? What could be wrong?

Well, to tell you the truth. It’ll soon be four years that I’ve been living in Korea and navigating all that comes with it, and I think I’ve become a bit too good at avoiding any bus trauma in recent days. Whilst I want to say I love it; I secretly HATE it.

How am I supposed to offer up entertaining reads with no hooks, events or juicy happenings for my book? I found that when I write about less embarrassing and mildly eventful things, they don’t come out quite right. It’s like I am destined to write about the awkward, humiliating tales of my bus rides and yet here I am…sitting on the bus and feeling more confident that ever that I will not embarrass myself - because at this point, I may as well be a veteran.

Whilst this would be the part where I say, “but the universe proved me wrong” NO, I’m still waiting for it to humble me back into rookie status. Whilst riding the bus with little to no problems is great in general, it is not great for my blog progression.

Take a journalist for example – they will go to extremes just for a great story, even if that means facing discomfort or worse…risking their lives. Okay, okay, don’t worry Mom, I am not going to risk my life to forward the events of this blog and possible second book – but it does give great opportunity to extend the trauma to other places. Whilst I know I’ve been doing that in some prior entries, I figured it would be quite interesting to give you even more shenanigans that are not limited to the confined spaces of the inside of a bus, but rather those that go beyond. As much as I like the quirky theme of bus ride happenings, it also occasionally has its limitations.

So yes, it’s time I tell you a different tale again…one about the process it took to turn my blog into an actual book, because what a ride that was.

So, get ready for this one.

Alright, so how did this even come to be? Me, a foreigner – creating and publishing a book in Korea, where my knowledge of the Korean language is still subpar for a person who has been inhabiting this space for ‘at the time of starting the publishing process, three years.’

Well, I thought I had found a company that could accommodate me, an English-speaking foreigner. Boy, was I somewhat wrong.

Let me start by disclaiming that whilst this company and I had a lot of ‘miscommunication’ struggles and therefore inevitable woes, there were certain things that just didn’t sit well with me when working with them. I don’t exactly own a company, but I’ve worked in customer service as a waitress in my early university days and I’ve also sold my own artworks and merchandise when I was freelancing during… the dreaded COVID-19 era, so I know what goes into satisfactory customer service, okay? Heck, my toxic people-pleasing tendencies would make sure I even went beyond that and so I couldn’t fathom working with a company on a painfully expensive project, who just seemed so very unwilling to do the bare minimum.

The other issue I’m thinking about as I type this, is the fact that if I decide to print this hopeful-second book in Korea, I will most likely have to go through the same company for convenience’s sake. (That and because it’s not like this kind of printing company is very common anywhere.) I just genuinely pray to God that their eyes don’t catch this chapter. Although...they didn’t seem all that interested in what I had to offer the first time around, so it would be a complete shock if they did decide to try and read this. The comical part of it all would be the fact that this book with this chapter, complaining about said company, is also likely going to be printed by said company again – pure ironical joy, isn’t it?  (Don’t worry, future me will proof-read this and let you know the outcome of that.)

I may have to print this volume in South Africa though, considering these entries are starting to come out slower than a sloth trying to cross a road but let’s get back to the story of how I even found this company - because I’m making it out like I found them in some dingy, dodgy advertisement somewhere that clearly had red flags written all over it. Well, I did not. Actually…I found them through a simple Google-search, which may as well have been the same thing.

Before that though, what inspired this book was encouragement from friends, but then the dilemma was not knowing exactly how I wanted it to be published. I wanted to include illustrations and unique elements inside because I felt standard book-printing wouldn’t be quite right for it. I wanted the writing and illustrations to be justified in an artistic way – cue Risograph-printing.

You see, as an artist, I love supporting fellow artists who inspire me, and so I bought a self-published webcomic from an IG artist I follow. I read that the book was Riso-printed (whatever that meant at the time)and so - I was very intrigued. Upon receiving the book, I decided right then and there that this would be the perfect style for my blog-book. It was quirky, textured and satisfying in all the right ways and so without thinking, I reached out to the same company…all the way in damn Germany of all places. Not my smartest moment but it was needed in order to prepare me for what was to come. I know at this point everyone has probably thought “so what the heck is Risograph, Tayla?” Yeah, as someone who had specialized in printmaking during my university days, even I did not know what the heck this word meant…nor what it entailed. Truly I was throwing myself into…not a deep-ended pool, but rather I was submarining myself into the darkest pits of the frikken ocean.

Here I am, no experience in editing, bookmaking or book-printing and no idea at all what Risograph even was, yet I was totally prepared to climb up and die on that hill, apparently.

So, the German company reached out very quickly and were super helpful and informative. The mystery man over email on their end was so willing to explain Riso-printing to me and advised that I look up some videos on YouTube. He even looked at some of my page layouts and helped me correct them and adjusted them himself, showing me a clear, direct outcome on how they should look and be laid out. It took a bit of back and forth but after a few emails, I understood so much more. I also finally understood that Riso-printing was a bit more complicated than normal printing as you have to separate all the elements that you want to be a different colour from one another and put them on their own individual layers. It was all coming full circle, as I knew about manual printmaking techniques, but this was a more ‘automated’ version of screen-printing, done with an actual printer - a special Risograph printer.

After all the nitty-gritty things were discussed, I had to finally ask about the price for the number of copies I had wanted. I had to brace myself. As a South African, I’ve gotten used to the fact that my currency will always be THAT much weaker to that of other country’s currencies and unfortunately the euro is probably the strongest currency against the South African rand. In terms of Korean won, it wasn’t that much better. On top of that, there’s the problem of having to get the books shipped to Korea from Germany which is an additional steep expense. Okay, so it wasn’t looking good. I also had to print MORE copies than I initially planned for because of their minimum order amount for the type of binding I wanted done to the spine.

At the end of the day, as thankful as I was for their help and patience with my ignorant and noob-like behavior when it came to understanding Riso-printing, I decided that printing the books in Korea was a smarter investment…in every single way. Apart from the investment in my mental wellbeing of course.

So thus, brought me to the point of the simple Google search. At least I knew a little more about Risograph now and I somewhat had peace of mind in that another company would be willing to help me out a lot…to the extent of the first company I inquired becausethatiswhatyouwouldexpect from any company, right? (Yes, if it wasn’t obvious, this is supposed to be BIG foreshadowing.)

I wasn’t sure how confident I was that I’d find a company like this in Korea but it was actually quite easy – too easy.

For obvious reasons, I won’t name and shame the company because at the end of the day, they did print my book and the outcome was pretty good, apart from a few minor hiccups and errors, I didn’t expect it to be perfect and I was pretty satisfied in the end…and because I also may very well use them again and if then I have the same amount of drama I did when creating the first book, then yes, shame on me indeed. No pity for silly-goose Tayla over here.

So, I did a few background searches on this company and found a reputable IG page, a convincing website in Korean ANNNNNNNND ENGLISH, and an interview that was conducted with their company whereby the interview was seemingly done and written in E.N.G.L.I.S.H.

You’re probably wondering why I’m emphasising this so much, but don’t you worry, I’ll get there.

I also saw some posts where it looked like they did workshops with foreigners or at least foreign artists. All-in-all, the signs were adequate for me to send an email their way…in English, to make sure that they knew that I was an English speaker and not a native Korean. (I know as a foreigner I come with baggage okay, more than some companies would be comfortable dealing with. That’s just how it goes sometimes here in Korea.) One time, I was even kicked out of a taxi for being foreign and ignored by several others. It happens, but it probably happens in more places than you’d expect - not just Korea.

Unfortunately, we must pick on Korea today.

Okay, so whilst I understand that I’m in Korea, because this project is a lot of money, I needed to ensure that I was going to be able to communicate with them in English, and if that wasn’t an option and they expressed discomfort or weren’t capable of that – I would have totally understood. TOTALLY.

However, their response was an exciting one as they had even written up a rough quote for me, told me they could do it – and they said it all in English. So, this had me sold. They also responded pretty quickly to my email – an added bonus if you ask me.

I started to then email them back and expressed what I had wanted but also, that I had never done this before and would need some guidance, therefore I asked some questions. What frustrated me a bit was that they would respond to only part of my email, replying to some questions and ignoring others, so I would have to ask again in an email back to them. Their response time also got slower and slower, and I was on a bit of a time-crunch as I wanted to be able to take some physical books back to South Africa with me for some family and friends who wanted to buy a copy.

Unlike the German company, this one also expected me to miraculously know how to work Photoshop like a pro and do absolutely everything myself. That was a bit perplexing because as a customer, I expect the company that specializes in the thing they advertise – to do that part. Well, I bit down and held my tongue and figured it all out. I learned a lot during that time, and I was quite proud that I could say I did ninety percent of the work and layouts myself, whereas if I did it with the German company, they would have probably done half of it or even a little more than half.

I had also asked the Korean company to check my pages and ensure the layout was correct, in which they did. However, once I was doing a final check myself, I noticed that they were in fact, NOT correct. Of course, it was my error when laying out the pages, but if I had not checked again myself, it would have been their own error for not even checking the page numbers I so nicely asked them to check. Ugh, now I was getting progressively agitated.

After a few weeks of back and forth and a whole three days of tediously putting the pages in the right layout and order based on the template they gave me, I sent it off.

I should also mention that within our emails, tension started building as my frustration with having to do everything and their carelessness to engage or even be willing to assist or proof-check everything properly was starting to manifest itself into the emails as a big, obnoxious elephant in the room. I’m pretty sure they felt the same way as having to respond all the time in English must also be exhausting and tiresome. Trust me, I get it.

I was also due to send off the cover-design, but I had also been waiting on a final quote and had to ask them several times for it once the final number of pages was confirmed. They had also made an error with the kind of ‘red’ tone I had wanted to use on my pages, and I had to correct them twice on this. Small things became big problems I tell you.

Okay, now I was metaphorically drawing blood by how hard I was having to bite my tongue.

At this point, most people would have complained but I refuse to be a Karen. (For anyone who doesn’t know, a Karen is someone who complains unjustifiably or just comes across as seemingly entitled… usually a middle-aged woman – apologies to my aunt who has this name, but I guess because it’s American slang, the name is pronounced differently so I guess she isn’t a Karen…. she’s a Kaah-rin.) Okay wow, quite the sidetrack there.

Alright, so I was still being as nice as I possibly could to this company, because I didn’t want to cause any problems. I had just about sent them all my files - so for me that was the point of no return. But man, oh man, did I want to return to the introverted hole I stumbled out of four years ago.

The tipping point for me was about the sixty-something email they sent me telling me the page sizes and bleed lines are the wrong size, and I must lay them out again…on a different sized format.

I’m sitting here staring at my screen like…the page sizes…the bleed lines…the ones that YOUUUUUUUUU SENT ME! THIS COMPANY SENT ME THE TEMPLATE FOR THE LAYOUT AND SIZING AND I DOUBLE-CHECKED THAT IT WAS CORRECT AND EVEN SENT THEM EXAMPLES TO CONFIRM BEFORE LAYING OUT ALL 132 PAGES AND NOW THEY TELL ME IT’S WRONG??????!!!!!! RAGE, RAGE, RAGE!

Yes, please scream that out as you read it because I was utterly raging at that point, and when I had asked about this, pointing out that it was their mistake and that they should fix it, the response was ‘it happens.’

“It happens???” I’ll show you sir what happens when –

*deep breath*

Okay, it was time to splatter the blood from my bleeding tongue as now I realised I deserved better than this and my toxic people-pleasing trait can shove it right now. I mean a company like this should not be showing such signs of unprofessionalism and gaslighting!

Once I replied that I had been frustrated about these things, the next email I got from them was an utter nightmare. It was all in Korean. (You did it Tayla, you poked the bear.)

Okay sir, I see petty has reached a new level. He basically blamed the fact that this is the first time that they’re working with a foreigner who doesn’t knownwhat they’re doing and because of all the emails I’ve been sending, it’s hard to respond because I’d send more. He even had the audacity to say I must respond in Korean from now on.

After this, I decided that while I would acknowledge it’s difficult for them and I appreciated the help, they had every clear warning sign that I threw at them about seventy emails ago and I had even asked if they were willing to work with me – which they WERE at the time. The only reason we got to seventy emails in the first place is because they wouldn’t respond thoroughly to my emails and as I mentioned, briefly responded to one question and not the other. Because I also had to do everything, I had to send them countless corrections since I had to figure it out rather than them just doing it for me, like they were supposed to.

I mean, if I was a Riso-print company that specialised in book-printing, you best know I would offer all those services that come along with it, including laying out and putting your book together for you.

In the end, I managed to say all this above stuff using translated assistance that takes about five seconds, so I can’t fathom why they had so much trouble.

It was a lot. I told them what I didn’t appreciate and at the end of the day, it’s hard for both of us and we should both be understanding, not just me – because I certainly was many times before we got to that point. I could have justifiably become a Karen forty emails ago. Whilst I want to be funny and witty about this, it was quite literally traumatising and not the fun kind of trauma that I share when writing about my bus rides.

I was in tears by the end of it because I don’t like upsetting people, but I also realised that this was a situation in my life where I had to stand up for myself because I knew I was not in the wrong. I was simply trying my best and this company wouldn’t even acknowledge that or their mistakes.

It was a very cold and difficult process with them and whilst I don’t like to compare them to the German company because it could also be a cultural difference, I’ve met Koreans who are in fact willing to go out of their way for their customers - and this one company just wasn’t.

Well, it was what it was.

After that, they miraculously did sort out the error themselves or rather said that it no longer needed fixing anymore…okay, that’s suspicious…

Oh, and in the end, I did get my books! Yay.

I will say how sick to the stomach I felt when opening the boxes they came in, as they never sent me any kind of updates on the printing, nor did they send me any photos of the books before deciding to send them off to me – yet another red flag stuck into the cake of countless red flags. At least the one red flag they avoided was that of a scam. If I had been scammed, I may have had to bus my way up to Seoul and pay them a visit…with reinforcements of course. Some battles cannot always be fought alone, but thankfully that was avoided, and this is where both this story and my overactive anxiety about the whole thing - can be laid to rest…for now.

Once my books arrived, I did find one mistake that was once again, their fault – but because it was super minor, I did let it slide. It was a comical reminder of all that I endured, and in a way, it served a purpose that not everything comes out perfectly, and that’s okay too. I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this and honestly, I think that’s fair because it’s an art project and an expensive one at that – I think we’re allowed to expect everything to be exactly how we want it to be. But it can’t always be that way and yes, whilst I would have sent those books right back if they were subpar quality, I think that everyone who bought one can vouch for me and say that they came out pretty imperfectly perfect. That’s the other joy of Risograph – it can’t be perfect and it’s bound to have some  mistakes that actually tend to add to the charm of it and so, I will welcome such mistakes - this time.

Some pictures of the physical copy of my book featuring earlier entries of this blog, and how they turned out - not too shabby if you ask me!

For anyone who wants to be brave and do what I did, I’d say go for it. It’s scary and yes, I really did get a level of trauma from it, but for what it was - it was worth it to be able to see this little book come to life. If I had waited until I had moved back home or if I had tried relying on another company to print it, it may not have been as special as it was - trudging along through the language-gap barracks to get it printed here, in Korea.

On top of it all, I got this entry out of it, right? So that’s a big plus.

Whilst I didn’t enjoy the tears and shaken nerves that came with contemplating whether or not my book would be that of a hot mess, I did enjoy the fact that I stood up for myself when I needed to, even when I didn’t want to.

So go out there, be brave and do hard things! They’re essential for your character development…and essential for your occasional bus blog entries of course.

To the company who printed out my first book…if you saw this – no you didn’t, and for anyone who wants to self-publish a book here in Korea, I will warn you that if you choose a company in Seoul, be sure to thoroughly check every corner before you do. *wink*

Until the next stop,

Bus Blog Driver Tay