My Second panel of Chengdu WorldCon 2023 was athe Japanese panel: How I Became a Professional Science Fiction Writer in 18th October at Neputune Hall.
Participant panelists are Hosuke Nojiri(野尻抱介), Satoshi Hase(長谷敏司), Haneko Takayama(高山羽根子), Taiyo Fujii (me) and Yugen Yashima(八島游舷) (order of the name is from the length of professional writing). The moderator was Japanese-Chinese translator Tian Tian(田田).
In Japan, most writers debut with literary contests for new writers, but all of us panelists had not passed through that way. Then, the episodes that we introduced were various, fascinating, and engaging.
Nojiri debuted with the game’s novelization, which was developed in his employed company. In other words, he debuted as a business writer and then was promoted to an SF writer himself.
Hase was the debut of Japanese light novels awards. So, he debuted with awards, but the publisher imprint label was not connected to SF publishing in his debuted years. He appealed to the Hayakawa publisher and became an SF writer, and won the Japan SF Grand Prize.
Takayama was from the sub-awards of the Sogen Short SF Awards. She contributed short stories to anthologies those are edited by Nozomi Omori and collected a short stories collection five years later.
In Japan, short story publishing slots were occupied by professional writers. If she did not win the sub-awards at first, she couldn’t pass the way she came.
I was self-published. I hoped my friends to read my first novel, so I published my work via e-book. Gene Mapper sold well, and I became a professional writer.
Yashima is from the SF writing school held by Nozomi Omori. His works were published on the class website. Later, he won several contests and debut. He’s a good example of Omori’s writing school became the major process of professional writer.
I watched the audience’s faces, and I found that they focused on our stories.
It was a good panel, thank you Tian Tian!
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