Despite the pandemic, life remains a poetic pursuit for writer Charissa Ong Ty

'It has been a hell of a ride but definitely an enjoyable one. It forced us to be more creative in reaching our customers,' says Ong Ty about how her publishing company has coped with the pandemic. Photo: Penwings Publishing

Charissa Ong Ty, founder of Penwings Publishing, is on a mission to give back to the writing community with her upcoming book, Poetry And Short Stories: A Practice Book.

After five years of being in the writing and publishing industry, she has published other people’s stories and has authored three books of her own: Midnight Monologues in 2016, Daylight Dialogues in 2018 and What Does My Name Mean? in 2019.

Poetry And Short Stories: A Practice Book, which is part self-help and part practical guide, is her fourth book, and her first non-fiction title. It will be released on Sept 9.

“I believe the only way someone can truly learn and grasp concepts is when they try to create an expected output. There are about 20 exercises in that book that can be done individually or in a group setting.

“It is an end-to-end process, starting with a Reframing Exercise (defining your purpose in writing and understanding who your target readers are and more) all the way to creating a cover letter to submit to publishers. I have also broken down factors of what makes a poem or short story good or bad with plenty of examples,” says Ong Ty, 29.

The book, she says, is for aspiring writers, people who want to learn something new, or people who are just finding a hobby to cope with anxiety during this pandemic. It is suitable for ages 12 upwards.

What makes a short story or poem “good” or “bad”? How can a person start writing? How can an individual become a better writer?

Ong Ty says her upcoming book is for aspiring writers, people who want to learn something new, or people who are just finding a hobby to cope with anxiety during this pandemic. Photo: Penwings

“If you are asking yourself these questions, this practice book is for you,” says the book’s back cover blurb.

Ong Ty shares that her main advocacy in life is education. This led her to write and self-publish her debut book Midnight Monologues, when she was 24.

She continues with this pursuit today.

“Over the past five years of being in this industry in Malaysia, I have come across hundreds of disappointing manuscripts that have been submitted to my company.

"They are either too abstract, filled with grammatical errors, had no edge in the international market, or just had really demanding or rude cover letters. With this book, I aim to increase the quality of work produced by Malaysian writers by providing them an end-to-end guide on how to think laterally when writing a manuscript,” she says.

Ong Ty notes that although the fundamentals are important for our journey to success, there is a gap in our education system that only focuses on the technical aspects of writing.

“It does not teach them how to think outside the box, think about their readers and how to market their book. At the end of the day, authors should be part-time salespeople too. They need to learn how to sell their own books creatively,” she notes.

Ong Ty, who has a day job as a designer, shares that the past year has been particularly tough for the company. Book sales took a hit when bookstores had to close temporarily due to the various lockdowns.

She took this time to upgrade the company’s website and also opened a new public relations division within Penwings.

“It has been a hell of a ride but definitely an enjoyable one. It forced us to be more creative in reaching our customers. I am still honouring my cadence of publishing a book a year. We have managed to sell about 30,000 books in total since 2016 so we must be doing something right!” she concludes.