With the publication of my book of puns I have a positive story to tell of my experiences of working with the editors at Ulysses Press in Berkeley, CA. Being new to the whole process of “writing” a book and working with people at a publishing house who will be putting my works to print I had no idea what to expect – I did have some horror stories I’d heard over the years from authors who had some harrowing times getting past some editors to a final printing but nothing in the way of personal experiences.

There were multiple “issues” I had to deal with from a lengthy list given me by my editor, some very routine and understandable and readily put to bed without any disagreement from me – there were others that as the author I felt should be dealt with in my way but in the end it was someone even above my editor who made the call based on projected sales of the work – so, that’s okay because I will be in print in the final analysis…

There was one matter that stuck out like a big red flag when I first saw it, the tentative cover of the working document – It was a line drawing of three fathers in the style of a 50’s setting, hair slicked down with Pomade, dress shirt and bowtie, and dinner and dress jacket – and all three were of white males.

I raised the question with my editor about the image of an all white band of fathers and couldn’t the editorial staff come up with a more diverse portrayal of fathers? In the arena of Dad jokes there were more than just white fathers who put families through the pain of a deadly puns and it would be more attractive with a more diverse representation of fathers – I received an immediate email from my editor appreciating my comments and request and said she’d run it by others of her team and get back to me.

I didn’t hear for a long time so thought maybe my request fell on deaf ears, but not long after I received an email with the full text of 1000+ puns ready for my editing for typos and errors and needs for change, AND a sample of the front and back covers showing not only a diverse front cover with an African American dad in place of one of the white fathers, but a back cover with an Asian dad as part of a four-some…! I was so pleased it was hard not to shout out loud.

My book of puns was published and distributed to various outlets by early May 2016 – I feel very fortunate to have the editorial staff I have at Ulysses Press for their support of me in this maiden venture, and for their willingness to listen to me as the author and take my advice on something that is very important to me – Here’s to all fathers everywhere of every color, hue, and tone, especially the tone in the voice as it spreads the wealth of puns around for all to share.

Gordon Hideaki Nagai