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FAQ: A note on names in SWBTS! Early readers may have noticed that in the narrative (never the dialogue), Chinese characters are referred to by their surnames, rather than the conventional Chinese usage of [surname] [first name]. This may be jarring to some! So: why this choice?
Bear in mind that (a) in trad publishing, it takes books YEARS to move from ms to query to sale to pub, (b) when I was querying SWBTS there were no big China-set (not secondary world) fantasies on the market, and (c) English-language fandom for cdramas didn't yet exist!
In early drafts of SWBTS, I used traditional Chinese naming conventions. In typical fashion, my protagonist had six names that were used according to the situation: her original name, her brother's name, a nickname, a monk name, her self-chosen name, and a style name.
As you can guess, feedback from people not used to Chinese names was that this was A Lot. But because I thought SWBTS deserved the chance to be trad published, I did what many diverse authors do to get their foot in the door: I made some compromises.
It has been AMAZING to see that in the years since, the explosion of Chinese fandoms has meant more English-speaking readers are familiar with Chinese names, and are demonstrably hungry for authentic Chinese stories—either in translation, or written in English.
But publishing is conservative, and change comes through establishing successful precedents. What I hope is that by having MADE the compromises that allowed SWBTS to reach a wide audience, it will contribute to a next generation of books that don't have to compromise at all 
