sábado, 29 de diciembre de 2018

Do you like taking MOOC courses?

I'm a geeky bookworm. There you go, simple as that.

I enjoy learning and reading new things for fun. Reading books is just a huge source of fun for me, and I feel sad that I spent so much of my life devoid of the joy of ebooks because the technology didn't properly exist yet.

Now, I have a college degree, and in 14 months, I will graduate from my Masters degree as well. Again, that is really cool.

But for all of the cool stuff I learn that is fully applicable to my degree, I never get to have any fun. My degree was different from the average undergrad where you could take a dozen intro 101 courses and learn a little of what you want. Had I had this option, due to the nauseating amount of college credits needed to graduate (almost 500!), I would have never finished undergrad ever.

So, I got the degree, but didn't really get to enjoy "the college experience". My Master degree is another fluke. To this day, I have only set foot into the university that will recognize my degree a whopping total of 10 times, half of which were quick 10 minute visits to pay the reinscription fee. I have never seen the massive library that the school boasts. Heck, I don't even have an ID card as such. It's been 2 years, and they still haven't sent us one in the mail and I was too lazy to get one myself when I had the chance. Bummer.

Therefore, while I don't have a lot of free time, I do enjoy taking a MOOCs course here and there. Most of the courses are not directly related to my degree, but given my degree involves a lot of Chemistry and Physics, I have found relatable knowledge from MOOCs I have taken as seemingly unrelated such as the CSI esque Real Life Criminal Investigation MOOC I once took (spectrometers used in crime labs to identify chemicals follow the same physics as some of the medical equipment I use on a daily basis).

I took a Harvardx course on Public Health a few years ago for fun, and while there were things about the course I feel like I had to disagree with, the website sometimes sends me brochures when new courses pop up.

Today they just sent me one about the Cairo pyramids in Egypt. It seems like a fun course, it's free and it's a set-your-own-pace sort of deal. I really can't enjoy it right now because of time constraints, but in case you want to learn more about the ancient pyramids, you can click on the image below.

Enjoy!


domingo, 23 de diciembre de 2018

Is Mortal Engines a failure as a film?

Quite frankly, I have never, ever heard of this movie called Mortal Engines before, but there is just something about this film that has earnestly intrigued me.

For starters, It's based on a 5 book series by an author named Philip Reeve where the first book was published quite a short time ago, back in 2012, but it was already competing and won awards as far back as 2002.

I am not familiar with this author. I tend to stick with reading indie titles, a huge part of the reason because they are more likely to be on Kindle Unlimited and thus making it more likely that I could actually afford to read them. Philip seems to have written quite a lot of books. A quick search on his Amazon Author Central page states he's written probably somewhere around 30 books, and it looks like he's exclusively Trad published.

Some things have indeed intrigued me about his book. The first novel only has around 280 reviews on Amazon. Now, don't get me wrong, while it's a really amazing feat for any author to get even 100 reviews for a book, much less almost thrice as many, I just find it to be bizarre that this unknown book managed not only to sign a Hollywod script deal, but it was a member of the lucky 10% of books with a signing deal that actually ended up being turned into a film.

Meanwhile, books with more than 500 ratings don't have film or tv deals despite strong fan followings and attractive plots that would have chances of selling tickets in cinemas. Just look up any moderately successful LitRPG title and chances are they have over 400 reviews and chances are they could sell tickets, at least for the majority male audiences.

One thing that also stroke me a bit odd was the fact that this book is not just a YA title (well, I have not read it, I'm only basing myself on the Amazon category... maybe it's middle grade), it's also from a genre that has very few films: Steampunk.

Yes, Mad Max Fury Road did well in the movies (that doesn't mean I find the movie to be enjoyable to watch), but there are very few Steampunk films, and even less directed to younger audiences.

Risky? Indeed, but it's a nice breath a fresh air that at least a few Hollywood producers are willing to risk a flop by giving new ideas. The fact that they are delving into making movies from genres that aren't comic book superhero flicks is also welcoming.

Now, I have not read the book, and have not seen the film either. Therefore, I can't judge how good it is.

However! Sometimes Yahoo! articles are quick to blame a failing movie sales due to being a bad film. Pacific Rim did very poorly in the US (apparently Americans simply didn't find the movie to be appealing in some way), but Mexicans and Chinese audiences loved it, and not just because it was directed by Guillermo Del Toro and taken place in Hong Kong instead of NYC. I never get tired of seeing that movie on tv, and it's mostly because of the character interactions. I haven't seen the sequel though. Heard that it sucked.

Many people forget that films are not released on the same day worldwide. Some movies with high risk of being mercilessly bootlegged are released pretty much everywhere, but it's not a rule of thumb.

This movie has not premiered in Mexico, and according to the Cinemex movie franchise website, there is no date of release yet. Mmmm... Oh wait! It will premiere Jan 1st (darn, I work that day >_>), but it's only available at Cinepolis cinemas. It's like the movie is doomed from several angles at the same time. Not released worldwide at sufficiently similar dates, and due to licensing problems, in at least Mexico, it will run in only 50% of the country's major cinemas.

I am indeed curious to see the film, just for the sake of supporting more lesser known books to be turned into movies, and if there is a producer lurking around here, feel free to read An Ominous Book, it's available at Amazon and caters to the Young Adult audience. ^_^

lunes, 10 de diciembre de 2018

Draconian ways to fix page numbering in word documents

Along with countless other indie authors, I used createspace for my paperbacks. Expensive? Verymuch for mexican standards when you include shipping. But the chance to print on demand to save storage space is practical.

Amazon bought the site several years ago and both sort of worked independantly. Createspace offers nice easy to use templates as well.

However, Amazon is now integrating both services and the transition has been problematic for many autors. The bugs prompted me to wait until I had no other choice and even today it is still buggy.

I have several books deemed unsuitable for kdps publishing standards. Mostly the page numbering issues which have been problematic because word is very jumpy and psychotic placing the page numbers automatically it feels like.

Okay, so maybe I should ditch the casual pc user and learn a real software like InDesign. The issue comes with finding the free time to learn how to properly use it which I don't have right now.

Nobody on the internet seems to know how to get around this issue. Last Friday I was fiddling with the bloody program and found an insanely tedious way to fix the paging issue to keep up to Kdps demands and retain the overall style I personally like.

I have sent the fixed files for books 1, 2, 3 for Amazon to approve. I should have books 4,5,6 within the next few days which might take longer because they are longer novels.

Book 7 is also almost fully formatted up to kdp standards. I will draw a cover within these next few days and hope to have it finally published!!

viernes, 16 de noviembre de 2018

Writing updates!

I have completed the first 9 chapters and did 50% of the 10th chapter of a new fantasy novel. It's unrelated to An Ominous Book and titled "Hyperian Monarch". The story is indeed rather odd I dare say and it has been a very difficult book to write.

I have around 25,000 words finished and at the rate the book is heading along, it is probably around 50% done.

If I try to keep up with 2 chapters a month at the slowest, I should have a finished manuscript in around 4-5 months at the latest.

I will probably be asking people around if any one of them is interested to beta read it and give valuable input.

Well, just here to show that while sparingly, I am still writing.

Thank you!

jueves, 15 de noviembre de 2018

A writing pet peeve of mine

Like any reader, there are things in stories (not just books, I am currently musing animated tv shows) that I find to be annoying.

Today, I am going to write a small excerpt about something that always annoys me about some shows: screwing up winter and summer.

But... what about Game of Thrones? That tv show doesn't count because it purposely states it's based in a strange magical world where winter and summer can last for several years at unpredictable intervals. I am personally unsure how this strange seasonal structure works. Either perhaps the world is flat and the sun bounces farther away, or the world has a very elliptical orbit.

But, let's get back to my main pet peeve case in point.

If you have ever traveled from the North to Southern hemisphere as I have, you will soon realize the seasons are reversed. I went to Chile on two occasions during October-November and enjoyed the country during their Spring.

Also, the closer you get to the poles, the days & nights will suffer from a starker contrast. Guatemala is closer to the Equator than Mexico, and therefore, while they still enjoy some variance of weather during the differing seasons, the hours that last each day show far less variation than Mexico. Pretty much, their people are used to seeing the sun come up around 6 am and setting at 6 pm all year round.

If you travel to the other side of the world, the hours will be vastly warped. The only hours of the day where it seemed sensible to chat with loved ones when I visited Japan and China was either very early in the morning, or between 8-11 pm Asia's local Time.

When writing a book, it doesn't take much brain power to keep these little writing tidbits into the equation. It would be just as dumb to state the sun sets at midnight in Quito Ecuador, as it would be dumb to state the sun is shining brightly in a village close to the polar circle during the respective hemisphere's Winter Festival.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Korra's hometown in the new Avatar series!


In the best of cases, shouldn't the daylight hours of her city lasted just 1-2 hours during the Winter Solstice?

miércoles, 7 de noviembre de 2018

Helping the stray cats of Playa del Carmen pt2

Its a miracle but I easily got mamma cat into a carrier cage and she has been successfully spayed. Yaaay! No more needy and unwanted baby kittens from her anymore. As if Quintana Roo didn't have enough unwanted stray cats.

The vet was unsure about operating her without an appointment at 7:30 pm, but his fears eased when he realized I was a medical doctor.. and an anesthesiologist to boot!





I'm just waiting for her to wake up and release her back into the wild. She somewhat lets me pet her, and if I had more time I could domesticate her. But I am leaving for another city in a few days and nobody would adopt her. I just hope she just tries to stay out of trouble. Maybe I can't give her the home life she deserves, but at least she won't have more litters.

Speaking of litters, her 3 kittens just got their first vaccine and I'm trying to use social media to find them a home. It would be horribly cruel to leave them cooped up in a tiny cage in a poorly ventilated bathroom. If I can't find them a home pronto, I will bw forced to release them into the wild as strays knowing that they could have lived well as domesticated pets.





Thanks for reading and know I paid these medical bills with my own pocket because I care a lot about animals.



Helping the stray cats of Playa

I have been short on free time to read and write novels. Among other things occupying my free vacayion time, is an important mission: save a family of feral stray cats.

The mom cat is totally feral.and trapping her might prove to be a challenge. I helped catch her 3 babies with hopes of finding a home. They are 3 females that can eat semisolid Whiskas treats. They are around 6 weeks old, a bit on the scrawny side but with some food they should pick up.

One is a  black panther, the second a tuxedo girl amd the last one a spunky tortie. I plan on bringing them to a vet to get washed, parasites removed and vaccinated. And then promote the hell out of these innocent sweeties who deserve a better life.

I took a photo of the panther girl, once she is in your arms, she doesn't fight you. They still have a chance to become domesticated.

I hope to at least spay mommy and release her. Maybe with a lot of TLC, she might become semi domesticated. Looks to be around 2 years old.

Maybe renting a car wasn't such an insane idea afterall!


lunes, 15 de octubre de 2018

Levanant

I'm bored and decided to quickly draw Froylan's phantom beast for the first time.

What is a Levanant?

Lord Froylan is a recurring enemy/antagonist/sometimes a good guy in An Ominous Book. It seems to be common knowledge by everyone that he's a fire mage, but not everyone knows which beast he summons.

Here is a small excerpt from An Ominous Book when Spaulding speaks to Froylan.

“So am I under arrest, Lord Froylan?”
“Not at all, much to my chagrin. Get on my phantom beast so that I can sleep for a couple of hours before the morning meeting.” Froylan summoned a phantom beast that resembled a large lizard with two tails that was constantly enveloped in flames.
“I didn't know you could summon a Levanant Froylan-suits you perfectly.”
“Stop wasting my time and get on it already.”
Spaulding shrugged his shoulders and sat on the back, whereas Froylan flapped his black cape on Spaulding's face as he sat down in front. Spaulding was certain he did it on purpose with the sole purpose of annoying him. He turned around and frowned.
“Froylan is sure having a ball annoying me. Why did he order so many guards to summon their phantom beasts to chaperone us?”
The Levanant ran past the gigantic bridge and across the stone paved road. Spaulding’s face was constantly being hit with Froylan's cape which annoyed him to no end as the beast ran up the road that eventually took them to a large stone courtyard surrounded by one hundred Äimite. The group of guards riding behind with their phantom beasts dismounted and stood at a safe distance.

The books don't delve much further about the beast. Froylan usually kills his enemies with his sword or burns them alive. However, we do get the chance to see him drop his Levanant into an active volcano in the third book in order to move the lava at free will!

I always have a lot of fun writing scenes where Froylan appears. He's just a really appealing good for nothing crook with a plan under his sleeves. I never drew his phantom beast before, but I think my drawing came out close to how I always imagined it.






Enjoy!



domingo, 7 de octubre de 2018

An Ominous Book and Inktober 2018

I usually don't follow trends and much less graphics designing stuff, but I sometimes get asked to do things by friends to see if a theory they have is correct, or something of the sort.

I never really planned on doing anything for the Inktober 2018 Challenge (quite frankly, I didn't even know such a contest even existed), but my friend really wanted my help, so I said ok.

October 7th challenge was to draw something that was "Exhausted." Now, I love to draw stuff related to my book series, and it's a running gag in the series that Spaulding is a rare dual element mage, which mostly causes him more troubles in his life than benefits. After discovering that harlequin elves can fuse both of their elements into their demonic phantom beasts, Spaulding began to wonder if he would be capable of fusing water magic into his Hiratori and make it change to his weak element. He kindly asked Damantin for his assistance, but he simply scratched his head and had a hard time thinking of an answer because his innate harlequin magic is simply too different from regular magic to make him an appropriate teacher.

However, Hama in book 7 is of greater assistance because for some unknown reason, she had a really hard time exploiting her dormant water magic herself, and her own demonic beast is a fire element beast the majority of the time. She had to train for many years to switch into her weak water element mode. Hama's tribulations learning how to master her weak element were a godsend for Spaulding, and during the course of one winter, she slowly teaches her father how to change his Hiratori into a sort of icy bird. After exerting himself, Spaulding manages this great feat, and it did left him drained of mana very easily. The drawing I made has a blatant mistake: Spaulding never performed this technique while wearing his father's armor. He was wearing Elf King attire. However, it's a drawing, so who cares?!





October 8th challenge is to draw something with a star in it. This one is a bit tricky, because I don't really recall stars having a particular importance in my novels. However, the Dead Castle that Nelida created in the 2nd book Separation is featured during the nighttime where the moon and stars illuminate its eerily crystalline luminescence. Claimed to have been the most beautiful building ever seen by a myraid of characters, Spaulding felt great despair in the 4th book when he saw it with his own eyes because he already knew it was made with the corpses of thousands of innocent human beings. Nelida isn't my favorite villain of the series, but some readers seem to love her because of the irony that a sweet child could end up being posessed by a malignant demonic artifact which forced her to create this deathly masterpiece. I concur that Nelida's proportions were sort of out of whack, which proves I really should be drawing a whole lot more to improve in my craft.

I'm very poor at drawing buildings, and quite frankly, I always imagined the dead castle to look a whole lot different in my imagination. But it was still fun to make this drawing to get a heads start on another day of the challenge.





I don't know if I will draw some of the other days, a lot of the selected words have nothing to do with my book series, and I seldom feel like drawing stuff that isn't related to my authoring work. But maybe you can stay tuned to my instagram account and see if I upload something else!

An Ominous Book 2, Separation on Amazon
An Ominous Book 4, Diaspora on Amazon
My instagram

And while technically I have finished writing the 7th novel Harlequins approximately 6 months ago, I haven't had the chance to finish drawing the cover art to officially publish it as a full-fledged ebook. Maybe if I got more reviews of my books (or in the very least, some more purchases or KU borrows, because any exposure of my books to new readers makes me feel happy), I'd feel more compelled to get my butt moving and draw some random cover already!

If you have read my books, which scenes did you personally enjoy? Is there a particular scene from my books you'd like me to draw? Perhaps a specific phantom beast?

I have realized I have many things in my series that have never been drawn before. Hrm...

miércoles, 19 de septiembre de 2018

International blog visits

This post will be very brief. I started this blog to mainly talk about An Ominous Book, and I do indeed plan on eventually getting a real domain and create a formal website as such for my pet writing project when I have the free time. Hopefully that might happen in 2020 which each day is itching closer (yaay!).

Initially, my blog got occasional visits from mainly two countries: Germany and the US. While I seriously doubt I have ever sold a book by the few posts I have made on my blog, I do sometimes type random stuff that comes to mind whenever I have the fancy.

And these few two months, my page has been getting visitors from rather surprising countries.

My books have never, ever sold a copy in Japan, yet oddly enough, I got 80 page visits from that country.

Just these past 2 weels, I've had visitors from: Andorra, Iraq, India, China, Switzerland, Brazil, and Indonesia.

I do indeed feel a bit curious as to what search terms have enticed people from such a bizarre array of countries to stumble upon my blog. The majority of people who read my books live in either the US and England, so it simply befuddles me.

All in all, my blog gets a really pathetically small amount of views, but I still plan on continuing to write here every now and then when I have the fancy.

Cheers!

sábado, 8 de septiembre de 2018

Zodiac signs and blood types in An Ominous Book

This was a post I wanted to talk about for a while, but I never thought about this little tidbit about my books before. I like reason shoujo manga, and enjoy discovering the zodiac signs and blood types of the varying characters.

While western nations only follow zodiac signs and their association with some recurring personality traits, eastern nations put a lot of emphasis on blood types, assuming the ABO system somehow governs some quirks.

This is based on a book that was published in Japan in the 1970's (I have sadly not read the book), and while scientists think its fluff for the asian equivalent of Cosmo and Penthouse magazines, it's now rather ingrained in East Asian nations. Thus, it's rather commonplace for manga and anime to feature this extra information for the fans to get to know their favorite characters better.

I find this tidbit to be fun, and I did grant birthdays to at least a few characters from my series.

Lord Spaulding


Clan: Kasimma
Birthday: August 5th
Bloodtype: A
Elements: Fire/Water (a rare dual mage, albeit his stronger element is Fire)

Spaulding is a Leo, and a lot of the traits definitely show. He's brave, defends those that he holds dear, kind and affectionate to his loved ones, and people seem to unconsciously draw towards his energy and imposing presence. Leos are represented by the Sun, and it's only natural that his stronger fire attunement is a reflection of that.

While Spaulding carries a lot of the good traits of his zodiac sign, he also proves the negative. Opinionated and stubborn like a mule, his closed mindedness is a recurring theme in the story. He constantly gets into problems with the Elf King, the Äimite guard (the story eventually reveals the reason behind his bitterness towards the guard), and seems to have overall issues with authority figures. He can sometimes be a bit overconfident in his sorcery potential, and it shows.

As for his bloodtype, A's can be both analytical, loyal, gentle, consistent, which are rather in tune with his character. As for the negatives, once again stubborness, fastidiousness and his strong sensitivity overshadow his character. A is the poster child of introversion, and Spaulding's tendency to bottle up his feelings deep inside and preference towards the peaceful solitude of his office is a reflection of that.


Richard Earlrose


Clan: Honorary Kasimma (He's not an elf, but the kingdom somewhat accepts him as a member of the clan due to his blood ties with Spaulding)
Birthday: March 8th
Bloodtype: O
Elements: Water

If Spaulding is fire, then Richard is definitely attuned to the opposing element. Utterly kind, soft natured, compassionate to the bone, sensitive and notably selfless. By the cruel twists of fate, Richard's life as a lesser nobleman in Ayrtain is ripped apart after his father's Aurethid's murder, which culminated in his mother Eurithia's suicide, the brief time he lived with his maternal uncle Reginald, and subsecuent kidnapping by human traffickers that was organized by his uncle as a means to steal his nobility title. Despite everything that happened, Richard seems to adapt remarkably well to new circumstances and genuinely wants to live with his mysterious elf uncle Spaulding.

An Ominous Book however doesn't give Richard a good respite, for Spaulding has to find the way to return him to his remaining human blood relatives in Ayrtain. His human blood doesn't allow him to remain in the kingdom, and despite his fondness for the uncle that he admires as a true fatherly figure, the two don't get to spend much time together in the novels until the 7th book.

His compassion is deeply reflected in his curative water magic, which can serve as a strong reflection of the agression of fire magic. If there was a downside, Richard can be overidealistic, and while it surely counters Spaulding's negativity regarding Lord Froylan (Richard eventually discovers he and Froylan can get along rather well), he doesn't seem to view things with a ruler's eyes. Spaulding teaches him more than one lesson regarding showing strength towards your people, even if it means being cruel when it's needed.

As a Type O, Richard can be open with his feelings in stark contrast to Spaulding.

Trevilin


Clan: Chirino
Birthday: May 16th
Bloodtype: O
Elements: Earth

Richard was surprised to know that Trevilin isn't a member of the Arima Clan despite his close relationship with the Clan Leader. Much isn't openly revealed about his personal life during the novels. He has worked as a ranger for an unspecified number of years, and while he worked in a different post from Spaulding, their working regions were sufficiently close for both elves to see each other on a regular basis. As Spaulding's best friend, he is down to earth, and generous. On the downside, he can be a bit posessive of Spaulding's feelings, going to great lengths when bad things happen to his friend.

That's it for now! I might add a post for other characters whenever I am in the mood.

viernes, 24 de agosto de 2018

Hyperian Monarch

My current YA paranormal fantasy book which is an ongoing project. I am quickly writing one chapter per week and hope it is completed soon. I plan on making this a solo book with no series in mind. Hopefully it will be under 80,000 pages.

I dare say, it feels vastly different from An Ominous Book in feel as it's both written in 1st person POV and the protagonist Lydia is such a contrasting different person from the quiet Spaulding.

Lydia only wanted to go to a prestigious magic school to become a culinarist. She didn't ask to participate in a sordid game where she is forced to compete against 99 other magicians to rule the world.

The worst part?

She is slowly turning into a monster and might be enjoying the challenge afterall... if she can find the way to win the heart of the enigmatic heir to one of the wealthiest families along the way.
Read it as I write it while you still can free on Wattpad!

sábado, 18 de agosto de 2018

A book haul!

If you are an author that sells books on Amazon, you might have noticed that the website started offering creating paperback books with a really sloppy beta copycat of Createspace.

I never bothered to move my physical books at the time because you couldn't. You had to start the process all over again with a new ISBN code. It was in beta, so the little details regarding uploading the files was too much of a hassle.

Now that there are rumors circulating around the web that Amazon is going to shut down Createspace, if you have any files there, I suggest you should move them pronto.

Amazon KDP has finally improved the process and now you are allowed to move your Createspace books by pasting the ISBN 13 code when you click on making a paperback. Amazon will pull the Createspace file, although I personally opted to upload .docx files from my laptop because I didn't trust the sharpness of the text on pdf format.

Moving the files was reasonably fast and Amazon takes a bit less time to approve a draft than Createspace did.

I left the prices the same BTW.

On another related topic, I have finally finished brushing the text of the 7th book Harlequins and it is ready for publishing. I just need a cover for it. Oh, and to purchase a copyright as well.

I'm 30-40% into brushing the text of the 8th and final book of my series Mortality and I hope to send the petition for a copyright together to save money and time. Those will be two covers that need to be made, ouch.

Given my long series doesn't make a lot of money, I see no harm in simply publishing both books together to finish with this series so that I can set my attention on my new Young Adult fantasy book that has absolutely nothing to do with An Ominous Book.

If you are wishing to get a free ARC copy, feel free to ask in the comments!

lunes, 6 de agosto de 2018

A huge achievement

Last night, I feel like I closed a chapter by finishing the 8th book. Neither the 7th and 8th An Ominous Books have been "officially" published. It's a well-known fact that stretching series indefinitely accrues very few sales, so I don't know if I would be interested in pushing the publicity for two books that took me a very long amount of time to write for few economic rewards.

It's probably more of a pet project than anything else at this point.

I do leave a lot of unresolved issues at the end of the 8th book and there are things I'd like for the story. I might feel tempted to write a 9th book as a sort of standalone story to close other possibilities, and I'm certain it would be very fun to write it.

And here comes the conundrum: Few people will actually care if I write more sequels.

It's a tough call, because I find it very fun to write therse novels. I could very easily do the draft for a 9th novel in 6 months at the current pace I write in odd bursts of free time/inspiration/urgency to finish the blasted story.

However, I would also like to write about other stories filled with fantasy, and even other Young Adult novels that have absolutely no fantasy elements whatsoever. The possibilities are infinite.

For now, I have to make the tough choice to close the final chapter of this amazing series. It was a really fun ride.

I do wish to continue drawing artwork related to the series, because it's so damn fun. Problem is, drawing takes a huge amount of time for me and I just don't have a lot of time to draw these days.

And while I feel sad about leaving more stories on hold, it doesn't mean I am totally against writing more as pet projects.

All in all, good day, Spaulding. It was a real thrill writing your story these past 3 years!


No, this isn't Spaulding, it is a very crummy Hama drawing I quickly made with Photoshop. The lack of my intuos pen obviously shows.

If you are one of the... what... 5 people? That have bothered to read my book series to the end, wow, I'm amazed that you made it so far.

Maybe you could do me a huge favor and reviewing my work on Amazon and Goodreads, I could surely use the reviews!

miércoles, 1 de agosto de 2018

Making mockup publicity images of my published books

Mockup ads seem to get more popularity and when you think about it, you can easily see why. Add a dabble of color in the background, put a mini blurb with something that entices the reader and PAM! A small piece of publicity that is easy on the eyes.

I finally chose to do this for fun and enjoyed the result. Each image was purposely chosen as something related to the plot of each book in one way or another.

I wish to thank the awesome website www.unsplash.com for the free use images. Thank you!


An Ominous Book is also available on Smashwords!






domingo, 8 de julio de 2018

Book review scammers... again?

Okay, enough with the nonsense!


A few days ago, I wrote a blog post that somehow attracted a minimal amount of viewers. I got 1 like from a real person on Goodreads that might have enjoyed the heads up.

For better or worse, I also got 3 wanna be generic book review mails this week. And yes, they felt cringeworthy to read.




I opted to remove the emails to avoid the unwanted extra publicity for the most part. I wouldn't have cared if they had appeared in the spam folder like usual, but I felt like Ned and Homer when they wake up in Vegas with two new stripper wives when I realized the first email had somehow reached my regular folder. Ugh.


Look guys, I'm not going to purchase your service. Just... stop wasting people's time!


Thank you, Ned Flanders!

martes, 3 de julio de 2018

An old book review scam shows up at Goodreads

I'm mexican, deal with it.

I grew up in a country where cops are the real life epitome of all of the jokes from The Simpsons.


Oh, so you were the victim of some serious crime? Let me write it down on my invisible typewriter. Hahahaha

Come on, you haven't grown up in Mexico if you don't get the Sor Juanita joke, courtesy of a cop that pulls your car tries to pull for some reason (sometimes bogus, sometimes they stopped you because you did a minor driving infraction like go out with an odd number on even number license plates driving day in Mexico City and lack a special permit). If you don't get the joke, the image below should be enough to illuminate you.


I don't own a car and have never been the culprit of that kind of minor traffic offense, but I have been a passenger when cops have stopped for various reasons. Usually they will be legit and give you a fine, but I have heard the "Give me a Sor Juana and we'll just forget about this" sort of shady deal.

Ergo, I guess as an author, I am highly suspicious when I get random unsolicited emails that will offer me a gazillion reviews for my books if I pay them 400 USD. I usually just ignore them, the emails are sent to the spam folder anyways and get deleted automatically eventually.

However! Just a while ago, a persistent Goodreads scammer of some sort that goes by varying usernames pulled a doozie on me. He/she/it/zer/whatever posted a "book question" asking for a free ARC copy. Innocent enough.

But I am a mexican and knew from the start it was bunk.

And since I have little patience for this kind of nonsense, I'm pasting a screencap for posterity to laugh and hopefully deter other turds from pulling this lame scam on me:


The "question" doesn't even bother to mention the name of my book or the reasons why the scammer would feel entitled to read a Young Adult fantasy starring a mortal elf with a human name and lots of issues with authority figures.

A quick google search of the dubious email doungd56@gmail.com will direct you to plenty of discussions on Goodreads and even Facebook about people flagging this email. If you're going to pull a blatant book scam, at least try to be creative and rotate the emails a little bit, will ya?

Some users have pointed out this stranger has connections to a mysterious website: votemyreviews.xyz/contact.html with no street cred of any kind.

What happens to gullible well-meaning and/or desperate authors that do send a book to this email? Their book will probably appear as a bootleg making some Nigerian Prince slightly rich at your expense.

If the person had paid any real attention, my book is sold for only 1 usd on the legit channels and I have been known to offer ARC review copies for the first novel of my series every now and then. I no longer offer the sequels for free these days, mainly because I'm planning on changing the book covers and I have been busy writing the final sequels of the series to pretty much wrap things up (much to the annoyance of my scant die-hard fans that never seem to get enough of my works).

As to any potential scammer, as you can see, I take spammy fake review requests sort of seriously and tend to immortalize fruitless attempts for posterity. I hope it will serve as a deterrent and if I start to see a surge in spammy emails on my account, I will probably write another blog post.

Maybe you could take a nap, just like our model cop Wiggum, what do ya say?




sábado, 9 de junio de 2018

A small book editorial in Mexico called "Palabras Palibros"

One of my book fans sent the link to this small scale book editorial for me to look at. The editorial is called Palabras Palibros which doesn't seem to have a specific book specialty (aka, as in only focusing on poetry, Sci-Fi & fantasy, romance, non-fiction, etc...) and it has only a few titles.

They not only offer the service to publish your book in ebook and physical format, they also offer translation services to English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and German.

The requirements to send manuscripts seems pretty straightforward. You must show proof that you hold the copyright via the mexican copyright office INDAUTOR (all of my officially published novels have one), and you can either send them via e-mail or print a physical manuscript. They will then decide to decline or accept to publish.

The website doesn't specify much of the details after that except that it seems like you have to provide some cash to print the first edition and then they will take care of the publicity and getting your book in local bookstores. By getting published with them, you get something the average Mexican Indie Author can't easily get: invitation to a highly coveted book convention which could help you gain readers.

I don't know what my book situation would be. They don't specifically state if they are forced to reject books that you previously self published. I guess that as long as you continue to hold the rights and pull off the other edition of the book, they can accept your manuscript. I guess I'd have to email them, just for the sake of curiosity.

What about royalties?

They offer 30% royalties which for a publishing house is quite good. I don't make much of any cash selling the Spanish version of my book on Amazon, so I don't lose anything by at least sending them an e-mail. Createspace is a great service, but they don't ship books to Mexico very easily for some oddball reason. Palabras Palibros doesn't state how many copies they'd print, but if the book sells well, they offer to print the second edition on their own dime.

I am not familiar with any of the novels they have published, but these two seem pretty interesting:


Caballos en Tropel by Juan Carlos Martinez (seems to be a drama novel about a politician that retires to the countryside)


Gesta de luciernagas by Marco Antonio Alfaro del Ángel (seems to be a romance novel taking place in France, a protagonist named Deian is a well respected warrior peasant that wants to marry a noblewoman...)

The books aren't available on Amazon, only by mexican bookstores such as El Sótano. This could have a good and bad result. The book could sell pretty well locally, but you'd still be trad published and get your name out. I notice none of the books from the editorial are listed on goodreads. That isn't very good either because the editorial isn't pushing for the minimal external forces even though they claim to offer marketing services.

All in all, I am grateful for the kind suggestion and decided to give it some well-warranted publicity on my blog. I might think about emailing them sometime. I lose nothing by asking if they are interested in the Spanish version of my novel. I self translated it, but it needs to be professionally revised by a native Spanish speaker. I would be willing to let them improve any grammatical problems with the prose if they are genuinely interested in trad publishing it.

Visit the website HERE.

martes, 8 de mayo de 2018

Save the Cocky!

I just can't friggin' believe the absurdity of it all.

If you haven't tuned into Twitter or you have been living under a rock (or a hill, or a Siberian gulag... whatever), there is a huge dramafest going on because a romance author named Faleena Hopkins has somehow got a trademark approved of a common use word of the English Language used in a stolen copyrighted font (yes, somebody in the US government approved her to take over the word cocky, I am serious) and has now started a witch hunt.

First she sent cease & desist letters to authors that wrote romance books with the word Cocky somewhere in the title (and not only to books published after the trademark petition, she has gone so far as books that were published as much as 5 years before!), and now Amazon has pulled out books without requesting authors to change the book title.

Her lawyers? It seems like her powerful legal team consists of a mysterious website that doesn't work and the law firm was founded by an author of a book I haven't even heard of before. It's so weird.

Obviously, when you piss off a bunch of well-meaning authors with such a ridiculous threat, hell burns loose and now she's pretty much alienated herself from the writing community and even people that previously read & enjoyed her books a long time before any of this mess happened.

The graphics artist whose typography was used has confirmed the trademark has infringed on his own creation (thus pretty much voiding it right there and setting her for a lawsuit she will likely lose), has just gotten a huge following of fans. He seems like a really cool guy who was thrown into this mess while he was on vacations.

Credit for photo: Pajiba.com

And while people are slamming and public shaming her online, last night she uploads this incoherent tirade on facebook live where she claims to be a minority (hey, I'm hispanic myself and look paler than a ghost so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on that weird claim), she claims to be descended of slaves (I don't know what distant family history has anything to do with her ruining her own writing career but whatever), and then she has the audacity to pretty much make fun of autism.

Don't believe me? Watch the video!


It's just... too... much... drama!

You think I've gone cuckoo?

Maybe I have....


Before this whole dramafest started, she has answered perfectly valid negative Amazon reviews, and not a thank you note, I mean talking back at the reviewer. This is one of the biggest things that authors aren't supposed to do. It has ruined the careers of many authors. If you can't handle a bad review, either don't read it or don't be an author. I have a 1 star review of one of my books which was fully valid (the review wasn't posted on either Amazon or Goodreads but on another website) and I politely thanked the reviewer for taking their time.


If all of this wasn't enough, she has somehow called Amazon and Goodreads to start massively deleting all sorts of reviews that aren't even of her books just because they include the word "Cocky" in them.

Yes, I am serious.

This calls for action!!!

Support authors whose books have been affected by the mess, read the competition such as this jem:


I read one of her books just for fairness sake and didn't like it that much. The writing simply wasn't good at all. I simply don't understand why her books have so many 5 star reviews.

All in all, even though I don't write romance novels, I am following this closely because maybe someday, some narcicisstic looney might somehow trademark a common use word of the English language of the fantasy genre and me or a huge other array of authors I am friends with could be affected.

For now, I'm going to be on a tantrum stating the forbidden word:

Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky...

Better!

lunes, 19 de marzo de 2018

Magical Reality massive giveaway!

My book is participating in a massive multi fantasy ebook giveaway via Instafreebie between 9th of March 2018 till April 6th 2018.

So far I have been greeted with over 50 download in just 5 days!!! I really hope my new subscribers give the book a chance and *hopefully* review it.

There are quite a lot of other book participating (I subscribed to one of the lists because one of the books interested me hehe), maybe you'll find something you'll enjoy.

Check it out HERE!

sábado, 17 de marzo de 2018

Harlequin steel

I'm still alive BTW. I haven't updated this blog in... 6 weeks, not that I get a lot of readers anyways.

I'm currently very busy with my regular job so my writing hobby has been left to a standstill.

I would like to write a brief comment about harlequin steel. These amazing swords are hinted in the 5th novel A Calamity by Tioja who explains that a deceased member of his clan named Nurran created weapons that were nearly as strong as true harlequin steel. Tioja brought two spears that were forged by a long lost technique to the final battle for Ayrtain and they proved to enhance the demonic earth magic of Adinjandanir and Murghtada.

While they didn't make a fully lasting dent in the battle, in the very least the two elves easily created an earth dome to separate Kumar's army so that they could fight against Leilandy without interruption. By enhancing her sorcery, Froylan even felt tempted to invite Murpghtada to the guard... an offer that she obviously wasn't very pleased with.

We don't get to see a true harlequin sword until the 6th novel Quandary when Tioja visits his secret bunker and retrieves a strange green sword that once belonged to Lord Jarahad. By returning the cursed sword to Gulraj, Tioja will start to move a plan that affects the unfinished 7th novel...

These swords are both nearly impossible to destroy and harbor strange sorcery that only a swordsman with harlequin blood can fully wield. Good battles featuring these swords await in the 7th novel and while I have not yet revealed how they are made, the forging is done by powerful magic that only a specially trained pureblood harlequin can perform...

sábado, 10 de febrero de 2018

Revamping my goodreads reading list

I not only write as a hobby, I also love to read books. And as an indie author, I know fullhand how insanely hard it is to get unbiased reviews which could include very useful honest criticism. Even harder, to get the highly coveted Amazon review because depending on the # of reviews your book gets, the online store will up your rankings and might even help you promote your book without having to move a finger.

Oh, and if that is not enough, Amazon reviews are pivotal to set your foot in the door in order to get a highly desirable Bookbub paid promotion. You need a bare minimum of 100 Amazon reviews minimally of all of your books combined, ideally of the book you want to vy for a promotion. The promotion costs you an arm & a leg (not literally, but almost in money terms), but every author that has done it gains an insane amount of new reads and sales. I've never heard of an author that has done a promo claim the money spent was a waste.

My TBR list is pretty large (but still meager in comparison to a lot of readers out there). One thing that I have been doing is uploading every book from my kindle to my goodreads account along with every ARC ebook I have on my computer. I have found a few interesting things:

1) My full TBR list is around 430 books and has been diminishing over the past few months because I attempt to read whatever I can during my scant free time.
2) I have some books both on my kindle AND as ARC copies which drops that TBR list a few notches.
3) I found today a few books both on my kindle and ARC copies that are current and past participants of the SPFBO contest. I am trying to put a bit more urgency towards reading all of the SPFBO books that I can. Judges and readers alike have comented that the 2017 batch has been unusually good which means that I know that those books will be worth my time. I was pleasantly surprised to know that this year's current finalist Tiger Lily is one of my ARC copies! Yaay! I haven't read any of the 10 finalists yet so it will be fun to read this book soon.
4) I deleted two short story books from my kindle because they no longer exist on amazon and had a pretty much impossible time finding them on goodreads either. The list is big as it is, why waste my time reading a book that I'll be unable to review anyways?
5) I'm glad that I organized things a little because I also did something new: I created two separate lists for really short books that are under 50 pages, under 200 pages and lastly but not least, another ticked box for books with 20 or less reviews. As an author, I know that it's insanely hard to cross the 20 review barrier and some books on my TBR have 0 reviews!
I kind of like doing this organization because now, I have realized I have 30 books that are 50 pages or less. Those books are indeed super quickies and while I've had a lot of 3 star experiences with short stories, I have read a small amount that are 5 stars in my biased opinion. Oh, and now that I know which of these are the super quickies, I can read a bunch of them in a day and get them out of the way. If I can slice the TBR list to around 350 in a short amount of time, that will be great. Even better, some of these quickie books have almost no reviews. Extra bonus!

So now, I will be reading those quickie short books in order to delete them from my harddrive and kindle to free space. I will be continuing on reading whatever spfbo books available with a certain degree of urgency, just 53 unread books waiting to be read.

Will I ever create a book review blog? I don't know. I don't want to do that in this blog because I want to try to focus more on my own fantasy book series. Plus, the real biggie for authors is the amazon and GR reviews. So far I've never had someone cruising on my blog to ask me to read and review their book, but now you at least know where my TBR list sort of stands.

Feel free to check my Goodreads profile HERE and see for yourself. Maybe one of the books I praised might be of your interest or something.

sábado, 27 de enero de 2018

A magnificent review of An Ominous Book 2, Separation


This is a new review of the second Ominous Book 2 Separation that is being featured by a prominent blogger/reviewer, Jeyran Main:

"Separation is an epic young adult fantasy novel. It is book two of the An Ominous Book. In the second book, the story focuses on Richard and Spaulding. Richard has to face the fact that all of his family have been deceased and he is only left with his sister and his cousin. Spaulding is imprisoned and is being tortured until he confesses what he knows about the Ayrtainian Family.
The second book certainly takes a darker turn, and more scenes turn the nature of the story into a tenser situation. The pace of the story was steady, and the quality of the storyline was just as good as the first book.
In case you wish to read what I thought of the first book, you can click on the link below.
The story was still fun to read, and the author once again uses her creativity in describing the plot in such a way that was very suitable for its genre. I found Spaulding’s situation to be very interesting and constantly wanted to know what is going to happen to him.
I believe the author has enough material to add more sequels to this story and consequently induce more depth to the descriptiveness of the world built. The fantasy nature of the storyline could then intensify, and that alone would be a standout novel to read.
I recommend this book for young adult readers.
Written by Jeyran Main"
The original review is featured HERE.
Are you curious to read the darkest of all of the novels of my fantasy book series?
Check it at Amazon HERE!

domingo, 14 de enero de 2018

An interesting intake I'm getting from reviews

We all formulate something different after reading a book and what one person might consider to be a masterpiece, another review will call it rubbish. Just look at Tolkien novels and you will find plenty of 1 star reviews claiming the books wander around too much with flowery writing. I myself didn't like the filler Tom Bombadil chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring but I otherwise enjoyed the book.

While I loved reading Harry Potter (I chugged the 7th novel in less than 11 hours of binge reading which merely proves how good the book was), I detested the 5th novel and was overly generous by granting it a 3 star rating on Goodreads (mainly because I loved Dolores's character). The 5th novel suffered from too much filler, too much Harry's internal ramblings regarding Snape's private occlumency classes and a painfully slow pace. The book could have easily been a 4 star read if an editor had given J.K. a candid chat claiming that she needed to trim the fat a little bit.

I've reviewed a lot of books and some authors were surprised by some of the things I observed. It's also one of the reasons why authors really, really love getting reviews for their books. They not only get more visibility (Amazon starts granting you serious marketing power if your book has at least 50 legit reviews and the all mighty Bookbub site *might* accept your petition for a 1 day promo if you have a minimum of 100 Amazon reviews).

While getting a Bookbub deal is a huge (and a mightily worthwhile bang for your buck marketing feat), reviewers might see something else about the story that you haven't.

I have gotten some comparisons of my novel with Tolkien. And it's not because of the prose (I doubt I could ever reach Tolkien level), but more because of how they compare Spaulding to Frodo whose life turns upside down when they are dragged on an unwanted adventure that changes them due to something that shows up on their doorstep on the first chapter.

So far I have gotten two reviews that actually enjoy the breeze of fresh air that the child protagonists have no mystical prophecy or that they are innately special. For most of the first book, Richard and Nelida are just ordinary humans without any innate talent. Richard eventually learns how to summon his phantom beast but the endless hurdles thrown into the plot make it impossible for him to further his training. Nelida is on a separate realm of her own between being completely incompetant and the most terrifying mage in the entire story. Herb on the other hand shows enthusiasm but he never learns sorcery despite his best efforts.

The subsequent novels are vastly different in the sense that the children grow older and Spaulding becomes a more constant character in the story.

I also find it to be interesting that Froylan is universally detested. He's a main character that appears in every novel that is a mixture between awesome, terrifying, hateful and yet even funny at times.

Even though my book was killed off in the first round of the SPFBO contest and I currently don't have any other novels that could qualify for the 2018 contest (sequel novels don't qualify and I only have a few partially written novellas), I have found a lot of new books that I have attempted to read in my spare time, enjoyed hanging around in the sidelines of some discussion boards and surprisingly had my book chosen to be read and reviewed by a highly respected fantasy blogger. To get my book reviewed by two of the top fantasy blogs with mostly positive comments is thrilling.

I hope more readers that are into Young Adult will take a look at my work and see if the mostly positive feedback I've gotten so far is merited. ;)

My book on Goodreads

martes, 9 de enero de 2018

One easy way to promote your books

I'm lazy, I know.

Putting that aside, ever since I created a mailing list, I am quite surprised that I have subscribers in some rather unusual countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia, The Phillipines and even Botswana of all places!

Everytime I send a letter to my growing list, at least one of the South African subscribers find the time to read them.

Now, I seldom sell books outside of the US but I do have some Latin American readers that oddly enough prefer to read the original English version of my novel. I still don't regret spending a grueling month translating my own novel to Spanish. Getting a 97,000 word novel translated to another language costs quite a lot of money (it's a tiresome task) and then the translator rightfully has a voice in the royalty rights. Either you pay them a hefty sum for a one time offer or enter a multi year contract where the translator gets a cut of the royalties and then after the set amount of years, the royalties fully return to you. I also like the fact that the translated book was also copyrighted in Mexico. Better safe than sorry.

Believe it or not, I have the second novel with a rough translation, but I haven't finished that task so therefore it isn't copyrighted and much less published. I haven't really gotten to that task mainly due to time constraints.

Now, indie authors don't typically have a huge budget and you usually learn as you go while you stumble... a lot.

One thing that many indie authors don't know when they publish on Kindle Amazon is that they can get an Author webpage that shows a kitchy photo, a short bio and at least the US site allowed you to sync your blog. You can then glue all of your books in one place and make it easier for customers to locate you. The process only takes a few minutes and even if you don't know how many readers you'll reach with it, it doesn't hurt to do so either.

One thing I have been stalling for a long time and I have *finally* done is to open an Author Central for the other Amazon country stores that include the service: UK, Germany, France and Japan. I have some experience editing web search databases and being requested to help with foreign language categories so I didn't find the task of setting up my bio, books and photo on the German and French sites to be hard at all.

Amazon Japan asked me to create a new Amazon account. I had a few extra hurdles to jump, but at the end my novels finally have a little bit of a Japanese presence. I always find it curious that I don't have Japanese fans despite the fact that I initially got a lot of the ideas of my book when I visited Nara which is a 40 minute train trip from Osaka. Maybe pasting a face next to the novels will change that.

My Amazon Author Central site in Japanese

Now, I know that China is the second largest reading market in the world after the US. At 1 billion citizens, that's a huge untouched market. The issue of course is that most Chinese don't speak English and I don't speak Mandarin.

There is an interesting website that skips the book agent madia called Fiberead that offers a translation of your novel and pitches it to Chinese publishers. They retain 70% of the royalties but in exhcnage, they pitch your book to a market that more than likely you wouldn't have even bothered to tap anyways due to the cultural and language barrier. I haven't requested them to check my books to see if they are willing to give it a go (mainly because of the scant amount of Amazon reviews. If I had at least 20 reviews, that would give me some serious street cred to give this a shot).

However, if you are already an author that is starting to have a real following, you should give this website a shot. I haven't checked their site for over a year, but they commented once that they were thinking about offering someday a similar service for the Japanese market. Now, the idea of having my novels in Japanese sould sound really slick and definitely sweet.

If you are curious, just check the website below and give it a shot!

Click here to visit Fiberread

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Before I leave, I wonder if there is a similar service for other major languages such as German, French or Hindi...