JapanTimes News

JapanToday

Mainichi English

Yomiuri Shimbun

Asahi ( The good site is unfortunately paywalled after 5 articles, but it's the AJW )

Sometimes The Denki Shimbun

Subculture stuff from Japan Subculture Research Center. ( Disclosure, Jake Adelstein is a frequent client of mine,) 

Anime stuff from Crunchyroll News, Danny Choo and Anime News Network 

I'll occasionally add more to this list as I remember them.

click on the pic to see the larger version

planning on doing the rest of the major cast as well as their characters later this month. It's a nice exercise to do when watching toddler, because I don't have to concentrate on it, I just come back to it whenever Daisuke is bored with playing with me during the day. 

how does a social recluse market her book in this day and age? 

And by recluse I mean hikikomori level shut in. Is it possible to be a remotely successful author if the idea of stepping foot outside the home, attending a book signing/reading event sends you into dread filled bouts of absolute terror? (no hyperbole here) I’m guessing the answer is “Possibly, but not likely.”

Even authors who have landed an agent and publishing contract are expected to do a lot of legwork marketing their novels. This includes of course being into social media, willing to do interviews/ (sometimes TV/Vlog appearances) and of course a willingness to do tours of events like book signings or appropriate author friendly conventions 

I need a body double for book signings and readings. My inability to deal with people in public for more than 4.25 minutes (average) hits a fever pitch every time I have to do it, and the physical dread feels like suffocation. 

So please let’s not just suggest “Get over it and do tours” because believe you me you are not covering new ground, and that particular mindsoil has been well tread by me and my therapist who I see to deal with this very issue. It’s getting better, but I am in no way able to talk to people for an length of time in person, the dread/shame/fear/hate mixture is just too strong. I hate it. I hate talking about it, because it will give my haters (both of you) something else to insult me about, but it’s a reality I have to face.

And given the confines of that reality, I wonder how I can ever become a successful writer. I think Masamune Shirow’s success is a once in a life-time event. Not to forget that he’s my recluse hero, though!

Sorry for this blog being such a downer. If you want to go read something funny, please feel free.

I just hope one day people say "Mari Kurisato is the god of recluse book marketing!" We’ll see. 

3 covers at once!

The Tokyo Area Novel ( TAN) is churning along towards the end, but it’s a precarious time for me right now. Still battling bronchitis. Have an appointment to see my Dr in late May. (Medicaid is still better than nothing, though) Also I am watching the toddler 10-16 hours a day 5-6 days a week while my spouse juggles her full time job and four college classes and their associated workload. She’s rushing it like mad because we’re not sure if she’ll have the same financial aid grant next year. It’s hard on her being the primary income provider for a house of three while my mom is away visiting family in Europe. Money stress is really taking a toll on the partner, and even though I get the occasional art commission here and there it’s nowhere near enough for her to rest. Having the baby boy smiling cheers us both up.

He’s doing fine by the way. Climbing and destroying stuff, learning how the world works by dismantling it. Precocious kid for 19 months.

 Still work on the novel gets done.  71,000 words and counting, and at least 4 different cover designs, 3 by me. ( I commissioned one, but decided not to use it, though I did pay the artist for her work. Duh, hint hint.) I’ve also been designing the ebook file (harder than I’d have thought,) and the print book file as well, and found out some interesting numbers. 

Createspace is Amazon’s DIY book publishing website, offering print copies of your books to sell on yourwebsite, through Amazon.com and other retailers, online and off (for an upgrade fee of $25.)

Based on word count and the design of a paperback book, I’d make $0.02 for every book sold at Amazon’s retail price of $4. No, I did not mean to type $2. It’s actually just $0.02. Which means if I was selling solely printed books I’d need to sell 100,000 a month just to pay bills. Obviously no self published noncelebrity author can expect that much out of the gate, but that’s still a significant hurdle to pricing paperbacks affordably. LuLu.com is no better. Just ordering a galley copy for proofreading would cost me $14 with shipping. And that’s no royalties whatsoever. 

I want to make a print copy of the book available, but at this point if I self publish e-books look to be the best way to sell the work and make more than an opinion’s worth on every copy sold.  Thinking about Smashwords iBooks, Amazon, and even my own website. Not sure yet, and to be honest I don’t even have the full 1st draft of TAN finished. 

The other option of course is to overdrive-polish the hell out of my work using a third party (editor) and then pitch it to an agent and see where that goes. I have an agent in mind, but I also know the odds there. 

Thoughts?

I'm cheating. As in I'm not working on these every day. Just going through unfinished works.

kinda sorta hid the nipple.  not much.  This painting is still very much in the "chunky stage. Don't ask me about the background, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking there.