It’s the final progress update of 2024 and things are ending in a big way! Got some things to talk about so let’s hop into it!
From Ashe Vol. 12 Launches December 9
Kicking off the month is the launch of From Ashe Vol. 12! Everything is complete from the artwork to the editing. Clocking in at 326 pages, Vol. 12 will be available in all of the standard formats of paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and ebook!
With that, I am done writing for the remainder of December. I have the major plots settled on for Vol. 13 and the only work I’ll probably do will be to fully outline the book to get it ready for writing come January. Outside of that, things are wrapped up and ready to go so I hope that you look forward to Vol. 12’s launch!
OELN Focus Magazine
One of the cool things I got to do was get interviewed for the OELN Focus Magazine! Ran by Carrie Cheung (Beyond the Dome: A Blue Collar Hero, My Mom’s the Wannabe King, and My Neko Boyfriend), both myself and Alex answered a slew of questions to allow you to get to know us just a bit better! In addition to my and Alex’s interviews, you can also read the first chapter of My Girlfriend Was Delivered by 2-Day Shipping for free!
This Progress Update may come out a little bit before December 1; however, once the calendar turns, the issue will launch so I hope that you check it out!
To get this and other issues of the OELN Focus Magazine, head here: https://www.patreon.com/c/oelnfocusmag/home
OTAKU AND FRIENDS + THAT PROJECT
The OELN Focus Magazine isn’t the only place where you’ll get an opportunity to learn about me. I have been invited as a special guest on the Otaku and Friends Podcast and while it won’t be live, we are scheduled to record the episode on Sunday, December 15. When the podcast will air, I am not entirely sure but once I know a date, I will be sure to let everyone know. Besides, it will probably be a separate news post once it does air so keep a look out for that!
Not only will I be talking about my books and my journey as an author, but I’ll also be discussing some of my favorite anime and manga as well!
Since the Otaku and Friends Podcast is affiliated with that special project that I’ve been talking about for months, I’ll let the cat out of the bag.
Otaku and Friends is part of a new manga company by the name of Manga Pointer. They allow you to read chapters of your favorite series of manga. In addition, they will be hosting original content on their platform and I’m happy to announce that I have signed a 2-year non-exclusive contract with Manga Pointer to bring My Girlfriend Was Delivered by 2-Day Shipping there! Now, you’ll have another platform and option to check out that book! It’s not available on their site yet as they are still building out the backend for creatives to upload their work. This was the part I was waiting on to announce the project but since the podcast is happening, I might as well talk about it.
Last I spoke with them, the backend should be completed fairly soon so I will make a separate news post when MyGF launches on Manga Pointer!
THE BIGGEST BLACK FRIDAY SALE YET!
As I write this, I have about 45 minutes left on my Black Friday sale and while I won’t know the final numbers until end-of-day tomorrow, I can say that this has been the most successful sale I have run to date. Before November 30’s numbers come in, I sold 354 books!
To everyone who purchased a book during the sale, I cannot thank you enough! Also, MyGF proved to be the most popular title during the sale… so much so that it overtook both From Ashe Vol. 1 and A.R. Dragonfly Vol. 1 to become my best-selling title of all time! To think, Final Hope Vol. 1 came out in November of 2017 while MyGF came out just a year and a half ago and it has outsold every book I have ever written in the last seven years.
A.R. Dragonfly Vol. 1 held onto that number one spot for so long and a lot of people picked up that volume during the sale, too, so it made Miko and Daiki work for their achievement. Amber is truly a competitive person and she put up a hell of a fight but, much like Kaito, MyGF came in and knocked her down a peg and now she’ll have to settle for being number two… again.
Don’t worry… if you missed your opportunity to take advantage of my Black Friday deals… stick around because I have a feeling in a couple of weeks, you might get another shot at this thing called the End of Year Holiday sale. That’s right… buckle up because we’re doing it again… and this time, From Ashe Vol. 12 will be included in it!
MY REGULARLY SCHEDULED LIFE IS COMING TO PAPERBACK
Yes… the book is available to read for free on Royal Road; however, I’ve always wanted to try Draft2Digital’s print-on-demand service so I figured that I would use My Regularly Scheduled Life as a guinea pig to test the waters. I want to see how it looks and, plus, I kind of want a physical version of my book to slap on my bookshelf. It will be $12.99 like all my other books and if you guys want to pick up a physical copy, then feel free to grab one when it goes live. I’ll make the announcement when it does but remember the free version will always be on Royal Road. I don’t plan on marketing the physical book because, again, this is merely a test to see how D2D’s quality stacks up against Amazon’s KDP but since I’m using the book to test out, I might as well give the people the option to buy it if they want to support me.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
Lots of things coming up in the month of December but writing-wise, it’s going to be pretty quiet as I enjoy this break. Releasing 5 books in a year takes a lot of work so excuse me while I enjoy some relaxation.
In the meantime, I signed up for a new print-on-demand service called BookVault. I haven’t heard of them but they offer selective color printing so if I wanted to re-publish my books with color images and not get charged for full color from cover to cover (they only charge for color on pages that have it), then I can have that option. Plus, they integrate with WooCommerce which is already set up on my website so I could sell these special color editions right here in my store.
It’s about $25 to set up a book, though, and with 31 books… that amount adds up… so it’s still something I’m going to have to really think about to see if it’s worth doing and if so, it’ll probably be a little bit at a time. We’ll see. Right now, it’s just something for me to chew on.
Again, keep an eye on the site throughout the month for several updates and until next time…
Ja ne!