The wait is over. Instant gratification can now be yours.
The DRM-free eBook features full-color illustrations. The paperback features new, more readable formatting with illustrations in glorious black and white.
And if you read, remember you can do me a solid by leaving an honest review.
Jake Blatowski can’t wait for high school—basketball, calculus, and a cafeteria that isn’t under investigation by the health department.
But he’ll have to wait: A computer malfunction has assigned him to the fifth grade!
It’s bad enough that he bangs his knees on the desks or that Miss Percy is going over long division . . . again . . . but Jake has to sit next to Dana Volt, a perpetually surly troublemaker determined to make his life a living hell.
Worse yet, Dana secretly belongs to a coalition of girls who protect humanity from the horde of deadly monsters plaguing the city—monsters that have chosen Jake as their next target!
Jake’s no hero; he just wants to make it to varsity tryouts. But now the impulsive and moody Dana is the only one who can save Jake from certain death—and Jake is the only one who can save Dana from herself.
Tomorrow, , begins the book launch of Jake and the Dynamo, first volume in a new series full of adventure, laughs, and lots and lots of magical girls.
Upon release, the book will be available as a DRM-free eBook with unlimited lending. It will also be available on Kindle Unlimited and as a paperback.
This is the last day of the low, low preorder price of 99 cents.
Read the novel that fans already call “hilarious, insightful, poignant” and “a great story for anyone who likes humor, adventure, and a truly unique setting.”
The eBook will be an Amazon exclusive for three months. I will announce when additional purchase options become available.
David V. Stewart has some interesting comments on the Dungeons & Dragons Strixhaven campaign recently announced by Polygon, a site famous for its trashy reporting:
The first thing I did, upon reading that tweet, was wonder what the hell D&D has to do with college. Last I checked, it was about being a murder hobo crawling through underground mazes with the option to build a fiefdom if so inclined. But then again, the last time I checked was back during the Satanic Panic when I played occasionally as a forbidden pleasure.
Now, of course, D&D has a vaguely medieval veneer, and it was in the Middle Ages that the first universities were invented, so we might argue that colleges could conceivably exist in D&D—but we know very well that it isn’t medieval universities that this Strixhaven thing has in mind. That’s obvious from the artwork accompanying the post.
Stewart writes the following:
What I’ve realized from interacting with these sections of millennial fandom is that the escapist feeling they pursue is not so much escape from this world and its limitations per se, but an escape to a life that is somehow better and (most importantly) more meaningful than their own. Thus, the return to high school is about experiencing an alternate memory, one in which the high school experience was all they were promised it would be by shows like Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210, or even (perhaps more so), Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
This is a reality in which they are special, they are well-liked, and they are doing important things that give their life purpose and meaning. This is almost the exact inverse of what high school actually is for 90% of normal people, including the popular jocks. Real high school is a prison experience, where you are merely a single interchangeable member of an infinite line of grey-goo nobodies who are immediately forgotten (even by your friends) and almost everything you do while in school has no purpose or point beyond getting a grade so you can eventually be released from your captivity.
My own comments:
Someone could point out that the original post says “college,” not “high school,” so Stewart is arguably off base, but since college today had dgenerated into a more expensive high school with less adult supervision, the distinction is irrelevant. However, it’s difficult to know whether his explanation of the endless parade of fantasy schools is right or not.
At least one reason we see so many schools in fantasy settings is the success of Harry Potter, as such success naturally breeds imitations. But Harry Potter didn’t originate the idea. Another reason schools are common settings is the YA demographic of a lot of fantasy, a demographic that is usually in school (though why they’d want to read about school while in it is another question). A third reason is that a school setting makes it possible to intersperse sit-com humor and situations with more action-oriented material, a formula that has proved successful for a lot of anime and manga. I do that myself in Jake and the Dynamo.
But then again, a lot of the school-focused YA fantasy material that’s come out recently is fixated on certain hang-ups. You can see that in the artwork at the top of the post. And that suggests that Stewart is on to something. A lot of this really does look like small-minded people screaming, “Look at me! I’m important!” Or like the products of adults who just never got over high school and moved on.
Another example of this high-school fixation is the recently released and much-derided YA graphic novel from DC Comics, I Am Not Starfire, in which the antisocial authoress stars as the self-insert protagonist. This protagonist is of course in high school:
When the only story you can write is self-inserted fan-fiction. 🤢🤮
I just submitted Dead 2 Rites for preorder on Amazon. As with the first book, Jake and the Dynamo, this should give me enough time to get th the kinks worked out before the book actually goes up for sale.
As stated before, I’m new to all this. I’m really glad I decided to have a preorder period even though, as a new author, I don’t have any name recognition to build excitement with. Thanks to the preorder period, I’ve been able to adjust keywords and categories to get Jake and the Dynamo situated where it belongs on Amazon’s site: It’s gone through adventure romance and gay romance, and appears to have finally settled in where it belongs with satirical works, harems, and adventure light novels. Next, I’ll email Amazon and ask for a manual adjustment to refine it further.
Then, once it releases, the ad campaign begins.
Even though Dead 2 Rites will not release until September 1, I am beginning the preorder period now so potential readers can see that this series already has two books and that they won’t have to wait long for a sequel. Both novels are only 99 cents on Kindle during the preorder period. They will also be on Kindle Unlimited for at least three months before I push them to other platforms.
Both eBooks are DRM-free with lending enabled because I believe the books you buy should belong to you. Paperback versions will also be available after the release dates.
My Senpai Is Annoying, written and illustrated by Shiromanta. Seven Seas Entertainment, –. 4 volumes (ongoing). Full color.
There’s a change happening in manga, and I suspect most of us on this side of the Pacific are oblivious to it. I was, at least, until quite recently, though I’ve been out of the loop while working on my books and getting married and buying a house and stuff. But in any case, manga is becoming more social media-driven: Many artists are now getting discovered on Twitter or using it to promote their work.
We may also be seeing the rise of internet manga magazines: The title before us is published digitally in the online Comic POOL, and because it is online, it is published in color; although the coloring is fitful at first, My Senpai Is Annoying becomes a legitimate full-color comic as it develops.
It has also grown popular enough to earn an anime adaptation, which is set to debut in October of this year. At the time of writing, four volumes are available in English, and the fifth is set to release later this month.
His essay is worth reading because he steers away from the superficial answers that might involve animal familiars or fancy costumes and instead focuses on common themes in the genre, which he lists as companionship, perseverence, and growth. Or to put that altogether, magical-girl stories are generally coming-of-age stories, often but not always with a sentimental tone. So go read his comments.
Speaking of magical girls, we’re just getting started with the news about Jake and the Dynamo and its upcoming sequel Dead 2 Rites. Remember, you can preorder Jake and the Dynamo right now for only 99 cents.
Right now, Jake and the Dynamo is available for preorder. Featuring brand new cover art and the same fantastic, full-color interior illustrations, this revised and definitive edition is the must-have introduction to the JAKE AND THE DYNAMO saga.
Jake Blatowski can’t wait for high school—basketball, calculus, and a cafeteria that isn’t under investigation by the health department.
But he’ll have to wait: A computer malfunction has assigned him to the fifth grade!
It’s bad enough that he bangs his knees on the desks or that Miss Percy is going over long division . . . again . . . but Jake has to sit next to Dana Volt, a perpetually surly troublemaker determined to make his life a living hell.
Worse yet, Dana secretly belongs to a coalition of girls who protect humanity from the horde of deadly monsters plaguing the city—monsters that have chosen Jake as their next target!
Jake’s no hero; he just wants to make it to varsity tryouts. But now the impulsive and moody Dana is the only one who can save Jake from certain death—and Jake is the only one who can save Dana from herself.
If you preorder today, you pay only 99 cents for this DRM-free eBook. However, the price will rise after the book becomes available on August 1st.
The eBook will also be available on Kindle Unlimited for three months, and that means it will be an Amazon exclusive for that timeframe. After that, it will be available on other platforms.
The paperback will also become available on August 1, both through Amazon and other publishers. Stay tuned for details.
I know I’ve been radio silent again for a while, but that’s because I was again in one of those stages where I have a project I want to complete but it seems to be taking too long. But, today, I have it done—the final edits and formatting for Rags and Muffin, the novel I am planning to release after Dead 2 Rites, which will release after Jake and the Dynamo.
This took longer than expected for several reasons, both related and unrelated to the project itself. One thing that took a while was inserting all the internal links: This novel has a glossary in the back, mostly because, when I was a kid, I thought novels with glossaries, such as Dune or Watership Down, were extra special. But in the world of eBooks, a functional glossary requires hyperlinks in the text. Vellum, my formatting software, has a limited ability to add internal links (though it has fewer options than I would like), and today, I got the links done.
The cover art for this project hasn’t been made yet. However, I uploaded the PDF of the paperback and mocked up a fake cover on Amazon KDP so I could use the previewer to make sure the internal margins are correct.
The chapter headers and section breaks are from Barbusco comics. At the moment, I only have the one chapter-header image, the gun next to a teacup. I’m thinking about commissioning a few more so there isn’t just one image at the head of every chapter, but if I do that, I can get them in the same dimensions so they won’t affect the page count. The complete PDF of the paperback clocks in at 490 pages, including the front matter.
Real Life
The only remaining delay has to do with real-life stuff: The magical girls and I are buying a house. We had been shopping for a while, but a house that met our wants came available suddenly and unexpectedly. We’re supposed to be moving in at the end of next week if all the paperwork is complete on time, and for that reason, after this post, I’m going to go radio silent again for a bit because I’ll be focused on packing, closing, and moving.
Release Dates
Because we suddenly had to drop money on the house to avoid losing it, there isn’t a lot in the kitty for my publication and advertising costs. After we’ve made the down payment, I’ll be better situated to assess our budget and figure out what I can do, but I think we should have enough for some modest promotion.
For that reason, tentative release dates for the books are:
Jake and the Dynamo:
Dead 2 Rites:
Rags and Muffin:
I am also (cross fingers) hoping to have the fourth volume of Jake and the Dynamo out by the end of the year.
Those are tenative, and I might tweak them by a day or three as I learn the business and, for example, figure out which days of the week are best for a release. Some unforeseen disaster or delay may also happen, but since two of the books are ready to go except for minor tweaks, I don’t think there should be any serious problem.
This has, of course, taken longer than I originally, optimistically anticipated. I can’t say I’m surprised because I haven’t self-published before; I’m just glad I didn’t have a Kickstarter because delaying release on a pre-funded project is bad form. I may, however, consider Kickstarters in the future when I’ve got the hang of this.
Obviously, I’m still absorbed in my projects over here. I worked with Barbusco Comics and Nodsaibot to fix the issue with the cover of Dead 2 Rites. They were both very accomodating.
As you can see from the post’s eye-catch, I’m looking over the previewer on Amazon’s KDP module to make sure the paperbacks look the way they are supposed to. Once that’s squared away, I can look over the eBooks.
I can see that Vellum, despite its gigantic cost, has saved me any number of headaches. Since this is the first time I’ve done this, I now know I did a few things in the wrong order—for example, I should have already uploaded the manuscript and reviewed it before commissioning the cover art. Fortunately for me, Vellum’s presets are built to accommodate Amazon’s requirements, so, for example, my inside margins aren’t screwed up. If I had to widen those, that would throw off the page count, which would then throw off the cover art again …
Anyway, it appears my first-time, amateurish disasters have been largely averted so far. I learned a few lessons, but they have been mostly pain-free.
Also, Amazon’s software is more user-friendly than I expected, at least when you have all your files pre-built. (I understand that trying to build your paperback from a Word file using Amazon’s software is a major headache.) It automatically checks the margins on everything, and it automatically requires a deeper gutter for Dead 2 Rites than for Jake and the Dynamo because the former is considerably longer.
At least for now, it seems that the greatest difficulty comes from the requirement that the cover—front, spine, and back—need to be a single image, which means the book dimensions have to be set in stone. On the other hand, that makes wraparound covers a possibility, and that’s what we have for these two books.
Looks like the cover for volume 2 has been rejected by KDP because the dimensions are slightly off. Looking back over the files and prep, I’m pretty sure how it happened. I’ll be going back to my artists to get this resolved; I think it’s fixable, but I’ll keep you all posted.
