Why did you decide to write three novellas about the kingdom of Sage instead of one entire novel?

I originally started writing short stories to hone my writing skills. I hoped that getting a short story or two published would help my writing resume so that I might be able to sell one of my novels. Foolishly, I went about the task completely backwards. I wrote the first novella, “Toil, Trouble and Rot,” before studying the short story market.

When publishers say “Short story” they mean short. Most magazines want works of 5000 words or less. “Toil” checked it at nearly 10,000 words when I was finished!!! I had some paring back to do…

While a somewhat shortened version of “Toil” was on submission, I started writing another short story in the same world. I loved the main character–a fifty-five year old grandmother. Demetria was a very unlikely hero, but one that reminded me of real heroes in my own life. Yes, my grandmother was a gardener, and like Demetria in my story, she was magic to me, creating a beautiful world in which she had a magical way with plants. I worked on four stories in the Kingdom of Sage before I finally sold “Toil” to Coyote Magazine. The problem with all the stories was that they were getting longer–not shorter.

With few markets to submit to due to the unlikely hero and the length, I decided one day to clean them up a final time and turn three of them into a book: Sage: Tales from a Magical Kingdom.

Since publishing “Sage” I’ve had several people ask if I plan on writing a novel set there. Maybe that is where I should have started…

Tell us about your story.

Sword and Sorcery meets Agatha Christie. Three novellas introduce the Kingdom of Sage and those who protect its boundaries. Join Demetria and her husband Ward in their adventures as they protect Sage from evil: Rats, Snakes and perpetrators from within.

Sometimes it takes a more experienced hand to save an entire Kingdom.

The first of these stories, “Toil, Trouble and Rot,” was published in “Coyote Wild Magazine.” The other two are all new, original stories. “Toil, Trouble and Rot” finds the Kingdom of Sage under attack from a deadly and mysterious enemy. In “Dungeons and Decay” find out just how far a mother will go when her child is in danger–and how much magic it takes to keep him safe. In “Call to Arms” every hand is needed when a ghost invades the kingdom demanding old wrongs be righted.

What has your journey as a writer been like? Was there any time when you felt like giving up during the journey?

Oh goodness, I give up on writing on a regular basis! I didn’t at first–enthusiasm and ignorance carried me for at least five years. Then I began submitting to publishers and agents. The rejections were inevitable. I’m stubborn so I just continued to edit each work, resubmit and work on new ones.

After I obtained an agent and she shopped one of my manuscripts for a year…I finally did reach the point where I wanted to give up. At least…give up on the publishing aspect. I stopped writing anything except a short story here or there for probably six months. Truthfully, had Kindle not come along, I might still be there.

Where did you get the inspiration for your writings?

Inspiration is easy for me. I have more ideas than a garden has bugs. Discipline is what I want more of. I need to get my butt in the chair and write the words–and then edit the heck out of them to turn them into a story. The ideas I have always seem greater than the story I produce. I want to create the perfect work that “captures” the entire idea, but perfection is a mirage–always off in the distance, beckoning me closer, but escaping my grasp.

Self-publish or published by a reputable publisher? Why?

I’m self-published, mainly because there was only one or two markets for novellas. When the Kindle came along, I heard that Kindle readers were more open to self-published works. And Amazon was open to publishing my work. So I gave it a shot. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the results.

Do you have plans to develop your novellas in other mediums or otherwise?

I’ve had a few readers suggest that “Sage” needs to be developed into a full novel. I’ve also had a few people request it in paperback. At this point, I don’t have any concrete plans to create a novel…but. There is that fourth “Sage” story sitting on my hard drive. It was too long to make into a saleable short story.

It was getting more and more complex…so, never say never. As for creating a trade paperback, I have no plans to do so at this point. I’m not sure that I could sell enough copies at a fifteen dollar price tag to make it worth my while. One of the reasons I think “Sage” is doing so well is because it is an e-book. It’s inexpensive–and for an unknown author, I think that is working in my favor.

Maria’s book is available at Amazon, Smashwords.com (multiple formats), Barnes and Noble and will soon appear in the Sony store. Go check out her book now!

Want to be featured as an author/mangaka on the AMWC Virtual Book Tour? Check out our simple guidelines and we look forward to hearing from you! =3

Full circle. Back where I started. That’s where I ended up. Sort of.

I began my career at the age of five, by copying comic books using waxed paper (the kind you can see through), sprawled on the floor of our summerhouse. Most of my childhood was spent that way – drawing. All the time.

I learned how to draw the mouth of superman that way, using only a line with two smaller lines flanking it to make the dimples.

I began to create my own comic books, making up stories and characters that I was convinced would one day take over the world. Fame and fortune was just around the corner – or so I believed. I was eight at the time and the four or five people that bought my severely overpriced magazines didn’t exactly make for the success that I had anticipated. It would take almost 30 years before I turned my attention to making comics again.

Undaunted I continued to draw and in 1989 I got my first professional gig (unless you count a strip I managed to get into the Swedish Garfield comic book when I was 12). This did not come easy. I was at a game convention and having a miserable time. I had enrolled in a competition displaying my art and some painted miniatures and the competition was severe. My friends were up in the middle of the night fencing with sleeping rolls and plastic Coca Cola bottles. One of my friends decided to take a leak and found himself in the men’s room with a producer for a Swedish role playing games company. Having learned who he was my friend quickly persuaded him to take a look at my artwork. He was unimpressed but told me not to give up. I didn’t. I sent him 50 drawings every day using snail mail (yes, this was way before email was widely available). Finally he caved in and gave me my first gig. One thing led to another and I worked with them for several years after that.

FASA Corporation saw my art in Mutant Chronicles and picked me up to work on Shadowrun and Battletech, White Wolf came shortly after and I worked on Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf. By this time I was working full time illustrating just about everything that came my way. But the “creative” work was going nowhere and I I wasn’t evolving at all so I took a job as in house artist at a web bureau and moved to Stockholm. I stayed with that company until I was tired to death of doing web and got offered another job as in house artist at a computer games company. Doing conceptual art was the rage at the time and I really believed I had found my dream gig. But I hated my job there. Believe me, I know how dearly people want to get into that business but it was not for me. I dreamed of becoming a comic book artist and quit after about a year.

I began drawing The Portent and submitted the first eight pages to Image Comics and that was it. The Portent led to my work with Rick Remender on Strange Girl and Frazetta’s Creatures and eventually Gangwar that became a #1 best seller in Sweden. At the moment I can pick and choose what I want to work on but I still work 14 hour days. Or nights I should say, most of my days I have no idea what I’m doing. With two kids around I find that work is becoming harder and harder which means that I push my working hours well into the wee hours of the night to get anything done. But I like it that way. The house is quiet, everything is dark and I’m back where I started. Except that I’m not lying flat on the floor using waxed paper any more. Not all the time at least.

Peter Bergting is a comic book artist based in Sweden. Peter also provides illustrations for childrens books and art for publishers all over the world like Hasbro, Paizo Publishing, Aschehoug, White Wolf, Penguin, Bonnier Carlsen, Rabén & Sjögren and many, many more. His artwork appears in Stranger Comic’s THE UNTAMED, available soon from Stranger Comics. You can find out more about Peter at bergting.com.

Why did you decide to be a writer?

I can’t say I ever made a conscious decision to be a writer. It’s just something that I’ve always done ever since I learned how to operate a pencil. Now, the idea of putting my work out for others to see is a different story. I don’t care about the money (luckily, since there isn’t any) but I think anybody who writes needs at some point to have strangers read their work and provide some objective feedback.

What is your story about?

A fun spoof of Disney World and the people who love It!

Dave Jevik wasn’t too happy to hear that his wife had scheduled a family vacation to Snodgrass World Resort with the Zandanels. Loudmouth Vinnie is hard to put up with for an hour, let alone a week. But when Vinnie spots wheelchair-bound George Van Morrison in first class on the flight to Florida, the dreaded trip takes on a sense of purpose. Van Morrison claims he was injured at a restaurant owned by Dave’s friend back home and the lawsuit has already been filed.

Dave and Vinnie just know he’s faking it and they have a week at Snodgrass World to save the restaurant by proving it. They’ll have to dodge fleets of wheel chairs and scooters long enough to expose him while taking in park attractions like ‘Brutal Yet Fun and Lovable Buccaneers’ and ‘Showcase of Random Allied Countries.’

Vinnie’s sharp-elbowed wife is indispensable as she leads the way past line-cutters, other people’s obnoxious children and the maniac driving the scooter with the on-board colostomy bag. When they befriend a crotchety bartender back at the hotel Dave and Vinnie unexpectedly tap an inside source that just might help them get their man.

Anybody who’s ever taken a trip to Orlando will recognize most of what they read about in Snodgrass Vacation, a 65,000 politically incorrect satire of theme park life.

Where did you get the idea to write your novel?

I’ve always been a wise-ass and I’m good at identifying/spoofing ridiculous behavior. Somehow, though, comedy isn’t something I ever tried before so I decided I’d give it a shot. I was at Disney last summer. Don’t get me wrong, I love the place, but there was just way too much material for me to ignore, between the worshipping fans and image-conscious Disney trying so hard not to offend anybody. I couldn’t help myself. It practically wrote itself.

Why did you decide to take the self-publishing route?

Well, I spent years querying agents with other things that I’ve written. There were a few times I thought I was pretty close to landing an agent but it didn’t work out any of those times. I just don’t have the energy for that anymore and I think it’s futile anyway. There are so many people doing the same thing that it isn’t worth it.

It finally dawned on me that most rejections were of a query letter. In most cases nobody was even looking at what I wrote. It made me realize that it just doesn’t work that way anymore, if it ever did. I don’t blame the agents — they are overwhelmed with queries and there aren’t enough hours in the day for them to spend more than a few seconds on each. But that model just isn’t going to get the typical unpublished writer anywhere in my opinion.

I honestly don’t know if anything I’ve ever written is any good but I do know that there is a lot of self-published stuff that is better than some stuff that is traditionally published. What that means to me is that there’s some intangible factor that doesn’t help me (and again, I accept that there is a strong possibility that maybe it’s just that I’ve never written anything decent). I just feel like no matter what I write, no matter how appealing it might be, nobody in the traditional publishing world is ever going to consider it seriously.

The only problem with self publishing is that the only promotion is self-promotion. I was frustrated a few years ago when, by coincidence, a mainstream publisher put out a novel about a high school wrestler at the same time that I self-published one about a high school wrestler. It was hard watching that book sell when nobody ever even knew mine existed. I thought mine was just as good, and there was room in the market for two, but it never mattered.

Has it been difficult writing your book? Why?

Not really. Sometimes writing is painful, and lot writers feel that way, but at the same time it’s something that writers just have to do. I haven’t had any problem at all writing this or any other book.

Other than simply persevering in writing when it comes to penning one’s novel, what other qualities do you think a writer should have?

Perseverance and discipline are indispensable. It’s easy to type the first paragraph of chapter 1, and maybe even the last page of book, but it takes so much discipline to write an entire story properly. There’s a lot of groundwork that has to be laid and that can be a grind.

The most important characteristic is a love of writing, I think. It’s a skill that can be learned by trial and error, but there has to be that spark to start off with. There also has to be a willingness to learn and grow. One of the ugliest truths about writing that a new writer must face is that the first few things he or she writes is going to be crummy. We all learn this when we revisit our early stuff after a few years. It’s embarrassing, even if there’s nobody else in the room!

Dave’s book can be bought from Amazon. Do drop by and check out his book! It is also available for FREE on Smashwords.

Want to be featured as an author/mangaka on the AMWC Virtual Book Tour? Check out our simple guidelines and we look forward to hearing from you! =3

If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you’ll know that I often post links to useful information on how to hone your writing/drawing skills. =D Now that you’re finally done, it’s time to move on to the next stage. Here are a few steps that you can take in order to make the world know of your existence.

Don’t worry if you’ve yet to do something you think you can show the world, because no unpublished manuscript is a wasted effort. And remember, there’s no absolute shortcut. You have to be prepared to spend lots of time on your book, be it formatting or marketing.

Publish it

There are three ways to doing this.

NUMBER ONE: You can approach a publisher/agent (agents are mainly for writers/mangaka can approach publishers directly) in hopes that you can impress them enough that they’ll take on your book. But this method requires large amounts of patience and persistence. Your synopsis must be outstanding enough and well-timed to attract a publisher.

No matter how groundbreaking you think your story is, chances are you won’t be able to get your foot in a publisher’s front door because they have so many queries to look through. Not to mention the current market forces (sparkling vampires, anyone?) that are in play at the time you submit your query.

NUMBER TWO: If you decide to take your chances and self-publish your work, you could approach a printer. Minimum print runs in Singapore tend to be from 1k-5k or so. Before you approach the printer however, you have to make sure that your book is properly formatted and edited for errors. It would be most embarrassing if readers were to spot a mistake that could have been avoided.

Writers can use a software known as Scribus (free) to format their writings while mangaka can use software such as Manga Studio (trial version only). To ensure that your work is error free, enlist the help of a keen-eyed friend.

A good editor should be able to spot spelling, grammar mistakes, sentence structure etc. The same goes for manga editors, who are responsible for checking if the story runs smoothly, paneling is immaculate in addition to the usual grammar, spelling mistakes etc.

In the meantime, you’ll have to decide on the cover of your book. It’s easier on mangaka in a way because they can draw their own but for writers who don’t have an artistic bone in them, you could either hire someone to do the cover for you or source for royalty free pictures.

The most important thing is to remember that books are indeed judged by their covers. If your cover is not attractive (or looks cheap), no matter how wonderful your story is, people will overlook it.

One example of a not-so-impressive book cover that I always like to use: No money, No honey! =x I have nothing against the content, I just don’t like the cover enough to pick the book up.

NUMBER THREE: If you’re broke like me, then publishing it online is the best way to go about it. E-books are the rage these days. Manufacturers such as Kindle have developed E-Readers for digitally-inclined people. E-book clubs have sprang up all over the place and people are talking about e-books all the time. With such odds in the e-book’s favour, it is indeed a good time to have an e-book in your name. A good website you can go to is Smashwords.

Smashwords enables your book to be read in different formats so it appeals to a large variety of readers. However, you will have to read their style guide to ensure that your book is completely free of any formatting. You can set your e-book as free or any price you determine BUT remember that you’re still an unknown at this point. Setting your e-book for free may contribute towards gaining a steady readership in time to come.

Smashwords also lets you create coupons that you can distribute to selected readers in order to entice them. They can read your book for free and in return, perhaps, promote your book to their own circle.

Another site you can consider is Lulu and CreateSpace. They not only print on demand but ship the books to your readers as well. They’re not so much for mangakas however so I’ll recommend you to set up a website to display your work. There are many websites that offer free hosting so take your pick from websites like WordPress, Blogger, Webs etc.

Mangakas who have done so include Anninhell, By moon alone etc.You can also read up on how to go about hosting your own webcomic. If you google webcomic hosting, you can easily find hosts such as:

(info from Webcomic Hosting)

Publishing on the internet is attractive because it involves smaller overheads and it reaches more people across the world more effectively. Where there are search engines and the internet, you can be sure that people can access your webcomic easily. Provided effective marketing is done, which I will talk about in my next post. =D

moon

Hi guys! Once again, I’m able to invite yet another mangaka to grace our blog with her presence. Let’s give a warm welcome to Madeleine Rosca, mangaka of Hollow Fields~! =D

I personally find her style of drawing very cute and very colourful. =D So do support Madeleine by hopping over to Gomanga.com and purchase all the volumes of Hollow Fields~!

She was also one of four winners presented with Japan’s first ever “International Manga Award” for her work on Hollow Fields.

When did you discover you could draw?

Very young, like most kids. I wasn’t always particularly better than other kids at drawing; I just really enjoyed it, so the more I did it, the more practice I got. My parents were both art teachers, so there was a lot of encouragement at home.

Why manga?

Manga has a very cinematic feel to it; a good manga should be a lot like watching a good movie. Drawing the panels is a lot like being a director who’s in control of a camera. I liked that sense of action and movement. Often western comics look very static by comparison, so they didn’t appeal as much.

You’ve been both self-published and published by a publisher, could you tell us briefly what it’s like to be on both sides of the fence?

I was very, very briefly self-published before being picked up by Seven Seas. There are good and bad things to both sides. All in all, it’s much better to be published, because you get paid(!), you get professional editorial input and your work reaches a much bigger audience. Benefits to self publishing though, include full control over your work and your story. That’s not always what’s best for the story, though…sometimes having an editor’s opinion really helps.

How do you come up with the ideas for your manga?

I read a lot, watch a lot of films, talk to people…it’s a very organic process. I hope that doesn’t sound pretentious. Writers come up with stories just by living and having experiences. I like steampunk, so most of my stories end up with a steampunk aesthetic, and the themes that come from that – mad science, retro robotics, etc.

What can your readers look forward to in your future projects?

I’ve currently got one in the pipeline but I am still in the annoying ‘negotiating with publishers’ stage. It’s been a slow year, but hopefully next year will see another story coming out.

I found this website where Lars Martinson, a cartoon, writes about how he went about self-publishing his own graphic novel. Some of the advice may be American-oriented but I think they’re quite useful for comic artists of all nationalities as well. =D

Read and learn then.

How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel

1. 1/10 – Introductions / Disclaimers
2. 2/10 – Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3. 3/10 – Research, Research, Research
4. 4/10 – Savings & Money Management
5. 5/10 – The Xeric Grant
6. 6/10 – Preparing for Press
7. 7/10 – Working with Book Printers
8. 8/10 – Distribution
9. 9/10 – Marketing
10. 10/10 – The Long Haul / Conclusion

moon

Tell us a little about yourself as a writer. When and why did you begin writing?

I’ve always been a daydreamer, creating stories in my head on the fly, in moments of boredom, to entertain toddlers, to help me fall asleep. Discovering that I could actually write them down was a revelation, although developing the craft to make them accessible and enjoyable to others was a long and arduous journey.

For years most of my creations sat unread on hard drives and in boxes. But about two years ago, something happened to my writing. It was like a switch flipping. Like finding a path in the woods. I found a way to let the story and characters flow downhill (and uphill!) without getting bogged down in dead-ends and back eddies of exposition. Thus, I’ve finally reached a point where I think it’s worthwhile turning some of my work loose on people.

What’s your story about?

My story is about a man named Frank Bowen, MD, who lets a sudden and unexpected trauma derail his life. Years later he gets it back on track in the most curious way – by traveling to a parallel world. He’s a mission doctor working in Belize when his wife disappears under mysterious circumstances. He never remarries.

He roams the world working in various failed states (Somalia, Congo) for various international aid organizations, making occasional pilgrimages to his wife’s ‘grave.’ In the Chiqibul wilderness of Belize. On one of those visits, he is ambushed and abducted. Turns out, the militias of another world use earth as a conduit between battlefields, exiling or executing any resident of earth who blunders onto their secret.

Frank is lucky enough to be exiled, realizing that what just happened to him might very well be what had happened to his wife, Liz all those years ago. He embarks on a quest to find her traces, his task complicated by an invasion and siege from a powerful nation without access (yet) to the portals known as ‘xenoliths’.

Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

A desire to escape inspired this story. I began writing this at a time when I was very much in a rut,socially, emotionally and occupationally and very much wanted to be far away from the small upstate New York town I was living in. The seed of the story was a very special stone – a wild-looking iridescent chalcopyrite (a sort of fool’s gold) – that I spotted in the window of a local rock and mineral shop. Someone else bought the stone before I could, but its image haunted me and eventually turned into XENOLITH.

Do you have any future plans for more books?

I have one other complete novel (LETHE, an afterlife novel about a dysfunctional Purgatory (God as absentee landlord) which I wrote before XENOLITH and I think has some of my best ideas and visions). What’s keeping it back is a complete change from first to third person and a switch in gender of the major character (necessary to amp up the tension). I have yet another novel outlined and begun, but first XENOLITH is beckoning me back (forcing me!) to complete a sequel before I can move on to these other projects. I’m about 50,000 words into this sequel, tentatively titled ANABASIS.

What advice do you have for people who want to be writers but dare not take the first step?

Take the plunge! Start out with very small goals at first. One sentence. Two. Any word you get down on pixels or paper will probably lead to another, even if you think you’re ‘blocked.’. Move on to flash fiction or shreds and sketches of larger works. The only way to get better is to write and rewrite lots of material. Quantity definitely matters in becoming a better writer. And don’t be afraid to be brutal to your own writing. Don’t be satisfied with the merely adequate.

Arcadia’s book is available at Smashwords which can be downloaded free with coupon code: XY39L. Do drop by to check her book out~!

Want to be featured as an author/mangaka on the AMWC Virtual Book Tour? Check out our simple guidelines and we look forward to hearing from you! =3

Hiya guys~! Today I have the privilege of interviewing Hu Jingxuan, thanks to the heads-up by annhell. =D

When and why did you go into manga drawing?

Since young, I had been enjoying cartoons and animations. The first few series that really sparked my interest in manga creation are Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon and Dragon ball. I started seriously drawing manga in 2003. I joined the Student Manga correspondence in Singapore Press Holdings and I submitted my works to be published in Friday Weekly every now and then.

Of all art forms, I especially love drawing manga. It is an escape from the real world into my own fantasy world. I can tell my own stories through manga and create characters based on personal experiences, making sure they are neither absolute monsters nor angels. But most of all, I love the challenge manga drawing requires.

Once I started drawing manga in 2003, I had decided that I would want to do this for the rest of my life. Since then I had been working consistently towards this goal.

Being a manga artist in Singapore is not easy, how did you manage to juggle both real life and drawing?

It had been really hard at first. Lament was produced when I was still in NUS High School. I had to balance between homework, exams and producing about 20 pages of manga per month. But I guess ‘when there’s a will, there’s a way.’ My passion had kept me going.

How long do you take to produce a page and where did you get your inspiration from?

It varies. It’s usually the concept and planning of the page that takes time. Inking takes around less than half a day usually.

I’m enchanted by myths and the ancient civilizations. Much of my comic and illustrations has setting in a fantasy or ancient world. My subjects tend to be mythical guardian beings or angels.

Over the years, I have developed an ornate and gothic art style. I’m obsessed with details, techniques and visual impacts. I put special attention to designs in my work, be it the clothing design or landscape design. Though I like painting and experimenting with colours, I’m more interested in the sharp visceral feeling created by the medium of micron pens and markers. I want to create in my art a surreal nightmarish dream realm. A worlds like an entangling spider web, where everything is crawling with pseudo-organic ornamentation and decaying roses.

You managed to publish “Lament” with the help of MDA and Chuangyi. Could you tell us how that came about?

I submitted my proposal for First-Time Writers and Illustrators Publishing Initiative in 2007, and I was chosen. Since then, I had been working on ‘Lament’. I had gained a lot through the process.

The experience and insights gained from working with editors. Lament is created from the team effort of me and the Chuangyi editors. Comic drawing is no longer a simple individual affair. It involves the combined effort in drawing, scripting, page layout and story development.

Along the way, I picked up invaluable tips from the editor’s suggestions. The main editor and Team Cy has helped me to develop my plot from its shaky beginning. They showed me how to add tension to the story. And with their help in scripting, my story becomes more polished and smooth. This project is a proper training for me to prepare me for future challenges.

Chuangyi and MDA had been selflessly promoting our works through conventions and autograph sessions. My experience at STGCC recently has really been fruitful and fun. Chuangyi had done a great job creating publicity for our works in STGCC from both the public and other publishers. I also had an interesting experience overcoming my shyness and learning a few promoting skills from Chuangyi. ^^

It’s an honour working with Chuangyi and it’s really a huge dream come true for me. At this moment, I need to say a loud, thank you for making it happen!

I still remember the first time I met the manager in Chuangyi, he looked at my art and told me that my works and my unique gothic style have the potential to go far, it has been one of my driving forces when I was drawing Lament =>

What was it like to contribute to “Liquid City”?

I felt both excited and honored. It’s a platform for me to polish my skills at telling a story in less than 20 pages. It felt totally different from drawing a long story like ‘LAMENT’.

Publishing anything of any sort is really challenging in Singapore, how would you advise an aspiring mangaka to see his/her dream come true in publication-land?

I would start by submitting my works to competitions and proposing my ideas to different publishers. Also, set up a good professional website to showcase your works. Or even start a webcomic to get feedback and create a fan base. And there’s always the option of self-publishing if you are confident that your work has market value.

Thanks to Jingxuan for granting us this interview. Check out her artwork at Deviantart. You can also find out details to purchase Lament there.

moon

AMWC has been increasingly growing thanks to supportive readers and enthusiastic members, so I’ve decided to create TWO mailing lists to help our loyal readers keep in touch with AMWC.

The Juiciest Updates on AMWC:

This newsletter will contain updates on latest AMWC posts and happenings. Space will also be provided for advertising purposes at the head of the email so if you wish to explore advertising opportunities with AMWC’s newsletter, email me.

Requests and Collaborations:

Since setting up AMWC, I’ve received countless requests from people who wish to collaborate with members in my club on projects like book cover art, bring a manga to written life etc. Hence I’ve decided to open a second mailing list for such a purpose. If you…

• are looking for an artist/illustrator to do illustration such as book cover art,
• are looking for a writer to work with you on your comic/manga, OR
• are available for (paid or unpaid) commissions (whether art or writing)

If you wish to join both or either of the lists, email me at aspiringmw[at]gmail.com.

To make your requests, please provide me with the following details:

• Name
• Email
• State whether you are available for requests/commissions OR you’ll like to make a request.
• If you’re offering your services, write a short paragraph about yourself and whether you accept unpaid commissions.
• If you’re making a request, describe what you’re looking for. E.g. an artist to do your book cover. Please provide as much detail about your project as possible.

Thanks ya all~!

NOTE: ALL MAILING LISTS WILL BE SENT OUT EVERY SUNDAY STARTING DECEMBER 09.

moon

Aware of the fact that most members of my club are rarely updated on the latest happenings due to too many posts on our club thread, I’ve decided to set up a mailing list so everyone who has provided me with a valid email address will know the latest gossip and news.

If you’re a member of AMWC who hasn’t received my newsletter, please check your junk inbox to ensure that my email hasn’t been diverted there. If so, do put the AMWC email (aspiringmw[at]gmail.com) in your safe contacts list.

Otherwise, it simply means I don’t have your email so please kindly update me with your details. =)

I’m also planning on creating a Reviews section for the blog so people may contribute reviews for the books they’ve read (especially self-published ones). If you have a review you wanna submit, email moi. Thanks. I’ll set up the section as soon as I have enough entries.

moon