Benjamin Martin's Blog: More Things Writing, page 44

Advanced Chahan Recipe – Okinawan Fried Rice

By far my most popular post on More Things Japanese is my easy recipe for Chahan. This time around, I wanted to share a slightly more time-consuming, but even tastier recipe for those of you who love Chahan. As with … Continue reading →

Hoko Garden – Himeji City

The Koko-en or Koko Garden is located just west of Himeji Castle in Himeji City. If you’re walking from the main train station, it is to the left of the castle grounds on the other side of the moat. According … Continue reading →

Weekend Trip to Kansai- Kyoto

Since moving to Japan, I’ve lived on small islands in Okinawa Prefecture. Unlike those on the mainland, it can be hard to travel when you factor in the time and cost of having to take a boat or plane before … Continue reading →

KumeGuide.com

Since I moved to Kumejima in Okinawa almost two years ago, I’ve been working on an English Language guide to the island. It’s a work in progress as I’ve juggled this blog, writing my novels, and teaching, but I came … Continue reading →

Big Leagues in Small Towns

Baseball is huge in Japan. As I write this, the teacher’s room TV is set to the World Baseball Classic where Japan is up against Puerto Rico. Will they win? I have no idea, but there will definitely be plenty … Continue reading →

I want to get Published

[image error]Since becoming a published writer I’ve had friends, family, and acquaintances ask me about how to go about getting published.  While my story isn’t very common, I’ve learned a few things along the way that might be helpful if you’re just starting out.

I do not yet consider myself a writer.  My debut Samurai Awakening is out, the sequel is set for later this year, I self published a short story, run three websites, and do an hour radio show, but writing hasn’t become a method of supporting myself yet.  If you want to get published to make a lot of money, realize time and numbers are against you.

Do you have something to Publish?

If you don’t have something that could be sold, stop reading this and go write.

What do you want to Publish?

There might be a market for just about any kind of story, but every type of writing has a specific place in the industry.  There are ways to publish articles, short stories, novels, epics, and tomes of historical fact, but if you try to sell an epic to a magazine they’ll stop at your subject line.  Figure out what you’ve written and where it might work.  You have to understand your own work and be able to talk (or at least write) about it if you want someone else to take a look at it.  There is so much competition out there that people in the industry need a reason to even take a look at a sample of work, otherwise they’d never get through the slush pile of mail that makes it past the barriers they put up.

There are essentially three ways to get published:

Traditional – You submit a query letter to an editor at a publishing house (book, mag, etc) OR to an agent. Publishing houses and agents have different requirements for submission and many will not accept manuscripts without representation (thus you have to get an agent if you want to sub to one of the big publishers). Most traditional publishers will not publish a short story collection, though you can check their websites or one of the many resources out there (such as “Writer’s Market”) for what they publish.  This is where understanding your work and the market come into play.

The benefit to traditional publishing is that they pay you. You should never have to pay out-of-pocket, even small presses. They usually pay some combination of an advance and/or royalty. The downside is it is hard to get an agent or editor’s attention and there is a LOT of competition. You won’t make much per book but you may get some publicity help though it’s not guaranteed.

Vanity Press – You pay to have a book created. You pay for distribution, shipping, editing, etc. This is a dying category but there are still plenty of companies and people willing to scam you.  Be careful.

Self Publishing – Similar to Vanity except its becoming more accepted in the digital market. You write a story, pick a company to work with and they help you put the book together. Amazon’s Createspace.com lets you do everything for free, but then you have to edit and do the cover and interior design on your own. They offer paid services as well with different pricing tiers. Essentially you pay for things a traditional publisher would do, but then you get more of a royalty rate when you publish. You can pay for marketing support but unless you have a large social media following you aren’t going to sell many books.

The Take

Overall don’t expect to get rich quick. If you just want to share some stories with family and friends, Create Space or a similar company should work for you. They focus on print-on-demand paperback books and you can pay for a transition to kindle. They’ll take care of distribution and selling though it all depends on the options you choose and how much you can do yourself.

One option for short stories is magazines. You’ll need to research the industry to find out what magazines might suit your stories, then find out if they accept submissions that match what you’ve written.

No matter what you choose, getting published will take time. It took me 3 years from idea to bookshelf and that is Extremely Rare.

This has nothing to do with writing. Cherries from Sakura Trees on Kume Island in Japan. Good Luck!

Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture is hailed as the most fabulous of Japan’s many castles. It is definitely the largest. I had the opportunity to visit Himeji for a half-day at the start of March in 2013. Himeji Castle is … Continue reading →

Nakasato Elementary Exchange (Winter) Part 2

This is the second part of this post.  Checkout the first part too!  Don’t miss the video at the end. Every winter fourteen fifth grade elementary students from Kume Island’s 6 elementary schools travel to Toakamachi.  In the summer, a group of … Continue reading →

February Giveaway!

February is a great month in Japan, but its also super busy.  Not only do we have the Japanese version of Valentine’s Day, we also have many cultural festivals and other events before the end of the school year in March.  This month’s activities show up in a big way in Book 2, so if you checkout MoreThingsJapanese you might get some hints!

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I also recently traveled to Kyushu with my second year junior high school students.  On the trip we visited Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine.  Many students go there to pray before major tests or have people get them good luck charms.  While I was there, I spotted a small display of zodiac charms and decided to get two for lucky fans.

This month I’m giving away 2 copies of Samurai Awakening with exclusive bookmarks and two tiger charms from the shrine.  Since its the second month and all, I’m giving everyone two ways to win.  You can enter on Goodreads, or via rafflecopter right here.  One prize set is up for grabs via each method so good luck and thanks for all your support.

a Rafflecopter giveaway





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Goodreads Book Giveaway







Samurai Awakening



by Benjamin Martin

Giveaway ends February 28, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

While your waiting for the entries to end, you can checkout my latest short story The Tanner’s Daughter for free on Smashwords, Wattpad, and the iTunes Store!

School Trips in Japan

Monday is a day off in Japan in celebration of Coming-of-Age-Day which we just celebrated on our island yesterday.  I’ll be posting about that soon, but this week I have the opportunity to travel from Okinawa to Kyushu for the Junior High School Trip.  School trips are a huge part of school life and are memories that will stay with students forever.  This year I’ll be live tweeting throughout the four-day trip.  Check back here for new tweets or follow on twitter where I’ll be using the hashtag #JapaneseSchoolTrip.  Join the conversation below or just follow along!

Tweets about “#JapaneseSchoolTrip”

This is actually my third time traveling with my junior high students. I’ve done a couple posts on past trips, you can find them all in my Kyushu Category on MoreThingsJapanese.com.  These school trips are a huge part of growing up in Japan and will be featured in the sequel to Samurai Awakening, due this fall from Tuttle Publishing.