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Book Discussion for Read & Review #102: Removed by S.J. Pajonas
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Sarah
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May 11, 2016 10:17AM
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Does anyone reading understand the Japanese? I feel like I might be missing something important since there is so much of it.
Hi Gretel! Let me assure you that if you skip past the Japanese, you will still be getting 98% of everything. I made sure that any remarks were in context and not important data that you would need.But also on this topic, I've always loved the inclusion of some Japanese words and dialogue in this series (though it gets less and less by Book 3 and 4), but I feel this may be the only big stumbling block for readers of my books.
In two weeks time, this whole series is getting a huge makeover! New covers and a new edit (which I only decided on last week, so the timing with this read & review was a little off) to take out the Japanese within dialogue. I feel that the Japanese terms like "kimono", "sushi", "ramen", "katana", etc are used well within descriptions so those will stay. Dialogue is being stripped of 95% of the Japanese except in a few places I feel are very needed. If you would like a revised edition, please feel free to let me know and I'll be happy to provide you with it!
S.J. wrote: "Hi Gretel! Let me assure you that if you skip past the Japanese, you will still be getting 98% of everything. I made sure that any remarks were in context and not important data that you would need..."I think it was the amount of Japanese that took me a bit to get sucked into the book... But in the end, I do think that it truly helped set the tone. Personally, I probably would have preferred some sort of glossary in lieu of removing the japanese completely... Actually, what I really want is for the translation to appear when I click on the Japanese... Can we get eBooks to do that? Sounds simple enough... :-)
Gretel wrote: "S.J. wrote: "Hi Gretel! Let me assure you that if you skip past the Japanese, you will still be getting 98% of everything. I made sure that any remarks were in context and not important data that y..."I agree that would be cool! But no, the tech doesn't exist for it yet. I looked into doing footnotes for every Japanese term but it was SO MUCH WORK and didn't work on other devices but Kindles. I also used to have a glossary but reviews about having to flip back and forth for the glossary were poor. Alas, eliminating a lot of the Japanese was my best option.
S.J. wrote: "Gretel wrote: "S.J. wrote: "Hi Gretel! Let me assure you that if you skip past the Japanese, you will still be getting 98% of everything. I made sure that any remarks were in context and not import..."Actually, I think you could just make all the japanese link to one webpage that jumps to the translation on all devices--but that's also a lot of work... and would require the reader to have internet connection... Perhaps you could have Sanaa explain some of the frequently used phrases the first time around? To be honest, I never quite fully understood even the use of "chan" in the greeting/naming convention. I am certain you probably gave enough clues if I was trying to figure it out, but when pleasure reading I guess I don't want to work that hard.
Anyway, I was going to private message you, but you have messages turned off on goodreads. There were quite a few places where words were missing - if you want me to send you the locations, send me a message.
Gretel wrote: "S.J. wrote: "Gretel wrote: "S.J. wrote: "Hi Gretel! Let me assure you that if you skip past the Japanese, you will still be getting 98% of everything. I made sure that any remarks were in context a..."I had to turn off messaging for anyone other than friends because I was getting spammed too much. Anyway, -san is for every day interactions with people you don't know or coworkers. -chan or -ko is for close friends or children. -sama is for superiors. There's a paragraph about it at the end of the book. I don't think the glossary will be needed as much now that I've cut the Japanese way back! And no worries on the missing words! I caught them when I listened to my computer read the manuscript to me!
This was an excellent start. I noticed in the mobi copy that there were repeat paragraphs in later chapters and sometimes in the same chapter and I agree that the japanese would do better with a parenthetical English translation or else more context to allow the reader a better idea in some cases of the Japanese. As someone who has studied Asian Cultures extensively I loved the Traditions and courtesies in the book but I felt like this would have had more punch with a historical fiction delivery.
Great characters though, I enjoyed them a lot
Thanks for reading and reviewing! I just had the whole series proofread again and some of the Japanese was either eliminated or explained, mainly because I just got new covers for the whole series. As for repeated paragraphs, not sure what happened there. Sounds like a rendering problem. The ePub that was uploaded to Instafreebie was error-free in that regard. Thanks again!
Thank you for the opportunity :) I hope to see more in the series
Brittany wrote: "Thank you for the opportunity :) I hope to see more in the series"The entire series is available on Amazon, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play actually. All five books are out, and the second book is on sale now through Aug 1. :) And I'm sorry you had problems with the file. That really bums me out. I pay Instafreebie to deliver clean files to all y'all. So I'll have to have a word with them about this!
Oh awesome. I will have to check out Book 2 soon :)
