While many e-book authors use professional conversion services, my extensive background in graphic design and web development enabled me to handle this task myself. Initially, this endeavour had its own challenges, namely EPUB format conversion problems.
Since I still owned all the copyrights to our comic book series, I gave self-publishing a try using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. But after a bad experience with the publisher, it was time to go look for a real job.įast forward to 2011, and the buzz around the e-book market got too loud to ignore.
Collaborating with a very talented artist, Jin Song Kim, our first comic book series was accepted and published. Soon after college, I decided it was time to go in for the real thing. Reading the best of Marvel and DC comics was one thing, but being able to control the fate of my favorite superheroes by writing my own renditions, then receiving feedback from fellow fans, was invigorating. My love for writing began in high school upon my induction into the messy world of fan-fiction.
I hope that by launching the digital version of BECAUSE I’M A MAID! through KDP, more people will be able to enjoy reading it.īut how does Kindle Direct Publishing offer success to comic book (graphic novel) creators? I can say that it is in many ways similar to "novel authors," yet in some ways very different. Buoyed by its popularity in the U.S., I plan to publish the manga in Japan and Southeast Asia, with the objective of enhancing my skills as a professional manga writer. Further, the numerous customer reviews that I receive allow me to reflect on my work objectively and serve as a source of inspiration for future manga writing.įive-star ratings, in particular, reinvigorate me and make me happy that readers around the world enjoy my manga in many different ways.īECAUSE I’M A MAID!’s success as a long-time best seller has served to enhance awareness of manga worldwide. However, production and distribution through independent publishing using KDP enables me to create manga that are translated into English, French and other languages for readers across the globe, while living in Japan. Acquiring the skills required to become a professional manga writer through self-study and understanding industry trends was also a challenge. While my family continued to support my efforts to become a manga writer, I struggled to find the time to write manga as I lived on my own and was also working elsewhere at the time.