Tag: short stories

BentoComics.com – A New Online-Publishing Model?

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Hi all, long time no update. I’ve finished the 2nd Odd Thomas book (due this Halloween), and have several projects in the works, but right now I’d like to show you all a website my friends and I have been working on for the past few years. Heck, from all the hype about ebooks and the iPad these past few months, I might even presume to call it a new business-model for book publishing.

The site is called Bento Comics, and there’s a write-up here on Robot6, with a encouraging comment by well-known superhero writer Kurt Busiek (wow). “Bento” is the Japanese word for a mix-and-match lunchbox, and that’s exactly what our site does. Read on.

 

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What is BentoComics.com?

BentoComics.com is a Print-On-Demand site. What “print-on-demand” means is that YOU, the buyer, gets to choose a book you want online, print one (or more) copies at a book printing company, then have the books mailed to you.

Instead of having to go to the bookstore to buy your books (or at online bookstores like Amazon.com), you can get both printing and mailing done online. So in summary:

 

  • Read comics on the site for free
  • Collect these comics into your own personalised book,
  • Print a single (or more) copy of your book, and have it
  • Delivered to your doorstep

 

BentoComics.com piggybacks off Lulu.com, a printing company that specialises in self-publishing. The technology to print a single book at a low cost already exists, and Lulu.com takes it up a notch by printing your one (or two or whatever) copies, and mailing it directly to you.

 

 

How much does it cost? Is it expensive?

It’s actually quite cheap. It’s approximately USD$13 for a 170-page book, personalised by you, plus an additional US$4 for shipping (USD$8 for international). Both Lulu and Bento Comics make a profit off this pricing model. Lulu accepts both Paypal and credit cards as payment.

Here’s a table of costs:

 

  • a 32 page book will cost $7.78
  • a 64 page book will cost $9.06
  • a 100 page book will cost $10.50
  • a 150 page book will cost $12.50
  • a 200 page book will cost $14.50
  • a 300 page book will cost $18.50
  • a 400 page book will cost $22.50
  • a 500 page book will cost $26.50
  • a 600 page book will cost $30.50
  • a 740 page book will cost $36.10

 

Once you register at BentoComics.com and Lulu.com, you can start compiling and ordering your books. Once you place an order, it’ll take 3-5 days to print, and then it’ll be delivered to you. I live in Sydney, Australia and it took 1 week for me to order and receive the book – not saying this short delivery time is guaranteed, but that’s my experience.

 

 

Are there e-books available?

Yes, I made e-books for all my stories. Right now I only have 1 story, called Ten Years Ago Today on BentoComics.com, but I have a total of 8 other stories chosen from queeniechan.com that I want to make available for print/download, and I’ll be putting up a story every weekend for the next 2 months. You can download the e-book for that here – it’s a link on the right-hand side of the page, where I say “e-book available in .epub”. Feedback welcome.

The e-book is DRM-free, and in ePub format, which means it’s readable on all PCs and e-readers EXCEPT the Kindle. I want to charge USD$0.99 for the e-book (like iTunes), but right now the system isn’t yet in place, so you can download it for free.

If you have only a PC or Mac, and no e-reader of any kind, you can still read e-books on your PC. Here’s 2 programs you can download: The Adobe Acrobat eReader, and the Barnes and Noble eReader. They’re both not that great at reading JPEG files, but they will do for the time being.

 

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Why Print-On-Demand books? Isn’t e-books the Way of the Future?

E-books will undoubtedly be huge, but to think that they’ll completely replace paper books is as wrong as the idea of the “paperless office” circa 1997. Books, as media, are different to music and movies.

The idea of a “book” has been around for as long as writing has, whether it’s papyrus scrolls, clay tablets or animal skins. Conversely, what we understand to be “music” and “movies” refer specifically to storage mediums – technological devices that can store and retrieve experiences for playback. This is a strictly 20th Century invention. Unlike books, music and movies have always been intangible experiences. So when people go on about the “feel” and “texture” of a book, and “curling up with a book in bed”, they’re talking about something REAL, and for some people, something irreplaceable.

But then Bento Comics isn’t about whether e-books or paper books are better.

It’s About Giving Readers a CHOICE

There’s no reason why e-books and paper books can’t co-exist together. I can think of many books on my bookshelf that I love, and can’t live without the paper version of (I’d like the e-book version too). Conversely, I can think of many books on the same shelf that I merely like, and given the choice would have just bought the cheaper e-book version. Certainly, whether I want an e-book version, or a paper book version of something (or both) – should be up to ME to decide?

So, what Bento Comics is about, is content as both service and product, as opposed to the old idea, of just content as product. Content refers to what the consumer is buying – a Beatles song, a crime thriller novel, a vampire movie. Pre-Internet, it was about packaging the content in a particular way (which the consumer DOESN’T get to choose), and then sending the 12-track CD, 700-page thriller with a red, black and blue cover, and a 2-DVD-pack-with-extras to the appropriate distribution channels. I see that as “content as product”.

Content as service, as you may imagine, is about not just about the delivery channel (I buy my books at Kinokuniya, sometimes Amazon.com), but about the FORM the product comes in. Maybe I’ll buy THIS book as a normal paper book, and buy this other book in e-book format. Maybe today I’ll buy a book online and get it mailed to me, while tomorrow I get some other book when I go by Kinokuniya. Providing the customer with all these formats and choices, is in itself, a SERVICE (At least that’s how I see it).

If you want to find out more, I suggest going to the About Page, or better yet, making an account at Bento Comics and testing the system out yourself. We’ve tested it and it works as it’s supposed to, and we’re all interested in feedback.

The Sound of Scents: Forget-Me-Not

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Hi all, finally some time for the updates in my life!

Firstly, I’m halfway through the “In Odd We Trust” sequel, called “Odd Is On Our Side”. It’s still going to be out just before Halloween in 2010, so there’s little point in talking about it now, when it’s not even Halloween 2009. I’ve also finished a series of short one-shots (in May) for a book called “Boy’s Book of Positive Quotations”, which is exactly as it says – a book of positive quotations. It’s not yet out on the shelves as far as I know, but I’ll post something up when it is.

Yen Plus Anthology: What’s really post-worthy is that I have a 33-page short story called “Forget-Me-Not” coming up in the July edition of Yen Plus, the manga anthology from Yen Press. It’s a story set in Mythical Ancient China, and concerns the adventures of a “Scent Merchant”. To find out what that is, read the story! It should be out in stores this month.

Here are the first 2 pages of the story, and some concept art of the “Scent Merchant” himself.

 

Forget-Me-Not - Page 1
 

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Forget-Me-Not - Page 2
 

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Scent Merchant
 

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Scent Merchant - Full
 

This story was finished way back in January, with the creative process having started in September 2008. I guess most people might have guessed by now – this means that the Yen Plus anthology is accepting short story submissions, of about 30 pages in length, and has been planning to for some time. Buy the July issue to find out more!

 

Lucid Walking: Comics for Telepaths

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First Review for In Odd We Trust: Coming out on the 24th of June (at least on Amazon.com), this book just got its first review. It’s in the Icv2 glossy magazine (so not online), and it’s a great 4-star review.

I quote: “The pairing of Dean Koontz with Australian manga-style artist Queenie Chan was a match made in graphic novel heaven. Together, they tell a great story in a genre halfway between Psyche and Nancy Drew, with marvelous dialogue.” I’ll be posting my long-awaited post on “In Odd We Trust” once I run it by Del Ray’s publicity agent David, so please keep an eye out for that. Here’s also an interview with me about the book on Jazma Online, done by Allen Klingelhoets.

 
 

Comics for Telepaths: And onto what else I’ve been doing for the past year. I’ve just recently wrapped up a long-running comic work, a fantastical techno-space opera which ran bi-weekly for the past year in Telepathy Tales telezine. For those unaware of this story on the telestream, I posted the first page of it up here.

 

Sci-Fi Comics for Telepaths

 

The uninitiated may be wondering why this story involves both thoughts and images, when it’s generally believed that telepathy involves only thought-transference. Well, that was Telepathy 1.0 – this story was broadcast on Telepathy 2.0. If you’re a telepath and you’re still on Telepathy 1.0, you probably already know where to get the upgrade.

Many thanks to editor Henrietta Max, and for The Daily Telepath for giving it a 4-star review. Thanks also to Melandril Moose and Telepathy Tales for giving this story a permanent home in the Vorpal Tex. For those interested in the adventures of Mr. Alabaster Curly and Luci Dworkin, I just told you where you can read all the back issues of the story.

In terms of influences, this story was inspired by Michael E. Blake’s “Science Fiction for Telepaths” (1977), a story whose entire text consisted of: Well, you know what I mean. An extremely long and complex piece of science-ficton this was, yet ironically, it’s often referred to as one of the shortest science-fiction stories in existence (according to everything2.com anyway). Hey, it took me a whole day to get through it, you know.

 
 

TOKYOPOP and “The Dreaming” Writing Competition: Everything that can be said about TOKYOPOP’s situation has already been said, and my heart goes out to those who lost their jobs in the corporate reshuffle. I wish you all the best of luck for the future. As for “The Dreaming” writing competition, I apologise for the delays – the winners were suppose to be announced at the BEA, but since TOKYOPOP’s restructuring got announced instead, there is obviously some confusion. I emailed TOKYOPOP and Marco Pavia of marketing replied, saying that they’re planning to announce the winners soon, so thanks for all your patience. Hey, if all else fails, I’ll just post up the 6 finalists and the winners on this blog. Once again, I apologise to everyone who entered the competition for this. Your entries were wonderful and a joy to read, and I hope this can be sorted out ASAP.

It’s Been A While: Sleeping Chick

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Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

Sleeping Chick

 

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I like to imagine chickens breaking out of their eggs not because they have to, but because they find it so quiet and lonely in there. This flies in the face of common sense (as does this whole strip), but unlike us human observers, newly-woken baby chicks don’t quite know they’re inside an egg. It’s a silly thought, but apparently worth doodling something on.

 

The Dreaming: “The Dreaming” writing contest is over, the winners have been chosen, and thankyou to everyone who entered it! I will write a longer post about it later – picking the winners were an extremely difficult job and it deserves an LJ post all on its own. I believe the winners will be announced at the Book Expo America.

 

In Odd We Trust: The release date is in June, not July, so I shall post my penultimate “In Odd We Trust” post soon.

 

Move to Melbourne: The reason why I haven’t posted for so long is because I’ve been moving house to Melbourne (from Sydney) for the past 2 months. I’m still not done, would you believe. There is alot of catch-up posting to do.