Manga and Anime

Hi, invisible people.

I couldn't write last weekend because I was in a family trip with my parents and my sister, visiting Córdoba. And apart from the fact that I didn't have time, in the hotel where we were staying I couldn't get to the Internet. Yes, the World Wide Web was out of my reach, which is something nearly unbelievable nowadays. It was my parent's fault because they made a "little" mistake when they booked the rooms in a hotel of Córdoba that did have wi-fi. The day before going there, they noticed something. Our hotel was in Córdoba, but that Córdoba wasn't in Spain, but in Argentina. Can you believe it? I just couldn't stop laughing. They had to cancel our booking and look for a hotel that was actually in Córdoba the day before setting out. That's why our hotel didn't have wi-fi.

Well let’s forget about it, because my initial intention was talking about manga and anime, but I just couldn’t help telling you that funny anecdote. So, here’s my last advice about it: if you want to visit a city called Córdoba, first check which continent it is placed in.

And now I start with today’s subject: What’s manga? And what’s anime?

Well I suppose you know that “manga” is Japanese comic and “anime” is the animated series based on the manga. But why has it become so popular? How did manga take over the world? First of all, we can thank the great input from Osamu Tezuka, who applied cinematographic techniques to manga and created those famous big eyes inspiring on Walt Disney’s designs. Then, after the Second World War, people in Japan needed to evade reality by reading manga, so in 1959, publishing houses got into the market of manga magazines. That became a great success, as sales figures soared and international expansion took off.  

Also, I think the clue is that there are so many genres of manga that you just can’t say you don’t like it. It’s as varied as films. Why does nearly everybody like films? Because you can find at least one genre that you like. Manga is the same case; maybe it’s possible for you not to like “kodomo manga” (which is for kids) if you’re an adult, as an example, but the same way that you like terror films instead of Disney ones, you may like terror manga. I sincerely think that those who don’t try reading manga or watching anime just because of prejudices are committing a great mistake.

In Japan, manga is a phenomenon that arrives to all social layers: everybody reads manga, from kids to the elderly. Even in the metro or the train, people read manga magazines and then leave them there so that they can be recycled and reprinted. The leading manga magazine, Shonen Jump, sells over 6 million copies every week. And in 1989, 38% of all books and magazines that were published in Japan were manga ones. Can you grasp the idea of how important manga is in Japan? Although it’s true that the word we manga lovers use to describe ourselves comes from Japanese and it’s quite derogatory, in origin. This word is “otaku”, and in Japanese is used to describe a person whose life nearly turns around his/her hobby. But that hobby doesn’t have to be reading manga. “Manga” is not negative. A “strong addiction” to it, well, maybe is.

In my case, I’ve loved manga, and even more anime, since I was little. It took me long to discover the world that was hidden behind the series that I used to watch on TV when I came home from school. Series like “Detective Conan”, “Doraemon”, “Sailor Moon” or “InuYasha”. For me it was natural to see characters wearing a “yukata”, taking off their shoes when they entered a house, sleeping in beds without even a mattress, visiting a temple in New Year’s Day and making wishes… I got used to all these things to the point that I didn’t notice that it wasn’t part of my own culture. That’s one of the reasons why I love Japanese culture and that I’m learning Japanese. I wonder if it’s possible to fancy something to the point that you “miss it”. When I think of all those things, like fireworks in summer festivals or cherry-trees in springtime, I feel the same feeling in my heart as when I think of my home in Benicassim. I miss it, although I’ve never been in Japan. Strange, huh?

Well, for now, if I’ve convinced you to watch anime, I recommend you “InuYasha”. Its author is the "mangaka" (professional who draws manga) Rumiko Takahashi. It’s about a semi-demon, InuYasha, and the reincarnation of a priestess, Kagome, who set out in the world of the Japanese Middle Ages to find the fragments of a powerful jewel that some demons want to use for mischievous purposes. During their journey, a little fox demon, a pervert monk and a demon huntress will join them to find the fragments and fight against Naraku, a demon who wants to obtain the power of the jewel for his evil plans. For me it’s the perfect anime, as the personalities of characters are really well defined and the complicated relationships between them create funny and really interesting situations.

Here I leave you some things in case you want to know more about manga and anime (it really is a whole new world to discover):

A presentation made by me with Prezi: 

http://prezi.com/cbijkmy8ee7t/traduccion-de-manga-y-anime-difusores-de-la-cultura-nipona/

A videoclip with Studio Ghibli's movies:

A Vocaloid concert:

4 steps to publish a book

Hi, invisible ones!

Today I think I'm going to talk about how to publish books. You know, since my characters were "born", more than a year ago, I've been thinking about stories for them, I've been developing their lives, and I have asked myself a lot of times: "Could I do something with what I've got so far? Could I share it, for example, on the Internet, to let people know about it? Could they give me their opinion and help me improve my story?" But I didn't have the answer. I've got a friend who loves writing and thinking about new stories like me. It's crazy when we meet each other and we start talking: "So that character blah blah blah... and that other... and that scene maybe should be narrated in first person..." And we get lost in our world and the others of our group look at us like we had gone mad. Well, that friend isn't for writing on the Internet. She thinks it's a great risk, as someone could steal your ideas. But there are people who DO write on the Internet. A lot of people even create blogs to promote their stories. And do all that people really have a copyright to prove that they are the rightful authors in case someone grabbed ideas from them? I felt like we were missing something, and that’s why I investigated about the different ways of publishing books. I think it’s better to know the possibilities your ideas have from the very start.

So here you are, publishing in 4 steps:

1.     Finishing the book. There are writers, for example the one from this blog, who say you must finish your novel before thinking about publishing. But I don’t agree with that. What if you have different options about the progress of the story, and you want someone else’s opinion to help you decide? Well, don’t worry, if you don’t want to finish it all by your own, without any other point of view, here comes step 2.

2.     Revising the novel. As I’ve already said, for me it isn’t important that the book is finished to start revising, as doubts may come while WRITING the novel, and not when you’ve already pieced things together. There are 3 ways of revising:

2.1.  Ask their opinion to people we know who like reading, and also ask them to be strict; flatteries won’t help our improving.

2.2.  Create a forum on the Internet to share our novel while we write it. This way we can get people’s opinions and ideas that may enrich our novel. But here’s the delicate point: How can we be sure that nobody will plagiarize us? We can’t register at the Intellectual Property until the book it’s finished, and that’s why we still don’t have any rights as authors. Well, if you’re worried, you can protect your ideas with a Creative Commons license, for example. Or maybe create a private forum instead of a public one, so that you know the people who can read your novel; people who you know that wouldn’t do such a cruel thing to you.

2.3.  Send it to a literary agency. Literary agencies are formed by professionals who will help us to enhance our novel’s virtues and make it “work” in book’s market. Or so they say.

3.     Registering our work at the Intellectual Property. We have finished our novel, and in order to bring it out, we must get our exclusive rights as authors recognized by the law. I think you must search on the Internet the Intellectual Property Office which is located closer to you and go there. Easy-peasy!

4.     From here, sky’s the limit and we can consider a lot of different ways to proceed. Here you have three usual ones:

4.1.  Send your novel to a literary contest. Here the only thing you have to do to get your novel published is… winning!! So do your best!

4.2.  Send it to a publishing house. It isn’t a very difficult thing to do, as almost all publishing houses have e-mails on their websites. You just have to send an e-mail asking for a mailing address to send your work to. Send it to all the companies you think that might be interested in your novel (don’t have a try with a company that only publishes for kids if your novel is directed to adults, for example.), and keep on working in other projects. Publishers usually take their time to answer!  

4.3.  Publish it yourself. This is a bit more difficult, as you have to do everything the publisher would do. But don’t give up! Your goal is to have your novel published; if companies dismiss your work, you just have to publish it yourself! Here you have the steps, more or less:

4.3.1.   Create your book’s structure basing on a book’s layout that you like: size, font, indentation…

4.3.2.  Adjust those parameters to a Word document.

4.3.3.  Revise the orthography and make a printing test with your own printer.

4.3.4.  Convert the Word document to PDF.

4.3.5.  Design your title page with a program like Photoshop.

4.3.6.  Request your ISBN and Legal Deposit so that you can sell your book.

4.3.7.  Calculate the printing cost.

4.3.8.  Ask for a printing test to a printing house.
4.3.9.  Organize your book’s promotion, creating a blog about it, for example, and then sell it on the Internet!

And here I finish for today. I hope those steps help you if you are future writers! Or future mangaka! If you don't know what it is, don't worry, I'll tell you next time!
See you soon!