If My Books Were Anime Titles
We have furniture (almost)! Fun anime titles for my books. Bluesky migration update, plus tips for getting started.
Furniture is arriving today, so we'll soon have places to sit! Comfy places! 😍 We also got an electric fireplace for the first time, which really adds to the ambiance without the ashy mess. =] As part of our Amazon cord-cutting effort, I also got a Boox Go Color 7 for ebook reading. It's been a few weeks and, so far, I like it better than my Kindle, so I'm going to stick with it.
For the next few days, Project Xerxes is being featured in a list of Fantasy and Sci Fi starters. Check it out to support indie authors and maybe find your next obsession. 😁
The switch from Facebook/Instagram to Bluesky is going great. I already appreciate the lack of constant ads in my face, and being able to easily see posts by people who I care about, not who an algorithm thinks I should care about, is fantastic. The number of quality interactions has also been much higher. If you're looking to make the jump and/or want a few pointers to get the most out of it, I've put some tips and starter links below.
Lastly, this month's feature was a fun exercise of putting ridiculous Anime titles to my books. Enjoy!
In this newsletter
- If My Books Had Anime Titles
- Bluesky Update and Getting Started Guide
- Book Sales and Events
- Currently Reading
If My Books Had Anime Titles
Anime titles can be ridiculously long, by Western standards, absurdly specific, and, as a result, head-scratchingly hilarious. Some great real-life examples are:
- Story in Which I Was Kidnapped by a Young Lady's School to be a "Sample of the Common People"
- I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I'll Solo Any Boss To Clock Out On Time
- Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon
- As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World
So I thought it would be fun to apply this to a few of my own books. Keeping them spoiler-free was a challenge, but I think I succeeded. Hope you enjoy!
The Z-Tech Chronicles
- Angels in the Mist: Attacked By Vampires And Now Two Eccentric Rich Hotties Are In Love With Me
- Once Upon a Nightwalker: Returning as an Overpowered Vampire To My Old Job Where My Co-Workers Hate Me
Timeless Keeper Saga
- Holtondome: Fi-senpai Wants To Show Seg-sama the Broken World
- New Denver: I Ran Away From Home To Meet a Dictator And Now I'm Stuck In a Different Universe
Lost Colonies
- Project Xerxes: Commander Telawani Doesn't Dream of Mito Rascal
- Enigma: I Can't Speak On an Alien World And Now I Have To Save The Alliance
Others
- One Man's Trash: Winning My Girlfriend Back From a Dog Alien on the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy
- Dragon Assassin: My Boyfriend Is Afraid I'll Eat Him Just Because I'm a Dragon Shifter
Bluesky Update and Getting Started Guide
I announced last month that I would be shutting down my Facebook and Instagram accounts by the end of February. I haven't got around to shutting them down yet, but I have made the move to Bluesky, and so far it's going great. Here are some of my experiences and a few tips I've learned along the way to making the most out of it.
Experience
In an age where ads are everywhere, including your desktop operating system, it's nice to have a little oasis where mass marketing and highly-trained algorithms dare not tread. Mastodon is such a place, buoyed by account- and server-level moderation, but the masses have by far flocked to Bluesky. Both are Twitter-like in that you follow other accounts to see priority content, posts are limited to 300-500 characters, and tags are used to help the right people find your content, but that's where the similarities end.
Curating your feed on Mastodon or Bluesky requires a little bit of effort, and the experience is different for both. I've covered Mastodon usage before, so this will focus solely on Bluesky.
The primary methods of viewing curated content are:
- Following individuals
- Subscribing to feeds, which are hand-made user algorithms. Yes, you can pick and choose!
Okay, great! So how do you figure out who to follow and which are the right feeds?
One way to find people to follow is scrolling the default "Discover" feed available to everyone, although it's a bit like drinking from the firehose. Here you'll see everyone's posts, curated somewhat based on the types of posts you "like" (like = clicking the heart symbol). Scroll the list, click on authors your like, and follow them. These people's posts will now show up in your "Following" feed in chronological order. No filters, no missing content because the platform thinks it knows better than you.
Another way is subscribe to "starter packs", which are nothing more than a list of people that other people have put together, usually around a theme. For instance, Water Dragon Publishing has a starter pack for its authors, including me. When you open the list, you can choose who to follow, or follow everyone with the push of a button. I've added a few reader-centric starter links in the Tips section below to get you started.
Enjoy a post? Click the "like" button to let the author know. Want to share it? Repost it to boost awareness to your own followers. Have something to add? Quote the post along with your own thoughts.
In fact, reposting and quoting are the two biggest ways to increase visibility of posts, so do both liberally.
Finding feeds is somewhat easier. In your profile, under "Discover Feeds," type your subject of interest in the search bar and you'll see a list matching your criteria, along with the number of current subscribers. Subscribing to a feed adds it as a tab to your home screen, so you can view each individually without worrying about accumulating a hodgepodge mess. I've added links to a few sci fi / fantasy-centric feeds in the Tips section for your convenience. Each feed normally contains a pinned post that explains its algorithm and how to be included in the feed, if desired.
That's it! Follow, post, reply, repost, and quote to be part of the community. Chances are good that people will respond.
Follow me on Bluesky and join the community!
Tips
- Bluesky appears to have a generous "you follow me, I'll follow you" culture, so a good way to build your followers is to follow people who post similar content
- Quoting is a good way to call attention to the poster, and possibly get your quote reposted for added visibility. It's also a great way to be part of the community
- Mute accounts you don't want to see. Muting doesn't alert the poster. Block them if they're being abusive, but I personally would only use this as a weapon of last resort. Hasn't been a problem so far; Bluesky doesn't appear to have Twitter's toxicity problem
- Use tags at the end of your post to attract non-followers. Some tags are also keys to getting onto certain feeds, which is doubly useful
- Sci fi / fantasy starter packs I've used:
- Water Dragon Publishing authors
- BRK Friends - Members of the Book Reviews Kill community
- Sci fi / fantasy feeds I subscribe to:
- Science Fiction Fantasy - Great curated feed of sci fi / fantasy stuff. My go-to feed
- SciFi-Fantasy-SpecFic - Firehose feed of everything sci fi / fantasy related. Great place to discover new authors and works if you're willing to sift through the muck
- BookSky - The de-facto standard book feed. You'll find everything here including the kitchen sink, if it's anywhere near a book
- Popular sci fi / fantasy author accounts to follow:
Hope to see you there!
Book Sales and Events
- March 6–8 — Fantasy and Sci Fi Series Starters - Free or 99¢. You'll find my own Project Xerxes in here along with ~44 other series starters. I recognize one as a Self-Published Science Fiction Contest quarterfinalist (Of Friction by S.J. Lee), and has apparently won or come close to winning several other awards.
Currently Reading
Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archive #5)
47% through and climbing. So much is happening now that I'm getting whiplash trying to keep up with it all. Still enjoying the story, though, and I really like Sanderson addressing diversity and inclusion heavily within the story. He pushes maybe a little too hard sometimes, but it's fantastic to see him use his popularity to convey these important topics. Marching enthusiastically toward the end.
My Books
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