Remember how I mentioned doing a Japan tour book specifically for anime/manga/game fans? Well, it's happening! Or, at least, I'm trying to make it happen. I started a Kickstarter drive to try and raise the funds to cover travel, printing costs, and the like. If I can raise enough money in a month, it's a go! If not, well it still might happen but it's iffy since I'd have to fund everything myself. Anyway, take a look and let all your friends know, ok?

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My signature site. Because ripping off Silver's ideas is fun.

Well, my friend, it sadly does not look like your kickstarter's going to be reaching fruition this time around. But this is a cool project... maybe there are other ways to go about it?

Like, instead of a book, maybe try to make a series of pamphlets. A little pamphlet all about shopping for anime merch. One dedicated to the locations seen in a certain series. Write about the "Kanto" region and then tell all the Pokemon fans to go there! ...That one's mostly a joke, but you get what I mean, right? I guess I don't see the book being very successful because a lot of anime fans aren't actually interested in all of Japan, and certainly wouldn't buy a giant book filled with trivial details about places they'll never go as seen in anime they'll never watch. But giving background information on their favorite series and even including real-world pictures of places from the show should be enough to sell it. It's not as big an investment for them and they'll probably actually read the whole thing, rather than just skipping to the parts that seem interesting. Plus, you wouldn't have to worry about getting everything done at once; instead of one giant research project, it's a series of smaller ones. It's also easier to update if something becomes out-dated. If that one anime shop you spent two pages writing about goes out of business, to a book that's a big blow. But making a version two of a smaller piece is a much more manageable idea.

Oh, and one other thing: Postcards. Seriously. They have those in Japan, right? Offer people who donate postcards or something. Cheap little souvenir, but it's pretty cool bragging rights.

Alternatively, instead of pitching this to Kickstarter, try to get funding from Japan's Tourism Industry...

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"Irregardless" and "Over exaggerated" are NEVER CORRECT EVER because they are redundant
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.

I am rather dissapointed with how the Kickstarter has been going, though I think the main problem is more of a lack of people knowing about it than a lack of interest. Since the book focuses on the Tokyo area I think it would have quite a lot of locations that most fans are interested in.

As far as pamphlets go... Printing a number of different things would be complicated and expensive, but they could potentially work as ebooks. Though I'm not really sure if people would be more likely to go for it like that or not... Maybe if I wrote it as a full book and then sold both the entire thing and individual sections... Well, I'll give it some thought. Either way, I think I'd still need a big research trip, or maybe multiple shorter ones which would probably end of costing more.

When it comes to alternate sources of funding, I'm not sure if the JNTO would be interested in backing a book, but I'm thinking of contacting the publishing companies that specialize in Japanese books later this week. JList has also expressed interest in both printed and digital copies of the book, which is making me seriously consider funding it myself. The Kickstarer may be for $8000 but if you knock out the printing costs (only selling it digitally plus any print copies JList ordered, which would pay for themselves), Kickstarter fees, and the like, and consider that I'm going to have to pay for food wherever I am... I think I could do it for around $3000, which would be manageable.

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My signature site. Because ripping off Silver's ideas is fun.