Win A Trip To Japan

I am horrible at advertising. It is a fact. Right now youtube is the best way to advertise, so i was thinking what would be the best way to reward my fans and at the same time find a way to advertise. This is what i came up with is his. "Make a youtube video promoting my books or one of my books and send me the link at dwjacks01@yahoo.com. Videos must have a link to my amazon page. (http://tinyurl.com/dwjacksonbooks)  The top 10 videos and put their names in a hat to be drawn at random. You can make as many videos as you want, but your name can only be entered into the drawing once. Deadline for the video will be Jan 1st and the winner will be decided Jan 15th. The winner will get 1 round trip ticket to Japan for a week, paid hotel room, and $500 spending money. Trip must be taken within a year of end of contest.)

Things you need to know before you enter: You will need a passport/ or visa. If you dont have one it only costs about 120 dollars in the states. If you live outside of the U.S. you are still eligible as long as it is legal for you in your country. If you are the winner I will need to know what airport you will fly out of (International airport.), your address and name. (This is only if you win so I can book the tickets, so do not send this personal info with you link to the youtube video.) Now if you win and you wish someone else to go in your place that is fine with me. If you are under the age of 18 you must have your parent's permission before entering the contest. If you don't want the trip you may instead request  $1500 that will come on a prepaid visa card. If you have any questions you can contact dwjacks01@yahoo.com

Secondly if I get 20 normal registrations and at least 10 from NPO's (schools, boy scouts, girl scouts,  or other groups that are trying to raise money for a good cause) then I will have a second drawing just for them for $1500.

Please be advised this is a personal contest. I am not a big company, so once you decide on your dates and it is booked it can not be changed. You will need to pick your dates at least 3 to 4 weeks in advance to help ensure that there will be a flight available. (Subject to rules and laws governed by your state or country.)...That is all.

My goal is to have 50 entries. If I do then I will most likely hold a trip giveaway once a year with different destinations each time. So even if you don't want to make a quick video, send it to someone who might.

Rule clarifications

Length: from 2-10 minuets long.

Subject: It can be about anything you want as long as you can find a way to work either me or one of my books into it. go wild have fun and try to make it as interesting as possible.

Judges: the judges are the jvbloggers. so far i believe it will consist of Victor, Rachel, Jun, Shane, Regan, and maybe even Hiko.

Number of entries allowed: Any video submitted to me will be entered into the contest but your name can only go into the hat once so it will be ten different people who are chosen.

Deadline for submission: submissions will be closed on Jan first at 12pm(noon) central U.S. time.

Age: you must be at least 18 or have your parents permission. in the case you are under 18 then it will be your parents who will be officially submitting.

You do not have to purchase or pay to enter the contest and doing so does not increase your chances of winning.

Legal notices:
Youtube is not a sponsor of this contest and is not liable for legal actions because of the contest. also below are their community guidelines and terms of service.

Privacy notice: No data or user information will be used in for any other purpose than for the contest.
http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
http://www.youtube.com/static?gl=US&template=terms


FAQ

1Q) How long does the video have to be?
A) 2-10 minutes.

2Q) what does the video have to be about?
A) whatever you want as long as it in some way promotes the book.

3Q) what defines the best video?
A) the videos the judges fund the most compelling or interesting.

4Q) does it go by views on the video?
A) No. The judges which are jvbloggers just like Victor will be choosing the winning ten videos that will be entered for the drawing.


5Q) how many people get to go?
A) one.

6Q) does it have to be in English?
A) No but i would suggest you put English subtitles so that the judges know what you are saying.

7Q) What if you are under 18?
A) get your parents permission and if you are too young to go then take the money and put it back for a trip for when you graduate.

8Q) what kind of video does it have to be a review of one of the books?
A) Any kind of video as long as it promotes one or all of my books in some manner. No it does not have to be a review.

9Q) Why is the winner randomly drawn out of the 10 best picks?
A) That way it reduces the chances for their to be any foul pay with the winner. We all have different tastes and i am sure that the judges will find it hard to agree on their absolute favorite.

10Q) Why don't you judge them?
A) because that would leave too large a possibility that the contest is rigged.

11Q) I have a question that is not answered in this post what do I do?
A) you can email me and ask at dwjacks01@yahoo.com. 

Almost done

Silver Mage is finished...Well the story is now it goes out to my beta readers and editor. my guess is that it will be out for sale in about 2 weeks. as soon as i get everyone's finished reading and fixes put in i will publish it. sorry for the delay i had a few days were i was sick and then with the kids going back to school it has been hectic not to mention the ending was a bit harder than i thought it would be. Hope you enjoy the story and i will get to work on the next on asap so i can continue to have a book out every 2-3 months. I wish i could do it faster but i am honestly just not that good.

Fun things i found on the internet.

While I am working I always keep something going in the background.

Lately since i am going to Japan in a few months I have been using youtube to learn a bit more about it and here are some interesting vblogers I enjoy watching.

Givemeaflakeman
Givemeabreakman
Rachel and Jun
Japan with Regan
tomoko tomoko

of course these are not the only vbloggers out there who talk about Japan but they are the ones I find most interesting. Givemenabreakman/givemeaflakeman are the same person but he has different kinds of videos on each one. He is a bit older (i am guessing in his 40's) than the others so he has a more...I wouldn't say educated... But inspired view of japan.

Regan is an aussie so his view point is a little different and I enjoy the unique perspective... Not to mention his voice is rather catchy and sticks out more when I am working.

Rachel and Jun are a combo pair with an American wife and a Japanese husband. they are both still relatively young (maybe 20). They like to show more of the things younger visitors might enjoy or talk about and often pull other vbloggers into their shows. Honestly a lot of there shows are really funny making it hard for me to pay attention to work while there on.

Last but far from least is tomoko tomoko. Tomoko is a older Japanese (not in her early twenties but hard for me to say she is over 30 either.) She has many videos with other vbloggers, mainly givemeabreakman but her individual videos I find fun and very informative. She really lets you see a side of japan some tourist don't really see... Aahhhh its hard to explain these tings.

So if you want to learn more about japan check a few of them out.

Other than vblogers i will look for other things on youtube but mostly funny skits and stuff from old tv shows like SNL. i also watch anime, the main one right now being hunterxhunter and SAO season 2.

as for music I listen to country music... though mostly older country that came out pre 2000.

Silver Mage release date

so far since my last long stay in the hospital I have been good about getting a book out every other month or so but it looks like silver mage will delayed a bit. I still hope to have it out next month but it might not be as early in the month as I would like. First off I am having a bit more trouble with Bren than I would like. Unlike Thad, Bren is more headstrong and a bit more complicated not to mention there are a lot more things going on in this book than the last. Secondly I will be bringing back Beta reads since editing alone doesn't seem to pick up enough of the errors and I want the best product I can produce for you my readers. I will admit some of this is my fault. As it is summer  took a few weeks off to take the kids to Florida and to see my sister. Not to mention with the kids home all the time it is harder to write during the day so I have been staying up until 5-6 in the morning and sleeping only a few hours a day so please just wait a bit and it will bout as soon as I can get it done.

If you want to know as soon as it is available for sale just give me a shout at dwjacks01@yahoo.com and I will send you an email as soon as it is available for purchase.

Personal-Professional sucess and what it means to me.

First off I have to say thank you to everyone who reads my books and supports me.

Success: What does it really mean. For me it was being able to do what I love for a living. but for a lot of people it means different things and it is usually tied to how much money they make. Personally money has never been a big driving factor in my life. I grew up poor...Really poor but I never considered myself t a disadvantage. It has had some effects on me even to this day. I don't eat much growing up we never had an abundance of food so we only ate enough to keep ourselves fed even today I only eat two small meals a day. I have tried to eat more but honestly I just don't get that hungry.  My kids on the other hand have no problem eating large meals though I do my best to keep it healthy food.

Now i ran into a small problem in the past 8 months and that was what to do with the large excess of money that was coming into my house. Two years ago I made at most 2.5k a month and i thought that was good. It was enough to pay for my rent, food, bills with enough to take the kids out every so often but now that it has increased I was at a loss. First i hired a pro editing company to go over my books (for those of you who read those I am sorry they did such a poor job.) I found out that due to the explosion of indie eBooks many companies are just out there looking to make a quick buck and are about as trustworthy as a snake oil salesman. But I have hired two full time employees (college students working on English degrees.) To go over my books and I will also be using beta readers again. (My fans are awesome and it is nice to get firsthand honest feedback.)

College students don't cost a huge amount as their hours are flexible so I wanted to know what else I could do to not only make my books better but also increase my fan base so I have been looking into advertisement.  I looked around and decided youtube would be the best choice.

My family thinks I should save up and buy a house and while i plan to buy on Honestly its not a huge thing for me. Mainly I want to travel. as some of you know i love culture, history, and just meeting different kinds of people. Thankfully I can write from anywhere so i plan to do just that, though i still have two kids and the last thing I want is for them to feel neglected so my trips will be limited to one or two a year thankfully though I have a close nit family and am not lacking in people willing to watch the kids for long periods of time. as some of you know my health isn't the best and i frequently spend long bouts in the hospital. so my kids are used to me being gone for weeks at a time though my 10 yo daughter did throw a fit (she is afraid i will get sick and something will happen when i am in Japan later this year.) Love the girl to death but she is a worrywort.

Besides editing. ( which I promise is the first thing on my plate to get fixed.) Translating. (and if any of my fans are native speakers of another language feel more that welcome to email with an offer to translate. I know I have many fans from all corners of the globe, and I hope to get more. if anyone has any ideas of what i can do to increase my audience or quality of my books let me know and i will do my best to work on that. f you have any questions feel free to ask.

And for my fans besides trying to make my books better every time you buy one of my books the money goes to many things besides myself. I now have a scholarship program at the local college here for English majors, i take the local guard unit out to eat, send books to troops stationed oversea. (so far I have sent 4 different groups books. if you are a soldier stationed overseas feel free to contact me and I will see about sending your unit a box of books.) Honestly besides putting back for my trips I still only make about as much as I did when I had a full time job after I pay everything, but I am happy and can not thank my fans enough for supporting me. I hope that in the future that you continue to enjoy my books.

I do have one more goal for the future and that is to start a national scholarship for high school and college students who want to study abroad. I love America but I think too few of us really have a firm view on the rest of the world outside of the media and I think that we should. At the point i am now i cant afford to do this but some time in the future i hope to make this dream a reality.

Going to Japan

Many of my readers might not know but I study a lot for my books. It might be hard to tell since my grammar isn't the best but I love to study. (though it is mostly culture, psychology, sociology, and history.)
My whole life i have wanted to travel but have never been able to. first i didn't have the money and when i did i didn't have the time. then came the two kids i adopted and i didn't feel right about leaving them until they were fully adjusted to my family. now after the kids have lived with me for 3 years i think it is time i ventured out and do a little traveling,
 Oct-Nov i will be in japan. honestly i thought it would be really expensive but beside spending money the flight is the same no matter how far apart the days are. i will be renting an apt by the month so its actually cheaper than a week in a hotel. I will be working while i am there so no worries. I am hoping to incorporate some of Japanese architecture, history, culture and social outlooks in one of my books. So i might be posting some pics and small stories here and there when i am over there.

Beta Readers/Proofreaders

i am going to start using beta and proofreaders staring with my next book. If you would like to be one of them please send an email to dwjacks01@yahoo.com. side note still working on the next book hope to have it out by next month.