In my recent new year post, I did mention that I’m planning to start my Patreon campaign this year. And I did manage to create one last month.

But just like any business endeavor, there’s no such thing as building it, and it will come. So, it’s a shame that there won’t be tons of people flocking to my Patreon campaign, ready to part their hard earned money to support me publishing my original light novels if I don’t let everyone knows about it.

With so many things I have to do last month, I ended up postponing my Patreon campaign promotion plan. As a result, my Patreon page becomes the Patreon version of the ghost town. There’s no one willing to pledge to me in sight.

Sure, it’s my fault that it becomes another ghost town located in Patreon. But at the same time, I fail to realize that not many people are familiar with Patreon.

To most people, Patreon is just another place for people to hang out.

What exactly is Patreon?

In a nutshell, it’s a crowdfunding site where you pledge a certain amount of money to support the creator. The creators can be anyone, from authors like me to musicians like Amanda Palmer, YouTube video creators and much more.

If you’re familiar with websites like Kickstarter, then you’re already familiar with the concept in Patreon. But unlike Kickstarter, Patreon allows you to support the creators either by monthly or by per creation.

Once you pledge to support the creator, you then will receive your rewards based on the tier you pledge. Most creators will have more than one tier to choose from. So, you can pledge any amount you want.

My Patreon campaign is per monthly basis. And the lowest tier starts from $2 per month. If you love my books and are interested in supporting me on Patreon, then you can learn more about my Patreon campaign right here:

My Patreon campaign for publishing original light novels in English

How you can support my book project other than Patreon campaign

I know that not many people have the money to support me on a monthly basis, even with the lowest tier. The good news is, there are many ways for you to support my book project.

While some of them do cost money, some of them are free and only require a bit of your time. So, here are the things you can do to support my book project.

Buy my books, preferably directly

My books aren’t just available in all e-book retailers like Smashwords, Amazon, iBooks, Kobo and Nook, but they’re also available in print as well. Not only that, but these books will also be available as an audiobook too.

So, you can get my books in any format you desire.

While I’m happy that you’re getting my books at your favorite e-book retailer, it will be much better if you can buy my books directly on my website.

The price of the e-books that I have on my website is the same as the one in e-book retailers. But what makes the difference is the amount of percentage that these e-book retailers get once my books are sold.

Amazon will take 30% of the sales price while Smashwords will take 20% of the sales price. As for Nook, Kobo, and iBooks, that will be 40% of the sales price.

On top of these sales percentages cut, I have to forfeit 30% of my book sales to IRS since Malaysia doesn’t have a direct tax treaty with the United States. Unless I shift my business that has a direct treaty with the United States (hello, Japan), there’s nothing much left for me after the deduction.

Even if I sell truckloads of books, the 30% tax rate will eat up my book sales.

And that’s the reason why I encourage you to buy my books directly on my website since the only amount of money I have to pay is the transaction fee to Gumroad.

Of course, I still have to pay local tax. But it’s still not as much as the one I have to pay to the shitty IRS. The local tax here is 18% up to the first RM500,000 (estimated $125,000). And that is if my sales are coming from Malaysia.

Since most of my book sales come from countries outside Malaysia, I don’t even have to pay the tax. This income is considered as an off-shore income and won’t be taxed unless I repatriate the income back to my bank account in Malaysia.

It’ll be great if you can buy my books directly. But if you don’t want to, that’s fine by me too. I understand that it’s a hassle to upload the books to your e-reader manually.

If you buy the books from the e-book retailer, you can just access the books directly without requiring you to do anything on your side.

Regardless of where you purchase my books, I will always be grateful for your continuous support.

Buy whatever you like through my affiliate links

I have many affiliate links plastered on my Tumblr and also on my Twitter as well. If you see me promoting anything with links to retailers such as Play-Asia, J-List, and CDJapan, you can expect that those links are affiliate links.

I also have affiliate links on my website too. But since I usually write more random things on Tumblr, then you won’t see many affiliate links on this site other than the one on the book page and the sidebar.

If you decide to buy anything through my affiliate links, then I’ll receive around 5-10% commission based on your total purchase. If your total purchase is $100 without including shipping, then I’ll get around $5-$10.

But then again, if your total purchase is $10, then I won’t be getting much with that kind of commission percentage. And it doesn’t help that I won’t get my commission until I meet the threshold.

The commission threshold for CDJapan is 5000yen, and the commission threshold for Play-Asia is $10. Since their commission is rather low, so it will take time for me to accumulate enough commission to meet the threshold.

If you’d like to support me, then it’ll be great if you can buy anything you want in any of these retailers through my affiliate links. Just click on the banner on the sidebar, and it will redirect you to the retailer’s website. You can begin your shopping while the cookie will track what items you purchase. They will give me the commission once they receive your order.

I don’t cap on how much you should spend on these websites, so feel free to spend as much as you want.

Share my books with your friends and family or anywhere you like

If you know someone else in your social circle who enjoy the kind of books that I write, then feel free to share the books with them. Or if you feel adventurous, convince them to give my book a try.

Amazon Kindle allows you to lend the books that you buy to other readers for up to 14 days. They don’t even need to have a Fire tablet or Kindle e-reader to read the book. They can read the books that you lend on the free Kindle reading app. But keep in mind that you can only borrow the book for one time only.

I’m not sure about other e-book retailers. But I do believe that they may have similar ways to allow you to lend the books to other readers. I only know Amazon lets you do that.

If none of your social circle read the kind of books that I write, then feel free to promote my books on your personal website (if you have one) or anywhere you have an internet presence.

The best book to promote is The Mind Control Assassins, the first book from Trigger Locked series. The book is free on all e-book retailers.

Share my Patreon campaign page to your friends and family or anywhere you like

Of course, the easiest way for you to support me besides my Patreon campaign is to simply share the page with your friends and family or anywhere you like.

Feel free to share my campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google+ or anywhere you exist on the Internet.

You don’t have to pledge to me on Patreon to share the campaign. Everyone can share the page, whether you’re my patron or not.

If you’d like to share the page, you can go here:

Sekina Mayu on Patreon

Thank you for your support

In fact, thank you for reading this blog post until the end. I’m grateful for any support you give me no matter how little it is. It means a lot to me.

Regardless of how you plan to support me from now onwards, I’ll do my best to publish a fantastic original light novel that you love and enjoy.

If you already join my mailing list, stay tuned for more updates from me.