What is the Most Recognized Word Ever?

I have read, most recently in Pamela Myers' excellent book Lie Spotting, that the words OK, Coke, and Shakespeare are the most universally recognized worlds in the world.

After Googling this, OK and Coke get the most hits, but I don't know if this is entirely accurate. Maybe in the English speaking world it is.

But in the non-English speaking world Coke is the only one with any worldwide recognition, even if it is known by its full name Coca-cola.

Having traveled to various Asian countries, including China, S. Korea, and Japan, I have noticed that "Bye-bye" is part of their everyday vernacular. OK isn't part of their lexicon.

I asked my Thai and Vietnamese friends, and they both informed me that both "Bye-bye" and Coca-cola are known. 

Meanwhile, in my conversations with my Asian friends, Shakespeare is a known word, but most people don't exactly know much more than the fact that he was the West's most famous writer.

However, my best bet for most globally recognized words, and yes all three are English due to the fact it is the dominant language on this planet, would be: Coca-Cola, Bye-Bye, and Jesus Christ.

These words would most likely be followed closely by the word "Muhammad." Both religious figures make the list simply because there are billions of Christians and Muslims permeating the world, and are found in almost every developed culture. Additionally, Muhammad is the most chosen name to give a child in the world.

I would say the words CD, DVD, and Shakespeare are a close runners up.

If anyone has some actual data on this, feel free to post it in the comments section below. I would like to research this more. Also, I filter all posts with links, so don't freak out if the post doesn't show up immediately. It will take several hours before I can get around to checking the link to see if it isn't malicious and then approve it.

New Zombie Short Story: BITTEN: After Dark 2

My new zombie short story BITTEN: After Dark 2 is FREE on Kindle for the next five days! (Special Offer ends Sept. 10th, 2012.)

Saeko Sakaguchi is a Japanese high school student and is the All-Japan second place Kendo champion. One evening, after school, she is heading home with her American boyfriend when they run into some Yakuza-wanna-be thugs. Shinji Terajima, the groups ring leader, is still sore at the fact that Saeko, a competitive girl short on patients, gave him a royal beating after he had pushed her too far. Waiting for her, Terajima's gang beats Kevin up and starts to tear away Saeko's clothes--when all of a sudden a moan rings out.

Soon enough, the group of teenagers are struggling for their survival as a zombie outbreak starts to tear Tokyo apart. Find out what happens in this new, exciting, original zombie short story!

Hot off the heals of BITTEN: After Dark, which sold over 240 copies in the first week, comes BITTEN: After Dark 2. Unlike the first short story, which was a supplemental story that tied into the original full-length BITTEN novel, this all new 38 page short acts as an extended introduction and introduces the main characters to the upcoming BITTEN sequel (coming summer 2013).

Contains adult language and themes. Recommended for mature readers.

BITTEN Second Edition Update!

Just a friendly reminder, the SECOND edition of my book BITTEN is now available on Amazon.com for the new LOW price of $10.99 (paperback)! The ebook is only $2.99!

I promise you, it's worth checking out! You can read the first 3 chapters free using Amazon's free previewer, just click on the picture of the book to "Look Inside."

Bitten 2: Land of the Rising Dead Cover Reveal!

Coming Soon (Summer 2013)

In related news, I am currently working on a second zombie short story which ties into the first novel, BITTEN: A Resurrection Thriller. The first short, BITTEN: AFTER DARK has already sold over 240 copies!

Here's the cover reveal for BITTEN: AFTER DARK 2!

New Zombie Short!

My new zombie short story is available on Amazon.com!

ABOUT:
I intended this to be a chapter of BITTEN, but it got trimmed due to pacing issues and length. Those who have read BITTEN will be pleasantly surprised to find the events fit right into the events of the first book, while those who want a suspenseful, scary, horror story can still read and enjoy this short story without having previously read BITTEN.

The reason I chose to cut this from the original story was because it's ten pages of the main character roaming the halls of her son's abandoned school. It's great suspense, but it was rather long as happened in-between two intense action sequences in the original story and, feeling it threw off the pacing and flow of the book, I left it out.

Now I have come back and refined it, edited it, and published it so you can read it, either as a companion piece, or as a stand-alone. This special short is only $0.99 on Amazon.com!

The Hiccups of Being a Hybrid Writer

I am looking for places to send my book for a review, but so many places have too narrow of guidelines which restrict you to labels and genres. Are you a horror writer? Is your book a horror novel? If not, then we can't accept your submission.

Other review sites say things like, we accept all genres accept horror.

Well, that's easy enough. But what about a writer, like me, who mixes genres? For example, the excellent Indie Book Review website accepts Horror books for review but not Science Fiction. How does one then classify a mixed genre like my book? Or the movie Alien for that matter. Is it horror or sci-fi? Well, in the case of Alien, it's equal parts of both.

Which makes me wonder, who gets to decide on which genre you are? The reader? The publisher? You?

I mix genres because I can use that as a tool to make the story more compelling. My new zombie novel combines equal parts horror, science fiction, and erotica. People have no idea how to classify it. Lot's simply state they don't read erotica--sex grosses them out. But they absolutely adore psychopaths, killers, and monster gore fests, vampires, etc. Just not sex. I think these people probably have mental issues.

But it's limitations like this that make sending my work to reviewers who have strict guidelines which limit their genres or demographics rather difficult. In my opinion, this is just the traditional publishing world slipping behind the digital era. People are clinging to the old rules, because, well, they worked. For classic books released under publishing houses. But now we're talking books released directly to Kindle. We're talking bypassing all that stuff, and getting straight into the meaty of a good, or not so good, story. But the reviewers are part of the old guard, they haven't made the change over to the new.

With recent technology making it possible for anybody, and I do mean anybody, to write and publish a book themselves (heck, I should know, I'm one of them) there is a lot of pressure on reviewers. Creating strict review guidelines is one way they can weed out the stuff they just don't care for and cut out the never ending submissions from every single person who can hit the 'publish now' button when making their book for sale on Amazon.com. Hey, I get it. I do. But at the same time I am thinking there must be some new paradigm out there that we simply haven't discovered yet. Partially because this digital self-publishing has changed the way we perceive books, but also because so many people just have no desire to get with the times. As the old adage goes, if it ain't broke, then don't fix it.

The old model works. It just doesn't work for me. At least not as well as I'd like. Well, who am I to complain? It just seems rather unfair. People who can stick to a genre and write, say, a Young Lit. paranormal romance novel will be the first to get picked up by a review sight (it's the trendy genre at the moment). Whereas writers who are going out on a limp to try something new, and perhaps mix it up a bit, well, we get limited to sending our stories to people who accept anything an everything.

That's not a bad thing, per se. These avid readers love all books, and all titles no matter their genre or content. I think, more power to them! But these voracious readers usually have a full reading schedule and my book, which doesn't fit neatly in any genre and doesn't play nice with people's sensibilities, will get backlogged. What if I need a review to help with promotion and advertising? Truthfully, forget about it.

Even as I am restricted to who will read my book, let alone consider it for review, I am not completely with out options. There are pay for review websites like Kirkus Indie Review. Great if you can afford it. But who am I kidding. I work full time and have a family to support. When it comes to spending that extra money and time, I have a choice: I can spend it on trying to promote my book or spend it on supporting my family. For some reason, people frown on you when your kid wears a paper back to school and socks they got out of the dumpster because dad blew all his money on his bad habit. Needless to say, my family takes precedent over my hobby of writing. My day job takes precedent over my hobby too. But I keep writing anyway. Who knows? Maybe one day I my hobby might become my day job. That's the dream anyway.

So that leaves me playing the slow game. As an Indie writer, I simply have come to terms with the fact that I don't have the advertising muscle of a classic publishing house. Heck, I don't even have an agent. I am just some independent author who enjoys writing books and playing with various genres because, let's face it, I love writing. It's like breathing, if I couldn't do it, I'd slowly suffocate until my brain just turned off one day and that would be the end of it.

Update: Bitten Now Available in Paperback!

UPDATE
It's official folks!


Buy the PAPERBACK edition of my zombie book BITTEN at:


Amazon.com finally has the paperback edition of my novel Bitten for sale.



Also available directly from Create Space. 

Thanks!