Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 1 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Nice to meet you; my name is Jougi Shiraishi. This book, Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, was self-published on the Amazon Kindle store at the end of 2014, back when I was a total amateur.

My story went through widespread amendments and revisions at the hands of the editing section of GA Books. They were kind enough to point out every single mistake, from mistakes I hadn’t noticed on my own to typos and omitted characters that sneaked into the manuscript when it was uploaded to the Kindle store. There are so many odd bits when I go back and read the original…

Anyway, among the reactions from those individuals kind enough to read my book in this era of self-publishing, the most common has been “I can’t read the title.” My apologies. The characters in the second part of the title are read journey. At first I thought, Since it’s about a witch who is traveling, why not simply call it The Witch’s Travels? That sounds good—let’s do that. But that was a little too simple, and I realized such a title would almost certainly get confused with other titles when people were searching, so I made up a word by doubling the kanji character. It just means journey; there’s no deeper meaning.

My pen name when self-publishing was Jougi, but as I’m sure you will understand, I didn’t appear in any search results. That’s why I added my family name to my pen name.

And so I must thank you for picking up a copy of Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina.

This book is composed of strange stories in which even stranger characters appear. In a nutshell, it’s a strange book full of strange tales. However, nothing makes me happier than the fact that you have added such a book to your collection. By the way, this is just between you and me, but this book is perfect for a bookshelf (although your mileage may vary).

If a second volume of this story comes out, and you line it up next to this volume, I figure that would be even better (again, your mileage may vary).

Well then, on to the thank-yous.

To my manager, M, thank you for all that you do. I’m sure I will continue to cause you headaches as always, but I would be truly happy if you stuck by my side for years to come…

To everyone at SB Creative who decided to start the GA Books editing section, you have my limitless gratitude for picking up my book. Moreover, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my stories would be included in the launch lineup for a new label. I digress, but when I saw that lineup, I had a moment of panic, like, “Huh? Is it really all right for me to be here among such amazing writers…?” Actually, I still feel that way.

And to Azure, who was in charge of illustrations, thank you for drawing such adorable pictures. Ahhh…Elaina is so cute… Oh no, all the characters are cute… I’m grinning every day looking back at the insert and illustrations, which are just too adorable. Thank you so much.

Finally, to everyone who picked up this book, I’m glad I could make your acquaintance here on these pages. Let’s meet again sometime, somewhere. Until next time!