The Birth Pangs role playing game is unique in that it aims to reflect the book series in the game world. There are some limitations to how accurately the RPG can do something like that but literally hundreds of hours have gone into rendering it as close as possible. What really makes the game unique is that the author of the Birth Pangs series himself participates and the characters in the book also makes appearances in the game. But what is potentially ground breaking is the fact that it is possible that there can be reverse inspiration, where events in the RPG might actually come to be reflected in later books… !

The Birth Pangs world is one with post-apocalyptic feel to it. There has been a terrible disease and some nuclear strikes and now there is virtual anarchy. This plays out in the game as players are able to conquer cities and territory, build city defenses, and tax travelers, as well as uncover material that will help them understand the Birth Pangs series itself as they read the books.

Technology continues to shape how books are marketed and promoted today. The close interaction between Horvath and his fans and the real potential for ‘fan fiction’ (in the RPG sense) to be integrated into future books is just a sign of how the industry is transforming.

In anticipation for the Christmas season, Horvath has released a special RPG package where a small donation gets new members some advantages as they begin playing. Normally, players start out with just the clothes on their back, but Horvath will give new donating players money, weapons, and a ride so that they can quickly immerse themselves into the fantasy world that is the Birth Pangs universe.

The promotional donation amount is just $5.00 and puts new players in a position of strength right to start with.  Go here to purchase the promotion resource bonus and/or go here to play the role playing game: www.birthpangs.com/rpg

NOTE: This is for new players only, as existing players already know that they can donate through the game and that since they are already strong characters, they don’t need this special help to get started.

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Updated: Amazon.com no longer gives a significant discount. 

I have been asked this question by a number of people. The question is- what puts the most money into my hands, or what in general helps the cause of Birth Pangs the most. It is an interesting question. There is something to be said about having my book’s rank on Amazon.com be higher, but when they’re selling it for only $10 you can guess that my cut is not so much. And just because BN charges more for the book, don’t think my cut is any higher- it isn’t. It’s exactly the same. Naturally, if you buy it from me for full price, from a purely financial point of view, I get a larger cut.

Let’s keep in mind that if you buy from me direct, your copy is signed, whereas obviously the major distributors can’t do that.

Having heard this so often now and having spent a little time thinking about it, if you want to try to help out in both ways- Amazon’s ’status’ measure and my bottom line, you can buy from Amazon and send me a paypal payment to make up the difference. So, if you buy the book from Amazon for $10.50, simply subtract $10.50 from $15.95 and send me a paypal payment for $5.45. Now my rank goes up on Amazon, but I’m not shorted on the profit.

Now, I completely understand you may just want to grab the book cheap and check it out. That’s just fine by me. I’m not trying to guilt anyone here. I’m just responding to a question that keeps coming up. And of course, if you want to send more then the difference, I won’t stop you. I have plenty other expenses, like marketing and advertising and web hosting expenses.

Just a note- if you buy more than one copy via Amazon, it won’t increase the ranking. It increases on a ‘per order’ basis. So, just keep in mind that buying 10 copies on Amazon won’t help in that regards more than buying 1.

Without further ado, here is the Paypal donation form:

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