I just watched today's views drop down to 616.
Seriously, I was on the dashboard and looked up at views and the number vanished to be replaced by 616. I think that this is happening as Blogger has again changed where its server is based -I believe CBO currently shows as Taiwan.
Lucky I check occasionally!
The Black Tower blog has had just under 233,000 views. Sadly, no sales increase noted!
I do get curious, however, as to where views come from so I went to the dashboard and checked for today's views:
China, Hong Kong and even Singapore have always contributed to views so 谢谢您 !
If I could get Black Tower Comics to other parts of the world that would be great but translation is the problem -unless there are some Chinese investors out there?
Uzbekistan was a surprise as I don't think I have seen that turn up regularly in views but to those reading CBO there -THANKS.
Well, THANK YOU to everyone who drops in regularly!
Return of the Gods breaks up into 12 issues each of 32pp. If I kept the cost of buying a copy down that would lead to a cover price of £8.00 per copy (excluding postage costs) or, for all 12 issues a total of £96 and when you consider that the 311pp book would cost you £21.89 you can see -profitable for me but not the buyer.
The Green Skies broken up into 12 issues each =36 issues and at £8 a copy that is a total of £288.
A ll 3 of the Green Skies books would only cost you £46 in total (for the 458pp masterpiece) or if you added Return to make up the series that is a total of £67.80.
That is 4 books that if you bought together is a one of local postal rate or 4 at local postal rates. In the end it would cost someone buying the series more than buying the four graphic novels and to me that is untenable. Published monthly that would take the series 4 years to complete and I am not getting any younger!
As it stands my policy has always been to never publish unless every issue of a series is complete. I cannot guarantee a long term series but the four books are completed.
Until looking at the logistics the idea seemed to be a good one but as it stands it makes sense to remain with the four graphic novels.
In comics we all know issue 1 always sells well (which is why Marvel and DC have so many first issues over and over) and sales decline steadily after issue 3. I would need to guarantee that enough readers bought all of the series issues to make the effort and time to produce them worth it.
That is about as likely as my winning the national lottery when I do not buy lottery tickets.
The problem would still be producing covers for an ongoing series. This is basically a one man show now so the covers are going to be THE big stumbling block.
We'll see.
It's 0200hrs but who's checking the clock?
uh...well I just did so.
Any way, I was looking at the fact that Return of the Gods and The Green Skies, despite the rave reviews, do not sell. Checking the number of views on posts for these books the total comes to 1 million. No sales so something is wrong.
It isn't as if there is international shipping to put people off. Buy at the online store and the book is printed and posted in the region you live in. It's why I opted for Print on Demand. Maybe people do not like graphic novels that run into hundreds of pages?
Bridging pages to make the issues/story flow would be needed but that is not a big problem since , out of boredom, I worked that out at 0400hrs yesterday morning. The problem would be in covers. A lot of covers as one book broken down into 20pp issues would require 15 covers. I could, of course make them into 40pp issues which means less covers needed.
Here is the -the- big question, though: would I be producing a huge number of books for a series that no one would buy? Distributors are not interested and Ebay and Amazon are literally robbing creators (I know two book authors who sell but get so little back that they have now stopped using both). Comic shops only try the "You send us free copies and we'll see how they sell and if we want more" con. My experience of 20+ years -they NEVER order new books and the print cost and postage means I lose all of that money.
Sadly, business entrepreneurs are in short supply when it comes to comics in the UK. I've tried Japan, China and India in the past but Western comics seem of no interest.
So.... something for me to mull over as I try to numb my brain with You Tube.
Thoughts?
