Over 1000 posts on CBO so far this year (I'm told) and to the page total we can add the ever increasing number of views via Google+ of 931,081. Yes, it is irritating that making money out of the blog seems impossible (do not even mention Adsense!) but there are no immediate plans to close the blog -and I would if I felt it had reached that point.
Neither is it suggested ill health. Yet.
You will note that over recent weeks I have been adding notes to spotlights on Black Tower Comics & Books posted here. Probably best if I start from the beginning.
The postal charges in the UK are extortionate to say the least. I just found out that if I order Some Things Strange & Sinister, Some More Things Strange & Sinister, Spring Heeled Jack, The Red Paper,
Pursuing The Strange & Weird:A Naturalists Viewpoint and posting them to an address in the US -from lulu.com US POD service- that it will cost in toto for books & P&H half -half- of what it would cost from the UK printer -the postage itself is literally very cheap.
So, UK postal charges. I thought that I wanted to ensure that someone interested in buying a book or comic from the online store did not pay over the odds because of postage. From the very outset -it's here on CBO somewhere!- I pointed out the printing costs and how much I made from each book and I really was getting the dirty end of the stick with the POD service and printer earning more. But I maintained the low cover price.
In fact, in 2012 I actually marked down those cover prices again and I posted this information everywhere including -obviously- CBO.
"And how did that increase sales, Terry?" you ask. It did not. Even the recent announcement that cover prices will increase on 24th December resulted in no interest.
As I was awake all of last night -yet I'm not screaming or threatening to kill (I'm getting old)- I went through all the pricings and looked at sales. My calculator batteries survived.
By 05:00 I had decided that it just cannot go on. I am literally giving away books and that is no way to run a business.There needs to be a massive overhaul and that will take place from Sunday onwards.
All books are going to be repriced to a sensible figure -remember that books like Return of the Gods, Some Things Strange And Sinister are over 300 pages thick and the mysteries books involve the editing over 40+ years research and investigation, months of writing, editing and so on -and naturally a book like Return does not take a few hours to write and draw.
So, based on poor sales and needing to actually keep the old Tower from sinking into quicksand, the prices will go up.
Obviously, that means they are never going to be as cheap again as they are now. So in four days that all changes and if you really are interested in any of the books now is the time to buy. Or you can wait and see what events I turn up at and buy them at the new price then.
I'd prefer not to end up like so many small publishers in the past.
There you go. Out in the open explanation -nothing hidden.
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