The Rules And You NEED To Pay Attention

"I visit Comic Bits Online every day" (yeah, a regular would call it "CBO"!) is usually followed by:

1.  "I'm offering you a chance to promote my/our new book!"

2. "I've attached a pdf of our book for review"

3. "I've included a link to the file share service we use so you can download a pdf of our press release and our book for review"

4.  "You will understand that I do not want to send a hard copy of our new book...."

Do you know where these emails go after April when I made it very -VERY- clear what the PR and review rules were?  They get marked as spam and the person sending such a message is put on "Terry's Black List".

Apparently, two bloggers, recently, each received an invite to download a pdf of a new comic from a file share site -both picked up malware and a Trojan virus that was on the file share service site.  I have warned about this over and over again but let people learn the hard way not tell me afterwards "You were right".

The rules are very -VERY- simple.

1.  A Press Release should be in Word Doc format only.

2. The PR should be accompanied by a cover illustration and at least 3-5 interior pages.

3. These PRs are only posted upon a written promise that a hard copy review book is being sent because I am not here to just freely promote your books -YOU do not promote mine.

4. If a review book does not get sent -I've heard all the excuses- then you will be named and shamed on CBO as a liar and time waster.

5. This is MY blog and so it is up to me what gets posted.  You have no rights to demand that your book is publicised on CBO -that attitude from now on will get you named and shame without mentioning your book.

Yes, it really is that simple.  I spend time and energy to read and review your book on a high traffic comics blog and unless you are paying me money (for a review -NEVER!)  I think I at least deserve a copy of the book in question.  PDF can hide many things as I learned in the early days of CBO -including "how to order" a book that has not been printed.  A printed book shows it is a real and available book.

As for events: if I publicise any in future it is because I either have an open invite to them or a table. Do not send me screechy emails demanding your event is mentioned and as, after all these years, not even one event has sent follow up PRs with photos as promised I consider that a "you're just a tool to be used and dumped".  Any follow up after the April Birmingham Comic Event? No. I need information from the blog and prefer information from the organisers rather than a couple very biased negative comments.

Yeah, grind your teeth. After all these years I don't give a shit.

Also, if you are listed on the CBO blog roll then you need to reciprocate or else the link is deleted. If absolutely no news or review books from your company turn up then the link is deleted as I assume you are no longer in business -I culled a lot of links after being told they were now dead links so I have to assume the worst.

Remember: you do not mention my new books or ask for PRs then don't expect me to mention your books or go chasing after you for PRs: I gave up doing that long ago after finding out just how ungrateful and even two-faced some people were.

I cannot afford to play at comics as a hobby or second job.  I write, draw, edit and publish and messing about is wasting my time.

And no more demanding support for your kick-starter or trying to shame (!) me into publicising it.  I get 5-10 of these a week.  Forget it.  If I see projects I like then I will mention them.

Remember that this is MY blog not a public service.

There is no "comic book community" -that is just a fallacy. A few creators know each other or have their set of fans.  How many of the books reviewed, mentioned or even news items posted on CBO will you find on other UK or even European blogs? Maybe 2% 

On US blogs...not even that.  It is why the highest number of views for CBO are from the United States -I thank you guys and for your emails but, PLEASE, comment on the blog so people know why you like it!

I am always grateful to YOU for checking CBO each day and I would say "from Burma", "from Romania", "from the Netherlands" but, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand, every country appears to have comickers visiting CBO -THANKS to all of you.

My query, though, is WHO are the 2 viewers from "Antarctica"??????

Comic on Everyone -and ENJOY COMICS!