The Crunch. It Came And Went...And You Never Even Noticed!

Now,I have always said that I do not hide things when it comes to publishing and as the New Year deadline is approaching I thought I'd share sales stats for November-December 2015:

05-Dec-2015	The Hooper Interviews	Paperback	Lulu	UK	1	£0.00
26-Nov-2015	The Red Paper: CANIDS	Paperback	Lulu	UK	1	£3.72
06-Nov-2015	The Truth About Spring-Heeled Jack	Paperback	Lulu	US	1	£3.59
06-Nov-2015	Pursuing The Strange & Weird:A Naturalists Viewpoint	Paperback	Lulu	US	1	£7.21

The first item above is a present for a friend and as I bought it there is, obviously, no profit. Which works out as
Revenue GBP £14.52

It gets worse when you look at sales from January 2015-December 2015 with 40+ copies ordered but only 21 books sold for the entire year.  The extra 20+ copies were ordered to send out as review books that, not surprisingly, were NEVER reviewed by the "reviewers" who requested them.

From January-December 2015 I have made around £21.00 Now you do not have to be a financial genius to work out that, including postage to alleged "reviewers" I spent three times what I 'earned' in 2015. That, my friends,is a dead business by even the most Walter Mitty of imaginings!

The ads and publicity for the books were on several of my blogs -all getting thousands of hits per day and I'm not forgetting Google+ and the large number of views there, nor the many thousands of views of feed from CBO.  All resulting in 21 sales.

It has not helped that comic events in the UK are far too expensive and seem closed to anyone but friends or the usual hangers on.  But I've already said I am NEVER mentioning the UK 'comic scene' again.

If, covering all the genres with some incredible creators all I can muster is 21 loss making sales then I think the plan I announced earlier this year is the only option. Comic fans -there are a few left- can't read about or see the books....well,I guess they are not amongst the several millions that have checked out CBO!

I would like to 'thank' all of those comic book 'friends' whom I supported over thirty plus years, helping some out in bad times, who decided to turn their backs and NEVER even attempt to support me because it might "rock the boat" and upset the nasty little shits in comics who employ bully tactics. I would like to 'thank' the events organisers who took every bit of publicity and pushing they could get but then turned their backs.

I simply cannot be bothered.  Those who HAVE given even moral support: you I THANK and the rest of you, well,I'll leave that up to Grand Pappy Hooper.....