Due to various problems last year's July deadline for the final installment of the Invasion Earth trilogy -The Green Skies- was cancelled. I had thought about July of this year but you can guess, from no postings about it, that the book never made it.
It's about perspective. Firstly, I have a lot of books at the online store including parts 1 and 2 of the trilogy -Return Of The Gods: Twilight Of The Super Heroies and The Cross Earths Caper- and, as noted before, the sales are so small that the UK Tax office laughs when I declare the yearly total. I just do not get enough sales to make the bare minimum to pay taxes. Whereas, any sale to a US customer means a chunk is taken away in US Taxes.
We have sci-fi, horror, crime, adventure, super heroes, slice of life, Haiku even-illustrated prose and books. Sales, as my old gran might have said: "Sweet FA".
Next to me is the box with over 400 pages of art for The Green Skies -all I have to do is conclude the art pages (about 20 more pages) tidy-up finished art and letter. Done. But I'm not going to. Not yet.
Green Skies is going to be the last BIG project I work on in comics. It is the culmination of a story I began in 1986/87 and, though I never realised it until looking at what I have published in other titles, I have been building up to since that time. I never even realised that The Many-Eyed One had been seen in a previous book -Krakos -Sands of Terror- until I checked something in it for reference. Continuity.
If people are not rushing out to buy vol. 1 nor vol. 2 well, why rush work to publish volume 3? What I've been doing is tidying up other books -Black Tower Super Heroes 2-5 are complete but as #1 sold just one copy feck rushing those out. But it means that I can build up characters ready for Green Skies.
Green Skies may not appear this year and if I live to see 2017 we'll see then! But I am not rushing it.
You might think that it's all just drawing, lettering and scanning and that's it but I have to buy a pdf converter to make the files to publish those books. That is £160-£200 for a year. Pity no one has thought to create a free pdf converter for small publisher that does not contain malware or other bugs that screw up your computer -that is a veiled warning in case you think those 'free' pdf converters look worthwhile -they aint. Nitro and Adobe are safe but expensive. Like a new computer the expense cannot be justified if no money is coming in. That simple.
Hey -Anonymous: put all your superb computer skills into helping out the small guy with a pdf converter!
Just a thought.
I have to live and eat and with events blocked I cannot get to places to meet and sell. Again, simple fact. I can't sell then I can't pay bills or eat and I do like to eat occasionally. So I need to find projects outside of comics that have a money-making potential. The AOP blog is closed because it has not resulted in the sale of one of the "phenomena" books since 2011. It'sw a waste of time and energy so it goes and those few thousand people a week will need to go find somewhere else for free. CBO has it's cut-off date firmly in place for the same reasons.
Perspective. No one wants the books then stop the blog promoting them and save energy and time. Comics the same.
I am just not giving a firm commitment to a publication date for Green Skies but I'm guessing that, as with the Darke Child Trilogy, I am going to get occasional emails asking "where's part 3?" Well, go buy parts 1 and 2 and we'll see!
Things will appear when they appear but in the meantime I need to make money.
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