Monday, 23 December 2013

Black Tower Comics & Books -An Announcement

Over the last couple of weeks the "End of Mankind" teaser for the 2014 Green Skies book has received almost 3,000 hits. Other items on CBO get similar large hit numbers.

In November, 2013, there were some 139,325 page views for CBO. That comes out at around 34,831.25 page views per week.

So, you might think that this means it helps sell my Black Tower Comics and Books? Nope.  November saw 3 books sold.  My online store is here, by-the-way:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hoopercomicsuk

David Gordon's (see the Chang3lings link to right) interview and look at his Chang3lings/My Excess business has received 1,699 views.  I haven't heard reports of a Scotsman running around screaming "I'm rich! I'm rich!"

Titan Book, Cinebook and Casterman reviews as well as the review of the Kick-Ass DVD have also received high numbers of hits.  How that has affected their sales I have no idea.

But this is publishing. People will snap up free pdf of books and ask question after stupid question about books....and NEVER buy a copy. And what do I, as a publisher, do about this?  Let me tell you.

There are over 70 collected books or individual  books in the online store covering science fiction, horror, fantasy, super heroes, haiku (!) and books on world mysteries and wildlife. As of 1st January, 2014, BTCG will not be publishing any more new books -we've a massive inventory allready.  What will happen is that occasionally, Black Tower Super Heroes will appear but most other things are on hold until June and "The Green Skies" -an epic in itself.

There are no "discount sales" or "special offer" reduction prices because, the way POD (print on Demand) works I am getting the barest minimum for a sale. The highest price book, once sold, will earn me around £3 or $6.  Not a lot when you consider all the hard work involved. I need to sell a heck of a lot of books to make anywhere near decent money.

In some cases, where I have worked with an artist on a book, I will be looking for a non-UK publisher interested in publishing that work under license so the artist can earn something!

So, Black Tower is NOT closing down -just taking a little snooze!


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