Anyway, while being unwell I have looked at all of the options open to me in 2020 and what it might mean for Black Tower Comics & Books. Didn't turn out too good.
I currently have 9 books (comic albums and graphic novel)that are just sitting on an external drive. Covers and everything done. The problem is that none are converted to PDF format which means that they are not ready to be uploaded to the Print On Demand (POD) company. The problem here is not really a problem but m ore a case of what is the point. There are 90 books covering all genres on the online store front but no one buys. I have a couple of boxes of publications that are not on the store front -so 130 plus I think in total. No one is buying. So what would be the point of putting up more books?
"They contain UK Golden Age reprints -people want those!" Well, no. There are the original single volumes of British Golden Age comics that have not sold a single copy and some of those have been on the store 10 years. The 400 plus pages collection has had 5 sales since it was first published but even promoting them on my olf Yahoo groups resulted in no sales. So a mix of GA, Silver Age and contemporary strips I cannot see selling any better!
Then I have the biggest graphic novel I have done to date -the last one I'll do- The Green Skies. Hundreds of pages that I cannot letter or give a last tidy up to. The problem here is that when the old PC died I lost my Microsoft Office Publisher/Word and Adobe Photoshop. I cannot hand letter (my hands are too far gone) and pages need to be sized and formatted. To purchase replacement programs would cost several hundred £/$ and that is money from fantasy land as far as I am concerned. Also, I have a barely functioning laptop so throwing non-existent cash at it is pointless.
I had thought that, in 2009, when I shifted everything to POD and offered far better quality of paper and print sales would pick up. In fact, I get far fewer sales now than I did when everything was Small Press -another lie about how the internet will increase your business profitability proven. Remember that my books are listed on book sites around the world -even those listed on Amazon (still listed though I withdrew them from the site as I earned something like £1 if a £25 book sold!) never sold a copy.
There are things I am working on, as I have shown here, 35 pagers that cannot be lettered. I'm into another book that, again, will not be lettered.
I could go back to the Small Press method -as Ben Dilworth has done on his Black Tower books and they look quite effective. But that is still producing more books that in all likelihood will not sell.
Once the laptop quits (I am concerned that it has only screwed up this posting once!!) that is it. I am off the internet.
I need a new computer.
In the past I have asked book companies that do really well out of Comic Bits Online whether they might consider paying for adverts on the site. No. "We do not budget for advertising" -and my ad rates were LOW. I tried approaching other companies because if CBO does well it means book production continues. No. I tried Patreon, GoFundMe -even a PayPalMe box on CBO but absolutely not a single penny yet CBO has had millions of views and even the promise of more content such as videos saw no interest. This Christmas I posted about Chinese comics -Manhwa (a lot of it has been reposted by others taking the credit). Views sky-rocketed and not from Chinese language countries -there was the usual absence of any comments but the views still hit the roof. Donate a £/$ each time you visit CBO...no. It's all grab for free.
So I have tried everything but unless some computer manufacturer offers a free computer my time on the internet is limited -and book production has ground to a halt. I don't even have the ability to work on my manuscripts has stopped. Having said that, the prose books have not sold so perhaps its for the best!
What it all comes down to is that 2020 as far as I am concerned will be no different than 2009-2019: maybe one sale and then...nothing.
Even on the Black Tower Face Book page I notice the views have trebled- yet questions/comments seem lacking.
That is the situation as it stands so if I suddenly vanish off the net you'll know why.
No comments:
Post a Comment