NEVER ever get into it unless it is to read them.

At 0400 hrs this morning I almost closed down my online storefront deleting everything. The only this that stopped me was the internet breaking down again thanks to Richard Branson's shit Virgin Media.

Yesterday I made the mistake of  going onto a couple of private groups where most people are independent publishers and the majority seem to be based in the United States. All seemed to be pretty despondent and most rather angry at comic store owners who will not stock their books. There was a lot of chat along the lines of comic book stores closing because they cannot sell enough Marvel, DC and Image comics: good because they never support independent publishers.

Two of those publishing stated that they had reached the point where continuing was pointless.

This is where I made the big mistake.

I introduced myself and explained about Black Tower Comics and Books. I suggested that it might be a good idea if we all carried adverts and links to each others books and tried to get retailers to stock them. Put on a united front.

I seemed that they all knew of me and BTC&B -so they would know I was being sincere, right?  No.  One wrote: "I've seen your web store, the pages of books on offer and your posts and links are everywhere.  There is no way you are not selling!"  Another chirped in with "It's called making out you are doing badly to get sympathy purchases".

For some reason I was now the bad guy for 'pretending' that I was getting no sales. I pointed out that I posted the revenue information every month because I had an openness policy. Didn't help. I  even posted the latest info. No good

I was, apparently, insulting them by pretending I was not doing well sales-wise. They had seen all the stats on Comic Bits Online and with that many views and my presence on the internet I had to be lying -one even stated that he would kill his own mother for the amount of publicity I get (I don't think he was serious about killing his mother).

Now I want to start by stating that I appreciate EVERY purchase because that is someone spending THEIR money to buy a book I have produced. I am therefore not aiming comments at those people -they bought something!

But look at that revenue figure: £11.20.  Then read the bit below about "subject to witholding and minor currency fluctuations. I am a British publisher using a Print on Demand company in the United States and for that reason I get hit by US taxes for even the smallest sales (in the UK and EU sales are considered too low to tax).  Add to that the fact that the POD will pay out when the currency fluctuation is in their favour then I do not get much. A similar amount a year ago resulted in my receiving £7.25 in revenue.

This is the first period in a long time in which sales are recorded rather than just a flatline and £00.00 but Unidentified -Identified will cost you £18 to buy.  Dim Evening £3.00 and Job Interview £2.00 which totals out at £23...you can see how the financial side works out for me! In the end the three books will be marked as "give aways" (my bank makes a charge for money received).

After the private forum chat and just number crunching I was just at a very low point and did not want to keep staring at zeroes or sales I would get nothing from. I did what no one should ever do, I made a decision to close the store (deleting all books for good) at 0400 hrs. I got onto the store front dashboard and "delete store" and the internet cut out.

So the store is still there but rather like the closing down date for CBO there is a store deletion date (made while I was fully awake and not in a "state").

I am not the only publisher going through this but it seems the sensible solution for all to team together got as bad a reaction as my attempt a few years back to get UK comic creators to support and help revive UK comics....it ended badly with the nastiness aimed at me for simply daring to suggest such things (though I would make noting out of the project).

Comics. NEVER ever get into it unless it is to read them.