Some people boast of great success with their Facebook ads, and I am so lackadaisical that I have no idea how well mine have done, if indeed they've ever achieved anything. Let's see how well this latest one does. Set at £2 a day for 7 days, I shall keep an eye on it and see if it turns into sales. The ad links to my website which has, at the top of the page, the links to buy the books. We shall see what that does. State of play on first morning looks like this:
Thursday 23 November 2023
Facebook ad for Richard The Third
Tuesday 21 November 2023
My first Webtoon & other distractions
My Books and where to get them:
Monday 13 November 2023
November book sales - starting with LFCC
Here we see me, all set up for the London Film & Comic Con at Olympia in London, Nov 11 & 12. It's my third time at the event, and for some reason I thought my table would be enhanced by pinning a bit of Star Wars material to the front. How rubbish did that look? Not that it hurt sales, as this ended up being my biggest weekend of book sales all year.
The event didn't attract art buyers, so my Dr Strange, Star Trek, Beano and Red Dwarf pages went largely ignored (unlike NICE, The Lakes, and the last LFCC, where art sales amounted to the bulk of my takings). Here are my takings from book sales alone:
Saturday £178.80, Sunday £219.83
D2D Nov sales - tbc
Oct - $90.48, Sept - £0, August $4.23, July $7.39, June $6.03, May $1.86, April $1.52, March $2.46, Feb $0, Jan $4.10
Lulu/Amazon Nov sales - tbc
October - £14.23, September - £18.76, Aug £33.34, July £27.60, June £29.94, May £48.33, April £52.26, March £8.56, Feb £38.57, Jan £35.25, & Dec £26.84
Friday 10 November 2023
Who Licked My Toes? - comics by kids
My Books and where to get them:
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
Thursday 9 November 2023
Bahrain & Saudi Arabia - travels with my art
And then I flew to Bahrain. This was a novel trip, at the behest of Laurence Smith, who has organised some fascinating and varied jobs for me over the years (from drawing his family Christmas cards, caricaturing in Amsterdam, live-drawing a day of talks for a disability charity, to illustrating a giant mural based on the suggestions of 100 employees drawn live on a massive roll of paper). This time it was another workplace training event, for healthcare workers. And it was to be in Saudi Arabia.
I didn't advertise this widely in advance because, in all honesty, I feared Saudi Arabia's human rights record wasn't something I wanted to be associated with. Then, when you visit a country and see things first hand, you discover that most people are getting on with regular lives, regardless of what their government is up to. In my whistle stop two day visit, which took four days with travel, I met a number of doctors and professionals who all seem to love the life out here. Some were Saudis, and some from other countries. All told me about the increased liberalising of the country which may have a few years to go progress wise but, on the surface, looks familiar and pleasant. It may not seem much, but they have cinemas, women are allowed to drive and not wear head coverings, and there are no Religious Police any more. Like I say, baby steps.
Wednesday 1 November 2023
October Book Sales - a good start from D2D
It comes with a slight downside. Yesterday I contacted Gardners about selling Richard The Third direct to bookshops through them. Unfortunately, because I've used my own ISBN number for both my printed version and the Ingram Print-On-Demand version, the latter is the only one that'll be available through their system. It is on sale at £8.99, the price that D2D/Ingram fixes once it's taken its percentage, whereas my Recommended Retail Price (as printed on my version of the book) is £6.99.
All this means is that, if you buy the book direct from me, it's cheaper, and it's signed. But it is very good news that international customers can get the paperback, as I know they can get from Barnes & Noble here, as well as from Amazon here.
D2D Oct sales - $90.48
Sept - £0, August $4.23, July $7.39, June $6.03, May $1.86, April $1.52, March $2.46, Feb $0, Jan $4.10
And how's this for a screenshot of my D2D sales for 2023, as of November 2nd. 10 copies of Richard sold in the first 2 days of November, taking it to 66 sales already (that's $14.98 already for November, which already beats every other previous month but October). The runner up Midsummer Night's Dream Team has only sold 14 copies all year, and the next best is Book Of Esther on 9.
Blurb October sales - 39p
Etsy October sales - £51.92
Live at events October sales - £86.93 (Bewdley Lit Fest & Zion Bristol)
My Books and where to get them:
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon
Tuesday 31 October 2023
Quizzer & Chips & other stories - October's musings
On my tour of schools in the North, up to and down from the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, I’ve been sending Hev photos of my occasionally subterranean hotel rooms, if only to stop her being jealous of my exotic travels.