Blocked by schools

I'm trying not to take it personally, but an odd thing has come up when I've been emailing schools today. In particular I've been emailing schools that I've visited before, in these three cases back in 2022, and asking if they'd like to have me back.

As ever I'm imagining the kids had a great time with my classes, and getting asked back again is not unusual. What is unusual is getting a return message saying my email message has been blocked.

I understand this when I'm emailing schools cold, out of the blue. Sometimes I even do bulk emails, which I can understand a school's system being geared up to protect against. But in these cases, I'm emailing the actual named person who I dealt with when I visited before, and I'm writing an email especially to them. One of them is the person at the council that actually arranged three library visits in a row for me, which I remember being really popular sellouts.

But these three schools or organisations, who I visited in the spring or summer of 2022, have blocked me. Like I say, trying not to take it personally. Though I have gone back and looked at the comics I produced with each of these classes. Might there be a clue in those..?

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms 

Cute Pupu, Potatoes, Greggs Sausage Rolls - comics by kids

Another lovely cluster of comics created with kids in my Comic Art Masterclasses, from Finchley to Stockport via Northampton.

The first class I did for Arts Depot in Finchley was in the glory days of lockdown, where I just had to walk through to the back room, shout at my computer screen for a couple of hours, and the job was done. Now it's three hours there, three hours back, and two hours at the chalkface. Sadly I couldn't get them to stretch to a day's worth of classes, just the one. But the consolation was that it was jam-packed full and I was able to sell books to the attendant parents afterwards. Just short of eighty quid's worth in fact, which doesn't hurt.

Kingsthorpe Primary in Northampton was a lovely first time visit, who have been kind enough to confirm a return booking already, which is nice. A couple of excellent comics produced with the years 3 and 4.

Stockport School is one I've returned to a number of times now, thanks to Debra in the library who has been a great supporter of the class. The kids always have the highest standard of work, and a very good sense of humour I find. 

The celebrities these five groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Adele, Taylor Swift (three times, I think we may have a new leader when I come to tot up these celebs at the end of the year), and Jeremy Clarkson.

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms 

November Book Sales - live and online

Drawing a flipchart scribble for the first class of the month at Arts Depot Finchley.

After a month as choc full of book sales as October (a record month I think), November started by keeping up that momentum with the last class of Half Term and the last Literary Festival of the year..

Fri Nov 1st: Arts Depot Finchley (one class) - £76.89

8 x Richard The Third

1 x FM

1 x PODS

1 x MNDT

Sat Nov 2nd: Clevedon Literary Festival - £131.40

Having done this event for the last three years (it was my first public outing after lockdown) I've been used to it being in the summer, and doing a Comic Art Masterclass on the same day as exhibiting my books. First time out, in 2021, I took £130 on top of the fee for the class. The next year there was no book fair, but £52 of books sold after one class. Last year a class and a table and I was back up to £145. This summer the event spread itself across two dates. In June I did the class, after which I sold £85 worth of books in the ten minutes afterwards, but there was no book fair. The book fair had moved to this date in November, and I have to say felt very quiet. Standing at a table from 10 to 4 gets quite draining without a constant flow of punters.

The oddest thing was my caricatures. At live events I draw peoples faces, to attract them to my table, and the deal is they get it free with anything they buy, or they can just pay £2 for the caricature, or if they don't want it I'll keep it. At last month's shows you can see I can take quite a lot in takings from caricatures alone. Today in Clevedon was the first event (since I started charging for them in March) that literally no-one paid for their caricature alone. They either bought a book or left the picture. Very strange.

Another significant note: I need to order more stock. Having sold more Shakespeares faster than I thought during Half Term week, I was badly under-stocked, with only a few copies left of my key books. I could have sold more.

8 x Richard The Third

3 x PODS

3 x FM (sold out)

2 x MNDT (sold out)

2 x Bowie colouring book (sold out)

1 x Space Elain

1 x Blank comic book

1 x Nativity

Mon Nov 4: Kingsthorpe School, Northants - £14

2 x Richard The Third 

(bought by teachers. Sadly, because of half term, there hadn't been the chance to pre-sell the books to the kids)

Sat Nov 9: Book event Monmouth - £13.98

Society of Authors event with speakers, talking about ecology, only last two hours, not much of that given over to selling books

2 x Richard The Third

Mon Nov 11: Stockport School - £56

3 x Richard The Third

2 x PODS

2 x MNDT

1 x FM 

Rest of month tbc

My Books and where to get them:

Richard The Third - Amazon - Etsy - Barnes & Noble - Waterstones

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback

Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe - Amazon - ebook

Who Notes - Doctor Who Reviews - Amazon - Lulu - ebook

Space Elain - Amazon - Lulu - iBooks - Barnes & Noble 

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy - Webtoons

The Book Of Esther - Lulu  - Amazon - Webtoons

Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon

Captain Clevedon - Amazon

Tales Of Nambygate - Amazon  

2024's Comics By Kids (NEW), 2023's Comics By Kids, 2022's Comics By Kids

Colouring Books: Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who, Royalty, Rom Coms