November Live Book Sales

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)

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 

My Nan Volleyed A Crumpet Into The Fireplace - comics by kids

Half Term week came along and, rather impressing myself, I managed to arrange a Comic Art Masterclass on every single day, and a Literary Festival on the weekend. The Friday and the weekend crossed over into November, so you'll see their results in the next blog. Meanwhile here are the fruits of Monday to Thursday.

Monday was Putney Methodist Hall, and Tuesday was Letchworth Gallery Arts Centre. Sadly I only managed to line up one class apiece in these locations, which amounted to the best part of six hours driving each day for just two hours work. Balanced up, I must point out, by the books I sold to parents after each class (as you can see here, not too shabby). 

Swansea on Wednesday was my first full day of classes, at St Thomas in the morning and Sketty in the afternoon. And what joyous creations they came up with. The odd design of the Here Come Your Mum cover is a result of the fact that they didn't have a full size photocopier, but I was able to produce the comics on their printer, which could do double sided. The thing it couldn't do was reduce the A3 cover down, so I had to do that in two halves. Hence a cover designed so you wouldn't see the join.

Thursday was my second full day of classes, all in one location too, at Maidenhead library. Added to which they bought the most books of the week, making Maidenhead a most satisfactory day's work.

The celebrities these six groups chose to appear in my demonstration drawing were James Bond, Albert Einstein, Donald Trump, Ryan Reynolds, Jamie Smart, and Santa Claus.

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 

I Accidentally Nuked Your House - comics by kids

 These Comic Art Masterclasses saw me visiting Abergavenny, Leeds, and Nottinghamshire, working with kids in schools and libraries.

The Years 3s and 4s of Cantref Primary in Abergavenny came up with a couple smashing titles. I was particularly pleased with how my Jokers came out.

Allerton High in Leeds is a school I must have been to four times now. Every time a treat. The Drake title was typical of the sort of thing teenagers find funny. It seems to be a meme based on rumours about the totally innocent pop star Drake. I'm sure we came out with worse in our day.

West Bridgford & Beeston libraries in Nottinghamshire were another couple of good ones. Sometimes there's nothing more to say other than to show you the comics. 

The celebrities these six groups selected to appear in my demonstration strip were Taylor Swift (twice), Tom Holland, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Attenborough and - and this doesn't happen often - Bensen Boon, who was a totally invented name that a kid came up with. He may have been thinking of someone real (possibly Jensen Button?) but got the name wrong. However the rest of the group found it the funniest suggestion of the four (we always choose from a shortlist of four), so the imaginary Bensen Boon it was that I drew in all his glory.

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 

All For One - another new potential project

Just as I was getting stuck in to colouring Richard The Third, and wondering what the news was from the projects I've been working on through my agent Emily, three things come in at once.

One: my pitch for Space Elain / Lois In Space. Emily has notes, and some very useful examples of pitch documents that I could learn from. So I'm about to get stuck into doing that.

Two: the thing I demo'd for, with science and a duck and a cat (the science was their idea, the cat was mine), didn't get the go ahead. I confess I didn't have too much faith in it myself.

Three: the period drama I auditioned / did spec art samples for. Apparently there's now a shortlist of contenders, which I have made it on to. Which is nice. But, in order to help them make their choice, they wanted some new samples, on a different period drama. It's one that I had, unbidden, done some character drawings for at the same time as my spec samples. So, this time, I've been given a script for two pages of the story, and got stuck into those on Monday morning. You can see a taste of the results above.

Though I'd prefer to draw it in the looser, quicker, cartoony style of Richard The Third and Romeo and Juliet, the samples I sent, and the script they sent, both leant towards a more action cartoony style. So it it that I've combined the technique of Midsummer Night's Dream Team (pencils printed out onto Bristol Board and inked with a brush pen), followed by over elaborate colouring which takes too long to do and which I don't particularly enjoy.

I've very pleased with my samples, which went off to Emily Tuesday lunchtime, and dread getting the job if they want it all coloured to that degree. What a damn fool. I don't, of course, even know how much they'd be paying. Let's worry about that if it ever comes to it, eh?

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 

Colouring Richard

Today I started colouring Richard The Third. Or rather I continued colouring him.

You might remember a year ago I published Richard The Third and it has become my most popular graphic novel. A first print run of 500 sold out, and the second print run is quickly being got through. (In fact, looking across the studio, I see there are only about 120 of that second run left).

A couple of weekends ago at The Lakes comic festival I took part in the Rights Market, and three of the four publishers I met asked for PDFs of my books. Scholastic asked to see Joseph & Ruth, and the other two, VigeVage and WSOY, asked to see Richard The Third. They particularly wanted to see the coloured pages of it. But, at that time, I only had half a dozen pages of Richard in full colour.

The odd method I've used in the production of this book, and for my subsequent Shakespeares for kids, is that I colour the backgrounds first. This leaves the figures in black & white relief form. Which looks weird in colour, but means the black and white version of the book, the only version that's been printed to date, has the characters standing out against grey backgrounds. Which I think looks good. (See image above).

I'd gone on to do full colour on a few pages, for demo purposes, but then left the rest of the book in that half finished state. Well, now I'm going to, whenever time allows, complete the job so Richard will exist in a full colour version. It will no doubt be prohibitively expensive to buy in that form at the moment. But if the hope that springs eternal, of a publisher taking my books on and getting them to a proper sized audience, then it'll be a bit closer to being ready to be seen in public.

The new coloured version of the book includes a number of newly written and drawn pages, produced as a result of conversations with my agent Emily, nearly a year ago. These flesh out earlier scenes and explain some characters a bit better, but have yet to see print. Whenever a third print run happens, those pages will be in it. And of course they'll be in any colour version.

Worksheet: 

Tues Oct 15 - Coloured pages 7 - 20.

Weds Oct 16 - Pages 21 - 24A

Fri Oct 25 - Pages 25 - 30

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 

October Live Book Sales

Above: My table at Tetbury Goods Shed for a small but pleasant Tetbury Comic Con.

NB The sales at schools and art centres are on top of my Comic Art Masterclasses, for which I’ve already been paid. The caricatures are something I do at live events to attract people to my table. 

October began quietly with two books sold after a Port Talbot class with only 3 pupils in, and 2 books bought by the library at Killarney Community College. So chalk up 4 Richard The Thirds there. Then the comic weekends begin...

Sat 12 Oct: Wrexham Comic Con - £353

26 x Caricature only - (on credit card alone, more on cash, not counted up)

8 x Richard The Third

8 x Colouring Books (2 xWho, 2 x Cult, Hollywood, Euro Vol 2, 60s, 90s)

3 x Space Elain

3 x Midsummer Night’s Dream Team

2 x Findlay Macbeth

1 x Prince Of Denmark Street

1 x Tales From Bible

1 x Who Notes

1 x Socks comic

Sun 13 Oct: Tetbury Comic Con - £188

14 x Caricature only (+ more cash)

10 x Richard The Third

5 x Space Elain

4 x Colouring Books (Who, Euro Vol 1, Scot Pop (sold out), Xmas Movies (sold out))

4 x MNDT

2 x Joseph & Ruth

1 x PODS

1 x FM

Mon 14 Oct: Cantref Primary Abergavenny - £105

15 x Richard The Third

Thurs 17 Oct: Allerton High, Leeds - £98

14 x Richard The Third

Sat 19 Oct: Cardiff Film & Comic Con - £395 (card and cash)

57 x Caricature only (+ more cash)

9 x Richard The Third

1 x Space Elain (sold out)

1 x Who Notes (sold out)

8 x Colouring Books (3 Who (sold out), 3 Cult TV, 1 Romcom (sold out), 1 60s)

2 x MNDT

1 x Joseph & Ruth

3 x PODS

2 x FM

7 x Socks Superheroes 

1 x Dr Strange 86

Sun 20 Oct: Cardiff day two - £340 (card and cash)

45 x Caricature only (+ more cash)

9 x Richard The Third

3 x Colouring Books (80s, 70s, Hollywood)

2 x Beano annual 2008 (sold out)

1 x Shakespeare Omnibus 

1 x Dr Strange 86

1 x Tales From Nambygate

3 x MNDT

3 x PODS

1 x FM (sold out)

1 x Nativity 

Thurs 24 Oct: West Bridgford & Beeston libraries - £101

7 x Richard The Third

3 x Space Elain

2 x MNDT

2 x FM

1 x PODS

Mon 28 Oct: Putney class - £70.93

4 x Richard The Third

3 x Space Elain

1 x Tales From Bible

1 x MNDT

1 x Joseph

Tues 29 Oct: Letchworth class - £69.95

5 x Richard The Third

1 x PODS

1 x FM

1 x MNDT

1 x Esther (sold out)

1 x Space Elain

Weds 30 Oct: Swansea libraries - £87.90

9 x Richard The Third

3 x MNDT

1 x Space Elain

Thurs 31 Oct: Maidenhead library - £143.91

9 x Richard The Third

2 x FM

2 x PODS

3 x MNDT

1 x Space Elain

1 x Joseph

1 x Omnibus (sold out)

(I am tempted to include Friday at Arts Depot Finchley and Saturday at Clevedon Lit Fest, because they're part of the same consecutive run. But they're November, so you'll find them elsewhere.)

Total Live Book Sales For October : £1952.69

103 x Richard The Third

22 x MNDT

18 x Space Elain

15 x Colouring Books

12 x PODS

11 x FM

8 x Socks Superheroes

5 x Joseph

2 x Omnibus

2 x Tales From Bible

And if we check out my table of Live Book Sales for 2024 so far, we see..

772 Richards sold this year, that's pretty damn good. Adding in the 113 copies it had sold by the end of 2023, that's 885 copies sold. If we call it £4 profit per book, then Richard has earned me just over three and a half grand since I published it a year ago. Okay, I know that works out at a page rate of £27 a page, so it's not like working for The Beano, but I know authors who are earning less than that. (Though I know a lot who are earning a lot more, obviously!)

And 96 Midsummer Nights Dream Teams is an interesting figure. Two factors might be helping that: the change of logo on the front page to the "Saturday Night Fever" version, which makes it more eye catching, and the fact that when I describe it to my classes (with families watching) I mention it's the book without stabbing and blood and death, so maybe more kids and parents feel safe buying it? Or maybe they prefer that play? Meanwhile Prince of Denmark Street may sell slightly less cos it doesn't say "Hamlet" on the cover?

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