First comics of the year

January was a quieter month for classes than in many years, though I have emailed every school on my list and am hoping to get more bookings as the year goes on. As it was, I did two schools in January, and here are the comics they produced.

I kicked off the year in Andoversford in Gloucestershire, and promptly scuppered myself by leaving my flipchart pad behind. Not only was it a nice new blank pad, but it had with it a few pages of those big flipchart drawings I try and do in every school, you know with lots of characters on. They were "ones I'd prepared earlier," largely from the Zoom class period last year, and I fall back on those when, to be honest, the school doesn't supply a pad so I have to use mine. I can't be arsed, sometimes, to draw a whole brand new page of characters when I've had to schlep my own flipchart stand and paper into a school and waste my own paper. Well, that taught me didn't it? All my "ones I prepared earlier" are now marooned somewhere in Gloucestershire, and I have to draw a new one every time whatever.

Cheshire College in Chester saw me working with older kids, sixth form age, which was an interesting change from primary school kids. They did good stuff. The Christmassy page you can see in the montage above is from the Zoom class I did right at the end of last year.

The four celebs this month's classes chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Elon Musk, Mr Beast, Whitney Houston, and Jeremy Clarkson.

My Books and where to get them:

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

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper

Slow progress on writing this month

 Getting just something, anything, written on these crime novels is a small triumph. So it is, with the greatest pleasure, I'm able to say I just wrote a 2000 word short story called The Queue (2135 words, in its current state), starring our protagonist. I read it to Hev who, of course, was able to immediately rip it to shreds and characterise my writing as too funny, and not what we're trying to achieve. But it's the most I've written all month, and I'm happy with it.

At the end of December I completed the first draft of Dead Man's Jest. Clocking in at just 56,500 words I know it needs a lot of work still. But printing it out as a dummy as I did (above) enabled Hev to read it. Now, with her notes, I can begin rewriting it.

Meanwhile I've been looking at To Slay The Dane, and struggled with rewriting that. Rewriting is harder than writing, full stop. So I've printed out a dummy of that which should arrive next week. Hopefully Hev can read that, give me more notes, and I can get some proper rewriting done. I really want to get the books out there so I can find out if you can actually earn money from the damn things, but after 4 months of writing (Sept to Dec, January doesn't count) I still have two first drafts only, and each is only about 50,000 words long.

So, a lot of work to do. But dammit I am going to do it, and so is Hev. The worst thing is I have no excuse for not having written this month. I only had two days of schools (that changes next week when I have 3 days in Dublin, which unfortunately means being there for 5 nights, because of flights and no schools working Wednesdays). 

Also this month I've had three visits to Clevedon (one Doctor visit, then one X Ray, and one blood tests, all three taking much much longer in travel time than in actual execution. The X ray took 30 seconds. The blood test took nearly twice as long). I've also been busy getting all my books back onto Amazon, either via Lulu or Blurb, or directly. Yes that does take time, actually. Days in fact.

Then there was a Society Of Artists meeting one Friday, that took out a day's writing. The roofer came one day, the plasterer came to quote another, we went to the tip on another, and.. oh I have no excuses. January is a month where I am maybe not as productive as later in the year.

(He tells himself, then consults his blog to see Jan 2022 - did Britain's Got Talent and a comic strip for the Goes Wrong Show, Jan 2021 did tons of Socks Zoom shows, Jan 2020 - finished Findlay Macbeth, my debut graphic novel, Jan 2019 - did Mum's funeral, stuck tons of comics on eBay, and made lots of Socks videos, Jan 2018 - did loads of classes... OK, let's face it January 2022 has been my least productive in years.

Now February, that'll be a different kettle of fish...

My Books and where to get them:

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

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper

Socks mentioned in the Telegraph. Oh and new gigs

 My thanks to Hazel & Tm in Edinburgh for bringing this to my attention. The Socks get namedropped in an article in today's Telegraph:

There’s an amusing gag in the performances of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre (look them up) in which unexplained and unconvincing events in Doctor Who plots are dismissed with the line, “I’ll explain later”. It reminds me of politicians’ over-confident predictions that there’s no need to worry...

It goes on to knock Labour and the SNP. It is, after all, a column in the Daily Telegraph. But hey, we get a mention. By the way, if we ever have used that line, we've lifted it wholesale from Steven Moffat in The Curse Of Fatal Death. But always happy to take credit when it's going.

And while we're on, how about a look at the shows the Scottish Falsetto Socks have coming up this spring. We're touring the Eurovision Sock Contest, and here's where you can see it...

17,18,19 Feb - Leicester Comedy Festival

1 Mar Glasgow

3 Mar Eastgate Peebles

15 Mar Aberystwyth Arts

31 Mar New Continental, Preston

1 April Ropewalk Barton

7 April - Rondo Bath 

14 April - Chorley New Theatre

26 April - Harlequin Redhill

5 May - Cornerstone Oxon

11, 12 May - Old Joint Stock, Birmingham

My Books and where to get them:

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

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper

Bowie By Robot - new book

 

I have published a brand new book. Well two, sort of. And they're only sort of new. The newer of the two is Bowie By Robot, where I've used a selection of AI chatbots to write articles about the songs of David Bowie. With variable and often quite funny results.

For example, when I asked the AIs to write about Bowie & Bing's Little Drummer Boy, I got the following:

Little Drummer Boy

AI Bot W says: For those of you that have been following the progress of Bing Crosby and David Bowie, you probably know that the two musicians are close friends and that they collaborated on several projects in the ’50s. So when David Bowie announced his split from his long-term partner, there was much speculation about which of the two would take over as songwriters for their next collaboration...

AI Bot R says: Bing and Bowie were a musical duo that made their mark on television in the late 1970s. Their unique style of performance combined elements of rock, pop, and soul music. They are best remembered for their iconic TV performances, which included appearances on Saturday Night Live and The Midnight Special...

AI Bot H writes: Bing & Bowie is a dynamic new duo making waves in the music industry. With their unique blend of R&B and pop, they are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Their debut album, “Bing & Bowie”, is a tour de force, showcasing their incredible vocal talents and songwriting ability. From the catchy opener “Bing It Up” to the soulful ballad “Bowie’s Song”, the album is an instant classic...

I assembled the book and put it out on Kindle on Monday Jan 16th and a day later I find, hoorah, I have made my first sale on my new Amazon KDP account. Look (screen-grabbed for posterity):

Now, given the problems I had last year with KDP, I am keeping colouring books well away from this account. The Bowie By Robots book started life, however, as a colouring book. A year ago I produced a Bowie colouring book, which didn't sell many, and had no articles, just the pictures. So, this year, when I went via the Lulu route, which makes the books cost more when they finally make it to Amazon, if they ever do, I beefed the book up by drafting the AI articles to accompany the pictures. I then further expanded the words, and shrank the pictures, to make Bowie By Robot.

As yet the Bowie Colouring Book hasn't made it to Amazon, but here it is on Lulu. Buy now to avoid disappointment.

UPDATE: Bowie Colouring Book now on Amazon.

The publishing empire continues to get back on its feet. Now to finish those crime novels.

UPDATE: On Feb 24th my KDP account was closed again so Bowie By Robot disappeared. Whoever bought the 1 paperback copy has a unique item.

My Books and where to get them:

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

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper

My graphic novels back on Amazon + other sales

 Don't ask me how, but my Shakespeare graphic novels are now back on sale on Amazon, via Amazon KDP, at their original prices of £5.99 paperback and £1.75 Kindle.

Things are in the process of being approved and uploading, so not all book are in the Series yet. This is, however, the first time I've been able to list the Shakespeare books as a series. This is because I've published them this time without the play text at the back. This made them ineligible for a series on KDP previously because of including public domain content. 

Also hopefully seeing print for the first time will be an Omnibus Edition of all 3 books. Fingers crossed, that would be nice to see.

Let's see how long this lasts this time. Now I should be able to run Amazon ads again, and all the rest. I shall, however, be steering well clear of colouring books and any such nonsense.

Findlay Macbeth - Paperback - Kindle 

Prince Of Denmark Street - Paperback

Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Paperback 

Meanwhile I have sales happening elsewhere (on top of my proper earnings from my proper work, lest anyone should think these side hustles are my sole income!)   Here are my stats from Draft2Digital, which puts the graphic novels out on other digital platforms (Apple, Kobo etc). In January so far I've sold a Tales From The Bible, a Prince Of Denmark Street, and a Midsummer Night's Dream Team, and in December I sold one each of all 4 books. So a slow start, but at least it's a start.

On Lulu, where I upload paperbacks and they then get sold on Amazon, albeit at a higher price than KDP, I've sold even more. The books only started appearing there in December. That £26 profit you can see (before tax and deductions naturally) is for:

Prince Of Denmark Street - 10 copies (5 UK = £1.14, 5 US = 83p)

Eurovision Volume Two - 7 copies (6 US = £5.68, 1 Germany = £1.36) 

70s Pop Star Colouring - 6 copies (6 US = £2.47, 2 Germany = £1.77)

Midsummer Night's Dream Team - 6 copies (3 US = £3.32, 3 Germany = £0)

Tales From The Bible - 5 copies (1 UK = 92p, 3 US = £1.92, 1 Germany = 92p)

Doctor Who Colouring - 5 copies (1 UK = £1.28, 2 US = £1.78, 2 Germany = £2.55)

60s Pop Star Colouring - 1 copy (Germany = 92p)

Still to sell a copy: 1990s Colouring, Punk Colouring. Eurovision Volume 1 hasn't appeared on Amazon, and Findlay Macbeth hasn't been printed by Lulu.

And there's still good old Etsy, where I mail out by hand books that I've had printed by Mixam. So far in January we've sold 4 Eurovision Volume 1 (this is now the only place you can get it), 2 Eurovision Volume 2 (plus digital editions of Vol 1 & 2, the very first of those I've sold), and a Punk Colouring Book.

In December on Etsy I sold 31 books, for a total of £209. Not bad at all. They were:

Eurovision Volume 1 - 15

Eurovision Volume 2, Dr Who Colouring, Punk Colouring - 4 each

80s Colouring, 70s Colouring, 60s Colouring, Findlay Macbeth,  - 1 each

And that would be my running total for 2023 so far. We've got the old books back up there, by various circuitous routes, and now we move forward with the books of (whisper it) HK B…. Whoever she may be.

My Books and where to get them:

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

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper

My Books & Where To Get Them in 2023

 Happy New Year, and welcome back to Kev F's publishing empire. Right now I have four graphic novels and a handful of colouring books, still on sale. They all disappeared from Amazon at the end of 2022, but they're back, mostly at higher prices (a long story, which is at the foot of the page if you're interested*). Here's the up to date list of where my books can be bought online:

Findlay Macbeth

Amazon £9.36 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1714448967

ebook:

UBL: https://books2read.com/u/4EJr6E

https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1067070063

https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9798215241233_9798215241233_10020/findlay-macbeth

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/findlay-macbeth

https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6444680158

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/findlay-macbeth-kev-f-sutherland/1136559416

Prince Of Denmark Street

Amazon £9.99 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1470990660

Lulu £9.99 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-f-sutherland-and-kev-f-sutherland/prince-of-denmark-street/paperback/product-6pv2k4.html

ebook:

UBL: https://books2read.com/u/49LGYk

https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1067070136

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/prince-of-denmark-street

https://books.apple.com/us/book/prince-of-denmark-street/id6444678694

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-prince-of-denmark-street-kev-f-sutherland/1142725192?ean=2940166650290

Midsummer Night's Dream Team

Amazon £11.75 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1470954753

Lulu £11.75 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-sutherland-and-kev-sutherland/the-midsummer-nights-dream-team/paperback/product-9p79yg.html

ebook:

UBL: https://books2read.com/u/4D6YwD

https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1067070057

https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9798215551691_9798215551691_10020/the-midsummer-nights-dream-team

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-midsummer-night-s-dream-team

https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-midsummer-nights-dream-team/id6444680315

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-midsummer-nights-dream-team-kev-sutherland/1142737931

Tales From The Bible

Amazon £12.97 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1470951231

Lulu £12.97 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-f-sutherland-and-kev-f-sutherland/comic-tales-from-the-bible/paperback/product-vznr57.html

ebook:

UBL: https://books2read.com/u/3RzOBn

https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1067070130

https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9798215489208_9798215489208_10020/comic-tales-from-the-bible

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/comic-tales-from-the-bible

https://books.apple.com/us/book/comic-tales-from-the-bible/id6444680049

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/comic-tales-from-the-bible-kev-sutherland/1142737932

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1

Amazon (not on)

Lulu £10.94 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-sutherland/unofficial-eurovision-colouring-book-volume-1/paperback/product-y2q7mg.html

Etsy (Mixam) £6.99 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1146162876

Eurovision Colouring Vol 2

Amazon £15.32 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1470948907

Lulu £10.72 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-sutherland/unofficial-eurovision-colouring-book-volume-2-all-the-winners/paperback/product-9pve67.html

Etsy (Mixam) £6.99 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1223186252

Doctor Who Colouring

Amazon £11.84 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147094622X

Lulu £9.98 lulu.com/shop/kev-f-sutherland-and-kev-f-sutherland/ncuti-gatwa-the-doctors-colouring-book/paperback/product-jr824z.html

Etsy £6.99 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1242144309

Punk Colouring

Amazon £15.61 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1470952122

Lulu £10.98 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-f-sutherland/punk-new-wave-pop-star-colouring-book/paperback/product-9p7p7g.html

Etsy (Mixam) £6.99 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1146153302

90s Pop Star Colouring

Amazon (not on)

Lulu £10.96 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-f-sutherland-and-kev-f-sutherland/1990s-pop-star-colouring-book/paperback/product-zgqp5v.html

80s Pop Star Colouring

Amazon (not on)

Lulu £11.90 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-sutherland/1980s-pop-star-colouring-book/paperback/product-zgnwjv.html

70s Pop Star Colouring

Amazon £10.98 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1470944324

Lulu £10.98 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-f-sutherland-and-kev-f-sutherland/1970s-pop-star-colouring-book/paperback/product-vznz49.html

Etsy (Mixam) £6.99 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1354954578

60s Pop Star Colouring

Amazon £12.69 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1470932601

Lulu £10.98 https://www.lulu.com/shop/kev-f-sutherland-and-kev-f-sutherland/1960s-pop-star-colouring-book/paperback/product-7p287e.html

Etsy £6.99 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1160123021

* When these books were published through Amazon KDP (print on demand) the graphic novels cost £5.99 each, Tales From The Bible was £9.99, and the colouring books were £6.50. I now have to do print on demand through Lulu.com, which is just as good on quality and fast on delivery, but is higher on price. In some cases Amazon sells the Lulu books at the same price as direct from Lulu. But, as you can see, in some cases they arbitrarily add as much as 50% to the Lulu price and, in a couple of instances, haven't listed the books at all (yet, they may still appear). So it's not as simple and smooth as going through KDP, but it gets my books out there.

The books sold on Etsy are printed via Mixam. I order short runs of 10 copies at a time which enables me to keep the price near to its old level, but I do have to do the posting myself.

My Books and where to get them: (updated end of February 2023)

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

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper