I just spent 4 years straight publicising my books online via Twitter and so on as well as British comic sites. That involved me not leaving the computer until around 0130-0200 hrs each day. Post, post, post.
I got two sales amounting to £26 for the year. But the posts were seen by many, many thousands of -supposedly- comic fans. My Black Tower Comics and Books Face Book page has seen views climbing over recent months.
I can only conclude there are people hoping for free downloads because if there was a genuine interest in the books why no sales? That or we are really in a new age of illiteracy as some claim.
today is Wednesday and looking at the stats for this blog I can tell you that since Monday the UK has not registered any views here. Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, lots from Japan and a few from (I assume) Chinese territories. Any country you can think of but the UK.
True comic book fans who realise that every -every- penny counts do not download comics illegally and it is interesting that certain people have tried to get hold of downloadable files of my books -and these people, some of them comic creators themselves- which is why I never offer downloadable files.
Interestingly I posted something about this on Comic Bits Online at the beginning of the month. A lot of views but not even a comment about the title: "Do You Download opr Upload Comics Illegally?" Yep, not a single comment even to point out the (deliberate) miss-spelling "opr" -what kind of monsters are out there that they let that go!!!!
Anyway, here is that post:
In the space of a year one book was downloaded 34,831 times. That is 34,831 thefts of copyright and money from us as creators. Read and liked it? Did they buy copies? No.
Including just one other book downloaded with 60,881...that's 95,712 thefts.
To put that in perspective my percentage from these were they sales would be £478,560 and that is from just ONE site. Others exist and it must be remembered that these are sites run by criminals accepting copyright theft -they KNOW what they are doing as do the thieves downloading.
As I've just had a can of cold Heinz spaghetti for my main meal you can see why even 5% of that £478,560 would be welcome. In fact that thought made me laugh as I'd probably be using £10 notes to scoop up the spaghetti sauce! 😄😄😄
THIS IS WHY I ACCEPT NO EXCUSES FROM PEOPLE WHO ILLEGALLY UPLOAD BOOKS OR THOSE WHO DOWNLOAD THEM. YOU ARE THIEVES
fin
I can tell you that the most recent site took down the illegal scans after a warning. But that is still too late and I hasten to add that I've been finding and closing these sites down for over 10 years while the boss at Fantagraphic Books, Gary Groth, has shown absolutely no inclination to help out ripped off creators.
Yes, even in 2020, it is the creator who gets ripped off from all sides and it genuinely has gotten worse since the start of the internet -why buy a comic drawn or written by your favourite creator when you can grab it for free? Comic artists and writers are rich, right? No. No they are not and if you think that then you have absolutely no knowledge of comic book history and the people involved in it.
We ALL need sales to continue. We need sales to pay bills and eat (in my case since the laptop shut down three times while I was typing this post -a new PC!) and continue our business. I've been writing that for ten years as one small independent publisher after another has closed shop.
I have no idea why I'm even explaining this. Wasting time I guess.
Did the post title bring you here? :-/
I got two sales amounting to £26 for the year. But the posts were seen by many, many thousands of -supposedly- comic fans. My Black Tower Comics and Books Face Book page has seen views climbing over recent months.
I can only conclude there are people hoping for free downloads because if there was a genuine interest in the books why no sales? That or we are really in a new age of illiteracy as some claim.
today is Wednesday and looking at the stats for this blog I can tell you that since Monday the UK has not registered any views here. Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, lots from Japan and a few from (I assume) Chinese territories. Any country you can think of but the UK.
True comic book fans who realise that every -every- penny counts do not download comics illegally and it is interesting that certain people have tried to get hold of downloadable files of my books -and these people, some of them comic creators themselves- which is why I never offer downloadable files.
Interestingly I posted something about this on Comic Bits Online at the beginning of the month. A lot of views but not even a comment about the title: "Do You Download opr Upload Comics Illegally?" Yep, not a single comment even to point out the (deliberate) miss-spelling "opr" -what kind of monsters are out there that they let that go!!!!
Anyway, here is that post:
I was sent a link today to a site with illegal downloads of the books I produced for Fantagraphics /Eros with artists Art Wetherell and David Gordon.
In the space of a year one book was downloaded 34,831 times. That is 34,831 thefts of copyright and money from us as creators. Read and liked it? Did they buy copies? No.
Including just one other book downloaded with 60,881...that's 95,712 thefts.
To put that in perspective my percentage from these were they sales would be £478,560 and that is from just ONE site. Others exist and it must be remembered that these are sites run by criminals accepting copyright theft -they KNOW what they are doing as do the thieves downloading.
As I've just had a can of cold Heinz spaghetti for my main meal you can see why even 5% of that £478,560 would be welcome. In fact that thought made me laugh as I'd probably be using £10 notes to scoop up the spaghetti sauce! 😄😄😄
THIS IS WHY I ACCEPT NO EXCUSES FROM PEOPLE WHO ILLEGALLY UPLOAD BOOKS OR THOSE WHO DOWNLOAD THEM. YOU ARE THIEVES
fin
I can tell you that the most recent site took down the illegal scans after a warning. But that is still too late and I hasten to add that I've been finding and closing these sites down for over 10 years while the boss at Fantagraphic Books, Gary Groth, has shown absolutely no inclination to help out ripped off creators.
Yes, even in 2020, it is the creator who gets ripped off from all sides and it genuinely has gotten worse since the start of the internet -why buy a comic drawn or written by your favourite creator when you can grab it for free? Comic artists and writers are rich, right? No. No they are not and if you think that then you have absolutely no knowledge of comic book history and the people involved in it.
We ALL need sales to continue. We need sales to pay bills and eat (in my case since the laptop shut down three times while I was typing this post -a new PC!) and continue our business. I've been writing that for ten years as one small independent publisher after another has closed shop.
I have no idea why I'm even explaining this. Wasting time I guess.
Did the post title bring you here? :-/
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