Editorial -A Few Words

One reason I believe that people simply do not read comics as much as they used to is because -and it is being recognised by official bodies- we are at the dawn of a new age of illiteracy. That is sad in the extreme.

Anyway, I mentioned using social media to promote Black Tower Comics and Books but info on the books can be found on many international sites (where if you buy a copy of a book it will cost you more than from the online store because my books are ONLY available from my store). I just checked and here are some of those sites (and blogs):

Jacketflap
Bokus
Amazon -world wide
Good Reads
Abe Books
Barnes & Noble
Booktopia
Adlibris
Better World Books
Libri Inglese
Inventaire
Down The Tubes
Tales From the Kryptonian
blah blah blah blah blah ad infinitum

In fact you can find Return of the Gods alone on over 35 top international book sites. You might expect one or two sales 😁😁

The one thing I noticed has not changed is that anyone buying from these sources would be paying a great deal more -ignore the "free post" because the high price covers postage.  If I sold through these people I would make, on the sale of a £20 book, £1.00...see why I do not use them?  Also, if you order via the Lulu Black Tower storefront the book you order is printed in your region and there are consumer safeguards that cannot be offered by secondary sellers.

One person ordered a copy of a book and complained to me that he had not received it after two weeks. The book had cost him £30 and even with postage it should not have cost him that much (Ultimate Gold Collection). I checked.  No sale. Was this a con of some type? I asked if he could send a copy of the purchase note. No. Then he tells me he purchased the copy from a secondary seller so that seller had to wait for the book to arrive before sending it to him. Why did he buy from this seller? "It was post free so I thought I'd get it cheaper"....d'uh!

I pointed out to him that he paid more (£35!!) for the £20 book because he WAS paying postage and a "little extra" for the seller. As the seller in question got the book as a freebie (something the print on demand company do for big outlets and I do not get a penny from this which is why I do not go for "global distribution" deals) it never registered on my sales and as I made clear to the buyer "You buy second dealers do not expect the publisher to help you out. Nothing to do with them at all".

The guy then tells me that the book is great.

And yet I remain calm. My secret? Well, my secret is that I am ALWAYS angry 😇

Black Tower is a business BUT it is not a money grabbing business. I price books as low as I can and I try to make them good reads and good value.  You order from the online store then you have all the consumer safeguards and any big problems (none since 2009) I can step in and ask wtf is going on. The books, as I wrote, are all printed in the region you order from (I cannot do anything about any postage rates and I get hit by them,too) so there is no international postage rates -just local. The reason why I dropped "UK" from the Black Tower banner was because people thought they had to order from the UK, No. Local.

If you have any questions then ask them here or on the Black Tower Face Book page.
Cheers