Bad News for Borders and Bookstores Everywhere

I was very unhappy to hear the news during this week that Borders had filed for administration, having hit a very rocky trading period:

Link to UK Reuters

Of course, Borders, with their policy of stocking and promoting local writers and publishers, have been the main high street outlet for Fenriswulf Books to date. The view that the online book stores such as Amazon are responsible for this slump is probably not inaccurate - online stores have no overheads, don't need to pay expensive high street store rent, electricity, or pay staff to stand around all day when business is thin. You can order just about anything from Amazon, and not have to queue up to buy it, or wait 6 weeks for the retailer to import it from abroad.

The problem is, if Borders suffer, what about all the other bricks and mortar stores? If this was the start of a trend, then it's a rather depressing one. I'm sorry, but for all the hype over Kindle and paper-free books of the future - for all the convenience of online shopping - there's still no substitute to browsing through endless shelves of interesting book covers in a real shop, looking through real books at beautifully-printed pictures or illustrations. Sometimes a book can seem fascinating and an essential purchase until you flick through it and realise it's not really what you expected - you can't do that with most books online.

I view the whole electronic book reader concept as little more than a gimmick, and an overpriced one at that. It's really no contest, like trying to compare the experience of watching a movie like Gladiator on a portable DVD player with a 3" screen, against viewing it on an HD home cinema system with surround sound. OK for sitting on a long train journey, but pretty worthless as a long-term replacement.

On a personal note, it's a pretty lousy time of year for the 1000+ UK staff to find out that their jobs are at risk. Especially, from my point of few, those few in my local store whom I've had such great assistance from, and rapport with, over the past year or so. I do hope this isn't the end, and that Borders will continue to stay around, in some form or another, for the foreseeable future.

I certainly don't want to see the day when I have to rush in to reclaim unsold copies of books before a final closing down sale.

Slow But Sure...

...is how things have been Fenris-wise lately. Chaz has been (and still is) insanely busy with art commissions and other projects, but is currently working on an "Ashcan" project to promote the current, and forthcoming, Fenriswulf catalogue. In the comics industry an ashcan is a small, usually cheap or free sample issue designed to gather interest for a new series, and it seemed like a good idea to apply that concept to a "free sample" to be placed in bookstores. Based on the format of sample chapters of new novels given away free with Sunday newspapers, a sample of chapter from "Maranatha", a few short stories and comic strips from "A Surfeit of Mandrake" are already in place, with possible inclusion for the "Last Gas Pump" and "Sword of Lochglen" graphic novels.

The first and most obvious store for these would be the local Borders store, with others possibly to follow. But Fenris is still very much alive and gnashing...

Just Checking In...

Yeah, it's been a long while since I posted, the reason being (still) due to commission work having to take precedence. Paid work is always a priority, I find! And speaking of getting paid, I finally managed to reach a settlement with Borders over my outstanding pay cheque - yep, the same one I submitted an invoice for back in January - since head office don't seem able to. I've been lucky that everybody in my local branch has bent over backwards to help me out on this venture, with polite and totally professional communications at all times.

I hooked up again with my man Frang to talk about the next project for Fewnriswulf. A compendium of all the "Arf & Mo" strips that were written and drawn over a period from 1998 - 2005, which will be collected into one big daddy volume. The complete unpublished Issue 2 of the titular duo's adventures will form the backbone of the book (in graphic novel format), and will include sketches, one-off character pieces, portraits and other nonsense for the discerning lowbrow funny-animal underground comic book fan. This one will take some time to pull together, and I'm still wondering quite what to do with the Black Flag. I realise now that drawing a graphic novel in pencil was a pretty dumb thing to do, but I didn't know any better back in January 2000. Hell, back then I was still getting over the fact that the world hadn't come to an end...

Due to the projected timescale on the Arf & Mo book (which I don't expect to see completed before the end of the year, and will also have a corresponding website), I've given some thought to what we could bring out in the meantime. Work on "Venus in Saturn" is coming along beautifully, with multi-laytered plot threads weaving a story that grows more complex every time I work on it, but again, that's a loing-term plan. I don't particularly want Fenriswulf not to be able to put out new product for the rest of this year, so possibly another medium other than printed books could be next.

In a possibly related note, my band Jeremiah have just self-pressed our first full-length demo CD. Watch this proverbial space...

Catching a Breath...

...between commissions, writing, and er, new commisions...

After a month or so in Cuba, Dundee Borders' sales manager returned full of enthusiasm and I had a good chat with him about taking on comic books in future. Graphic novels with ISBNs are the way to go it seems, so I'll be looking to farm out the "Black Flag" project to a new publisher as soon as I have the time. He also helped me restock the shelves with copies of "Mandrake" and "Maranatha", and I was content to leave it at that for the meantime while I press on with the business of writing, and drawing for fun and profit.

Meantime, here's a sneak preview of the proposed cover for "Venus in Saturn", the prequel to "Maranatha", which links to my Deviantart.com account. The book is coming along nicely and has taken some startling twists and turns of late, setting up the backstory for the sequel nicely. The mind-stretching complexity of it all does, however, make me wonder if I'm capable of writing anything that isn't epic, cosmic and labyrinthine in equal measure:


Venus in Saturn: Cover WIP by ~Lord-Retsudo on deviantART

Last Gasp for Lulu

I received an email from a loyal fan of the "Last Gas Pump on the Left" comic the other day. He was pleased with the product and really enjoyed the story but was mystified by the presence of blank pages in the middle of the book. He'd sent me photos explaining the problem, and I realised then that I've now had enough of Lulu's outsourced cowboy printers to abandon them completely.

It's impossible for me to understand how a 28-page PDF file can be turned into a 32 or 36-page book with blank inserts, unless somebody at the local print depot was physically plugged into the mains power supply while setting up the print job. Even then, it's unfathomable.

As this is now the fourth serious issue I've had with Lulu, it's time to move on and take my business elsewhere. The last problem, that with the "Black Flag" pencil art printing too faint to be usable, I can almost, just about, write off - although the fact remains that identical artwork in the "Mandrake" book has printed perfectly across two separate batches.

It's not like I'm making a huge profit at Lulu either. Although a full-colour interior comic would normally be prohibitive for a tiny indy comics outfit to produce, a cover price of £3.99 is as low as I can go while still actually scratching a few pence profit for myself (in this case, about 37p per copy). Add the cost of three useless proof copies, review copies and shipping, and the "Last Gas" project has made a terrific loss to date. However, it has its fans from the days when it existed as an online strip over at Drunkduck, an enthusiastic amateur website for free webcomics (which also currently hosts the complete "Black Flag" graphic novel), and projects such as this were never about the money, anyway.

I've submitted my formal complaint to Lulu regarding this botch so my customer can be provided with a product that isn't a complete disaster, and in the meantime am considering my options for future comic works. With the "Black Flag" graphic novel still good to go, plus forthcoming comics projects "The Sword of Lochglen", "Gruoch" by Frang Mchardy and "Arf & Mo" by Frang and I, Fenriswulf will be putting a lot of comic printing business to Lulu's replacement very soon. We've already discussed getting comics into Forbidden Planet stores and other local comic shops.

The two companies who stand out at present are

Comixpress, and Ka-Blam. Ka-Blam have no set-up fee but seem overall more expensive, while Comixpress have a set-up fee (unlike Lulu) but have a correspondingly lower individual price on single issues.

For me, and Fenriswulf, I think Comixpress have the edge when it comes to print on demand comics. They have a decent attitude, though it seems both companies have their fans, and their good qualitties. A very informative web page: Comixtalk describes it in better detail than I have time to do so here.

Looking at the comments on this page, I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only one affected by the sloppy quality of Lulu's European (Spanish-based) printers. I'll begin talks with my assistant art director (Frang) soon, and once my customer has received a copy of the "Last Gas" comic he actually wanted, it'll be time to move on to the next print company.ka-

Intermission...

Well, things went a bit Pete Tong last month, finally. Unfortunately, at the worst possible time. After author Lesley-Anne & I scrambling around like mad thing for a week or more trying to knock her "Medieval Medicine" book into perfect shape, we pushed through a bulk order from Lulu to get to us in time for her historical talk on the 27th. Unfortunately, a strange and not-very-well-explained Lulu-induced FUBAR concerning the front cover put paid to that project.

I felt pretty rotten, in fact. Hated myself for having to tell Lesley the news, especially after all the effort we, and one of her friends, put in to get the text fully up to scratch. Complaining at Lulu wouldn't get us the cover fixed, nor the order in time. Of all the things to mess up, it had to be the one project that really mattered, the one that I had someone else counting on me for...and so on.

As if that wasn't enough, my printed proof of the "Black Flag" graphic novel was a loser, too. The interior inks printed beautifully but the pencilled artwork...well, to say it looked like a bad photocopy is being polite. My complaints were heard but not upheld. I didn't have the energy or the will left to fight it after the failure of the medicine book, though I couldn't understand how "Mandrake", which contains many pencil illustrations, printed out fine across several batches and "Flag" (which strangely, was sent from Spain) fared so badly.

No matter. I'm currently seeking a new printer for the "Flag". All this, plus some on-the-side commission work (and a birthday) explains why I haven't posted here in 5 weeks. I needed some time out from printing, editing, and publishing. However, being positive, I'm determined to bounce back. A long chat with old-time collaborator Frang at the weekend has rejuvinated my interest, and a new comic-strip series will soon be unveiled.

Added to this, some rather startling news from Borders. While continuing to chase up my royalty cheques, I was informed by the way that apparantly they have had some customers in recently, asking about my next book, and suggesting that we discuss my next title later in the month...

...which would be wonderful if I had actually completed it. "Venus in Capricorn" is still in production, but I've been inspired of late, and currently have over 160pp of prose finished. The overall backstory is still developing and I doubt I'll have anything of any finished quality ready by the end of the month when Borders' sales manager returns, but it's a target to aim for, nonetheless. After all, the first draft of "Maranatha" was written in 4 months flat.

The intermission is now over, and I've just picked up the baton again. Keep watching this space...

Taking Five

Busy, busy old week I've had of it so far...and it's only Thursday night.

Last weekend and most of this week's evenings were spent fretting and working away on Lesley-Anne's manuscript and PDF files for the "Medieval Medecine" Book. It occurred to me at the weekend that we only had 3 weeks to order a sample copy, wait for it to arrive, check it over, order a bulk order, and wait for that to come...all before the 26th of March. Cutting it very very fine, and after some rapid-fire emails to and fro, we finally agreed to go for the final order tonight without seeing the sample first. It's a case of cross fingers, cross legs and hope the printers (and the Royal Mail) do their bit. Lulu's delivery options have had us rather bewildered, with new options I've never seen before and prices far in excess of anything I've ever paid. But the hard work has all been done, to my (and Lesley's) satisfaction, so all we need do now is...wait.

A trip to Borders last night didn't locate my slightly late royalty cheque from Head Office, but I did notice that "Maranatha" had sold out - again - and we seem to have shifted most of the "Mandrakes" too (2 left on shelves, from 5 or 6 copies delivered). I spent most of Saturday shredding "Maranatha" and have now submitted the 9th revision of the text...with luck it'll be the last, too. Every time I picked up a copy of the book lately and read a paragraph, another glitch jumped out me and made me cringe. So I decided to eliminate all those little problems, some of which definitely have been caused by very late cuts to the text, others by rushed revisions that I didn't have time to proofread properly. Some few, no doubt, have remained simply because having read the entire thing several dozen times over, the eye and the mind tend to skip certain portions of text. I'm a bit peeved at myself for having released books out there with those tiny (but irritating) glitches. But the new edition will put paid to all those annoyances soon. It leaves me, however, with five print copies of the old flawed edition which I'm now rather unsure what to do with.

Last week, flush from the "Last Gas Pump" review, I threw together another little video trailer for that project, which now joins the "Maranatha" clip at the bottom of this very page. I recorded the cruddy slide guitar work completely live and unrehearsed - having aimed at a "retarded Ry Cooder" kind of sound. I think I nailed the first half of that, at least.

As a result of all of the above (as well as my little-mentioned, but still time- and energy-consuming day job), I am now officially Taking Five in the company of some flat cider and a Velvet Underground DVD.

Cheers.