What Happened to the Next Jammy Adventure Book?

I have a confession to make. I haven’t sold many Jammy Adventure books. I think there are reasons why, and I think I may have a pretty good handle on some of those; at least the ones that matter most from a business perspective.

I can’t really go down this road without evoking a little Catch-22 or Murphy’s Law. In other words, irony. Irony is what happens while you’re busy making other plans, and if it’s comedy, it’s usually the dark variety.

Look, I know the books ain’t cheap, okay. But they’re not cheap for good reasons. One of the main ones is that I need to at least break even on my books, at least if I want to stay in business. Going to print in full color is not an inexpensive proposition, even if it’s only partial full color because the books are meant to be finished by the readers. So there’s that. Overhead is a harsh mistress.

But there’s also promotion, which I mostly haven’t done because I’ve been busy with other things. Like excuses. People won’t buy a product they don’t know exists. Like, duh. But it’s true that time flies faster when you’re really busy. So anyway, there’s the second thing that conspires against me.

The third thing that presses me away from my objective of book sales is that I haven’t distributed them to all the places you might find normal print books. Distribution works fine for large print runs because there’s enough margin built in to give a 65% discount to the distributor. But when you’re printing them 250 at a time there is no such luxury as margin. And hand selling them at trade shows has been a major bust.

Anyway, these things, my dear Jammy Adventurists, are why the concept has pretty much stalled out for now. But I have a plan. It’s a long term kind of plan, and it involves technology and smartness and more stories. We’re gonna move away from print books for a while. The Great Jammy Adventure of the Flying Cowboy is still available in print from Amazon right now, but when this first edition sells out, it’s not going to be reprinted. So if you’re looking for a collector’s item, look no further.

That’s not to say the Flying Cowboy won’t be back in a different guise. He will be back. But he’ll be joined by new characters in new adventures, and in a totally different format. You’ll still be able to color the books, but it’ll be better. Far better. Trust me on this, Jammy Adventurists. And look for some announcements about it in the months to come. Until then, tune in occasionally for my random thoughts on family life and how wild boys are.

Birthday Loot

Changes...

I know it’s been a while since I posted to the Jammy Blog,  but things have been nutso around my house and it’s been difficult. Plus there was the alien abduction to deal with, as well as the rampaging Text-Based-T-Rex, so…you know how that is.

This is our new Web address for the foreseeable future. I had to get all my blogs in line with each other, and Google doesn't like it if you start a blog with a different email address than you find yourself switching to, years later. Since I cannot yet predict the future, I had to change things up a bit. As for all the other necessary updates, I’ll fill you Jammy Adventurists in on some Jammy Adventure updates next week, how’s that. Look for one post a week, usually on Tuesdays from here on out.

Anyway, enough housekeeping. My oldest recently celebrated his eighth birthday. I have to say: the eighth is a watershed. It’s the kind of birthday that marks a decisive end to so much, and heralds the beginning of so much to come. I mean, soon he’ll be taking vacations without me. He’ll be driving a car. He’ll be avoiding me because he’s smitten with a girl or something. Actually some of that’s already happened.

But holy cow, what an amazing amount of birthday loot this year. We started celebrating a day early because of a family reunion. One of the events on the schedule was a day at Roaring Springs water park, and we made it okay for him to have a little Birthday Boy privilege the day prior to turning, in fact, eight years old. But now, two days after the day after that, he’s still opening presents. The wrapping came off days ago, but the Toys have been waiting patiently in the Boxes until the Boy was ready for them. It’s interesting, that’s all.

I guess you know your boy has moved squarely beyond the things of young childhood when he can appreciate getting a telescope for his birthday. And that’s just a commentary on how we grow and develop as people. It’s been an amazing participatory experience, watching my Noah grow from seven pounds and seven ounces into the strapping and strong boy who now crashes through the house. It’s great; and I intend to try to savor the moments.

That’s the real birthday loot. Birthdays are about celebrating the life of someone, after all, and I think we accomplished that. We’re still, actually. Being a dad is shocking. Sure, youth is “wasted” on the young. But there’s nothing quite like going down a water slide with your own son, screaming like maniacs all the way down, through the turns, in the tunnels, under the waterfalls, then tumbling over and over in the splash pool at the end, springing up with a warrior yell and declaring to the world that, hell no, it wasn’t scary at all and let’s do it again. That’s the real birthday loot that I treasure.