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.