Category: Blog

Saturday Night Show

LittleFears18 Comments

Saturday Night Show

A wee invitation for everyone. As many of you know, Alex, Layne and I watch films over the internet together on Saturdays and twatter about them on Twitter.

Last week, Alex slipped on a turtle and broke his back in 14 places. He is now paralyzed from the toe down. This may be an exaggeration. I don’t think he likes turtles. But we had a break from the norm and watched a Twilight Zone and CreepyPasta on YouTube. Quick, accessible, and we picked up another viewer.

This Saturday at 9 pm UK time, Amberley (who won’t make lemonade), Alex, Layne and I will be watching the Twilight Zone episode, Cold Fusion. Followed at 9:30 pm UK time by Theatre of Puppets,  read by CreepsMcPasta. We’ll prattle along as always during the showing. If you’d like to join is, poke me on Twitter and I’ll be sure to @ you so you get in on the conversation early.

Informative informational bit

Video Links

Twilight Zone episode, Cold Fusion
CreepyPasta Theatre of Puppets, 

Twitter Accounts:

Alex @SynBoomstick
Layne @Chew_On_Glass
Lemonade @IamAmberley
LittleFears @TheLittleFears

Times

We hit play on Twilight Zone at 9 pm UK time, it lasts for 20 minutes. We then have a quick dash to loo break and hit play on the creepypasta at 9:30 pm UK time, which lasts for 15 minutes.

9 pm GMT – UK time
4 pm EST – New York time
3 pm CST – Central time

We time ourselves hitting play using so we can be a bit synchronised. The odds of us all getting hitting play at the exact time are hahahaha no sorry don’t go there lol rofl just no. But we can be close!

Onlineclock.net

Any questions, let me know. Poke me on Twitter for an @. No guarantees about demonic entities coming out of TV sets to get you are given.

How to convert a hand-drawn illustration into a digital graphic

LittleFears22 Comments

A short, 11-minute class, using free software, to do exactly what it says on the tin. It’s free for the last week of January. Once you enrol in the class it’s free for life. In February it will be switched to premium. Premium access to Skillshare costs as little as $0.99 for the first 3 months and gives you access to thousands of classes on everything from writing characters, social media and watercolour painting.

Course Link: http://skl.sh/2G40lMs

Le blurb:

I am a prolific doodle. I love doodling. On the list of everything, I do in life, doodling ranks quite highly. There’s something about doodling. It helps me relax, focus, create new characters and honestly, I’m a simple man, I don’t own much stuff, so doodling gives me something to do at home other than watch the telly and play on my smartphone.

Now every so often I doodle up a new monster that I want to use in one of my Little Fears projects. It could be an art print a Threadless t-shirt or a Colour Collective portrait on Twitter. So I take my doodles into the free graphics software program, GIMP, and turn them into high resolutions .pngs that I can mix up into whatever project I happen to have that week.

Do you doodle as well? Have you ever drawn a simple image and thought, man, if that were tidied up a bit, I’d love that as a website banner? But do your eyes glaze over when someone mentions raster vs vector? If that sounds like you, this course may be of help.

You’ll need to download GIMP for this class which you can download here: https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Course Link: http://skl.sh/2G40lMs

 

Preparing Fears

LittleFears37 Comments

There is still no #Colour_Collective so a wee update on what’s to come over the next few months on the Fears website.

The preamble, I’m still in the process of selling my home with no end date in sight. Post sale, I’ll have 2-3 months of rented accommodation, or I’ll be at the missus family home. Not a suitable working environment and both will have, at best, my phones 3g internet with Scottish hills reception. A lot of my plans are on hold until I get the new house and some control over my creative setting.

Two things I want to release before I move. First, my next Skillshare course. How to turn a doodle into high-resolution digital graphics. No scanners required and the technique uses free software. I’ll offer the class free of charge for one week then set it to premium. A handy course for anyone that doodles that’d like a new social media avatar, blog banner or an interest in Threadless and Society 6. I use this method to make my book covers, art prints and Threadless tees.

Skillshare Premium gets you access to the entire website for as little as $0.99, not just my lessons. It just means I get a few pennies from students.

The second thing I’d love to get released is the next book, Grey Moon. Currently waiting on Amazon for that. Not sure when I’m going to get the first copy of the book, and I need a week or two to check it over a hundred times before release.

You may have also noticed a minor drop in posting frequency. I’m currently spending as much time as I can on building a library of videos on my laptop so I don’t need to do them in the 2-3 months where I will have no privacy. At one per day, I need between 90 and 120 videos to fully cover me for three months. For anyone who has ever done video creation, you know how much time that takes.

Semi-related, after this week’s YouTube announcement, I am not entirely keen on uploading to YouTube long term. I may need to take a leaf out of Miles & Crawford’s book and start uploading to audio/podcast sites like Podbean and Soundcloud. I would have never had a chance of YouTube monetisation myself. My videos are too short to get views counted correctly. It’s not just WordPress that can’t do stats right. But after all the drama of Logan the week before, YouTube responded by stepping on the small YouTuber while raising up the big’uns like Logan. I always felt YouTube represented an idea that anyone could have a go. Everyone can still have a go, but YouTube will make it hard for you unless you make it big. Not an ideology I like.

ComicsExplained has a trending video on why he’s looking at Patreon and other options. I, unfortunately, do not read comics anymore, except for the odd webcomic. Certainly nothing mainstream. But what he says about YouTubes decision reflects how I feel about the situation.

The last thing in this update is my schedule for the next three months and beyond.

Until I have my new house, possibly three months away, I’ll be dropping to one story per day and one blog post per week. I hope to keep roughly on this schedule.

Monday – Capricorn horror story
Tuesday – Grey Moon story
Wednesday – Grey Moon story
Thursday – Grey Moon story
Friday – January story, with new video
Saturday – Little Fears, Big Update
Sunday – Spiders story, with new video

Once I have moved, I can return to the busier schedule with my posts returning to the same level as the last few months. Seven new stories. Three old stories with new videos. One big update. One art/work in progress post. One long-form story. One blog on blogging or creativity. All of that, every week. Soooo many puns and punchlines!

Thank you very much, everyone, for sticking with me. You’re an awesome rabble of groaning, pun-loving and horror laughing oddballs. 

Kindle Direct Publishing now offering proof copies

LittleFears65 Comments

Yaaaas! But nooooooooo…

A refresher for those that don’t remember or are new here. I have discussed self-publishing platforms a couple of times.

KDP vs Createspace

KDP Earnings

One of my main complaints with Kindle Direct Publishing vs Createspace was that you couldn’t order proof copies to check over from KDP. Proofs are essential. Not only do I need to see the way the images come out in print, but reading a paperback version of my tales always helps me pull up the odd mistakes I miss on the screen. What I usually do is create and release a paperback book without saying anything. Order a copy. Once I get the ‘your order has been dispatched’ email, I unpublish the book until I am ready for a proper release.

My editor has just finished going over the next book. On to Amazon and KDP, I go, and as I get to the last page, I see this.

Ahhh, do you see it? Down the bottom. Beta proof copies. Yes, yes and yes. I am a happy Fear. I click to request a copy.

Submit proof request. Now, there are a couple of caveats here. First being, you pay the print price. For me £5.47. Something I need to double check there as it goes. My earnings from a £12 book are £1.73. You can see that in the screenshot above this. I can’t recall why my earnings are so low compared to the print cost. I need to go double check where the rest of the money’s going.

The price doesn’t include post and packaging. In the UK we don’t get free delivery options on less than £10 of an order. The post and packaging for this bring the price to £9 as opposed to £12 for a proper copy of my book. That’s a tad frustrating. I know in the USA shipping costs are a lot cheaper. But if you’re writing a novel, surely the P&P is going to make this discount rather small?

One other thing to bear in mind. With Createspace, I believe the proof copies of the book have no barcode or ISBN. They also have not for resale written unobtrusively on the back of the book. That suits me as I’m a visual person and my books look lovely, I need to take photos of them.

image of little fears presents spiders book 3, a book of flash fiction and short stories

Aren’t they sexy books? Yeah, I need to take sexy photos of my sexy books to sell them.

In addition to that, I take the original copies I order with me when I need to show them off somewhere. The odd spelling mistake makes no difference to me when it’s a display book on a market stall. But you still need them to look darned sexy sitting there, being all fearful.

But, from the page above, a snippet of text.

Proofs are different from regular copies. They have a “Not for Resale” watermark on the cover and a unique barcode but no ISBN.

Huh, what? Can’t be too bad right? Something small and unobtrusive like Createsp…

WHOA! Seriously? Damn! That isn’t going to look sexy in any photo or sitting on display. Nope. Nope, nope, nope.

I get it, I do. Amazon is selling you a book at a lower price. They don’t want you reselling an unchecked copy of the book. But feck that. It costs me £9 instead of £12, and I can’t use it to promote my book at all. So then I have to pay £12 again for a copy after the release before I can even take a photo of it? That makes no sense. I want the pictures before I release the book so I can tease it and promote it. That’s backwards in every way.

Damn you Amazon KDP! So close, yet so far! I’m back to a quiet release and order before releasing the book properly at a later date.

If you think my books are sexy and want to put a couple of quid my way for all the info, you can purchase the print and ebooks I have released so far from the link below.

Eat our books: amzn.to/2hMVmVy
Sponsor our Patreon: patreon.com/littlefears
Lick our course: skillshare.com
Drink our art prints & tees: littlefears.threadless.com

 

Little Fears, Grateful Update

LittleFears43 Comments

Y’all bowled me over with your support on my post a couple of weeks ago, Good year for the Fears, lousy year for the illustrator.

I had a lot of supportive messages from friends and followers. Many of whom I didn’t even know I had. A few of you headed over and bought some of my t-shirts and books. I found two new Patrons. Lyssa went both ways. I had an offer of a sofa to crash on in Aberdeen with free wi-fi. Maya got me into a Seth Godin marketing seminar. You’re fantastic, all of you.

Thank you.

#BestNine

LittleFears14 Comments

According to BestNine for Instagram, this is my best nine images from 2017. I wholeheartedly disagree, and so does WordPress.

The rundown and links, going top left to right.

  1. Washing
  2. Path
  3. Train
  4. Finding Hydra
  5. Deaf
  6. Ward 122
  7. Tweet Tweet
  8. Hydra in Autumn (from $12 on Threadless)
  9. Dark Tunnels

Interestingly, WordPress most viewed posts of 2017 are as follows.

  1. How to create a media kit for your blog
  2. Secret
  3. Lucys Wife
  4. Whole Doughnuts
  5. Moses Cuppa
  6. Mild Addictions
  7. Doodling the Little Fears (1)
  8. Attack of the killer day jobs
  9. Crisis Doors

I know those aren’t hugely comparable because I’m comparing Instagram likes vs WordPress views. Kinda interesting though. Not a single shared post between them. It’s nice to see a product shot in the top nine of Instagram. Also, horror seems to be more popular there?

Have you done BestNine yourself? Feel free to link to your Instagram or blog post below.

Good year for the Fears, lousy year for the illustrator

LittleFears185 Comments

I have written and deleted this post six times. The fifth time it was 4,000 words long detailing my entire last year. An overwhelming urge to vent to the internet at large can take you sometimes, can’t it? That post had no place here.

The abridged version.

My 2017 has been pretty catastrophic. Land Registry lost the lease to my home. It’s wiped out my life savings getting a new one made. Just existing this year has cost me £70,000. $120,000 in American? I haven’t seen my missus or my dogs since July. My house sale’s on the rocks. If it falls through I may not see her for another four months or more. On account of property law issues, when my house does sell I’m going to have a three month period of limbo in rented accommodation and 3G internet in the Scottish hills. Three months is a lifetime on the internet. That’ll wipe out all the progress I have made with the Little Fears. I’ll be posting once a day, but I’ll be doing no marketing. Bandwidth will be restricted to one gig per month. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to leave comments on blogs or Twitter with that sort of restriction.

At the end of 2016, I was at the lowest point in my life. At the end of 2017, I’m worse off with no savings, and I don’t know how long it’ll be this way.

2017 doesn’t have me beat. I learned something. It’s possible to make £600 a month from the Little Fears as they are today. Currently taking four hours a day, six days a week. Once I have moved home, £600 will cover all of my bills. I can then drop my freelance work and odd jobs, which I currently can’t live without, and focus entirely on the Fears to lift £600 to a reasonable wage.

That’ll be awesome. I’ll be back with my partner and animals. Switching my flat in London for a 2-3 bedroom house in the Scottish mountains. Dedicating all my time to making people groan, cry and fear filled. You all know I have ideas for the Fears. I’ve probably had and forgotten more plans than I will ever manage to put into action.

I have dreams, hope and Fears. The future is bright.

From all the Little Fears and the illustrator,
happy new year!

Doodles – Terror-Dactyl & Other Fears

LittleFears33 Comments

Quite like sharing my doodle pages, this may become a regular thing. A weekly page share. With some separated and digitized Fears to show where some of my doodles go.

Digitized Doodles

A bit rough, let’s digitize them. I’ve been wondering what I can offer Patreons recently. I could offer monthly postcards from the world in-between. More in keeping with the daily doodles on photos than art prints, but printed on a top-notch 220gsm card stock, post-card size. I could also offer the digitized monsters to Patreons to download. Patreon subscribers could vote on which they want out of a months worth of selection. I’d then send them a link to download the creature and do what they want with them. Non-commercial of course.

Thorny

Have you ever heard of a Tarasque? I think I had. Maybe from 80s Dungeons and Dragons. Yep, ya knew I was gonna be a D&D player right in my yoof right?  Anywho, I think that’s where I had the mental image of this gal. Nobody mention the size of her bottom…

Wasp

A reappearance of Screeches head, but this time with a wasp’s stingy tail. If #Colour_Collective have a yellow theme again, I can fill in her segments yellow and she can go full stingy-stingy grr grr.

Terror-Dactyl

Speaking of #Colour_Collective, this week it’s white. While I was digitizing TD here, I tried inverting her colours. White body and red eyes. That’ll be this week’s portrait then.

I couldn’t help but google Terror-Dactyl. Turns out there’s an awful looking horror movie of the same name. Terrible special effect. Woeful plot. Made for TV I imagine… That’ll be a future film to suggest to Layne and Alex for a Saturday Twitter movie then…

The lady looks good on a Tee too. Maybe the next addition to my Threadless store. I have a lack of tees that would look good in black.

Pens & Paper

Switched over to the Kuretake Zig this week for the black. I do love my Posca’s but I can’t wait to be reunited with my supplies drawer. Six pots of Tipp-Ex await. Scruffy, messy and the mini cheese wedge brush. That’s my white that is!

Uni Posca Marker White
Kuretake ZIG Art and Graphic Twin Marker
Faber-Castell PITT Artist Brush Pen Brush Tipped – Indian Red

Daler Rowney Ebony Sketchbook A4