Category: Blog

Little Fears, Big Update: Moss

LittleFears9 Comments

Stone the crows, been a busy week! Here are some things that appear in this update that should be three or four posts.

  1. Moss Fear for Colour Collective
  2. Threadless art prints & tees
  3. Fears for hire

Moss Fear for Colour Collective

Dem green eyes though! This week’s Colour Collective shade was Vert Pre. Bright green to most of us aye? I knew I wanted to use Moss for the image. I was debating green streaks or splodges. Accidentally filled the eyes vert pre and yup, I reckon that nailed it by mistake. I need to get Moss into some of the fears stories. In my postcards from the in-between series I had him towering over Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. He was blue back then because, Scotland.

Threadless art prints & tees

The long awaited and advertised overhaul has happened! Have a gander at the Little Fears new shop front.

https://littlefears.threadless.com/

New product photography, a smattering of new designs, and yes the tee with Fuen bang in the middle will be returning. I need to get the imagery done for it first. Art prints are available from $12, so that works out better for our American friends who had a starting price of £12 ordering from my Etsy store. A quick preview? Sure, why not!

Fears for hire

My lease extension just came through. Ten months of cock-up, three years too late. Thanks, Land Registry and E&M! Twits… So I can get my house sold (finally), and I now have oceans of free time until a buyer is forthcoming. Do you have any work for a freelance illustrator, writer, PR gremlin, computer repair guy who’s a legend at sourcing weird and wonderful things? Drop me an email to fears@gmx.co.uk, and we can talk!

Cheers!

Little Fears: Vulture

LittleFears4 Comments

 

There’s been a lot of blog posts on this usual non-bloggy website recently right? I certainly hope there’s not too many of them. If you feel your getting spammed by me, let me know in comments. Useful feedback is always appreciated.

This post goes back to the stuff I said I would post here four months ago and never did. As I have said in previous posts, I write six stories, draw six tiles and doodle one asset every working day. How many do you see? Barely a fraction makes it online. Mostly because I produce a lot of chaff (don’t we all), so I discard the worst. Some I save for a rainy day. Some I intend to give away to Patreons, both digital and physical copies. Some are for saleable artworks (see below).

I’ll confess, that’s just an excuse to show off some banging new product photography that’ll be arriving on my Threadless store soon.

Some of the pictures I doodle are intended to be drawn just for the sake of drawing them. Because I enjoy doodling them and would like to share them. Vulture is one such creature. I originally drew him in black and red. Then I saw Colour Collective were having a Timberwolf grey theme this week and DMStrachan’s Flickr group, Scribblers Cove, had a Second Life exhibition featuring whimsical art. A quick modification, decorate it a lil digitally and it would be rude not to join in right?

And hey, don’t be hating on him cause he looks a bit mean. Vultures provide a necessary environmental function. It’s not their fault there were at the back of the line when Creation was handing out good looks…

Some links for if you want to join in or nobble some of my wares.

Colour Collective: https://twitter.com/clr_collective
Scribblers Cover: https://www.flickr.com/groups/2958431@N25/
DMStrachan’s Blog: http://dmstrachan.co.uk/

Feas Threadless: https://littlefears.threadless.com/
Fears Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/littlefears

Cheers!

Free Course: A freelancers guide to being more productive working from home

LittleFears7 Comments

The audio was recorded some months back and left on my hard drive. The sound quality isn’t as good as my current video works, so the Fears tossed a slideshow into the mix for me, and Bodom Bomp, a free course for you all on Skillshare. There’s a bit of rabbit about it below.

It goes alongside my courses on building a WordPress following, building a social media following and building a bloggers media kit.

Course Link: http://skl.sh/2w635Cz

About This Class

Hello, I am Peter, and I am the writer and illustrator of the little fears.

I was in the fortunate position of working from home a number of times for my old job, and have spent the last year writing, drawing, blogging and freelancing from home.

One of the major issues that we face as home workers staying productive. Keeping yourself productive can be difficult at home when there’s no manager breathing down your neck and a wealth of home comfort distractions to nobble your attention.

In this class, I will be covering how to manage your time for the most effective work output. Setting personal goals, coping with lack of direction and allowing yourself time for reflection. Tips for staying healthy, which have a huge impact on your productivity and finally how to deal with people as a positive and negative to your productivity.

I hope you enjoy my class.

 

Self Publishing: CreateSpace vs Amazon

LittleFears12 Comments

Self Publishing: CreateSpace vs Amazon

One more booky post for those thinking of self-publishing. My camera has broken, so apologies for the repeat pictures.

I’ve been asked on social media again, why do I use KDP and what’s the differences between KDP and CreateSpace. Both are self-publishing platforms where you control everything. Almost.

In my opinion, Createspace thrashes the heck out of KDP in almost every way. Caveat, I’m super niche, KDP is easier and works for me a lil better.

CreateSpace is awesome.

Createspace offer a 30-day Payout instead of 60-day payout for KDP.
Createspace offer distribution on more platforms than just Amazon.
Createspace offer distribution in a handful more countries.
Createspace offer wholesale author copies, so you can bulk order and sell at shows.
Createspace offer physical print proofs before you hit publish. KDP does not.
Createspace offer professional publishing services. KDP, you’re on your own.

KDP Ain’t bad.

KDP is easier to publish on.
KDP keeps you online and in stock all the time. Createspace takes you down when you update until they approve your copy. I have read this hurts your search rankings?
KDP offers Kindle Select lending library.
KDP offers Amazon specific promotions. Such as if you agree to only sell on Amazon for 90-day blocks you can run discounts and free offers. May help launching books, especially if it’s an ongoing series.

I use KDP

Personally, I found Createspace incredibly awesome in what it offers, but harder to use. In addition, I am expecting to release a new book every 1-2 months in the Little Fears series. Imagine losing your rankings every time you release a new book when you update the ‘Also by the same author’ in each book every 1-2 months. Mad. No. Not for me at that pace.

The KDP tools also help me get a big kick start with reviews. The free offers and Kindle Unlimited lending library in the first month knocked my recent book up to 10 reviews, 5 stars. Wasn’t intended, was hoping for one or two to be honest. That has a knock on getting the book noticed for its first month and is gathering sales momentum.

I have been told Createspace gives you better pay rates. Again, I think because of the super niche layout and nature of my books, I found Amazon give me better rates.

I do not know how good Createspaces editing services are as I never tried them. I would say any monkey can format a book right with the Kindle book creator tools for KDP.

I believe Createspace is the better platform but KDP suits my needs a lil better you know?

Shameless Self Promotion

Find this post helpful? Shimmy on over to my Amazon authors page where you can buy all three of my books in digital or paperback, January, Capricorn and Spiders.

USA: https://goo.gl/r64kH4

UK: http://amzn.to/2wAgZPr

Want to support the Little Fears so we can continue telling you new daily groaners and horrors? Hit me up on Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/littlefears

Cheers

Self Publishing Earnings on Amazon

LittleFears38 Comments

Self Publishing Earnings on Amazon

I have been asked on social medias, how much I earn from my Little Fears presents series of books. My month to month earnings is not worth discussing as they had a total collapse over the last three months while I was trying to get my shiz together. The question is more aimed at how much I make per book sale.

When you publish on self-publish Kindle Direct Publishing, you get the options of how your book’s printed. Full-colour white paper, black and white cream paper and black and white on white paper. You can also choose the size and shape of the book. Unfortunately, because I have colour pictures I need to choose the most expensive options. In addition to that, the file size affects the cost of the digital edition.

My earnings and sales prices are:

Digital edition sale price; £4.99
Royalty that I receive per sale; £1.72

Print edition sale price; £12.
Royalty that I receive per sale; £1.91

That’s not that much compared to the price of the book, is it? That’s for around 100 pages, full colour, 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches.

Are you writing a novel?

I have dicked about with prices and uploaded novel style books a few hundred pages long. So, if you are a fiction writer and want to self-publish in standard black and white ink on cream paper, this next bit applies to you.

For a 200 page book with black and white ink on cream paper, my earnings would be:

Digital edition sale price; $0.99
Royalty that I receive per sale; $0.30

Digital edition sale price; $2.99
Royalty that I receive per sale; $2.09

Print edition sale price; $9.99
Royalty that I receive per sale; $2.12

I figure most of my readers are American, hence the dollar prices for the cream paper editions.

There are no costs involved in self-publishing that is not optional. I would advise getting an editor to read your work. If you cannot afford or do not want an editor, get at least five people to read your book looking for errors before you publish. Your eyes and mind can only pick up so many errors in your book. A fresh set of eyes with a different perspective helps. Also, run your book through Grammarly. Several times and always after every big edit.

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

Find this post helpful? Shimmy on over to my Amazon authors page where you can buy all three of my books in digital or paperback, January, Capricorn and Spiders.

USA: https://goo.gl/r64kH4

UK: http://amzn.to/2wAgZPr

Want to support the Little Fears so we can continue telling you new daily groaners and horrors? Hit me up on Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/littlefears

Cheers

Little Fears presents: Spiders – Free for 3 more days

LittleFears10 Comments

Little Fears presents: Spiders – Free for 3 more days

Hey, there rabble you still have three more days to grab a free Kindle edition copy of spiders. Links are at the bottom of this post. The rest of this post will cover the closure a book can bring.

The Little Fears books give me closure on 3-4 month blocks of stories.

I had a comment from Phil Huston the other day, “Tell me. There is joy in putting a project on the shelf? “

Yes. For me there is. I like finishing projects. My end date moves all the time for every project, but generally, I like to conclude things. Finishing a project gives me a tremendous sense of freedom and excitement for the next project. The Little Fears as they currently stand have enough tales written to keep posting one new story a day until 2024’ish. About 2,000 stories left to publish. I’d like to get to get the Little Fears to 2027. A full ten year run of Fears daily tales!

When I created the first book, January, it was about 96 stories long. Three months of stories. It felt like a good length book. At the time it also allowed me to, well, literally close the book on the first three months worth of Little Fears. Mentally that enabled me to get on with putting together Capricorn and Spiders. The next book in the series will be Hydra. Self-contained as are the previous books, but with a running theme of Hydra seeking his identity. Imagine being told you only existed as a hope or a dream. Well, that’s all Hydra is. We can explore that idea of the unknown identity, even in classic Fears style. The following book, Grey Moon, centres entirely on our three favourite women, Fuen, Yuffie and Reala. All are working in a bar on the road to the afterlife. 90’ish stories that each flow into each other.

After that, we visit a post apocalyptic landscape, where we met a new rabble of Fears. Again, 90’ish tales forming a single story throughout now told from multiple perspectives. Lots of the usual Fears humour and along with it, some, drama flash fiction. After that another set of 90 tales, this time following a pun filled Little Fears murder mystery investigated by DCI Lily and Inspector Sally.

The point being in all this is that as the Little Fears move on on this site, the direction changes a few times. Always in 90’ish story blocks which take 3-4 months each to publish online as one story per day.

Ambling back to the original quote, with January, Capricorn and Spiders, they gave me closure on a 3-month block of stories. In the future, the Little Fears books will give me closure on a complete story arc. For someone who likes finishing projects and moving on, yes, putting those books on the shelf does bring me joy.

Have you got Spiders yet?

If you haven’t grabbed your free copy of Spiders yet, you have until Sunday! Take the links below. Want a copy on your local Amazon and can’t find or buy it? Let me know in comments. If you leave me a good review, please do let me know, as I cannot place Amazon reviewer names to blogs. Would be nice to give you an acknowledgement in a post here.

USA Edition: http://a.co/gOujd5z

UK Edition: http://amzn.eu/33sberu

Again, I am going to ask, if you grab a copy and enjoy it, please don’t forget to leave a review. They really help!

Cheers

(Original Spiders release announcement, with Synopsis and details here.)

Little Fears presents: Spiders – Free for 4 days on Amazon

LittleFears10 Comments

Little Fears presents: Spiders – Free for 4 more days 

You’re going to see another 3 of these posts. An uncharacteristic spammy thing for me, but hey, this books three months overdue and technical issues, haha! Release week of the new book and CloudFlare nadgers up. Meaning, nobody can respond to this blog post or anything on the Little Fears website, in any way through apps. Classic Little Fears luck! The issue will be resolved by the weekend. Bear with us.

So, yes, OK, the book has been released! I have reviews on this one, thank you! A good solid shout out to Jan O, who has already left me a review! Cheers Jan! Linky to her website. To Brian Thomas (I think I know who you are) and Love2Earth, if you’re out there and reading this, get me a link to your websites. I’ll give you both a shout out too. Same to anyone else who gives me a good review as it goes.

To everyone else who follows me, Spiders is free to buy on Amazon until Sunday. There aren’t many ways bloggers can give something to their readers as a thank you for being awesome. But this is something I can give you. An opportunity to get the digital edition free. Hit the links below to the digital edition, hit buy, and you can read them on any tablet through the Kindle app or Kindle device.

USA Edition: http://a.co/gOujd5z

UK Edition: http://amzn.eu/33sberu

Again, I am going to ask, if you grab a copy and enjoy it, please don’t forget to leave a review. They really help!

Cheers

(Original Spiders release announcement, with Synopsis and details here.)

Little Fears presents: Spiders – Free for 5 days on Amazon

LittleFears30 Comments

Little Fears presents: Spiders

Well, thank feck for that! Finally, Spiders has been released! Man, this book was meant to be out back in June. The big things in life have been taken over by other big things, and honestly, I’m at least three months behind where I should be on everything. Now my house is finally decorated, I can get back on track a bit. That post I made a few months back about things I had in the pipeline for Fears, that’s getting caught up.

The first big thing this week is, of course, the release of Little Fears presents: Spiders. The third book in the Little Fears series. It’s entirely self-contained, with 94 humorous tales published on this site over the last three months. The digital edition is also free for the first five days of release.

I don’t do sales down the line. I always feel that’s a kick in the teeth to fans that have paid full crack for something, to see it then half price or free the following week. By giving the digital copy away free for the first five days of release, that’s only going to go to the Little Fears followers and subscribers. They, you, are the people who should get a free copy. Not some random Joe who spots a sale on in six months time who’s never followed anything I have ever done.

If you enjoy the book, please do leave a review on Amazon and consider buying the paperback edition for a friend who may enjoy my humour. Little Fears books, best served with lovely full-colour paper with fresh book smell.

Synopsis

If anything is going to save the Little Fears from awful punch lines, it is not Shadow eating a sandwich. In Spiders, Great British groaners are the order of the day as the assembled Little Fears make their way through 94 tales of hospitals, food, steps, night sight telescopes and revenge. Rabbit eats a password book; Spider goes to the hospital; Fish multi-tasks; Lady observes X; Sprite has a chain reaction. Written and posted with scruffy illustrations daily on LittleFears.co.uk. These brief vignettes (50 to 100 words) chronicle the continuing adventures of the Little Fears. With only a sense of whimsy and a deep love of old British comedy, Spiders will make you groan, cry and laugh until a bit of wee comes out, in a truly original, unoriginal, work of art and fiction.

USA Edition: http://a.co/gOujd5z

UK Edition: http://amzn.eu/33sberu

Again, I am going to ask, if you grab a copy and enjoy it, please don’t forget to leave a review!

Cheers

Thank you

LittleFears110 Comments

Hello followers, subscribers and assorted paid up members of the rabble. As the post title says, I am saying thank you. Again. Because y’all mean a lot right now.

You may have noticed my postings have gone from precise times (8 am GMT) to erratic and all over the shop. That’s because this is where I currently live.

Yup. No floor. Decorating the London home so I can sell up and move to Scotland. It’s rather disruptive! Not helped by a lack of internet. My land line is somehow so knackered I cannot power the phone from the phone line. Think my videos are uploading at funny times of day and night? That’s just me hitting upload, going to bed and hoping they are all done by the morning. But hey, it works! So let’s keep creating and putting it out there! It’s only temporary, as are most issues in life.

Amidst the DIY related carnage on my home, right now, the support of you all, however it comes, is more appreciated than ever.When your house looks like a shed, every bit of encouragement is that extra bit more effective. From buying prints, tee’s, books, supporting on Patreon to liking, commenting on sharing my tales. It’s all appreciated and motivates me more than usual.

I shall be releasing the third book (finally, haha, oh god that again…) next week. I’ll put the announcement out to all you lovely folk and for five days from release, the Amazon Kindle edition will be free. I don’t do sales once a book has been out for a while because I feel it’s disrespectful to the people who support me and pay full price for digital and paperback books. By offering new books nobody’s bought at full price yet for free for five days on release to subscribers, that’s a thank you where nobody loses.

Cheers for sticking with us. I shall endeavour to continue delivering the most awful, cheesy and groan inducing punch lines this side of the fearful universe.

Keep creating!