The Sorcerers Apprentice

Hey guys, the hiatus isn’t over just yet but I thought it’s extremely important that I post this update. Long story short things are really bad in my life right now. In other words, Sorcerer’s Apprentice is in danger of being shelved. Being shelved means an indefinite hiatus, I might be able to come back to it, or I might have to cancel it forever. And with the way things look right now, things are firmly in that second column as of now. So what can you personally do to prevent this from happening? There are actually a few things:

1. Click on the banner ads and vote for Sorcerer’s Apprentice on Top Web Comics. Higher click rates and more views means higher ad revenue. Most of the banner ads lead to other web comics rather than spam so you’re actually not wasting anything.
2. Tell your friends, your family, whomever about Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I do ads and social networking stuff, but the best promotion for a web comic is word of mouth. I cannot stress this enough. Talk about the series. Recommend the series on your blogs and tumblr accounts. Make fan art. Make fan fiction. Anything! Let’s grow the fan base!
3. Follow me on social media. I am on Facebook, Tumblr, Deviant Art, and Twitter and have very few followers and even less active followers. And Reblog and Retweet stuff instead of just faving it. Comment on stuff. No one sees your favs, while it’s awesome that people like my stuff, it does me no good if no one sees beyond the fanbase I already have.
4. Buy the books. Through Indy Planet, Sorcerer’s Apprentice is available both digitally or in print. In fact, the digital version is much cheaper than the print version, so don’t give me the ‘but shipping is so high’ excuse. There is an active link on the site at all time. I know Indy Planet is hard to navigate, which is why the links are always visible on the page and the main page of Bwillett Comics. Buying the books gives me working capital. Buying the books means I have cash and resources to continue the series. The profits from v.2 so far haven’t even been enough to cover the cost of the ink I’ve used let alone paper, printing and actual living money for things like food and bills. I can’t even afford internet right now. Buying the books means I’m more attractive to bigger publishing firms that have the resources and power to distribute better.

At this point I’ve done all I can to keep the series alive, but if I don’t see some serious turnaround by the end of March, I’ll be forced to stop working on it. It’s all up to you guys now.

Hey, hey! Another week, another two pages of Sorcerer’s Apprentice. And this week we’ll finally get to see more of Bethany and Patrice. Writing is always a balancing act because you love your characters so gosh darn much but you always have to remember who the main characters are, and in the case of Sorcerer’s Apprentice, this is Victoria’s story. So that means no matter how much I want to have more page time with one character or another, if it doesn’t eventually add up to something that Victoria has to go through, I can’t really add it.

Also another thing I’d like to talk about is why sometimes pages are so late. This partially has to do with how the Sorcerer’s Apprentice pages get made. Unlike Midnight Menagerie, which is digital, and Queen of Games, which is done with technical pens, Sorcerer’s Apprentice pages are inked with a dip pen and well ink. This means that pages have to dry considerably between when they are finished and when they are scanned. Rush the step and erase pencil marks or try to scan pages before the ink is dry and the pages smudge and get ruined. If my schedule gets thrown off because of illness or some other interruption, and the pages aren’t dry at least a day before my updates (Tuesday and Friday) that means I have to wait until the next update day to add the new pages. I try to get more pages done than updates in a week, but sometimes I still fall behind and there are gaps. Theoretically, I could do Sorcerer’s Apprentice a different way, but then it would look much different and become a different comic for it. Another change is me getting back my internet service. But that is up to Century Link or Xfinity to come up with a reasonable deal for reasonable service. Until then, it’s only two trips a week to a hot spot.

The big issue that’s been eating up a bunch of my time has past (at least for the moment, round 2 takes place in February) but otherwise I’m back to my normal work schedule, and by extension, regular update schedule. I know things have been really inconsistent the past month or so, but that’s how life gets sometimes. My early in the year updates are always a little iffy anyway, when the weather gets really bad my health is on the line, but as things warm up and it gets closer to summer, there will be more work done.

This year I’m not doing Denver Comic Con. While it’s always a blast to do the Artist Alley there, my profit margins were pretty bad, so I can’t really afford to go back. So that means my only foreseeable con this year will most likely be Nan Desu Kan, assuming I win the table drawing. The bad news means that I’ll only be going to one con as a guest, but the good news is I’ll have more time in general to work, which means I will be getting volume 3 done. As I’ve said before, getting volume 3 actually available for sale has as much to do with you guys as with me because it’s a lot of work to put a book together, and if the sales aren’t there, I don’t have much incentive. I know it seems a bit mean to put things in terms of strictly money, but I do have to make sure I can afford to live. I really really want to make sure all 7 volumes of the series get done, but y’all have to help me get there.