Greetings everyone,
*sigh*.
It’s been both a frustrating and exhausting month after NYCC 2013. Aside from recuperating from the con, it hasn’t brought the best of news to my doorstep.
Without being able to go into a lot of detail, over a month ago I had a client from my software consulting business renege on payments owed and well, pretty much everything. While the matter is being resolved through the legal process, it has nevertheless put both an emotional and financial strain on me and, inadvertently, on Odd Truth. I made the decision to proceed on issue 6 of Torchbearer while at the same time letting the site and everything regarding promotions into a sort of hibernation, as I personally could not afford to spend the time needed to do these things while concurrently looking for a job, polishing my skills, and dealing with the elephant in the room.
When I started Torchbearer, I made a promise that I would continue the series no matter what, and to release a new issue as long as I was able until the entire 50 issue run was published. This situation, to be brutally honest, tested my resolve to Torchbearer and Odd Truth, as for a time I considered cutting my losses. But, I believe in Odd Truth and, as a writer and producer, I would not consider it fair to you, dear reader, to not give you a full story. Furthermore, as a boss, I feel it’s not fair that those I employ have to needlessly suffer if I am able to avoid it. I would rather starve than let others that I hire starve, for my part. Yes, it’s an archaic notion (it seems at least, in this day and age), but I believe that bosses and business owners should be more than profit engines and managers: they should strive to serve as paragons of the community. I feel that the predominant stockholder theory that defines this age of selfishness in business, has gone on for far too long. It’s time we, as businesses, return to our roots and resume our social responsibility to the community at large.
In any case, that’s what we’ve been up to so far. That, producing issue 6 and writing issue 7 (hey, my writer’s free. I’m going to work him until he can’t write anymore, you know? 🙂 ).
Before I go, there are a couple of announcements.
1) Issue 5, “A Wet Affair”, is out on:
Click on the links to go to your desired platforms. Previews of the issue, as always, can be found here. Comixology should be available by mid-December, if all goes according to plan (the issue was submitted and approved by Comixology last month, so there’s that).
2) The Torchbearer trade is available for purchase! If you missed out on coming to either Baltimore or NYCC, and want to have printed copies of Torchbearer, the best (and right now during Thanksgiving the cheapest) way to get them is through Amazon! While it’s always been the case that you can get Torchbearer material at any convention that we or Red Stylo attend, we learned at NYCC that the time has come for us to assert ourselves in retail markets. So, with that in our minds, we’re pushing and promoting Amazon, and we’ll continue to make headway into other retail channels. Our goal is for you to get a copy of Torchbearer however and whenever you desire.
That’s it for now, everyone. Tomorrow we’ll finally publish our notes on NYCC and the lessons we’ve learned on the main floor this time around.
Until then.
Best,
-Nick D.