Book launch/signing for THE SOLAR GRID hardback tentatively lined up... in Denmark! Probably around early-summer next year.

Social media campaigning has been spreading me a little thin. You'd be surprised by the amount of time that goes into shooting and editing a 30 second reel. I'm gonna need to pull away and focus on finishing up writing, drawing, and designing TIMES NEW HUMAN, which—as per my agreement with EUNIC—will need to be launched, at least locally, before year's end.

Look at me excel-sheeting my journal to track progress for Christ's sake. Also got a couple of fantastic-looking advance-reader copies of things friends sent me that I need to read.

The thing with social media is you can't rely on having just the one “ad” and repost. You gotta vary your “content” for sustainable engagement. Traditional promotion has been flipped over its head. It's why film studios don't just give us the trailer anymore; no, they give us clips of Christopher Nolan talking about some of his latest filmmaking techniques and Tom Cruise joking about how much fun he had performing in a fat suit. Easier done of course when you're a juggernaut with immense resources, but it doesn't absolve everyone else from needing to use somewhat similar strategies to get noticed. And here's the thing; if a giant like Christopher Nolan—who is notoriously known for not even having a smartphone of his own—understands that being visible on social media is imperative to the success of his already-well-promoted film... what makes us little guys think we can get away with having no social media presence at all and still make a living?

It's hard though when you're doing everything yourself. The mental shift from creating to promoting and back again is, admittedly, a little too much for me to handle. So I'm gonna need to land on a system that won't fuck with my head too much. Maybe dedicate one single day a week to shooting and preparing material and scheduling it in advance, so the rest of the week is free to write and draw. Something like that.

I like systems. Systems are good.

#journal #work

A few years back, Ahmed Naji (author of ROTTEN EVIDENCE), asked me to provide an illustration for an awesome short speculative satire he wrote for Art of the Working Class. Titled THE TANTA MUSEUM OF WHITE HISTORY, it is both funny and piercingly perceptive, and he just made it available on his substack.

It'll make you laugh-cry in the best kind of way. Highly recommended reading.

#work

I may have unlocked promotional god mode.

Since I started posting on instagram more regularly just a handful of days ago (especially with the reels), orders for THE SOLAR GRID hardback have been pouring in (at an average conversion rate of about 10%) and my follower count has made a 5% jump (And we're getting so many applicants for the producer job).

The danger of course is getting too swept up by the social media sinkhole. We are after all, only human, and it is exactly the seductive lure of social media sinkholes that forces us to run for our lives away from these platforms from time to time (my old Z Flip actually helped immensely with weening me off social media; you're less inclined to reach for your phone every few mins if there's no big screen on its face calling out to you). Shunning social media is certainly a necessity when you'd like to lock in on a project and just get to work with as little distraction as possible. A little less of a necessity when work on the project is done and it's time to get the word out about it.

Instagram can be a time suck, especially if you're making reels for it. Quite the workload in its own right. Difficult to add more work to your plate when you're in the middle of working on something else, let alone something big. But once you're done with said big work (especially big work you might've poured 10 years of your life into), isn't it worth it to put just as much effort into promoting it?

What can I say, I'm kind of an all-in sorta guy.

#work #tsg

Hmm, not as smooth as I'd like. Rotation's kinda bumpy, but okay for a first try.

50 orders in the first 24 hours since opening pre-orders for THE SOLAR GRID hardback. Not too bad.

I should probably note that the designated target of 750 orders does not make me, personally, any money. It's just the bare minimum needed to cover printing and fulfilment costs. The latter of course entailing warehousing the books, packaging, and shipping to readers, along of course with the labor of fulfilment operators. Profit margins are only unlocked beyond the 750 order-count, because that's when the per unit cost of each book starts to drop a little. But you'd need to hit at least double or triple that 750 for any kind of profit margin worth your while.

I haven't actually made any money off THE SOLAR GRID in the 10 years since I started working on it. Which is fine, it's something I've learned to make peace with. At this point, I'd just like to get the work into the hands of those who want it.

Uh, okay, excuse me while I freak out for a minute because I can see that an order has just been placed by none other than Paul Levitz.

#work #TSG #comix

A pre-order page for THE SOLAR GRID hardback has been created.

After being strung along by a handful literary agents, editors, and publishers for the better part of the year, it seems that the punk-rock self-publishing route is all I've got. Agents coil at the thought of representing the work, and mainstream publishers shrivel when considering it. I understand; it's transgressive and hard-hitting and the publishing landscape is not what it was in the days of Metal Hurlant or early Vertigo (who I fully blame for my irreversible corruption).

Despite the fair degree of praise THE SOLAR GRID has received thus far, it just doesn't quite check any of the boxes drawn out by publishers these days. It is neither a biography, memoir, or piece of graphic journalism—seemingly the only forms of graphic noveling deemed literary by the big boys. And it is way too complex and textured for publishers who peddle escapist genre. So I understand, I get how it doesn't quite fit within the norms of the current publishing landscape.

On the other hand, it is so often praised by readers, authors, reviewers, and media outlets. It's even won a couple awards!

Earlier in Dresden, seeing scholars beam excerpts from THE SOLAR GRID on a big screen as they dissected the work with intellectual scalpels was quite surreal. I recall Imre Szeman starting his presentation with something along the lines of: “The Solar Grid is one of the greatest works of fiction I've ever read.”

I almost cried.

That and being approached by professors who say they plan on including THE SOLAR GRID in their syllabi—along with the press and reviews (not to mention getting funding to turn it into a videogame)—really makes you wonder how on Earth this thing isn't being coveted by publishers.

It's fine though, everyone has their own measure of considerations. Rather than dwell, I move forward. I've devoted 10 years of my life to this 488-page tome, so I kind of don't have a choice.

I've spoken to the printers and fulfillment center at length, and it looks like we should be able to ship by May 21, 2027 if the printers get the final order by January. The catch is, we need to secure at least 750 orders (in addition to the almost 300 from the original kickstarter I ran way back when). That's the only way to make the numbers work, and securing 750 orders in indie publishing is apparently no small feat.

Best I can do is bang the drums wherever I can. I'd honestly rather not have to do the social-media song-and-dance thing, I'm just not cut out for it. But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do I guess.

If you're reading this, have something of a social media presence and like what you see, do consider spreading the word. Here's the pre-order link again.

The book will break your heart and blow your mind. I promise you.

#work #comix #tsg

The Retro Sci-Fi: GIF Edition reminded me of all the animated gifs I had once created for the first iteration of TIMES NEW HUMAN, the format of which was web-based. Most of those gifs are now lost to history for some reason. I've never been good at adequately archiving my output, something I've been working towards changing, and partially why Ganzeer.com is built to function as a genuine archive of all the work rather than a mere web brochure with a handful of samples. The latter being what is dominant in the field. I haven't quite managed to make it a “genuine archive of all the work”, but it's certainly more in that direction.

I wonder why I ever thought to take the animated gif route for those TIMES NEW HUMAN illustrations, given that a print edition was kind of the end goal all along. Seems like added unnecessary working hours. I suppose it's partially because animated gifs lend themselves so well to the web as a medium, and rather than copy-paste something as is across all media, the “purist” in me would like every iteration of a thing to be tailored perfectly to its own medium.

But really, how necessary was it? Seems like so much time gone to waste now.

Today is Tidy-the-Studio Day. I choose Wednesdays because the weekend seldom works. If I finish early enough, I might just get to drafting the newsletter. But first, email. Inbox is now at an unruly 43.

Overextending? Probably.

#journal #work

I am a terrible multitasker. I thought I'd be able to alternate between writing and taking podcast notes, but when I'm in the writing zone (indeed in any zone), I find it very difficult to pull away and do something else. Even if I designate the something else towards the tail-end of the day.

So today I will attempt to power through 6 episodes, half the season we recorded. Now, each episode is quite long; an hour or more in some cases, which means more video-watching than I can handle. Basic logic would dictate spreading the episode-watching and notetaking across several days to ease the blow of the task at hand, but that would necessitate employing the kind of mental gearshift that I sorely lack.

Why am I like this?

#journal #work #podcast

One of my pet peeves of living in America was how fresh herbs were treated like gold. You'd get less than an ounce of the stuff squished into a palm-sized plastic container for 2 bucks or more. Egypt has the opposite problem. Fresh herbs are in great abundance, and they're always sold in big bunches that go bad faster than you can put to use. So today, we are oven-drying rosemary for the first time. 4-6 hours apparently on the lowest setting for best results.

Writing is going oh so swell today.

“Conan in a trenchcoat.” – May just be the best line in this Frank Miller/Rick Rubin interview.

#journal #work #radar

Eyeing my reading corner aspirationally until Ikea get their shit together and restock the chair's cushioning, which they only informed me was out of stock the day of delivery. A full week after I'd originally ordered it.

Haven't even had a chance to put this part of the space to any use and Tiger has already mauled one end of the rug to shreds. Comes with the territory of being chosen by a cat, I guess. And I really do need to have that tinted glass replaced. Fall is here and the sun has already shifted to where it seldom enters the space.

Given the above situation, not much reading has been getting done (I'm not great at reading in bed), but I did manage to write 11,451 words in September. Looking to churn out much more through October. Very little drawing this month. Hopefully I'm not too rusty by the time I do return to the drawing board.

STATUS:

#work #journal #studio

WORKSTREAM: Got to see proofs for issue 2 of ELON magazine, which features my collab with Dominic Boyer, and it's fantastic! The Gigacities Collective have done a really great job at creating the new culture-jamming publication for our times. I'll remember to post again once it's out and there's more information on how to get it.

The complete THE SOLAR GRID box-set can now be nabbed through Asterism.

October is already here, which I'm gonna need to dedicate almost entirely to wrapping up TIMES NEW HUMAN if I can. Quite a bit of work travel slated for November, which knowing me will disrupt any semblance of flow.

Got the strangest email the other day inviting me to be interviewed about THE SOLAR GRID for a podcast... in exchange for a fee. Didn't even realize that was a thing now.

RADAR: Great Kim Stanley Robinson interview over at the Crisis and Critique Youtube channel.

Watched SOYLENT GREEN the other night for the first time! What a great goddamn movie! Can't believe it passed me by. It must be Ganzeer-discovers-the-70s season over here.

STATUS:

#work #journal #radar