Eighth Printing of TMAoC!

It’s hard to believe but I just received the shipment of the eighth printing of The Mad Art of Caricature since its release in November of 2011. That sounds more impressive than it actually is, since the largest print order I’ve ever placed was 4,000 copies. Storage with my distributor is limited so I can’t order any more than that at a time, so I’ve done many smaller runs rather than fewer big ones. With this printing (3,500 copies this time), a total of 28,000 copies of this book will exist on this planet. Placed end to end they would stretch just over 5 miles. That’s a lot of books.

I know I said this the last time I announced a new printing but I am truly floored by the staying power of this book. I figured I’d sell a bunch of them to caricaturists right away and then see it trickle into obscurity with continued but small sales levels for years after. Instead, sales both in bookstores through my distributor and via Amazon, have settled into slower but steady and respectable level. As my wife The Lovely Anna points out, new future caricature artists are born every day.

I think the addition of the digital PDF version slowed print version sales a bit, but I do not regret doing that. Despite the almost daily notices I get of illegal copyright-infringing versions uploaded by low-life’s everywhere, I still sell a number of legitimate digital copies every month via the Studio Store. It is a great alternative for people overseas who have to pay close to, or in some cases MORE THAN, the actual book in shipping costs. Ugh.

My thanks to everyone who has bought a copy. I get many positive comments about it from friends and strangers alike… the best compliment being “I really learned something from your book”. It took me a long time to get off my ass and write this thing, and I am very glad I did.