Muslim Comics

Assalaamu alaykum,

This is a personal post from me, Ahmad Philips, the author of Hani and Huda and Stuck.

I give up. I give up on trying to sell these books. In fact I’ve given up a long time ago. I make these books because I see a need for more Islamic material for kids. That’s the main driving factor.

The second factor is that it’s a skill I’ve developed over time. I enjoy reading and telling stories. Whether they sell or they don’t I still enjoy making them.

But honestly the pressure and expectation of selling these books is driving me insane. Over the years I’ve tried different methods of selling and I think they’ve all pretty much failed. I’ll get a few sales here or there which amounts to a couple of dollars. I just have to ask myself, what’s the point?

Honestly, what is the point? I know that if I gave my books for free people would value them even less. By selling the book, I am giving it additional value, by saying it’s worth X amount. If you buy it, then you’ll appreciate it that much more than if it were given for free. From that standpoint it makes sense to sell them, but the actual act of selling is what I hate so much.

And that’s why I give up. I’m not sure what giving up means in this case, because I’ll still write more books, insha Allah. But I don’t think I’ll actively try and sell them. I just don’t have the energy for it. I might give them all for free, because I still want kids to read them and benefit. If it’s free then there’s less barrier to that, but of course reading it as a book is much more comfortable and fun than reading it off a screen. So it might still be for sale.

I guess it’ll be for sale, but I won’t be “selling” it if that makes sense.

Well if you made it this far consider checking out the book I am not “selling” to you, and let me know what you think. Should this just be for free? Should it still be available for purchase? Maybe both? Let me know.