The future rushes toward me. I have less than two weeks until April is gone. Since “end of April” is our goal for finishing the Schlock book layout, I have much work left to do. Howard and I also had a discussion today where we tried to decide when we’ll open pre-ordering for Hold on to Your Horses. I won’t have books in hand until mid-July. I don’t want people to have to wait too long. However, I’m honestly not sure how well the book will sell. Sometimes I feel like we’ll be lucky to hit 700 books (our break-even point) other times I wonder if 2000 books will be enough. Unfortunately the “you must decide how many books you are ordering” point comes mid-May. After that the numbers are set. So we’re considering opening orders before that point, to get a good count. But then people will have to wait three months before they can have the book they paid for. I don’t like making people wait so long. I’m pondering incentives like autographed bookplates.
Further complicating things, we’ll be opening pre-orders for The Teraport Wars before mid-July. This means that I’ll be running two pre-order sorts simultaneously. Apparently we are incapable of making the process simpler rather than more complex. Fortunately the system I run can handle this kind of thing without trouble. I’ll just have to buy more file boxes. Also between now and July will probably be further runs of merchandise. We’ve got to keep bailing so that we can plug those debt holes and make this boat really seaworthy.
Today none of this oppresses me. Summer is a good time for me to be busy with shipping because I don’t have to run the kid’s school schedules. I’m looking forward to getting to finish off old projects and begin new ones. Hopefully in May I’ll get to start layout on “the Schlock book formerly known as Out from Under New Management which has yet to be renamed.“
Ok, I’m a horrible fan-boy, but remind me what Hold on to Your Horses is about?
The moment you open up pre-orders, I’m shove my mother the Learning Center gal for an elementary school in central IL towards it, and see what we can grass-roots your way as far as school orders. 🙂
I’d really appreciate the push in school orders. There is a synopsis of the book and a free pdf of the entire book available at http://www.holdontoyourhorses.com.
Hmn. If said grassroots type ordering is going to happen, Earlier Is Better(tm) – schools and the like tend to deal with pretty long ordering cycles.
As for Waiting Too Long, I suspect if you explicitly point out that the Super Pre-Pre Order Ultra 2000 ordering date is a couple months in advance; but comes with autographs/discount/etc or suchlike, you might get away with it better?
I dunno. You probably know all this stuff already; you and Howard deal with the buisness far more than I do. But still, ’tis just a thought.
Pre Orders
I speak for myself and my family when I say that whenever you open pre-orders for any of the three books you mentioned, we will be there with cash in hand. You don’t need any more incentive than the products themselves. We do not mind at all waiting for the merchandise, even a long time. We love your products, we love your business, and we love you all as much as we can without having ever met you. 🙂 I just read Horses for the first time today, and I am already making a mental list of people to buy it for. I’ve mentioned it before, but Howard’s work makes us smile and gives us a never-ending supply of inside jokes; your blogging, stories, and now book give us things that touch our lives in deeper, more profound ways. If you need our money to keep that happening, we’re happy to give it! Oyster out.
Re: Pre Orders
Thank you very much. It is support like yours that makes Schlock possible.