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The Official Exploitation Now: Done With It All News Thread
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Author:  Imp-Chan [ Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:25 pm ]
Post subject:  The Official Exploitation Now: Done With It All News Thread

So, here's what's happening with <i>Exploitation Now: Done With It All.</i>

First, I want to emphasize that <b>this product has been delayed, but NOT cancelled.</b> Essentially, we are just too small a company to efficiently publish the book ourselves, so we've decided to look for an established publisher for the book who has access to the bookstore market. This is going to take a while, but I will keep everyone updated on what's going on in this process as best I can without compromising confidentiality. Getting published by a publisher is a very slow process by internet standards, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to review it here.

The Publishing Process wrote:
<b>Step 1) Query/Book Proposal.</b> We'll send a proposal to the relevant companies (sometimes this is a much later step, but in this case we're sortof coming in at the middle, so for our purposes we'll call it Step One). As of right now, I am reworking a proposal to send out to a few of our preferred publishers. I will tell you once I've sent it out. Once they've gotten it, it could be up to three months before we'll know if one of them wants it. There's no reason it shouldn't be accepted pretty quickly, but again... publishers move very slowly in comparison to the Internet. It's also possible, but hopefully unlikely, that we'll have to shop around some before we find the right interested publisher, and that could also add to the wait time.

<b>Step 2) Contracts.</b> Once a publisher has decided they want to publish this particular book, we'll have to negotiate a contract. Fortunately, I'm getting used to my career shift to literary agent, and we have an excellent lawyer to consult with, so this hopefully won't take very long at all. We're pretty clear on what we need the deal points to be. I'll announce it once we're in the process of negotiating, so that you'll have an idea of where the book is in terms of production. Once the deal is signed, I'm sure we'll throw a big party and tell everyone, so you'll definitely know once we've got a publisher. You'll hear us celebrating from space.

<b>Step 3) Submitting the Files and Publisher Mojo.</b> At some point in the process of negotiating the contract, the publisher and I (on behalf of Poe) will agree on some formatting changes, etc. Then Poe and I will have to go through and get all the files ready, then send them to the publisher. They'll review everything, and hopefully send a copyeditor through it, and then they'll do their Publishing Mojo and eventually it'll be sent off to a printer. This whole process can take a very long time, depending on what factors the publisher needs to figure out. There's also pre-sales to bookstores and that sort of thing that gets worked out in this same general time period.

<b>Step 4) Printing.</b> The actual printing, depending on the size of the order, won't take that long. However, shipping it might take quite a bit longer. If we were going to do it ourselves, it'd be around three months from the time we sent the book to print to the time we got copies in our hands. A larger publisher might have different arrangements, so there's no way to tell how long this will take. It'll be completely out of our hands, anyways. I'll let you know when the publisher tells me the book is ready to ship, because I think it's important to keep you all up-to-date on this. I'll also start making sure all the order information is correct and up-to-date so that when the time comes we can send the books to the right places.

<b>Step 5) Shipping.</b> Once the books are printed, our store will order a bunch of copies from the publisher. Once they finally get here, we can sit down and start processing the pre-orders. I can tell you right now from my experience with Errant Story Volume Two, that's going to take us at least a week. Due to the substantial delay in production and the fact that most of you will have probably changed addresses in that time, our plan is to send the books to the CUSTOMER address instead of the SHIPPING address listed with the pre-orders. Please make sure you keep your customer address up-to-date, just in case we somehow miss you in the process of checking everything.


All told, it could be up to a year or even more before the book can be published and in your hands. I'll do my best to speed it up, but that's really the most promising estimate... Christmas of 2007. It could be 2008, even, but I'm trying really hard to get it out faster than that.

So, because of this substantial delay, the book is no longer appearing in the store for Pre-Orders. This is because we're not comfortable with continuing to offer pre-orders without more solid information as to a ship date. I just plain don't know for sure when the book will be published, only that it eventually will. It wouldn't be right to continue to take pre-orders given those conditions.

In fact, this project has caused us to really re-evaluate how we've been using that system. When we first put this book up for pre-order, the plan was to finance the entire production that way. I was really excited about offering the book, so I thought it'd be fine because we'd get all the orders we needed really fast. I was so optimistic that I neglected to plan for what would happen if we didn't get as many pre-orders as we'd thought we would. The subsequent problems have demonstrated pretty damn clearly that's a bad way to plan products. We will never use this same system again. If we use pre-orders in future, it'll be to help us identify things like how much of a certain size we should order of something we've already planned for and set aside the funds to produce... and the pre-order window will be only a few weeks. We'll have a clear production time and guaranteed ship date on any item we offer this way in future, and we will by-god stick to it. Anything less is severely unfair to you, bad for us, and just generally not okay.

To the people who already pre-ordered <i>Exploitation Now: Done With It All</i>... I owe you a heartfelt apology for this delay. I grossly overestimated our capital situation, our potential for pre-orders, and pretty much everything associated with this project. This was stupid and inexperienced, and entirely my own fault. I'm incredibly sorry that I've caused so many of you to have to wait so long, and I deeply regret that it's going to take even longer to fix this. However, I gave you my word that the book will happen, and I'm not going to rest until it does. You guys are too important for us to give up just because of a few massive reality checks. Even if it takes a couple extra years and a whole lot of changing how we planned to make this work, we <b><i>will</i></b> get you the books.

I wish there were a way we could bring the book out faster, but all I can do is promise that it will definitely come out eventually. Thank you for putting your faith in us, for being so patient, and for sending us all those letters of encouragement. We really are doing our best, and your continued patience and support means the world to us.

#-_-#'

Author:  Insane_Megalomaniac [ Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:10 pm ]
Post subject: 

So long as I get notice shortly before its start getting printed, I WILL buy a copy. And there are others. So don't think this is all a massive disaster and you're only printing it for a handful of folks.

Besides, wouldn't you rather get your first major reality check in the business world with people who know you and understand instead of pissing off massive numbers of complete strangers who will ensure you never run a business again (I'm looking at you, pioneers of the .com businesses!)?

Just take your time and do what you need to do; we're behind you. 8-)

Author:  dubioso [ Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:01 am ]
Post subject: 

Hi Impy,

thanks for the update. It's not like I would have found time to read it this year anyway...
Hell, I haven't found time to read ES online since January. I seriously need to re-evaluate my priorities :stressed:

I might even make an exception for you on one of my golden rules:
Never order something online until the previous order has been completed. :-3

Author:  Shadowwalker [ Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:28 am ]
Post subject: 

Sounds good. EN is still my favorite comic to read.

Author:  warhog4ever [ Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:28 pm ]
Post subject: 

Whoa I still have an account, took me a few tries to guess the username/password.

Anyway, so long as there's a heads up, EN would be one of the few comic books I'd actually buy. I rarely buy comics and less so stuff from webcomics, but EN has been, and always will be, one of the most entertaining works I've ever read.

I'd totally pick up a copy.

Author:  elega [ Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:11 pm ]
Post subject: 

It's been a while sinse last update. Any news of the preorders?

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