Earlier this week I submitted the revised covers and content files for Barrowmaze via rpgnow to Lightning Source, their printer service.
Because I'm in Canada, I can't get my stuff printed by LS USA it has to be LS UK.
This sucks for me because mail service between Canada and the UK is reliable but painfully, painfully slow.
Also, despite having the files for almost a full week they are still listed on rpgnow in my publisher's page as "In premedia" which translated means they are taking their sweet bloody time. Past experience has demonstrated that it will take 4-5 business days to get to the point where print can be ordered. THEN it will take multiple days to print, THEN it will take 10 days to get it to my mailbox.
I'll be honest, I am so frustrated with it that when I finish Barrowmaze II (which is well underway) I can't see myself using rpgnow again. Granted, there's a fair amount of frustration in the last statement but seriously WTF.
Because I'm in Canada, I can't get my stuff printed by LS USA it has to be LS UK.
ReplyDeleteThis makes no sense at all to me. If the product is sold by RPGNow, what possible difference does the nationality of the author make?
What they told me was LS USA doesn't offer affordable shipping options for one book to Canada, LS UK does (apparently).
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time believing they would let something like that get in the way of business.
Have you thought about having barrowmaze 2 put out by an american company? I THINK this is why James at grognardia is going with Autarch to release his megadungeon
ReplyDeleteYes, I absolutely have (and that's what I thought I was doing in the first place!). I was trying to avoid LuLu because they double-dip on shipping to Canada - the fuckers.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I'm going to need to do something different and I'm open to suggestions.
My impatience to get my hands on a hard copy of this product grows, but it hasn't changed my mind about wanting Barrowmaze.
ReplyDeleteI recognize that you're not responsible for the hold up, but I'm frustrated right along with you on this.
Dang it, I so want a print copy of this NOW! Argh!
ReplyDeleteI really do appreciate everybody hanging in there.
ReplyDeleteI've added new swanky art to the downloadable pdf which will also be in the print. I'm excited to see it.
For the print copies I needed to better center the covers and also to change the interior subtitle font which for some reason their printers didn't print well. Those were addressed and then sent back. I'm hopeful to open it up Monday or Tuesday, but when exactly is up to them.
Can one have the same book from different sources in different countries? So if I live in the USA, I order from the US print-on-demander or whatever, whereas Canada dude orders from the Canada P.O.D.er, etc?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if that is workable; I'm just asking. I would imagine once you get the pdf nicely tuned up to print the way you like it from resource A in Canada, Resource B in the US and Resource C in Europe could probably turn out a fair approximation of the same thing, right? I mean, you can't be responsible if the printer does a shitty job of printing an individual order since you did not ship it(although some people will not be charitable about that), but that is kind of the nature of the p.o.d. world.
In any case, I hope you hit on something that works without tearing your hair out.