December 21st Update: Calling All Supporters…

December 21st, 2012 / 7 comments / Posted In: Uncategorized

Hello, and best wishes of the season to everyone.

Well, here we are on the cusp of the singularity and so far everything’s pretty quiet here in three-space; no temporal anomalies, approaching asteroids, alien fleets or rumbling super-volcanoes on the horizon so far! So it’s steady as she goes here and we’re anticipating the Solstice transition to come and go with, as we always said it would, ‘nary a twitch on a thousand cosmic dials.’ I hope that’s true for everyone and we’ll come through this just fine and see you on the other side. Or at dawn on December 23rd with the usual clogged inbox we face every day…

Anyway, all that said I wanted to post a very important update about some logistical matters that (we hope) you will not ignore. Or, ignore at your peril.

First, David and Dasha, my totally amazing web support team, have been working day and night (literally) to redesign and launch a completely new BOTSA web site. It has a much more appealing interface and is running off much faster servers, they tell me, so it should be a much better experience for the visitors.

In connection with the new launch we want to once again prevail on the apparently infinite patience and understanding of our supporters through Kickstarter and other channels, by asking you to log in to the new site, and make sure that we have the following information:

Your correct name
Your correct email
Your correct mailing address!

If you have contributed at the $70 level and above, also let us know whether you choose to have 2 signed copies of the book, OR 1 signed copy, + the Digital DVD to be delivered in a few weeks.

Also, if you have already received your signed copy (or copies) let us know that too, and if you have not yet received it, let us know that too.

Now at this point some of you may be wondering, ‘Didn’t we just do something llike this a little while ago?’

The answer is yes, you did, and many people registered and provided that information, and we thank you for that. Others have yet to respond so this is your chance. Now that we are moving to a new web site, with faster servers and a more functional user database, we want to confirm (or reconfirm) as many addresses as we can before sending out more books. About half the books have been shipped, so we want to hear from people who have received them; and please do let us know about any problems you encountered.

I think it’s no longer any secret (nor should it be; we’re seeking to be transparent here) that we had some problems with the database when we tried to combine the original Kickstarter database with the web-based supporters registration database, such that some corruption of the database may have occurred. So far the errors appear to be slight; a few people have reported getting the book addressed to the wrong name at the proper address. As long as you’re getting the books, that is not a disaster.

But going forward, we want to be sure that all future mailings will find their way to the proper person at the proper address. And for that reason, we’re asking you to check in again on the new BOTSA site, make sure your data is correct (if you have already registered on the old site, your username and password should still work). This will allow us to work from a ‘cleaned up’ database that we’re confident has the correct information.

And I want to add: while you’re on the site, have a look around. It’s a really appealing new design, and Dasha, David’s lovely and talented wife, deserves most of the credit for the new look and feel!

One more thing:

If you are a supporter of this project who resides outside of the USA, it is very important that you provide the information listed above on the new site as soon as possible! The reason for this is that it takes a bit longer to ship the books to non-US addresses, and, it is very expensive to ship them! (average cost $15-20 per book). So, especially for foreign addresses, we want to be sure they are correctly addressed before mailing any more books. In fact, for supporters in Australia, Canada and the UK, we are planning to ship the books in bulk, pre-labeled and packaged, to friends in those countries who have offered to distribute them to supporters using local mailing rates. This will save us (me) a bundle but we need to be sure that those books are correctly addressed before shipping them to the distributors.

Finally, I apologize for these delays. I had hoped to have all the books at least on the way by Christmas and I feel like a bit of a Grinch for not being able to do that. But I hope that you will understand. I’d rather take a little extra time and be sure you get them without coupling them to arbitrary deadlines like Christmas, the end of the world, or other distractions. I fully believe that 2013 will arrive right on schedule and by then we’ll all have had time to take a deep breath, recover our equilibrium, and spend January reading The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss. Which, by most accounts, people are finding enjoyable.

Sending all my best wishes to you for the Solstice, the Holidays, and whatever lies beyond!

Dennis