If you ordered a sketch edition, or if you were unfortunate enough to get upgraded by me to a sketch edition (usually because I recognized your name, and remember owing you a favor), then it is DEFINITELY in the mail as of Thursday morning. I finished the last of the on-hold sketch editions this afternoon, and right now they're all in mailers, ready to go to the post office first thing in the morning. Note -- ALL of these are US orders. Worldwide and Canadian orders went out on Friday or Saturday. I figured that since those folks paid three times as much as everybody else for shipping, we ought to get them in the mail first. Now then... a few of you have complained about the state in which your books arrived -- in at least two cases well-and-truly mangled. I need you to do something for me: email me your paypal reciepts, so I can send you a replacement. I'm serious about this -- I want people to know that they can trust Howard Tayler and The Tayler Corporation to ship good stuff, and to guarantee at least some level of satisfaction (no amount of re-sending will fix the misspelling of the word "mercenary" on the inside cover, I'm afraid). A few of you have posted your complaints in the previous thread, and I've taken the liberty of sending email to the address you used to register here on the blog. I have yet to hear back from any of you. In one case, a reader wept at the fact that his/her dog mangled the book after the postman left it within reach. I'll replace that book, too, just as soon as I know where to send it. And because you've asked, here are answers to the frequently asked questions: Q: Hurry up with the next book! When is it coming? When can I preorder it. A: I assure you, I'm hurrying. Work will begin in earnest next week. We want to be able to begin shipping it in early November. Pre-orders will not open until I've seen the press-match, though. Q: When will regular ordering open back up for Under New Management? A: June 1st. Q: Will you ever put the first 1000 strips in print? A: Absolutely. Pending the success of Schlock Mercenary: The Blackness Between (the book we plan to ship in November 2006), I'll start work on Schlock Mercenary: Step Away From The Tub of Happiness sometime in January of 2007. That volume and its companion (currently untitled) will be much larger than the current books. Hopefully by November of 2007 we'll have all 1000 early strips packed into two books. I don't know what the price will be yet, and I'm not going to pre-announce anything else about this project until I've got a solid handle on SM:TBB. Q: SM:TBB? A: It's an abbreviation. SM:UNM, SM:TBB, and SM:SAFTToH are all abbreviations you have my permission to use.
