Fantasy Novel: Age of Death by Michael J. Sullivan

Non-US shipments & Remaining Tote bags
about 4 years ago – Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 02:40:14 AM

Okay, so we finally got some news on the homefront for the remaining items that have yet to ship.  Here's an update.

• We received our last backorder for bags and the remaining shipments went out (24 packages).  I also uploaded all the tracking numbers into Backer Kit and sent out emails.  For some of you, that may mean you are getting a tracking number for a bag that shipped in a previous shipment (one in December the other in January). So you can ignore those notifications.  I also checked to make sure those various bags were delivered so I think that is done.
• The Overseas pallet (not US or Canada) has arrived in England and cleared through customs.  The fulfillment company is expecting to receive the boxes on Monday and I think they will start shipping either Monday or Tuesday.  Hopefully, all the items arrived safe and sound (I double boxed the cartons and worked hard on shrink wrapping it up. We'll know more on Monday when they get the pallet and I'll let you know if everything arrived safe and sound.
• The Canada shipment did not fare so well. The pallet we shipped was (as far as we could tell) lost by the freight forwarder.  We had to wait a certain amount of time for them to find it (which they did not). The good news is (a) they will pay for the lost items and (b) I ordered extra bags. So, we've put together another pallet and hopefully, it will be picked up by our local shipper tomorrow.

More updates as they become available. But the bottom line is we are really close to getting the last of the products in people's hands.

Shipping Updates
about 4 years ago – Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 09:06:06 PM

Hey all, Robin here. I have some updates for you regarding shipping.

• For people who had 5 book orders and received two Age of Myth and no Age of War you should have replacement books by now (and we've been seeing a bunch of return Age of Myth coming our way in the return envelopes - so thanks for sending those back.  If you haven't yet, received your Age of War and return envelope - let me know and I'll track down tracking numbers.
• So far I've received only 3 "Return to Senders" packages - which given how many there are that's amazingly small.  And I've sent out 2 of them.  The last one, I'm waiting on instructions from the backer as to what was wrong with the address I used, or whether they have a different place to send them.
• There were a few people who received books without signatures. This was a byproduct of me and Sarah working too many hours and being too tired. Sarah was both boxing and unboxing books and she sometimes picked up from the wrong stack.  We sent out replacement books (and return envelopes) Also, if you were a victim of that, we sent your bookmarks separately because the warehouse books are all just "single bookmarks" now that the Kickstarter is over.
• We had only 1 porch pirate incident (that I know of) and we sent a replacement book and it got through.  If you suspect your book was stolen, let me know. Technically this isn't "our fault" but we sent a free replacement just to be nice.
• The rest of the bookmarks are going out today - this is mainly for people that were outside the US, or people who had multiple US bookmarks ordered - the "single" US bookmarks went out for the vast majority of people many moons ago (before Christmas iirc), but if you were late in getting your survey in, it's possible that your single bookmark order is going out in this batch
• Finally, our printer has the remaining stock to print the black Montemorcy bags.  I even ordered some extras (as they seem to be so hard to get our hands-on, so if you want one of the rare "black bags" let me know and I'll get you order in Backer Kit so you can get them.  I "think" they should be here in about 2 weeks -- longer than normal, but apparently the bags went to the one of their facilities and so they have to send them to a different facility for printing and now they'll be coming to us from California rather than Indiana.  I don't know all the ins and outs I'm just glad they are finally in the works - for a while there I thought I would have to switch to the "natural" colored bags or refund a few orders, but now that's not the case.  

Now for the not so good news.  And it is regarding the non-US books/bags.  As you know we made up two pallets and sent them overseas for other fulfillment companies to ship.  This is my first time doing things this way and I've learned a lot.  First, I wasn't aware of all the delays that are involved (shipping from us to the "Freight Forwarder" waiting for "other" shipments going overseas to get the freight forwarder so they can all go in one container etc.  The actual sailing across the sea (which takes a long time), the clearance through customs, etc. But the bottom line is both of our pallets of books (one for Canada and one for the other foreign markets (mainly Europe)) are not yet in the hands of the overseas fulfillment centers.  I WILL be posting an update as soon as they have them.  Sending me an email saying "I haven't received my book yet...and then me looking it up and finding out you are in Canada...can't make it get to you any faster.  They are "in the system" and I will post when the fulfillment center has them.

Again, this is the first time we've done this and I didn't realize all the delays that were involved but on the positive sides...

• You already have the story in ebook (or audio) so you can enjoy it while you wait for your hardcover to arrive.
• You will not have to pay for VAT, customs, import, or other costly fees associated with shipments that come from outside your country through the USPS.
• Your shipping costs are MUCH less than if we used the USPS.  Quite frankly without using these freight forwarders and local fulfillment houses shipping may be too expensive for you to receive books at all.

If I could get the books to you tomorrow I would. But once they leave my warehouse I'm in the waiting game just as much as you all are. In the future, maybe I just won't don't overseas shipping, it seems like whether I go USPS or the freight forwarder method I'm doomed if I do or doomed if I don't but I truly am trying to get the books to you in the best way possible.

Status Update: i(s) and t(s)
about 4 years ago – Sun, Feb 09, 2020 at 08:28:11 PM

Hey all, Robin again. I just thought I should update everyone with where we are, and do some final i dotting and t crossing.

Videos

• We've recorded answers to questions over several sessions. And it is VERY time-consuming. The files are large and the camera "times out" and stops, and then we have to start again. We also "lost" a rather large recording because the file got too big and it had problems rendering. At this point, I have to go through these very long sessions, see which questions "survived" and which ones were lost. That in itself will be a huge undertaking, one I won't want to repeat. Given that, and the fact that the setup logistics for recording is rather large (moving furniture, setting up tripod and lighting, etc) l I think we'll have to answer the rest of the questions in some other format. For the recording we have done, I'll post that shortly. For the other questions - which there are HUNDREDS of.  Bear with me while we divvy them up (some questions I can answer, others will need to be answered by Michael).
• As for the "behind the scenes" video, I didn't want to make or post that until Age of Death  was officially released because it's certain to contain spoilers. Right now, I'm very tied up with beta reader stuff for Age of Empyre so I've not wanted to break away to do it. That said, Michael and I will be taking a trip on Wednesday and as such we will be on a train for a long time. I'm going to try and record it then - but I'm not sure how the sound will be. If it's okay then we'll have it done and posted around the 20th. If recording on the train doesn't work, we'll have to record it once we get back.

Signatures: 

• Yes, your book should be signed. We've had 2 reports where the books arrived unsigned (and I've identified how that happened and we'll change our process the next time around). If you receive an unsigned book, let us know and we'll send out a replacement along with a self-addressed label to send back the unsigned copy.

Bookmarks:

• The "full set" that is included for people who have bought a physical copy should be inside your Age of Death book.  It's possible we missed a set here or there, or that they "fell out" when the fulfillment house was packaging things up, so if you get an Age of Death and it doesn't have all 5 bookmarks, send us an email and we'll send them out to you.
• For people who ordered extras - they will NOT be in your box with books and/or tote bags. It makes it too hard for the fulfillment company to think about which ones to include and which ones not to. Instead, we are mailing all of them in a separate regular envelope. Now about 250 of those envelopes have gone out to people in the US. All of these have been "singles." and it may be that we still have one or two US singles yet to do, we're cross-checking our labels with orders now so if you are in the US and ordered one set you probably already have them.  
• As for the envelopes left to mail (those with "multiples" and those that are not in the US) We hope to have them out by Monday. I ran out of envelopes and being that we live in the middle of nowhere, it's not trivial to get more.  Yes, I could order them online, but I didn't so at this point it'll be faster if I make the long run to the store.
• Some of you may receive an "extra" bookmark or two - that's because some of the books at the warehouse were already signed/bookmarked from our "regular stock" and it just depends on whether the fulfillment partner picked from "group A" or "group B" if you got an extra bookmark (or two) consider yourself lucky.
• The golden ticket - we were getting punchy during our marathon signing/bookmarking sessions and at one point Michael wrote on the back of one bookmark "GOLDEN TICKET" I'm not even sure which book it's in...or if it is sitting in the warehouse or went out, but if you receive this bookmark, let us know. We'll give you something special. What that "something is" we don't know yet but we'll figure it out if it ever shows up.

US Backers:

• All the US books have been shipped - and most of them are arriving safe and sound. But if for some reason yours is damaged in the mail - just send an email to [email protected] or send a message to Michael through the Kickstarter. That's the fastest way for us to see them.  I'm sorry we weren't watching the comments section (where a few "damaged" reports were coming in, but since we're pretty much considering this project as "wrapped" we didn't think to look there. We'll keep our eyes out going forward.
• There were a few of the 5-book packages where people reported receiving two Age of Myth and no Age of War.  The VAST majority seems to be okay, but we've seen about 7 that are screwed up. If you have one of those bad packages, no worries, just let us know and we'll (a) send you Age of War and (B) send you a postage-paid envelope to return the double Age of Myth. 
• If you ordered your tote bag it WILL NOT be with your books - they are shipped separately.  Why? Because there is a deeply discounted "media mail" rate with the USPS and if we send books (and only books) that package is significantly cheaper. So US customers with books and totes will receive two packages.
• We do have 58 tote bags on backorder.  We received the bags in two shipments. In the first group, we sent out about 200 of them, and then another 115  in the second group.  We "prioritized" on "single bag" owners so we could take care of the highest number of people.  The bags were shipped by me and Sarah, and I need to upload tracking numbers for them. I'm also going to be sending an email to each person who has a bag on backorder so you know whether or not you should have received your order.  
• Speaking of uploading tracking information. If your tracking indicates your package has books and totes - don't believe it.  As I said there are two packages. I did something wrong when uploading some data. I've asked BackerKit to "wipe clean" my tracking numbers so I can re-upload them. We'll see if they can do that.

Non-US customers

• If you have books and totes they WILL arrive in the same package.  
• In the past, we have shipped your orders via USPS. This has a number of very negative consequences: (a) tracking reporting is less than reliable (b) the expense has been astronomical (c) the backer has to pay customer/VAT/and import fees (d) if a package gets lost, we in the US have no idea how to track it down.  
• So, for this Kickstarter, we hired two fulfillment partners one for Canada, and one that handles all the other countries of the world (most of which are located in Europe).  Basically we put together a "pallet" of books/totes, and ship them to the fulfillment partner along with a spreadsheet that tells them what items go to which customers. We take care of all the import fees and they (the fulfillment company) ships locally so you won't have to worry about customs and won't have to pay anything else. They will be issuing us tracking numbers, and when we get them they will be put in Kickstarer.
• Now, both of these pallets have been delivered to what is known as a "Freight Forwarder" who combines our little shipment with a bunch of other shipments and then puts them all on a boat (in the case of the UK fulfillment partner), or a very large truck (in the case of Canada).   Then the products have to clear customs and then they will arrive at the fulfillment houses.
• Now, this is my first time doing this kind of international shipping and I don't know what to expect in terms of transport time or custom clearance time, but once the books get to the fulfillment house, I think the shipping will be very fast 1 - 3 days.  I'll keep you updated as these various pallets move from place to place.

And that's pretty much it.  With the exception of a few bookmark envelopes and a few tote emails, we are basically waiting on others (the printer for the 58 remaining totes, and the freight forwarders for the non-US totes/books.  If you have any questions, you know where to  find us.

Age of Empyre Kickstarter Launches Tomorrow at noon (EDT)
about 4 years ago – Tue, Feb 04, 2020 at 01:38:47 AM

Tomorrow at noon (EDT), the Kickstarter for THE LAST book in this series will go live go live. You can use the link now to look at the various reward levels and pick out what you are most interested in.  And at noon (Eastern Daylight Time) we'll push it live and that same link will give you access to backing the project. Exciting times!

We hope to see you then!

More shipping updates
over 4 years ago – Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 02:08:22 AM

Hey all, Robin again. This is going to be really short and sweet because I'm so "in the thick of it" at the moment.

• We received 2,688 copies of Age of Death in our local fulfillment center and over the course of 4  "sessions" we now have them all signed.  That's more than 4,390 pounds of books that had to be unboxed, QA checked, signed, have 5 bookmarks added, then reboxed.
• Now except for the last two sessions (yesterday and the day before), we had to take a few days off between them because we are old and our bodies just don't recover like they used to. When I got home last night I couldn't move one of my hands and to say my back was aching was a gross understatement, but in any case, that part is over.
• We also constructed several pallets - one for Europe and one for Canada and we are using local fulfillment houses to mail those out to people in various parts of the world.  It'll take a bit of time for those pallets to make it to the partners and then they will have to process them, but it should be faster shipping than USPS which can sometimes take weeks to go through customs, and it will also save people import fees, custom fees, and VAT (where applicable) as we will be paying for that.
• We've also sent out another 230 tote bags to US people.  We are still waiting on 58 bags that are currently back-ordered. We'll let you know when those come in.
• I'm currently working on getting the data exported in a way that works for the various partners.  Until we got the books, I didn't know how much they would weigh and therefore couldn't pick the right company.  I'm having a bit of a problem based on how Backerkit exports some of the address information, but I have a solution (which I didn't have 2 hours ago), so at least there is light at the end of that tunnel.
• We did have some problems with some dust jackets so I had to haul 500 books back to the printer. They will be printing new dust jackets and running them through the bindery again.  The good news is that they are signed.  I "think" we have enough books (because I ordered extra for the next Kickstarter to get everyone sent out for the US, but I also kept back a few boxes just in case, and if I have to I can hand iron a few dust jackets and apply them - Ironically, I ordered extra dust jackets, which would have made this an easy process, but either the bindery used them all or they forgot to put them on the shipment that went to my local fulfillment house - bottom line, they are gone so we'll have to start again.
• Many people in the US have already received their books, and the fulfillment department is working on the final ones.  It's still about 600 or so orders (for single books) I think all the multi-book orders have gone out.
• I have tracking numbers for the books that have gone out, but I've just not been able to get them imported into BackerKit yet.  As soon as I get done with the paperwork for the foreign shipments I'll be working on that.
• No, I've not launched the Age of Empyre Kickstarter - which I had hoped to a few weeks ago.  I need to get the final few things done for Age of Death and then I can turn my attention to it. I'm going to try and push it live next Tuesday, but there are some things I need to do regarding shipping now that I've figured out to use overseas partners for fulfillment instead of using the USPS.

Here are a few pictures from the warehouse: