Why this business pisses me off

[Ron Edwards]

Well, well.

Yesterday - yes, YESTERDAY - I discovered something really aggravating. NONE of the individual orders made prior to this week got sent - apparently store orders had to be fulfilled first. So all this time, we indie direct-order types have been stalled at the convenience of the distributor-store bastards.

Evidently, bookstores always get served first. Evidently, if this doesn't happen, a company is blackballed. Evidently, this is standard operating procedure, in the, "What, you didn't know that?" category.

From now on, direct orders will be sent the day they arrived or the day after. Not that it does ANY of you any good. All the books ARE in the mail, now, at last.

This business is really starting to piss me off.

Best,
Ron

[Blake Hutchins]

Thanks for looking into that, Ron. That's damn aggravating, to say the least. Another case of big business squeezing the little guy in true blinders-on American style. Hang in there.

Best,

Blake

[joshua neff]

Ron--

I don't know if this will cheer you up, but it borught a smile to my face: go to amazon.com & do a book author search for "ron edwards".

At any rate--that really bites. Not that I'm really surprised. But still...bleah. Let's hear it for corporate cronyism.

[Bailywolf]

So... have those older orders been dumped?  Did they ship this week?  

[Ron Edwards]

Bailywolf,

I'm not sure what you mean by "dumped," but I have been told that all orders, most specifically those that were ordered via the website, went into the mail last week. I am told that it takes about a week to get there, domestic.

From now on, though, I'm believing only what I see.

Best,
Ron

[Bailywolf]

Ron

My bad.  When I got home today, the little monster was lurking on my stoop.  Love the book's dimensions- fits right next to my laptop.  It even arived wraped in gold tissue paper.  No one has even wrapped a game I ordered before.

I've given it a quick read through, and I LIKE what I see.  My first goal is to run a game for three friends of mine who have never played an RPG before, but love deep stories.  I think I'll keep it fairly simple and tame for them.

Not to put it too srongly, but on basis of my first read alone, Sorcerer is now in my BIG TOP FIVE.

Love it.

Bonus Karma for you.

[Laura Bishop]

Okay.  I don't want to get monkey stomped here guys, so I'll make it short and brief and then I'll grab my pith helm.

I worked at Borders Books for about 4 years.  A girl has to pay the bills while she's waiting to get rich and famous somehow.  I personally dealt with local authors a lot, which is more or less what the indie publisher is to the "big boys".

Logistically, it's easier for the warehouse to ship off 5-10 copies of one book to one location than 5-10 books to 5-10 different locations.  It's easier to program the Automatic Box Labeling Stamper Thingie Whatever to 'FLGS, Anytown, USA' for one box than enter ten names for ten boxes to fling them around the world.  That's why they do the "big stores" first and then the individuals second.  It isn't so much to slight the indie guy - though I know it comes across that way - but simply because that's the easiest way to handle the process.

It doesn't make it seem any less of a snub, I know, but I've stood on both sides of the fence, so have experience that others may not be (un)fortunate enough to possess.

As a side note, I don't work for Borders anymore because they tried to eat my soul.  But that doesn't mean their process is any less logical.

[Paul Czege]

Laura !!

As a side note, I don't work for Borders anymore because they tried to eat my soul.

I think you just channeled Jared Sorensen! Demons as retail franchises...whoah!!

Paul

[Valamir]

Yup.  Mine arrived today also.  Very slick.  I haven't tried to go line by line comparing to the PDF version yet, but it immediately strikes me as significantly better organized and laid out.

I gotta kick reading some of the new examples and clarifications that I distinctly remember being discussed on the GO forum a lifetime or two ago in internet time.

I also was somewhat astonished to see myself listed in the credits.  Not entirely sure what I did to earn that honor, but thanks for the props nonetheless.

[Ron Edwards]

Laura (and all),

No one is talking about being "snubbed." Or if someone is, it's not me. What I'm talking about is the perfectly realistic knowledge, on the part of people I pay to advise me, that stores/distributors will blackball a game if it direct-orders to customers before it gets ordered by and shipped to distributors.

Now. This is a reality, not a paranoid fantasy, and as such, there's no point in railing against it. They has da power. Yes, it pisses me off (hence the title of the thread), mainly because my ignorance ending up making some of my best and most cherished customers WAIT for three friggin' weeks. Lon especially.

However: snubbing, schnubbing. It's not my ego that matters. What matters is the loss of credibility and customer respect. And beneath that, what matters is that the distributor/store axis cares about its own power more than it does about customers and their satisfaction.

So it's an excellent example of something that anyone at the Forge should know about.

Best,
Ron

[Ron Edwards]

P.S. The good guys in this saga are Woody Eblom of Tundra Sales Organization and Liza Fulda of the Sphinx Group. Without them, I'd be wearing a barrel and selling mechanical dogs.

Best,
Ron

[Laura Bishop]

Ahh...

Okay, then.  That was just me misinterpreting what I read, then.  I'm glad you're groovy with it, even if it's under duress.  Yes, that does suck a whole lot. : \

But I think that, despite the wait, your customers got what they wanted and will be able to keep their open relations with you.  You seem like a pretty open and frank kind of guy - I don't think anyone thought you were trying to pull the rug out from under them.

That's what I've come to love about Indie games, with the Forge in particular: you find a much more humane undercurrent.  These aren't big companies producing product after product to suck your soul (like Borders tried -- I swear!).  You're a guy with a game with an eager player base.  Not that you probably don't want to be big company producing product after product, but for right now, you're still in a very accessible medium. ; )

As a side note, though, don't pass over that barrel and wind up toy idea so quick.  You never know what kind of revenue that could generate!

[Uncle Dark]

Ron,

Thanks for the update and concern.  I actually had counted the days since I placed the order, but I feel better knowing that real people out there have recieved their copies.  A little better, anyway. :roll:

Don't worry about your credibility with me.  I know what's been going on...

Hanging in there,
Lon

[Blake Hutchins]

Ron,

After I got offline, my wife returned from an expedition and handed me a package the mailman had handed to her on her way out the driveway. Inside was the gold tissue-wrapped bundle of brimstone-mulched Sorcerer goodness.

This is one damned nice book. Being Sorcerer, the emphasis, of course, is on "damned." And yes, I'm also a fan of the book's size. Ever since Trinity and Aberrant, I've preferred trade paperback dimensions.

Kudos and many thanks. It was worth the wait and then some. My second copy goes to another GM in the area who has budding narrativist tendencies. I'll let you know how the seed takes.

Now... when can we expect the Sword/Soul book? *cracks whip* Back to work, Edwards!

Best,

Blake

[Valamir]

one thing I would have liked to have seen though is the Sorceror "logo" of the scaly looking demon silhouette hunched over the little girl embossed in gold on the cover also, instead of just on the title page.  Even sans little girl if that's too much detail, the coiled up demon is just too cool to have not been on the cover.