Scrapyard Pre-orders Opening on Friday the 27th
Posted March 23rd, 2009 by Howard TaylerIn a recent interview with Brian and Justin of Comics Coast-To-Coast I said that pre-orders would open in “about two weeks.” (aside: I also said some other stuff. Listen to the podcast! My bit begins about 10 minutes in.)
“Within” about two weeks would have been more accurate. The plotter proofs arrived today, we examined them, and we are now confident that the printer is going to deliver to us the 5,000 books and 2,000 slip-cases exactly like we want them.
This Friday, March 27th, at around 8:00am Mountain Time we’ll open pre-orders for Schlock Mercenary: The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance as well as for slip-cases which are designed to fit the first five Schlock Mercenary books. Scrapyard will be $15.00, $25.00 if you want a numbered sketch edition, and the slipcases will be $5.00.
If you want to buy a boxed set — all five Schlock books in the slipcase — we’ll happily sell you that for the nice, round-numbered price of $100.00 ($110 with a sketched Scrapyard inside). But we can only sell 500 boxed sets, because we’re down to our last 500 copies of Schlock Mercenary: Under New Management.
Please note that these are pre-orders, and that we don’t anticipate shipping books until the first week in June. The schedule may get advanced into late May, but I’d prefer to set everyone’s expectations in an appropriately conservative manner.
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March 23rd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
So you are going to be taking more of my money, I see. Do we get to see what the slip-cases look like before you take our $5 extra or not?
I really should not even mock-complain. I truly have enjoyed everything I have bought from you, and every time a book arrives in the mail I lose a day pouring over it (and sometimes another day looking over the other books again). Still I am curious about what my five extra dollars will be bringing me.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I concur. I’m buying whatever your pushing, but a teaser is always appreciated.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
:) excellent… I was just thinking I need to stop being a slacker and support Howard, so next book was going to order all 5… perfect timing.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 pm
That’ll be two books in a row I’ll be pre-ordering knowing I’ll be moving before it ships but not knowing where to at pre-order time. I really need to settle down.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I’ll post slip-case teaser images once pre-orders open.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Let’s see… 8am MDT = the following midnight AEST. Am I right in thinking that sketch editions will be available all day?
Also, I’m glad the AUD/USD exchange rate came back to something reasonable. Yay quantitative easing!
Nearly time to also buy the other stuff I want from your store. But first I need to ask my brother whom I promised a biohazard fridge magnet to if there’s anything else he wants from your store.
Um… am I seeing correctly? Are the biohazard and corrosive agents magnets the only ones you sell separately now? Ah, I see some sticky-back signs in the clearance category. It seems a shame to discontinue them, but I suppose you have a good reason…
Aaand the Archive Synopsiser still says Scrapyard’s due out in May. It’s fair enough not keeping the end of it up to date with the most recent comics you’ve posted to the website, but I’m surprised a mercenary like you let one of your product announcements get out of date. Or do you get so little click-through to the store from that page that it makes sense not to bother?
cwearl: Pouring what over it? I hope you mean “poring”. That’s much less messy. :)
I expect to be quite busy by the time the books arrive. I wonder what my self-control will be like by then.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Aaand the Archive Synopsiser still says Scrapyard’s due out in May.
That’s because we expect to take delivery of the books on May 18th, and have a release party at CONduit XIX the following weekend. And then the sketching and shipping begin.
Ordinarily we don’t have the party until all the books have shipped, but the convention date and the slow-boat date were too close together.
Sketch editions will be limited to 1000, and they’ll be available until they’re all spoken for.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:25 pm
1000. Right. What are the chances they’ll last six or seven hours?
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Aargh now I have to work out the time difference – and I always seem to get it wrong!
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:13 pm
(*pout*) MAAAAAAAAAN!!! By the time *I* can get on-line to order (PST), I bet ALL 1000 sketch editions will be gone (~siiiiiigh~) I will still suffer thru and buy a book. Maybe even the slip cover…. aaaaaaannnnnnnd….. hmmmmm….. (money… burning… hole… in… pocket…. must… spend…. on…. Schlock!)
March 24th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Happy birthday to me! I get to pre-order on my birthday. And a slipcase! Are there going to be any t-shirts anytime soon? Now that I have a job, I need to represent.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Yay to being able to pre-order new Schlock books on my birthday, boo to it not arriving for a couple of months :-p
*makes note in calendar to order books at midnight AEST Friday night*
*waves at Sam*
March 24th, 2009 at 2:19 am
Wahey, I unfortunately missed out on the release of the last book (went off tramping the world), and I was thinking about buying it soon, however, combined shipping! I can wait. Just. Maybe. Sort of.
IS IT JUNE YET? ._.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:25 am
As before, the forklift and trailer will be at your disposal.
I can hardly wait for Friday now. For once, my payday and the pre-order dates line up. However, as miserable as my checks have been of late, I am going to have to settle for just one book in the pre-order. Dang!
March 24th, 2009 at 3:30 am
~Reads Blog -> Sun comes out, Angels sing.
Alarm set for 2pm GMT on Friday.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Oh, the poor, poor server…
March 24th, 2009 at 6:21 am
I’m pretty sure sketch editions will hold out for more than six or seven hours. With the last book we left it open for almost a week and I only had to do around 950.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:16 am
A slipcase too! I love slipcases!
March 24th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
grah. I will not have money for another month yet ;_;…
Curses upon the way things are timed in the UK.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
It seems I’m not the only one who gets to give themselves a birthday present on the 27th. How many Schlockers have March 27th Birthdays? This seems phenomenal that there are so many…I don’t recall this many for any other preorder.
Happy birthday to us guys!
March 24th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
So, how much for a signed slip cover to keep my signed editions in?
March 24th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Blueeyedfriend: I hear you, being:
A) A Night Owl, and;
B) In the Pacific Time Zone.
However, there is this nifty device which goes by the name “alarm
clock” — which in my case will be set to 0655 hrs PDT (it takes a
couple minutes to boot the computer). That done, I can go back to
bed, get some sleep, then possibly hie myself to the local gaming
convention this weekend.
When do we get a _Schlock Mercenary_ RPG? (No — the other one.)
:)
March 25th, 2009 at 12:38 am
only 500 “management” left, eh? How many did you have at the beginning?
You’ll really know you’re succeeding when you can justify a reprint :-)
Slipcase sounds cool. Plus, once the book launch and the pre-order shipping out of the way, can we have a new mouse-mat? Perhaps another rule and maybe a T-shirt to match? But please, not white. white for shirts and mouse-mats is a bad idea.
March 25th, 2009 at 1:53 am
That picture, with that title…
It’s magic man, their expression have an amazing harmony. I believe I will be buying that.
Forgive my ignorance, but what is a “sketch” version and why is it more expensive?
March 25th, 2009 at 7:22 am
A sketched edition has an individually-numbered, hand-drawn picture on the last page of the book. There will only be 1000 or so.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Howard, I suspect you’ll see more orders than you expect. Especially after the Hugo nomination.
I don’t know how many out there are like me — I’m a first time buyer, planning to buy the $110 special. The slipcase and package deal got me off my duff, that plus the content of the latest book (the whole “Scrapyard” adventure regularly left me giggling myself breathless).
March 25th, 2009 at 9:10 am
@psevetson: It would be wonderful if you were right. I’d love to have so many pre-orders that we had to re-print things, and hire people to help. You know, the sort of problem that comes with a built-in solution…
March 25th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Howard,
Are you trying to ruin my spotless record of support??? I always buy one to read (unsketched of course) and one to keep (sketched!). Now you are limiting it to 1000 and I am deployed again!!!!!!! ie don’t know if I am going to make the cutoff time for sketchs. Agghhhhhh!!!! oh well, I still get one to read, and will send a picture from baghdad with it when it comes in. Also, I swear I will get you that Chicago District shirt as soon as I get back (sort of got deployed before I could take care of it).
Kelsey
March 25th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Anyone with a valid reason for not being able to order this weekend may email me (schlockmercenary at gmail.com) and we’ll discuss options.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
csadn:… yeeeeeeaaaah! Total Night Owl. Totally NOT a morning person. (i.e. the alarm goes off and I reset it for anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes later) I have getting out of the house at the laaaaaaaaaaaast possible second – and still being on time – down to a fine art. Not even for Schlock would I rise’n’shine (no offense Howard) I’m just SO not coherent until after 8 or 9 in the a.m.