XDM Pre-orders Will Open July 1st
Posted June 25th, 2009 by Sandra Tayler
On Wednesday, July 1st at 8:00am Mountain Time we will open pre-orders for XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery by Tracy and Curtis Hickman. Howard illustrated this must-have reference for RPG referees, dungeon masters, and serious role-players, and has been showing off his advance copy for a couple of weeks now. The book is hard-bound, 160 pages long, black-and-white, and costs $29.95.
Why pre-order? Every pre-ordered book will be autographed by Tracy Hickman, Curtis Hickman, and Howard Tayler at no additional charge. The pre-order will end at 8 pm Mountain time on July 18th. In addition to copies of XDM, our online store will also feature the as-yet-unseen XDM t-shirts and franchise kits. Orders are expected to ship by July 30th.
After the pre-order period you can still order the book, but the only way to get it autographed will be to track down the authors and artist individually.
Now, if you’re attending GenCon Indy in August you can buy the book there. Tracy, Curtis, and Howard will all be in attendance and they will be happy to commit commerce and then sign your book. They will even have a special “Gencon Indy” stamp to certify that your copy was signed at Gencon.
If you’re patient and don’t mind a non-autographed book, you can wait until sometime this fall and buy XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery from a hobby-gaming store near you. We do not have a street-date yet, however. Negotiations proceed apace behind closed doors.
But wait, there’s more!
We are thrilled to now be on the the second printing of Schlock Mercenary: Under New Management. Books arrive here at Schlock Central in July.
This volume was the first book we put into print. We only did 300 numbered sketch editions back then, and it now occurs to us that perhaps some of you feel left out. Thus it is that in celebration of our first ever second printing we offer you a second shot at getting a sketch edition. We’ll do between 700-1000 sketched books.
Orders will open on July 1st at 8 AM Mountain time along with the XDM pre-orders, and will close when we run out. Our past two sketch edition runs have sold out within about a week.
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June 25th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
On the second printing, Howard? Do 700 of them … and start the numbering at #301. As sort of a nod to the _first_ printing. :)
June 25th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
That’s a great idea, Pax. Except that the others were numbered as “n/300.”
We’ll be doing a special sketch-edition stamp for this next set to differentiate. Something that makes it clear that this is the 2nd printing, and a different series of sketches.
June 25th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I would suggest keeping the “/300″ stamp, and just keep the numbers going from 301. Or maybe a “/700 +300″ stamp or something?
June 25th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
What, no XDM sketech edition?
Are there any changes in the second edition like a new spine? If there are any differences (like a book number on the spine) then I will probably get a second sketch edition to replace the original in myboxset.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
There is a number 3 on the spine.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Sigh. I thought I would be able to avoid buying the reprint when I hear you mention it at the last shipping party. The only book I don’t have a sketch edition of now offer in sketch edition form. There is only one logical conclusion to this.
I think I’m an addict. I am not sure yet if this bothers me or not. It does bother me that I used the word “logical” in that context.
Again, I have to admire your business model: 1) Dangle processed dead trees in front of people who will compulsively give you money for this dead plant matter. 2) Find an roughly 1000 of these people. Actually, those two steps might be reversed.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Seems like a good time to ask:
Anything new on getting Schlock books into stores?
June 25th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
What if I pre-order it through Borders? See, there’s this one at Northlake Mall in Georgia I go to…
June 26th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Does the reprint have the typos fixed?
June 26th, 2009 at 8:17 am
The reprint has the following fixes:
1) All the typos we’ve had our attention called to, or that we’ve found on our own.
2) The cover art has been tweaked — more shading and highlight, fixed some broken fills, got rid of starfield dithering.
3) There is a number (3) on the spine.
4) The ISBN number now has more digits to conform with the changes to the ISBN standard.
5) The contrast between text and background for the back-cover quotes has been increased, improving readability.
There may be other differences, because we used a different printer for this one. The paper stock is probably not exactly the same one as we originally used, ditto for the cover stock.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:14 am
I’m so looking forward to XDM. My calendar is marked for the pre-order.
June 27th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Well, as the proud owner of #2/300, (sketch: Ennesby saying “Great. I’m number TWO.”), I can’t see getting another one. (Sorry, Howard… but I can’t replace it, not after you signed the INSIDE front cover with my name and everything!)
I do kinda wish my existing book had that number on the spine. Would make it easier to remember which is #3 and which is #4. Oh well. It will just have to suffer the indignity of being numberless while sharing the pretty slipcover (complete with fiddly-bit) with the other 4 of my sketched books. :) Yay, complete set!
Oh- and I put the magnets up all over my kitchen… unfortunately, my stainless-steel-look microwave doesn’t have enough pull to keep the “Microwave Lasers: That beam you can’t see is cooking you” magnet on it. I may have to get a sticker instead. :-)
I will, however, gladly shell out some hard-earned cash for books #6 and following, when they appear. ^_^
June 28th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I’ll plan to see you at GenCon for XDM. :)
June 30th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I am a tad miffed, had I know you were going to be signing the second printing stuff I would have held off ordering it when I did with the other pre-order stuff.
I actually had a dream about you being at the last convention I went to so you could sign it and complete my set.
Looks like one of my friends is going to get a shiny new blank copy while I preorder a sketched one.