Good morning!
Last night, a certain prominent (and classy-AF) fantasy author posted about her hellish experience at Readers Take Denver, the convention we attended together over the weekend. I wasn't going to add anything to it, but I've been asked by several readers if I'm okay and so I wanted to address some of the chaos from the weekend.
I don't have much to add to Rebecca's account of the convention. It was an unfortunate and stressful experience all-around, and my heart goes out to all of the readers and authors who were caught in the crossfire.
As for me, I was relegated to the Rising Stars signing, which is meant for new and upcoming authors. (BTW, who TF had the awful idea of splitting the authors into two groups, based on some imaginary and probably favorites-based line delineating varying levels of success? How demeaning!) It was only 3 hours and yet cost me something like $500 for a table. When I informed senior event staff early on that I am an established author who tends to move a lot of books at signings, and was concerned about time and space constraints, I received a rather patronizing response.
As it turns out, on the day of the signing, I had a line that wrapped around the entire ballroom, and poor RTD volunteers were scrambling to implement a ticketing system for crowd control. Suffice it to say, I felt TERRIBLE for the chaos I'd caused, but was so incredibly grateful to one volunteer in particular, Britt, who stayed by my side for the entire signing and helped ensure that almost everyone who wanted to see me, could.
BTW, to everyone I met amidst the chaos, who asked for selfies and autographs and even brought me presents (?! 😭💜), I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to meet you, and I'm so sorry we didn't have more time to chat. I pray there will be another, better-managed signing where we can do just that.
Some of the amazing gifts I received, which made a stressful day that much better!
Now here comes the part where I have to apologize for my own self-induced chaos, trying to keep the explanation and details as short and succinct as possible (because dealing with this has been one of the most grueling and arduous agonies of my career).
As some of you remember, we ran a successful Kickstarter campaign last October. At the time of funding, I mentioned Readers Take Denver and asked if it would be okay if I make a preorder. I was informed that April 18th was 7 months away and gave us more than ample time to have the books in-hand. So I did, and got around 100 preorders.
Well, February rolled around, and the books still hadn't been printed or shipped yet. My project manager informed me that my only option was to air-freight 100 books to ensure they got here in time. The cost? Over $3000. But I sucked it up and paid the exorbitant shipping fee, determined to keep my promise.
Well, guess what? The books didn't even ship until April 17th, got stuck overseas due to bad weather, and then landed in ALASKA, before flying right over my head and landing in Kentucky, where they chilled for 36 hours before eventually showing up at my doorstep yesterday afternoon, the day after the convention had ended. Which meant I then had to ship 100 books, on my own dime, to everyone who had preordered it for RTD.
The way I SCRAMBLED to unwrap, repack, and ship 425 pounds of books by myself 😅 BUT, I somehow managed! This picture represents about a third of the books.
THEN, after all that, it turns out the gold omnibuses weren't even shipped with the rainbow ones. Can you tell how frazzled I was by the time I wrote this email? 😅
Anyway, all of this is to say I caused some major chaos of my own, and for that I am so sorry.
But what I am most sorry about is the fact that some people will be receiving their books before those who backed the original Kickstarter, and that's so f*cked up and not okay and I'll never be able to adequately tell you how sorry I am for that. While I'm incredibly grateful I was able to keep my promise to those who preordered the omnibus for the convention, early supporters of the Kickstarter should have been the FIRST ones to get omnibuses and I'm crushed that didn't happen. Please accept my sincere for the way things turned out, and if there is anything at all I can do to help make up for it, I am open to suggestions.
In the meantime, the rest of the original shipment of books are well on their way via ocean freight and are expected to arrive at Andrew's warehouse by mid-May. He's on standby to start shipping them out to you as soon as they arrive. Rest assured, EVERYONE who backed the Kickstarter will be getting their books from that first batch. The next shipment of 2000 books are shipping on May 20th, and are expected to get here by July 1st. I'll be personally shipping those out to you, and am already amassing a team to help get them out at lightning speed!
Not that you need to whet your whistle any further, but I want you to know that the books look INCREDIBLE. Even better than I imagined. So while the wait sucks and the logistics were stressful AF, please know that the wait WILL be worth it.
Also, the slipcover is 🔥🔥🔥!
Anyway, once again, I'm sorry, I love you, I appreciate you, and I'm so grateful to have you. Thanks for sticking with me even when things get dicey.
Much love❤️
📚Gorgeous KS Alert - FINAL days! 📚
My good friend, Megan Haskell, is in the final hours of her Kickstarter and I would LOVE to see this gorgeous book become a reality! She even hired Uwe Jarling, the same artist who did the interior illustrations for the Gilded Blood omnibus, to redesign the cover. Isn't it stunning?! 😍
Attacked by assassins and framed for treason, Rie finds herself mired in an ancient battle between the elven realms. Forced to flee behind enemy lines to prove her innocence, her only allies are the fierce carnivorous pixies who travel by her side. Can she uncover the truth of her past before the high elf king takes her head?
Back the Kickstarter here! (Only 2 days left!!)