A Lengthy Post of Predetermined Girth

Hello all,,
I will begin by addressing the most recent points raised in posts before moving on to the meaty part of the update:

a) Contact with the subscribers:
A good point was raised about contacting the subscribers more regularly, perhaps using the email they registered when they opened their accounts. I see no real problem with doing this--I could send out an initial email and offer the option to unsubscribe to keep from pestering people. I feel rather sheepish admitting it, but I hadn't considered that possibility.

I am checking to see if there will be any way to tie this blog--or some form of blog format--to the new website for the sake of convenience. (Until then, blogspot supports atom feeds so simply visit virginiaedition.blogspot.com/atom.xml and you can choose to use firefox's live bookmarks to automatically see updates or import the address into a feed program of your choice and you'll be automatically updated.) I've no idea how much trouble there would be in embedding all of that, but we'll find out!

Some seem to feel that we've been ignoring, perhaps intentionally, subscribers, but I'd like to assure you all that that is not the case. We've sent letters to everybody at the addresses provided to us and we're honestly perplexed at how many have gone astray. When we get contacted by people that didn't get a letter, we're taking down their addresses and correcting them if they're off. If the next mail-out doesn't work, we may have to resort to rather excessive methods to try and get proper communication lines going. Regardless, we are not intentionally trying to shut people out or give them the cold shoulder. We have no reason to do so and, honestly, pretty much everything we're doing--and part of why this has taken so long--is with each of you in mind.

b) Time Enough for Love
Jim Bob, thank you for pointing out the error in the poem. We'll fix that.

On which note, we have a list of errors to fix, but if you have spotted errors in the first six volumes, please feel free to let us know.

c) The Next Three Weeks
As I've mentioned, we're sending a letter to the subscribes detailing what's going to be happening. Right now, I'm waiting to get confirmation back that there's nothing dramatically wrong with it before sending it out and, as such, it's likely to post on Monday. As soon as I do get confirmation, though--hopefully tomorrow morning--I will post the text here so that you, loyal readers, will be able to read it in advance.
The next few weeks should be the last of the chaotic times and see the following happen:
a) Website set-up properly
b) Books 1-10 to printer for prepress with printing to begin with the New Year
c) A poster of "Heinlein's World" (the Donato painting meant for the spine of the first twelve books) printed and sent to all the original subscribers. (On which note, while I'm looking at printing options, the painting is rather wider than tall such that a single print would probably end up having bleed on top and bottom--caption "Heinlein's World" on bottom, probably set the painting against a starscape. Would anybody prefer having two half-posters (the left half and the right half) that could be put together to form the whole painting?) My hope is to have that to everybody by Christmas.

Once all of that is done, most everything should proceed regularly and smoothly 'til the bitter sweet end.

Once again, I would like to thank all of you for the astounding patience that you've shown throughout this process. It speaks well of you.

Desperately Trying Not To Be Tacky

Let us imagine that information comes to me as a trickling spring--rather like an hourglass in a way--of quantum water. It comes slowly and isn't entirely sure whether it exists or not at any given moment. (Yes, I've probably just made a dozen quantum physicists weep.)

Nonetheless, charging right along.

To update information:
We ran into a hold-up with volumes 9 and 10. My original understanding was that they would be ready about the start of November so we could have the first print run done by December 15th and everybody could have a nice extra gift under the tree. (Our Christmas tree was always rather sparsely populated so the idea appealed to me.) As it stands, for reasons I won't go into unless everybody displays a particularly keen interest in the details, those won't be complete *until* the 15th. (9 and 10 are caught up in the transition between (edit)proofreaders and typesetters;* subsequent volumes will proceed at a production rate of about four a month with ten printed every two and a half months--add a couple of weeks either way for wiggle room.
Our choice has been to either go ahead and start with volumes 1-8 or wait for volumes 1-10. I must admit, I'm giving in to my personal sense of aesthetics here. By waiting for the first ten volumes to be finished, that gives us
a) time to have icons devised for the book. The icons will go on the spine and help identify each book at a glance.
b) We can start the new books with the new year and end with the closing of the year.

Also, somebody asked when we were planning on talking to all the subscribers about what's happening. We're going to send out another letter the week after Thanksgiving--as it seems a number of people didn't get the original, we're going to include a copy of that as well. In addition, the day we mail it, I will post a copy of that letter here. It will include the details of our new operating arrangements and the details for all original subscribers.

*I originally said "Copyeditors" here. I do apologize, I keep confusing the term "copyeditor" with "proofreader" and "typesetter."

Website: Where's Neal Stephenson's Metaverse?

We finally got the glitches out of the website design and I got to take a peek--sans any real content--and it's lookin' pretty swanky. I'll post links shortly.

Website *Wittiness goes here*

On the note of the website, as I understand it, there's one last bit of coding that's been giving the designer trouble and as soon as that's taken care of, we can load everything on to the HPT websites. Ah, if only I had world enough and time...

PS: I'm not the biggest Natalie Portman fan, but I still think it was rather a shame that her head was shaved in V for Vendetta.

Global Warming: Loquacity hath its price

The various contracts are all largely finalized, we're reviewing our production schedules with both Windhaven and Transcontinental so everything will flow together nicely. Right now, we're doing a final cost analysis to find the best place to set the new price and then we should be able to knock that first domino over.

Also, my last post received the following question:
If the Trust doesn't have our money, who does? How is the production of the new version being paid for, if not with our money? And how will the Trust break even or better if they have no money from any of the subscribers? I must have missed a memo somewhere; sorry if these questions have been answered before.

On the first point, we're investigating. As for the rest of it, the Trust is having to bankroll everything out of pocket. We're currently doing a cost analysis to figure out how much we have to charge to have any hope of breaking even. On their own, things aren't too bad and we can offer a pretty good deal and still hope to break even with a fair margin of comfort. Of course, we're also having to account for offering the original subscribers refunds. It's making a substantial dent in our comfort zone--particularly as the majority of subscribers paid in full up front--but, as I believe I've said, we feel it is a necessary step to maintain the goodwill of the community.
To summarize: We're looking for the money. We're paying out of pocket and aiming for a price that'll let us pay subscribers back as needed while still not hurting the Trust's stability.

Adjectives, adverbs, ad hominem, oh my!

Apparently, I'm horrendous at keeping track of time when I'm busy. Poor internal clock. Perhaps I should take a leaf from Mieville's page and have one grafted onto my arm. A portable clock, as it were. I could watch it.

It has been five weeks since my previous substantive post and it seems that something is long overdue. I'm afraid that most of our developments have consisted of the pebbles that form an avalanche, none really seemed quite worth reporting on their own.

We've a contract with Windhaven now and I'm expecting a production schedule from them any day now. Once we have the production schedule, I can talk with Transcontinental--incidentally, we've signed a contract awarding them the full 46 volume print-run in return for a discounted rate--to work out a printing schedule. Ideally, we would like to print about ten volumes at a time to minimize certain associated costs. The last thing we need before we can settle on a final price is determine what our storage costs are going to be; it *looks* like Transcontinental has a fairly cheap storage system set up, we just need to confirm the size of their storage skids.

We're pressing ahead with all of this on the one hand, on the other, we're trying to find out what it would cost to produce a set of slipcases and so on for original subscribers. Features which, in aggregate, are not feasible, may be conceivable when done for a small group of subscribers and we would like to see what we can do in bringing what you will receive closer to parity with what you ordered.

I've seen a sample of the new VE website and it looks like it will be quite attractive. I'm told that the designer is ironing out a bug of some sort--despite my best pretenses, I am not a technical person.

On a final note, there are a few things that I should clarify which, I believe, will also cut down on the number of nasty letters I'll receive.

The first is that the Trust does not have your money. Any of it. We've never received any of it and so it is not in our possession. We are offering refunds, out of our own pocket, because we feel that we possess an ethical obligation to help protect the investments of those who purchased the Virginia Edition. It is not a particularly light burden, but one that seems incumbent upon us to bear.

Secondly, if we've taken several months to get to where we are now, it is because we're attempting to plan out everything we can to ensure that once we begin actual printing and marketing again, we can be reasonably certain that the Virginia Edition will be able to stand on its own, will not be diverted off into any terribly dark alleys, won't bully other limited editions, and will not prove a financial burden to the Trust which would dearly love to at least break even on this venture.

Just so you know, I haven't forgotten any of you. We should be able to deliver the final details--y'know, give or take--early next week.