Scrapyard shipping miscalculation
Three months ago I got an estimated delivery schedule for The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance. It said that books would arrive the week of 5/11. I mentally allowed a comfortable three week space between the arrival of books and the shipping event. Thus Shipping was penciled in at approximately June 4-5. All was well.
Then at LTUE (a local Sci Fi symposium) in February, we conceived the idea of doing the Scrapyard book launch party as part of ConDuit at the end of May. This sounded like a wonderful way to possibly bring in some new traffic and to put a release in the Salt Lake Valley. I checked our schedule, books should arrive in plenty of time. (Did not calculate that having ConDuit in between book arrival and book shipping, effectively canceled out half a week of sketching time. Mistake #1)
With the book release party not attached to the shipping, this meant we could do the shipping on a Monday/Tuesday rather than a Thursday/Friday. This was likely to prove better for scheduling Dragon’s Keep. So I mentally moved the book shipping up to June 1 & 2. (I did not consider that I was thus shortening the space between book delivery and book shipping. Mistake #2.)
Another result of LTUE was Howard and I contracted with Tracy and Curtis Hickman to create the XDM project. This sucked all of our energy and time for about six weeks and resulted in Howard losing a couple of weeks off of the Schlock Mercenary comic buffer. This meant that Howard hit May with a dire need to rebuild the buffer. Usually we try to build the buffer ahead of book arrival so that Howard has time to do the sketching. The buffer can not be ignored because there are big events at the end of the summer during which Howard will not be able to work on comics.
Then the week of 5/11 arrived and the books did not. We are now at the end of that week and have just received word that books will not arrive until the middle of next week. The relieving news is that we should have them in time for ConDuit. A book release party sans books would be a very sorry affair. Unfortunately the later-than-anticipated delivery removed a week and a half from my time line. (Mistake #3 always remember that estimates of delivery are inexact when dealing with ocean crossings and customs brokers.)
So here we are and the calendar tells me that Howard will have one week to sketch in 1000 books. During that same week he also has to produce a week of comics so that the buffer will not suffer. AND he needs to do it without causing himself bodily injury. It can’t be done. One week is not enough time. I’m going to have to push back the shipping dates by at least one week. This will impact our intended family vacation and may push it into late June or July. I just told the kids all about the vacation and now I’m going to have to tell them it is delayed. It is delayed because I miscalculated. Three times I miscalculated.
The good news is that for all official statements and customer support emails I’ve been saying “Early June” for shipping. June 8-9 still qualifies as early June. At least I hedged my schedule in a way that I won’t have dozens of emails wondering where their stuff is.