Project Update: Status Report: Shipping in Progress!
Deliverable Progress
- Seventy Maxims Reprint – At the printer! I was told “at least six weeks” That suggests we’ll have books either the last week of May or the first week of June.
- Pocket Reference – DONE! Shipping in progress.
- Blue Poster (1 column) – DONE! Shipping of posters-in-tubes happening now.
- Brown Poster (2 column) – DONE! Shipping of posters-in-tubes happening now.
- Illustrated Maxims digital images – DONE! You can collect these now by logging in via your Backerkit survey link.
- Seventy Maxims PDF – DONE! You can collect yours by logging in via your Backerkit survey link. Survey must be complete.
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Poster PDFs – DONE! You can collect these now by logging in via your Backerkit survey link.
Details
The shipping management on this project was far more complex than originally anticipated. Hopefully I managed to prevent too much confusion for all of you. We had a manual process of changing orders to combine shipping with Mandatory Failure. We’ve also got orders that will split shipping because rolled posters have to ship in tubes while books have to ship in boxes. Fortunately Backerkit’s fulfillment system is completely up to the task. Everything is going smoothly.
We’re keeping the shipping crew pretty small for this portion of the fulfillment process. It is just me, my warehouse manager Aidan, and one additional worker who gets called in when we have more than 75 packages to go out that day. There are 277 more packages to ship (posters in tubes) before we hit a pause and have to wait for the books to arrive. I expect a couple of weeks wait time. We’ll use those to do general warehouse clean up and to prep the Random Merch bundles and the Random Art Bundles. We’ve got some nice surprises to go into both.
The first task of prepping for poster shipping is to put caps on one end of all of the tubes.
At first we were using a mallet to get them into place, but then we discovered that the caps are flexible enough that we can press them in using our thumbs. That sped up the process considerably. (The old tubes required a mallet.)
I didn’t get any pictures of the poster rolling because Aidan handled all of that on a day when I didn’t go to the warehouse at all. It is really lovely to be able to just assign work and have it happen when I’m not looking! (I spent my day working on Structuring Life to Support Creativity instead.)
Then we have a day where we put in packing slips, any other items, and put labels on the outside of the poster tubes.
A quirk of these particular labels and tubes is that if left to themselves, the labels will slowly disengage from the poster tubes. We’ve solved this problem with an application of packing tape along the edges of the labels. The packing tape has no problem sticking to the cardboard tubes.
Once everything is in place, we push caps into the ends of the tubes and they’re ready to be hauled to the post office for mailing. Hauled along with them are the regular store orders that Aidan packs at the regular shipping station.
We’ve already begun assembling boxes for the Random Merch bundles. We’ll get started on filling those as soon as we’ve got all the poster tubes into the mail.
Progress on all aspects of this project are nearing completion with the only question mark being exactly when the books will arrive. I am traveling during the first two weeks of June, so I’m REALLY hoping that we can get delivery of books before I take off. But if they do arrive while I’m gone, that is exactly what I’ve hired Aidan for, to manage my warehouse in my absence.
Thank you so much for backing our project! Your next update will be the week of May 27-31.
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Project Update: Status Report: Locking orders and starting shipping
TL:DR:
Ready to Lock Orders
Shipping starts next week
Deliverable Progress
- Seventy Maxims Reprint – At the printer! I don’t yet have a completion schedule, but the last time I worked with this printer turnaround was about four weeks.
- Pocket Reference – DONE! I have 2000 of these waiting to ship.
- Blue Poster (1 column) – At the printer! I expect these to be done end of this week or early next week.
- Brown Poster (2 column) – At the printer! I expect these to be done end of this week or early next week.
- Illustrated Maxims digital images – DONE! You can collect these now by logging in via your Backerkit survey link.
- Seventy Maxims PDF – DONE! This will be available once orders are locked and payments collected. Probably first thing next week.
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Poster PDFs – DONE! These will be available once orders are locked and payments collected. Probably first thing next week.
Details
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Project Update: Get Your Illustrated Maxims Now!
A quick update for you today!
TL;DR: Downloads of the illustrated maxims 1-48 are now available to anyone who has filled out their survey. Please fill out yours! If you haven't received one, you can Click Here and login using the email address you pledged with. Your next full status report will be the week of April 15-19.
Please fill out your survey!
Thank you to everyone who has filled out their survey. I'm still waiting on 240 surveys. Getting accurate counts of how many things are ordered is very helpful in placing orders. I'm already confident how many books we'll need, but still need to calculate for posters folded, posters rolled, and the pocket reference.
Pre-orders available
If you're getting this update because you're a follower and you'd like to become a backer, you can place a preorder now! https://70-maxims.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders If you have a friend who missed the project, they can still be part of it!
Seventy Maxims book sent to printer
I uploaded files to our book printer yesterday. I also mailed them a copy of the existing book so that they can match the reprint to what we had before. I expect at least two weeks of back-and-forth plus paper ordering before the printer can give me a timeline on when books will be done.
Maxim / Mandatory Failure combos in progress
I'm working my way through combining orders. I hope to have all of the combos I know about done by the end of this week. I'll also be sending out an email to people who requested combination but who don't seem to have Mandatory Failure order.
Illustrated Maxims now available!
The images for Maxims 1-48 as they were created for calendars are available for download to any backer who has filled out their survey. The system should send you an email with a download link, but if it doesn't you can just use the survey link from your email. Because of file sizes I had to create four downloads. It was fun to revisit these images. (Yes Howard would like to finish illustrating all 70 maxims, but he can't even think about doing that until he delivers on the Mandatory Failure project. )
Those are the updates for now. Your next full status report will be the week of April 15-19.
Thanks for backing our project!
Howard and Sandra Tayler
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Got the survey. It is asking me if I want the blue poster or the brown poster. Where can I find images of the two?
Project Update: Status Report: Surveys & Progress
Two Poster Designs!
Deliverables
- Seventy Maxims print book: Typos are fixed, the book is ready for print!
- Seventy Maxims Posters: Both poster designs are finalized and copy edited. I’ve gotten bids I like from the printer and I’ll submit and order as soon as we have a solid count from the surveys.
- Pocket Reference: Fully designed and copy edited. This will go to print as soon as I have a solid count.
Digital
- Seventy Maxims PDF: This is ready to go. I’ll start distribution next week after I’ve gotten a handle on combining orders.
- Poster PDF: These are ready to go. I’ll get them distributed next week.
- Illustrated Maxims digital images: I need to do some image editing to make sure that they’re all put into the same format. I should be able to get these distributed next week as well.
This project is deliberately designed to be quickly turned around and delivered. By the next update I should have expected delivery dates for the books, posters, and pocket reference.
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If we want one of each poster, rolled, do we still have to pay the upcharge for each or can they be rolled up together in a single tube for shipping?
Project Update: Surveys Going Out This Week!
We're going to start sending out surveys this week. Please be on the watch for yours! The sooner people answer their surveys, the sooner I'll be able to have good counts and submit orders to the printer.
Since we're offering the option to combine items from this order with a pledge made for the Mandatory Failure project, I have some special information and instructions.
1. If you don’t want your order combined (or you don't have a Mandatory Failure order), then you’re done as soon as you’ve filled out your survey. Your card will be charged in the next few weeks and your order will ship as soon as all the items in it are ready.
2. If you got the free pocket reference for pledging the first 48 hours it should already be listed in your order.
3. Each pledge level is going to calculate shipping as if you are getting a separate package. Cards will not be charged until April to give me time to manually update shipping and combine orders. Because of the unique add-on and shipping options (posters rolled, posters folded, combination options), setting up shipping costs was very complex. If you think that you're being overcharged for shipping, email [email protected] and I will double check your order. But please be patient it may take me a week to respond.
4. Combining orders will be handled manually, if you request combination of your orders I will send you and email with details specific to your order.
Later this week I'll post a full status report with updates and progress pictures on the book reprint and design work for both posters and the pocket reference.
Thank you so much for backing our project!
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Project Update: Status Report: List of Deliverables and Production Plans
All of the deliverables on the Seventy Maxims portion of the mega-project should go very quickly and they won’t slow down the fulfillment of Mandatory Failure since we designed them to mostly impact Sandra’s workload rather than Howard’s.
Deliverable Progress
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Seventy Maxims Reprint – To complete this, Sandra needs to update the InDesign file and do an additional copy edit. Once those are done and once funds are deposited this book can go to print - Pocket Reference – Sandra needs to create an Indesign Layout file, run a copy edit, do a test print and then these can be printed.
- Poster 1 (1 column) – We’re in the test print stage for this poster. A final copy edit and this will be ready for final printing as soon as we have a quantity.
- Poster 2 (2 column) – We’re in the test print stage for this poster. A final copy edit and this will be ready for final printing as soon as we have a quantity.
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Illustrated Maxims digital images – Sandra needs to edit the images so they are consistently sized and named. Then they’ll be ready for distribution once the surveys are complete.
Details
Thank you so much for backing our project!
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Project Update: Fully Funded! Thank you!
We're going to take the next week to breathe and take care of some back end stuff. We'll be back by the end of next week with a full status report and plan of action including information on combining orders and timelines.
Thank you all so much! (Now we're off to go do birthday things.)
Howard and Sandra
Project Update: Finalized Poster Designs, Funding Ends Soon, and Howard's Birthday
This will be a 12”x36” print, which is kind of an odd size, but it serves the single-column presentation quite well.
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Thank you. That's all I've got. Thank you.
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Thank you all SO MUCH for the generous gift-giving. Our current plan (subject to refinement) is for the business to chip in a few hundred dollars, and then to acquire an Intel I7 Surface Pro 9 with a 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM. This would replace my Surface Pro 7 (128GB SSD, 8GB RAM). The small drive size slows me down because it regularly has to pull files from the cloud, and the low RAM slows me down when I'm working with big files. And since it doesn't really have the "oomph" to run Photoshop, I can't even DO some of my critical tasks on it. I realize that "work faster" won't seem like it fulfils the requirements of "fun birthday gift," but hear me out: the Surface Pro is part of my zero gravity recliner workstation, which is a critical piece of my Long Covid compensation kit. Every time I have to get out of that chair I end up tired and frustrated. Upgrading the Surface Pro will let me stay in the zone longer, and the beefier machine will let me run Photoshop and Clip Studio simultaneously, which will be a huge workflow improvement. I love making things, and something that lets me sit comfortably for longer while making MORE things is pretty much the best birthday gift I can imagine. Anyway, that's the plan.
Previously backed this creator's crowdfunding project
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I see that the book pledge level includes a PDF copy of the book. Does the poster pledge level also include a copy of the PDFs for the posters?
Project Update: New Stretch Goal: Illustrated Maxims 1-48
A quick FAQ about this goal:
Why 1234 backers?
It is a fun number. We like fun numbers.
Will you finish illustrating the maxims so we can have all 70?
That is unfortunately outside the scope of this project. We can't put more work on Howard's plate and that is a big chunk of work. So for now you can get the 48 that already exist. Doing more would have to be a separate project.