Sold out!!!!



Thanks folks!

 Only 4 copies left!

Well, with only nine books left out of the original one hundred, I'd say that sales have been going well!

And given the crappy state of the economy, that has to be a good thing. Sadly, the fluctuating exchange rate has not been so kind - actually causing me to lose money on this book! But that's okay, I'm not really in this for the money (which is just as well!).

Happily, there are some exciting new books coming up this year... The 8-Bit Book is in the layout phase (but still needs more pre-orders!), and Generation ZX is coming along nicely (if a little behind schedule, but then I've never been very good at those!). I'll be announcing some other books too in the near future, as well as doing some updates to this website (most of which will be behind the scenes for authors, but will still make my life easier!).

Anyway, thanks for the continued support of my little hobby. I hope to continue it for many years to come (which assuming I don't lose money overall, I will!)

Andrew

Well, I've sent the first batch of books out... and they should be arriving at their destinations in the next couple of days.
I've received a comment about one that already has arrived that had a couple of printing errors, which is a shame, but kind of thing happens every now and then.

Slightly more disturbing (and something that rather annoyingly didn't show up in the proof copy) is a slight stretching artifact on the cover whereby the SINCLAIR logo on the front is vertically reflected...
It's not terrible, but it's not ideal either (and the printer's weren't particularly helpful either!)

Anyway, I've attached a photo of it here so people can decide for themselves. The photo actually makes it look a lot worse than it really is, but it's still not what I'd have preferred.




I guess it's just not my lucky day!

So, I got home on Tuesday to find five boxes of books waiting for me.
I spent the evening preparing the mailing labels for pre-orders and the signed & numbered certificates for the inside cover.

I'm planning on shipping all of the pre-orders out on Friday (the day after the US holiday of Thanksgiving) so everyone who pre-ordered should receive them by the following Friday/Monday.

Each book contains an individually numbered certificate, and they will be numbered in the order that the pre-orders were received... Numbers 16 and 48 obviously have special significance, so if you're lucky enough to get one of those, congratulations :)

With hindsight, I should have got 128 copies printed. That way we could have three special numbers.
Anyway, enough rambling. I'll post some pictures of the final product in my next diary entry.

Thanks for everybody's patience! 

NB: There are still a few books left, so if you want one - don't hesitate...  And yes, I know the economy is sucky right now, but I won't be changing prices.



Even though I paid for the printing in dollars, and the pound has got weaker against the dollar - effectively increasing the printing costs by about 25%, I don't think that it's fair to raise prices.  In any case, the aim of this special edition is to cover costs (which it has) rather than make a profit (which it hasn't) so it's not all bad.
 

 I've just heard from the printer that the completed books will be shipped out to me on Friday.

Hopefully, all of the gremlins that have infested the proofing process are well and truly vanquished!

I guess I'll find out next week! Fingers crossed though! 

As soon as I get them in, I'll start signing them and shipping them out.

Thanks for everybody's patience. We're nearly there...

Note: I still have a few left... Get 'em while they're hot!

Good news Everyone!

I received what I believe is the final proof today, and everything looks good...
Any errors that may remain are my own...

Tomorrow, I'll be sending off a large cheque and an order form for 100 pristine printed copies of the book.
Hopefully, they should arrive by Mid-November, so I can have them all sent out for the end of November.

Now, pay attention because this part is IMPORTANT...

I have already sold well over half the print run of 100 books.

That's right. There are only a few left, and no plans to reprint for a long time... (if at all, and most likely not in pristine shiny hardback).

It would be a good time to buy before they're sold out.

Thanks for all the support!
Andrew

Okay... So today I receive the third proof... and everything looks great... apart from page 29, where the page number font for the digit '9' has been mysteriously substituted for something crap...



I know the photo is a bit blurry, but you can see what I mean...

Horrified, I checked the PDF to see if I'd screwed something up during the edit, but no... everything was fine.
I've asked the printer to explain what happened... I don't want to print until it's adequately explained / fixed... Especially if it's some sort of random font error on their end of things.

I don't want the final book to turn up with a bunch of odd inexplicable printing errors... Not that I expect it to be 100% error free, but at least I want to be able to point at the errors and go "Yep, I'm stupid!" and not "What the **** is that?"

Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience! I'm hoping this will be resolved in the next couple of days so I can give the go ahead to print, and have the books ready to send out by the first week of November.

Just got the second proof through a few days ago..
I should be finished with the second proof review in the next couple of days, so it will be off to the printers by next Monday.

Then, it should be a couple of weeks until I get the books back, and an additional few days for me to send the stuff out.

Thanks for your patience, everyone... This one is going to look and feel awesome.

I got the proof today...

It looks awesome.... almost... There is an error on one single page that needs correcting before it's ready, but I'm hoping it will be a simple fix for the printer... I'll find out tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are the photos I took...

 
Spot the real Spectrum!

(continued...)

The back of the book (with new ISBN)

(continued...)

Internal pages.

(continued...)

Some general shots.

 I just received word from the printer that the proof is on the way to me... It should be getting here on September 8th, which is this coming Monday...

I'll be sure to post some photos as soon as it gets here!  

This will be my first hardback book, so I'm really looking forward to it. It also uses a different printing process from the paperback edition, so those blurry pages should be a thing of the past.

Let's hope so!

I've just received confirmation from the printer...
The book will be 6x9 inches, and I'll have the proof in my hands next week.

I can't wait!

News from the Printer...
I've just received word from the printer that they're in the process of preparing the proof.

More importantly, they may be able to print it in a slight larger size of 6x9 inches for the same cost!!!

w00t!

It's on its way!!!

Well, I've finally finished editing the book, and I've sent it off to the printer.
I corrected a bunch of errors in the first edition, and updated the text to take into account things I've learned since the original was published (e.g. the authors of Spy vs. Spy)
I should be getting a proof back within a week or so.

When I do, I'll be sure to post a couple of pictures.
I'm looking forward to seeing it... "My first hardback book".

(And hopefully not the last).

I've pre-sold about half of the print run, so they are running out fast!
Get 'em while they're hot!