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It would just be great if they would keep us uptodate, the customers who have already paied. That‘s what I do not like. Patience is no problem, but please do not let us in the dark.
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Nothing offered on this scale should have taken this long. I feel for all who put their hard-earned money towards this. No communication with your backers is an insult to them. They paid in good faith... so should the seller deliver in good faith.
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Nothing offered on this scale should have taken this long.
Especially has the hardest part, the part that usually takes the longest - writing the book - had already be done.
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On October 20th, I did this recap:
I am fascinated by this. Book announced in March of 2022 - much excitement ensues. Perfect. Covers, with tweaking to happen) shown in early August - much excitement ensues. At this point, there has not been anything suggesting there will be a Kickstarter campaign. Also, from the wording in the announcements, it appears that the book was already written. At this point, publisher is very communicative. Good!
People are now asking when they'll be able to preorder the book. Champing at the bit. October 1 - people are asking if there are any updates. Someone finally mentions the word Kickstarter and says to look for it - its first mention. Publisher chimes in and says correct, the Kickstarter campaign will start in November. People who were praying for it to be available by end of 2022 are disappointed but still excited. Again, publisher says that Mr. Bond has delivered the definitive coverage of Goldsmith's career and no one will be disappointed. Knowing Mr. Bond's writing and exhaustive research abilities, I have not a single doubt that that is true.
November comes and goes, as does December and January. Thread is revived in February with the question: Any update? End of February, publisher chimes in and says they're rethinking distribution and will post more information sooner than later. Much excitement ensues. May 10. Publisher posts that the Kickstarter campaign is finally on the launching pad and will be announced in a matter of days. That proves to be accurate, with launch announced for May 16. Much excitement ensues. It goes live. Kickstarter goal: $19,000. It is presumed that if that is the goal, the book can be produced for that amount. It has now been one year and two months since the book was first announced at FSM.
It meets its funding goal instantly. Stretch goal - $85,000 from the original $19,000 goal. This is going to be some book. As is his wont, Yavar Moradi is now the official cheerleader for the campaign smile. Campaign goes over $100,000. People are stoked. Jeff Bond writes a heartfelt thank you note. Joe Sikoryak is now really pumping - one week left and the new stretch goal is $135,000. At that point, for the first time, I have privately asked myself a one-word question: Why? Onward we go. The most pressing question from people in this thread is - why no color when this amount of money has been raised. No answer is forthcoming until Mr. Sikoryak finally says it will STILL be cost prohibitive to do color.
On June 11, I make my first post in this thread, to wit: "Hold on there - your goal was 19K and you met it - what if that's all you'd gotten? You'd obviously have to print the book. You have now raised well over 100K - the math is not working for me and I'm sure for others. If you could print the book for 19K and you now have 100K over that I'm just trying to understand where that extra 100K is going exactly. Everyone is very excited about the book and I'm sure it will be wonderful. But something clearly isn't computing here for some folks." Mr. Sikoryak responds: "As someone who's done his share of Kickstarters, Bruce, you know that the total includes shipping, fees and lots of costs not reflected directly in the product itself. Suffice to say that we took a risk with a low bid and now we can comfortably deliver what we promised, and more." I would hope for over 100K that the book could now comfortably be delivered. All good.
A post is made days before the end of campaign, castigating all posters who mentioned color. BAD posters. June 15. Last day of the campaign. Campaign ends with over $171,000 pledged. An amazing, and to some, obscene amount of money based on the original goal. But great news - and everyone is now stoked for the delivery of the book! Publisher writes a heartfelt thanks to all involved and book is going in for final proofing. It is now June 16. July 4th, a message asking fans to submit THEIR photos, autographs, etc. Time is of the essence and they must be received by July 23.
On September 5th, someone posts: "It's September, the expected month to receive the books. Any news?" Someone else thinks they read that it's November. October 2 deadline for backers to get their names in, as they want them printed. October 9, Joe's back with another update - all additional material is in hand, new page count, but it will be months before books are in your hands. November 14, publisher says both books are in the production queue at the printer and scheduled to on the presses in early December and delivery dates will be announced then. Excitement ensues. Final update for 2023: They're embarking on the final stages of production and many thanks to all.
January 27, 2024. New update. Everyone can take a survey in mid-February and some rewards will begin to ship then. Digital copies of the book available in late February or March, with books to follow in April. As of mid-March, no reports of rewards received. March 29, book available digitally. March 30, first mention of typos and inaccuracies. Uh oh. Will be fixed before book can be greenlit for printing. Say what? Last thing we knew is that it was on the presses in December. Or, as I wrote in my second post in this thread: "Hold on there, Pochahontas. Unless I've been misreading these updates, I thought this had gone to the printers. Are you saying it hasn't when you opine, "However, some typos and inacurracies still to be fixed before any go-to-press greenlighting imho". Is that you OPINION or has the book NOT gone to press yet, which is something the contributors have a right to know."
Many people are posting errors they've found. Jeff asks for all fixes to be sent to him. Of course, it was stated long ago prior to the book being printed in December that exhaustive proofing was being done. April 15, someone asks if anyone has received their rewards. May 18 - posts on Facebook (but not here) say they're still going through rounds of corrections sent in by readers of the digital PDF. May 29th, new update - books are being readied for the printer. Publisher has moved to more affordable quarters. Many complaints about the lack of communication.
October 19 and six pages of posts later - no one knows anything - there have been no official updates in this thread since May 29. Some but not all backers have received their awards. The consensus is that books will not arrive this year. But to put all this in perspective - Tim Lucas's massive Mario Bava book took preorders for the book, received tons of money, including mine own, and suffered through, if memory serves, more than six YEARS of waiting - originally promised Christmas 2001 - delivered in 2007.
It's a wonderfully written book and I think everyone will be thrilled when they finally have it in their hands. As to when that will be? Nobody knows anything and if anyone actually knows, they ain't talkin'. 
Magically, a mere two days later there was an update. And that update stated that "Greetings Goldsmith Kickstarters:
"We’ve finally locked down an overseas printer whose quality and price structure exceeds our previous attempt at using Amazon’s less-than-satisfactory print-on-demand service, so we’re aiming to have the books in the production pipeline by November." Cheers from all. Hoo and ray from all. Finally, something's happening.
Well, just to keep this completely up to date, November is done in two days. I should think that since this book in the pipeline has obviously slipped into December (and I'm pretty sure they'd have updated everyone if it was indeed in the pipeline in November), that given December is the busiest postal month of the year, that books will be coming from overseas, my amateur guess is that it can't ship this year.
Boys, if you know something you owe it to the people who funded this adventure to let them know what's what. Others may feel differently, although obviously frustration is setting in again, given the last few posts. May the Goldsmith be with you.
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Boys, if you know something you owe it to the people who funded this adventure to let them know what's what.
Exactly how I and I assume many of us feel. We understand a lot, we are patient, but guys let us know what‘s happening. We do have a right to know.
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Posted: |
Nov 28, 2024 - 5:33 AM
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By: |
Scope
(Member)
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At this point I guess the $170,000 which Mr. White raised went to his own personal expenses. He got 900% of his funding goal, yet none of our money went to perks (by the way Taylor -- a pre-existing audio commentary, a Youtube link, and two computer wallpapers are not legitimate perks) nor has there been any apparent improvement of the product itself. How about full-color books for everyone?
As a special thanks to his backers who have been waiting 15 extra months for their money's worth, Mr. White published a link for anyone, anywhere, to download the book for free. That's honestly fine with me, at least I get to have a copy, but I didn't expect to be donating to his personal vacation fund.
I make this accusation because he hasn't ever clarified how the expenses were allocated, what additional benefits his backers receive from the incredible bonus money he received, or how he ever intended to publish the book in the first place with $19,000 since he can't get anything done with 170. Even if he says that he blew it on a bad publisher who took his money and ran, and now has to meekly look for alternatives, at least that would be less embarrassing than the situation is now.
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Here's my question... and I'm not defending Taylor White at all... but when a Kickstarter campaign reaches its goal yet people continue to donate money, what kind of obligation does the producer have to use those extra funds towards the projects, or can they just pocket the extra cash without any consequences?
-Erik-
One thing to consider is that with the additional funds automatically come additional obligations, so if you say one hardcover book for every $100.- backer as a reward, obviously if many more people back, and you have now suddenly $100,000.- instead of $10,000.-, you need more cash to provide the goods.
According to Kickstarter, "when a project is successfully funded, the creator is responsible for completing the project and fulfilling each reward to the best of their abilities. Their fundamental obligation to backers is to finish all the work that was promised, honestly address backers’ concerns, and deliver rewards."
So that's it, if a campaign makes extra cash, great. Nothing wrong with that. Kickstarter doesn't oversee a campaign's performance, and they explicitly don’t mediate disputes between users.
However, that does not mean a Kickstarter campaigner can just take the money and run. They still have an obligation, as Kickstarter's own rules state, to fulfill the project to the best of their abilities and have to take all reasonable action to do so. They can still be charged with fraud or may face a class action suit if they just pocket the money without attempting to deliver what was promised.
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At this point I guess the $170,000 which Mr. White raised went to his own personal expenses. He got 900% of his funding goal, yet none of our money went to perks (by the way Taylor -- a pre-existing audio commentary, a Youtube link, and two computer wallpapers are not legitimate perks) nor has there been any apparent improvement of the product itself. How about full-color books for everyone?
As a special thanks to his backers who have been waiting 15 extra months for their money's worth, Mr. White published a link for anyone, anywhere, to download the book for free. That's honestly fine with me, at least I get to have a copy, but I didn't expect to be donating to his personal vacation fund.
"Vacation is my favorite... even better than life in flip flops."
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“ We'll post a proper production and delivery calendar in November as soon as A-to-Z forwards the information to us.”
4 days away from them missing their 15th deadline in a row
Who would have thought.
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"getting ridiculous"? It's beyond ridiculous now, and has been for some time.
At this point, with the amount of money given vs original goal, the barest minimum of communication, missed announced dates, and everything else that has been ridiculous about this whole thing, I believe the backers are owed a complete and truthful accounting of exactly where all (and I mean ALL) of the money has gone. "Rent" for the "relocated" "headquarters"? Dropbox subscription renewals? Taylor Swift tickets? Completely seriously, WHERE the **** has our money gone?
I am most definitely not going to give Creature Features or whatever they're calling themselves/himself one damn penny ever again.
What a sour experience for my first-ever Kickstart donation.
Anyway. Fellow FSMers, I hope you are all having a good holiday season. (Well, despite this BS, of course.)
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"getting ridiculous"? It's beyond ridiculous now, and has been for some time.
At this point, with the amount of money given vs original goal, the barest minimum of communication, missed announced dates, and everything else that has been ridiculous about this whole thing, I believe the backers are owed a complete and truthful accounting of exactly where all (and I mean ALL) of the money has gone.
"Uh-oh...."
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Like a lot of people, I'm asking myself:
Are we EVER going to get this?
Or did we all just fund somebody's retirement fund?
It's ridiculous now. The books were written a long time ago. The pages were made up a long time ago. The printing was not just funded but generously over-funded, so there's really no excuse that these weren't printed six months ago.
So, what the hell is happening?
I'd like to say I've lost patience, but I lost patience a year ago. Now, I'm in apathy.
The thing is, Kickstarters come with no guarantees. They're built on trust and our trust may have been abused.
This is why I will never back a Kickstarter ever again.
If you want to profit from producing something, fund it yourself.
If I'm funding it, I want to be a profit-sharing shareholder with voting rights, not an exploitable schmuck.
Cheers
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It's a shame the organisers of this campaign have taken advantage of us all and caused so many to lose faith in this funding model. Many projects in our niche would be be impossible without this kind of fundraising and I would happily support crowd funding campaigns again from Leigh Phillips, Intrada, James Fitzpatrick (if he came out of retirement) or Kritzerland. All of which delivered on their promises and delivered wonderful things.
But after this I doubt I would risk supporting someone new again and I wouldn't ever contemplate giving money to anything run by the organisers of this campaign again.
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