Release schedule query
- Thread starter Poi
- Start date
Well, first, I find fault in your argument.
There is going to be a post on Planet Mongoose about this (and other things soon) but, in a nutshell, this adjustment is due to the introduction of our new Layout Artist, Will. With the new position comes new systems and processes for doing books, and we have been shaking those out and seeing how they stand up - we now know where books will appear in the schedule, and when they will appear in stores.
Most importantly, every book we have listed for 2008 will appear in 2008 - nothing has slipped to 2009.
There have been some other factors as well, though more minor. High Guard needed some additional work, and there was no way we were going to release that before it was ready - that had a knock on effect on Traders & Gunboats, and Fighting Ships. A couple of Flaming Cobra books have slipped slightly - if the studios do not get files to us as planned, we have to wait for them (they tend to have Real Life jobs to deal with too!).
In most cases, books have moved only by a week or two, but if that crosses the boundary of two months, it can look like more. What you have not seen yet is that many books in 2009 have moved _up_ the schedule, and will be appearing earlier.
There is going to be a post on Planet Mongoose about this (and other things soon) but, in a nutshell, this adjustment is due to the introduction of our new Layout Artist, Will. With the new position comes new systems and processes for doing books, and we have been shaking those out and seeing how they stand up - we now know where books will appear in the schedule, and when they will appear in stores.
Most importantly, every book we have listed for 2008 will appear in 2008 - nothing has slipped to 2009.
There have been some other factors as well, though more minor. High Guard needed some additional work, and there was no way we were going to release that before it was ready - that had a knock on effect on Traders & Gunboats, and Fighting Ships. A couple of Flaming Cobra books have slipped slightly - if the studios do not get files to us as planned, we have to wait for them (they tend to have Real Life jobs to deal with too!).
In most cases, books have moved only by a week or two, but if that crosses the boundary of two months, it can look like more. What you have not seen yet is that many books in 2009 have moved _up_ the schedule, and will be appearing earlier.
Poi said:
I can fully understand where you are coming from. However, I would ask you to cast your mind back to about two years ago (if you were with us then). For several years, we were one of the only companies to announce not only a release month for our books, but a release _day_ for all of them - and we hit that day at least 90% of the time (with about 80 books a year, that was good going).
Over the past two years, we have had a few 'issues' as they say - in-house printing, staff shortages (which convention season really played havoc with this year). However, gradually, we have been putting the systems in place to go back to our old, and very good, track record.
You might have seen that this has already happened with the Lone Wolf books - everything else will be following very quickly now.
What say you and I have this conversation again in December?
TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
Well, if you can get everything out, on your list, by Xmas, with good quality of printing - it will be a turn around from last year. Moreover, with the possible licences you have speculated on, and with your systems firmly established, it sets up Mongoose very well for next year.
I'll admit the earlier stuff put out some of it looked ... horrible, Armegeddon 2069 is a big one that stands out to me.. mainly because I found it seemed to be a waste of money in the end.
The thing that annoys me though is that we are almost 3/4ths through October, and yet High Guard isn't out etc. At least with -most- companies you know when in the month to expect a book release, and with no offense to MGP because they are doing a great job with traveller... if you set a release date why are you getting close and still worrying about the book being done and having to push it back?
By the time the release date comes close you guys should have had the book finished and polished ready to go to the printers, but I drift, what I was getting at is that most other publishers have a set period of the month they ship their products WOTC for example ships out around the 7th of each month.
It would be nice if MGP could choose 1 or 2 days in a month state that these dates are the dates their books will be realesed. Rather then October (High Guard) and then have us wait the entire month wondering exactly when it's going to be out.. if you miss those 1 or 2 days that you set say one at the start of the month one roughly 2/3rd through the month.. then you go and shift the product to the next months release.
The thing that annoys me though is that we are almost 3/4ths through October, and yet High Guard isn't out etc. At least with -most- companies you know when in the month to expect a book release, and with no offense to MGP because they are doing a great job with traveller... if you set a release date why are you getting close and still worrying about the book being done and having to push it back?
By the time the release date comes close you guys should have had the book finished and polished ready to go to the printers, but I drift, what I was getting at is that most other publishers have a set period of the month they ship their products WOTC for example ships out around the 7th of each month.
It would be nice if MGP could choose 1 or 2 days in a month state that these dates are the dates their books will be realesed. Rather then October (High Guard) and then have us wait the entire month wondering exactly when it's going to be out.. if you miss those 1 or 2 days that you set say one at the start of the month one roughly 2/3rd through the month.. then you go and shift the product to the next months release.
starfleet said:
I'll call you on that - there are _two_ companies in the market that do that (WotC and White Wolf) and, when there were three, the third was Mongoose.
For various reasons, our schedule has been disrupted this year, but we are now back on track and, in 2009, we wil be going back to listing what day you can expect to see a book, rather than just the month.
starfleet said:
Umm, we are not worrying, and we are not pushing High Guard back. It has already been printed, and will be arriving in our warehouse this week. . .
To extend the query, how about 'Ruins of Glorantha'.
As an impatient old grumbler, I tend to wait until I know it is in Mongoose House before ordering anything, so it arrives quickly: therefore the deathly silence on Ruins is leaving my credit card in suspended animation.
elgrin
As an impatient old grumbler, I tend to wait until I know it is in Mongoose House before ordering anything, so it arrives quickly: therefore the deathly silence on Ruins is leaving my credit card in suspended animation.
elgrin
elgrin said:
Ruins already printed, in the warehouse, and we have copies here in the office!
Will be announcing it next week, but if you want to steal in and jump the queue. . .
Iron Guardian
Mongoose
As for me, I have pretty much given up on ever seeing anything for Traveller...I guess I will count myself lucky I even got the Core rulesbook and 760 Patrons from my FLGS. I know Rulesbook "0", Mercenary, and the Spinward Marches are out, but they have never gotten around to these parts. 
When I asked about them not too long ago at my FLGS, they had some rather unflattering things to say about Mongoose and its distribution system or something along those lines (though they have gotten in the Chimaera book and Wraith Recon recently). From what I remember from past problems at my FLGS, I tend to believe the fault lies mainly with their distributor(s) who tend to put more priority on the big retailers like WalMart, KMart, and the like. :x As for online buying, I rarely do it unless I have to (call me "old-fashioned," or "old-school" as I guess they call it now :roll: ) as I always prefer to have the item(s) in my hands when I make a purchase.
When I asked about them not too long ago at my FLGS, they had some rather unflattering things to say about Mongoose and its distribution system or something along those lines (though they have gotten in the Chimaera book and Wraith Recon recently). From what I remember from past problems at my FLGS, I tend to believe the fault lies mainly with their distributor(s) who tend to put more priority on the big retailers like WalMart, KMart, and the like. :x As for online buying, I rarely do it unless I have to (call me "old-fashioned," or "old-school" as I guess they call it now :roll: ) as I always prefer to have the item(s) in my hands when I make a purchase.msprange said:
Care to explain why HIGH GAURD is now listed in your November releases rather then this month? If you where not pushing it back why is it no longer on the main page listed as this months release like it was ORIGINALLY meant to be be?
Just to show the point:
also found http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/news/news.php?PHPSESSID=d79dd14e11a08310b0d76c9f26bb5b16
oh and of course the books actual product page:
I find it amazing that you can sit here and state it is not being pushed back from it's release month and then less then a week later what do we see? The book is pushed back.
I've put up with a lot from MGP of late, Over Priced Miniture lines (A call to arms which come to over 100$ per box in australia (yet if i want to play War Hammer I could get the mini's far far cheaper (almost half the price amazing that)), disappointing systems (Armeggedon 2069 which couldn't even agree on what type of combat system you where using grid or hex). Re-Releases of game editions shortly after the 'original' release (Babylon 5 and Babylon 5 2nd edition). But this one is like a slap in the face and one that I can sit here and laugh back at... an actual Employee of MGP posts something.. and less then 6 days later we see it's a blatent false post..
You guys ask us to remember how you 'used' to be.. meeting your release dates, yeah well that was one of the saving graces that allowed me to justify spending the money given I don't earn that much from my job, I -knew- that X suppliment would be out when said.. Now I am starting to not believe a word said by you guys... It's not a matter of remembering how you where.. It's a matter of looking at HOW you ARE NOW. I'll buy the traveller books when and IF they ever come out because I love traveller and I love the new Version and want to be able to have the new careers and ship construction rules etc.. but that doesn't mean I won't complain about the fact you are missing your dead lines and now actually posting false statements.
starfleet said:
Because, if you read the post we made in the Traveller forum, you would see that High Guard did indeed arrive on time, but that it had a printing error. You can have your copy right now, if you wish - or you could wait just two weeks, and have a good copy.
starfleet said:
We do not set prices in Australia. You must look elsewhere for that.
starfleet said:
Three years separated them, and the general consensus was that a second edition was desirable.
starfleet said:
Dude, seriously, High Guard has been bumped not two years, not two months, but two weeks. . .
starfleet said:
Okay, stop there. When the statement was made, everything was on track. High Guard did indeed arrive at our warehouse on time, and was sent to distributors, again on time.
When a printing error was noticed, we could have ignored it and you would now have your book. However, we made the decision to pull it from distribution, destroy existing copies and initiate a new print run, knowing that it would push the book into a November release, because that was the RIGHT THING TO DO.
And, I think, you know that. . .
Samvail1
Mongoose
To Starfleet,
Mongoose are doing their very best and are providing up-to-date information when they can. Matthew posts regularly on these forums with all the latest information and compared to most other RPG publishers is one of the best fan communicators around.
If you want to question Mongoose on areas to improve, there are other areas you could target rather than release scheduling.
Sam
Mongoose are doing their very best and are providing up-to-date information when they can. Matthew posts regularly on these forums with all the latest information and compared to most other RPG publishers is one of the best fan communicators around.
If you want to question Mongoose on areas to improve, there are other areas you could target rather than release scheduling.
Sam
elgrin said:
I appreciate it's a bit pretentious to Quote myself, but I must give credit where its due.
Sunday: hint from MS that as 'Ruins' is in it would be a good move to get an order in quickly.
Monday: After work, get on phone , but warned have missed post today.
Wed: Arrive home after work - lying on the doormat.
That is good service by anyone's standard.
Keep it up.
Now when did I see 'Ducks' is out.
elgrin
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