Exciting Progress February 4 2009

[Kevin]

Progress at last . . .

I understand why patience is a virtue

One of the most difficult aspects of running a business under difficult circumstances (i.e., the Crisis of Treachery and our recovery from it), is devising a business plan you KNOW is good and sticking to it. Even more difficult is having the patience to wait for the plan to kick in and start showing significant results. That, my friends, is murder.

When a good plan doesn’t come together fast enough, that’s when many companies get themselves into trouble. They start to doubt themselves and panic. They abandon the plan and take inappropriate, risky or desperate action, and when they do, it all comes crumbling down. Recovery isn’t possible when Humpty Dumpty is shattered in a million pieces.

There have been many, many moments when I have doubted myself and Palladium's recovery plan, even when everyone agreed it was the best plan for action. I can’t tell you how many zillions of times I reran and reevaluated our strategy in my head and aloud with my advisors, investors and staff. You have to constantly re-evaluate, because you need to modify, tweak and fine tune your plan to changing circumstance, but if the strategy is indeed the best course of action, ultimately, you need to stick to it. And ours was solid. Every new reassessment confirmed it. Every person consulted agreed. And countless people told me how they had faith in me, and still it was murder.

That’s where patience comes in. The plan for recovery seldom happens as fast as you NEED or WANT it to happen, especially where third parties are involved. So you put the plan into action and wait. And wait, and wait. While waiting, you do what you need to do to survive. You wait and fine tune, analyze, re-analyze, worry, pray and doubt yourself. It doesn’t help when new problems crop up, you lose loved ones and comrades (I still can’t believe Erick Wujcik is gone), and your paper thin resources wear even thinner. Every triumph, even the small ones, are a cause to celebrate, but only for a minute, because you need to stay focused and keep working. Meanwhile, every setback feels like a crushing blow. Those long hours of work start to take their toll and you start to wonder if it is all worth it. You start to wonder if your plan is a pipedream. If it is so good, when is it going to kick in!? That's the moment when you blink and fail or stand strong. It's hard to do. You need patience.

I love it when a plan comes together.

The above has been the last 2-3 years for us at Palladium; last year seemed like it was the hardest.

We laid a strong foundation. We had made cuts to the bone. We made smart moves and put a number of things in motion behind the scenes. The plan was a good one. Very good. Then . . . slow progress, setbacks and more long hours of work.

Ah, but finally, that is all starting to change. Our problems caused Palladium to restructure, reorganize and rethink our business before the recession hit. Consequently, while others are scrambling to retool now, we are already lean, reorganized and ready to rock n’ roll. Furthermore, all the groundwork we laid and plans we put into motion a year (or two) ago seem like they are finally starting to pay off.

Barnes & Noble has ordered a good number of Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® RPG (manga-size). The Robotech® RPG should be hitting B&N stores in another week or two. If they sell well over the next few months, B&N will order more and add the Macross and Masters sourcebooks to their offerings. If those sell well, other Palladium RPGs might start to fill the shelves at Barnes & Noble!

More Robotech® sourcebooks are being planned. Apollo Okamura is already working on ideas for the cover of the New Generation sourcebook.

New product sales

Online sales have been up, down and all over the place. One day is good, the next day is abysmal, the next day is amazing. It is a bit nerve racking, but it all adds up to solid sales overall. Yes, online sales remain down by about 18%, but that’s not bad compared to the automotive industry where sales were down 32%-60% in the last quarter and that’s on top of sliding sales all year long. Sony and countless other businesses are showing sales losses of 50-75%, and worse. All in all, Palladium is doing okay. Do we need to do better, heck yeah! And we will when we start releasing new product this month.

A lot of new product is coming. Palladium gamers are clamoring for and demanding new product, and we are going to give it to them. If we can consistantly release new product, Palladium’s sales will undoubtedly increase, cash flow will even out, and the company will get stronger.

Dyval preorders are on track to become the second or third highest in Palladium history – Rifts® Sourcebook One is currently Number Two at 248 copies, and the Robotech® Shadow Chronicles® RPG holds the No. One slot at a whopping 515 copies online sales.

Robotech® The Masters Saga preorders are climbing too, with approximately 143 copies on order so far. Nice.

Pre-orders are also starting to come in for Rifts® Dimensional Outbreak, Rifts® Shemarrian Nation, and Nightbane® Survival Guide, plus inquiries and excitement for the Mysteries of Magic, Dead Reign sourcebook, Warpath: Urban Jungle, and others is also building.

The Rifter® subscription drive is also doing well. No wonder considering Wayne Smith is doing a wonderful job at making this Megaversal sourcebook series better with every issue. Good work, Wayne.

Distributor sales remain strong as well.

Robotech® The Masters Saga. Approvals are starting to come in -- about half the art has been approved and text approvals should start pouring in any minute now. As soon as the book is approved, it is laid out and sent to the printer.

I’m working on Dyval right now. Art for the Shemarrian Nation and other titles is about to be assigned. New books are in the pipeline.

Expanding into the digital realm

Palladium is probably going to start a limited release of its books to be made available as pdf downloads within the next month or two. We’ll be starting with older and out of print titles and see where things go. But we feel the time is right to do it.

2009 Open House will be epic

The Palladium Open House is going to be wonderful. And not only do we hope everyone who attends has the time of their life, but the POH is an important public relations tool. The uber-fans who attend will play in games based on upcoming new books and hear about upcoming titles from the artists and writers working on them. They’ll talk about what they see, hear and play, and spread the word throughout the gaming community. Awesome.

http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Merchant2 ... e=POH-3DAY

Behind the scenes . . .

Puh, forget about behind the scenes for now. If some of the things we are working on behind the scenes happen, great (and things are starting to look promising in some areas), but if they don’t, they don’t. We are not counting on them. We are doing for ourselves and it all seems to be starting to come together.

Whew. That’s it for the moment. Keep those imaginations burning bright and thank you for your continued support of Palladium Books. Together, we are going to make 2009 the best year Palladium has had in years.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Game Designer & Publishing Maniac

© Copyright February 4, 2009 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Heroes Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, Dead Reign, Warpath, Shemarrian Nation, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.

Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.