What could they possibly be doing ?
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:49 pm
I thought I'd stop in with another episode of What Could They Possibly Be Doing? But first, a little history.
In 2008, a lot of friends of our dear friend, Erick Wujcik, were calling Kevin because they didn't want to bother the sick guy. In June, our dear friend Erick passed away. The rest of the year was spent doing the best we could to get product out, and dealing with a possible Rifts MMO that did not go anywhere. Then we were hit by the economic meltdown. It didn't help that the US Post Office decided to drop Surface shipping to foreign countries.
2009 was our catch-up year and we caught up with what we could. Wayne is an editor on all books, Editor in Chief of The Rifter and our (electronic) typesetter, along with doing art direction/design/layout chores that he shares with Kevin. I can confidently report that Wayne is maxed out. Kevin lost a chunk of time helping his Dad deal with a bout of cancer toward the latter part of last year. Last Summer, due to the economy, orders were down, but they picked up by the end of the year partly due to Grab Bags. The Grab Bag requests are all done personally by Kevin and I was back there packing them up with Julius and whoever had the spare time to pitch in.
Now it's February, it's cold and there's not much to do for most folks. People are wondering about older titles promised a long time ago, and so are we. Time is always of the essence, and while I, Alex, get handed whatever day to day chores Kevin can delegate, certain things can only be done by Kevin. Book production is a quirky process and not all manuscripts are created equal. Some take a little more time than others. Kevin knows people are anxiously awaiting this or that book to come out. But only Kevin decides on the release schedule. That's not to say he's unaware of comments made on our boards. But he also picks up comments from our distributors, retail stores and our fans from places other than our message boards. Yes, we still get mail and fan comments are often on Grab Bag orders. Kevin has posted some in the past.
We're doing the best we can here with five people, and our freelancers have been a big help. Everyone has it rough to some degree and we're all hoping for better days ahead.
I'll just close with a few words about a personal favorite of mine: Beyond the Supernatural. Me and Kevin spent a good part of our youth reading up on UFOs, the supernatural and strange events in general. There is a lot of material from that time period that has disappeared from the public's consciousness and there is some new material that has appeared over the years. I got a huge kick out of writing up the structure for the Lazlo Agency. It was material that was almost second-nature to me after reading up on secret societies and organizations that actually dealt with strange things. I was disappointed when the decision was made to put the two supplements aside, but I understood it. Both books would have to work off each other and would need to be written almost simultaneously. What some people don't know is that Rifts was an idea the Kevin took years to assemble into its final form. Ideas were 'percolating' in his head, as he likes to say, and he took notes and rearranged or reimagined the concepts until he had a package together that met his requirements.
A liitle more background history:
Things had been rough for the RPG Industry in general starting about 1995. Collectible Card Games began to divert people who might have played RPGs to cards. The late 1990s saw the closing of a large number of comic book stores. The internet "bubble" had burst as well. By the year 2000, people were getting concerned about the future. One Industry trade publication reported that 2005 was the worst year for RPGs, but we kept going, along with a few other stalwarts who are still with us.
During our heydays, one distributor remarked to Kevin that he had "an uncanny sense of the marketplace." I like to think I'm one of the sources of information that keeps him up to date about what's going on out there. But budgets are tight (for everyone) and we're trying to use our time as best we can. More books are coming and I, personally, look forward to the day more books appear for Beyond the Supernatural. So hang tight. We're working on it.
Alex Marciniszyn
In 2008, a lot of friends of our dear friend, Erick Wujcik, were calling Kevin because they didn't want to bother the sick guy. In June, our dear friend Erick passed away. The rest of the year was spent doing the best we could to get product out, and dealing with a possible Rifts MMO that did not go anywhere. Then we were hit by the economic meltdown. It didn't help that the US Post Office decided to drop Surface shipping to foreign countries.
2009 was our catch-up year and we caught up with what we could. Wayne is an editor on all books, Editor in Chief of The Rifter and our (electronic) typesetter, along with doing art direction/design/layout chores that he shares with Kevin. I can confidently report that Wayne is maxed out. Kevin lost a chunk of time helping his Dad deal with a bout of cancer toward the latter part of last year. Last Summer, due to the economy, orders were down, but they picked up by the end of the year partly due to Grab Bags. The Grab Bag requests are all done personally by Kevin and I was back there packing them up with Julius and whoever had the spare time to pitch in.
Now it's February, it's cold and there's not much to do for most folks. People are wondering about older titles promised a long time ago, and so are we. Time is always of the essence, and while I, Alex, get handed whatever day to day chores Kevin can delegate, certain things can only be done by Kevin. Book production is a quirky process and not all manuscripts are created equal. Some take a little more time than others. Kevin knows people are anxiously awaiting this or that book to come out. But only Kevin decides on the release schedule. That's not to say he's unaware of comments made on our boards. But he also picks up comments from our distributors, retail stores and our fans from places other than our message boards. Yes, we still get mail and fan comments are often on Grab Bag orders. Kevin has posted some in the past.
We're doing the best we can here with five people, and our freelancers have been a big help. Everyone has it rough to some degree and we're all hoping for better days ahead.
I'll just close with a few words about a personal favorite of mine: Beyond the Supernatural. Me and Kevin spent a good part of our youth reading up on UFOs, the supernatural and strange events in general. There is a lot of material from that time period that has disappeared from the public's consciousness and there is some new material that has appeared over the years. I got a huge kick out of writing up the structure for the Lazlo Agency. It was material that was almost second-nature to me after reading up on secret societies and organizations that actually dealt with strange things. I was disappointed when the decision was made to put the two supplements aside, but I understood it. Both books would have to work off each other and would need to be written almost simultaneously. What some people don't know is that Rifts was an idea the Kevin took years to assemble into its final form. Ideas were 'percolating' in his head, as he likes to say, and he took notes and rearranged or reimagined the concepts until he had a package together that met his requirements.
A liitle more background history:
Things had been rough for the RPG Industry in general starting about 1995. Collectible Card Games began to divert people who might have played RPGs to cards. The late 1990s saw the closing of a large number of comic book stores. The internet "bubble" had burst as well. By the year 2000, people were getting concerned about the future. One Industry trade publication reported that 2005 was the worst year for RPGs, but we kept going, along with a few other stalwarts who are still with us.
During our heydays, one distributor remarked to Kevin that he had "an uncanny sense of the marketplace." I like to think I'm one of the sources of information that keeps him up to date about what's going on out there. But budgets are tight (for everyone) and we're trying to use our time as best we can. More books are coming and I, personally, look forward to the day more books appear for Beyond the Supernatural. So hang tight. We're working on it.
Alex Marciniszyn