Monday Morning Report – March 29, 2010

[Kevin]

Monday Morning Report – March 22, 2010

Online Sales were so-so, down about 25% from what we need and down about 40% from a week or two ago (bear in mind, those sales were unusually high for this time of year). Rifter® subscriptions did make a difference and don’t forget you only have 3 days to take advantage of that special subscription offer.

The Rifter® #50 ships on April 12. This has been confirmed by the printer.

Heroes of the Megaverse® schedule change. I hope none of you were too disappointed. I was going too slow on the writing and didn’t want to rush the book. I was actually afraid that at the pace I was going, I wouldn’t get the book done till a May release anyway. That would have pushed Triax™ 2 into a May release too and that would suck. I decided to go with the book I thought I could actually finish and get on the store shelves by the end of April. I’m sorry to disappoint, but that was Triax™ 2. Don’t worry, Heroes of the Megaverse® will be worth the wait and I will get back to it as soon as I’m done with Triax. Btw, that can’t be any later than April 9th if it’s going to come out in April.

Triax™ 2 is coming along well. I worked the entire weekend and banged out a volume of pages. Authors Taylor White and Bradon Aten have a lot of great ideas in this book. Alex and Wayne are editing the pages I finished polishing over the weekend right now. I got in at 8:00 AM this morning and I’m back editing and writing away.

Kathy Simmons supplied delicious food all weekend. To keep Alex and I chained to our seats working on Triax™ 2, Kathy cooked and brought in delicious food all weekend. We had cabbage vegetable soup, zeetti (I’m sure I spelled that incorrectly), pierogi, and some delicious desert. Yummo. Thanks Kathy.

The Rifter® Super-Subscription Sale ENDS this Wednesday, midnight March 31, 2010. It’s a great deal, so get those subscription orders in. You have only THREE days left.

http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Merchant2 ... t_Code=100

Rifts® Birthday Celebration. Rifts® turns 20 this year (hard for any of us to believe, especially me!), and we have big plans to celebrate this historic event for Palladium. One of those items is a killer Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms T-shirt all of you vampire and Rifts® fans are going to want. Another is a Rifts® specific shirt that we think is pretty awesome. It features 10 character images from the RPG charging to action. Then, of course, there are the Rifts® Logo Hoodies – a first for Palladium in two ways. One, they are our first Hoodies ever. Two, they are the first Rifts® Logo on a shirt where the art portion is not reverse black to white. On the Hoodies, the artwork is as you’ve seen it printed in our books. We like them all.

Wayne Smith, master of slogans. Everyone has a special gift. Wayne, like many Palladium staff and freelancers, is a multi-talented individual, but he has one truly special gift. He comes up with the best slogans, sayings and headlines. I mean it, they are perfect. Writing snappy, clever or funny slogans or lines for T-shirts, mugs, advertising headlines and such is MUCH HARDER than you might think. Trust me on that. There have been many times that I’ve asked everybody at the office to offer suggestions. Once I solicited ideas from people on line. Inevitably, their offerings range from bad and groaners to pretty good, including my own. Then Wayne will offer up 2-3 ideas and inevitably, one or two will be good and one will be perfect – brilliant. And he does it time and time again. It’s a gift.

Hoodies go to press Wednesday or Thursday, and it is very helpful to us if you could place your pre-orders before March 31 so we can figure out how many to have made and at what sizes. Thank you.

Don’t forget the Palladium Open House is coming up fast and it’s not too late to plan on coming. Only you need to reserve your hotel room by April 10th to get the superior discount rate. You’ll also receive the commemorative certificate.

As always, your continued understanding, patience, and support is greatly appreciated. Keep those imaginations burning bright and game on.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, and Game Designer
Palladium Books, 29 years of publishing role-playing games

© Copyright March 29, 2010 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.