Next Year ...

Next year, I am going to write off everything between Mother's Day and, oh, say, the second week of June. End of school events, awards ceremonies, piano recitals, swimming, soccer tryouts, and various other bits and pieces make it impossible to get solid blocks of time to work (unless I am already so tired the computer screen starts to swim and take on a life of its own).

I do have products "almost" ready, but it looks like they will stay "almost ready" for another week. I am not happy about it, but I also want to be able to enjoy various activities at the school(s) this week so I just have to come to terms with it. This said, if I don't have 3 releases in June I am going to be screaming with frustration.

I expect summer to be a bit slow but I think I can use it to help build up and complete several longer-term projects I have going right now.

Constant Delays

I can't claim laziness is slowing me down right now. My free time has been taken up by the fact that some shelves in the master bedroom closet collapsed. Basically, cleaning out the old hardware, painting, etc. has sucked up what little free time I have had during the last few days of school here.

Ideally, I can still get a product out this weekend but it is going to be pretty tight. My wife is on-call tomorrow night so no real break there either.

I am already marking May in my calendar next year as a month of practically nothing accomplished for GU. The end of school year activities, end of soccer season, end of dance, gymnastics, etc. all take up so much time that there is really nothing left.

Upcoming product titles include Tavern Denizens Book II, The Mug and Bottle, The Lantern Inn, and a few others. These still need some artwork and layout. Not sure which will get through first.

Lazy Boy

Well, I have been a lazy boy this week. I can't claim I haven't had time to write because I have had time to read several books. I like to think that reading is important to writing, but it seems a bit hollow when we hit Wednesday night and I still don't have artwork ready for several books.

I have still been very busy with bunches of last minute things popping up. We are NOT going out of town this weekend so that should make things much easier for me. We have a number of family activities planned but there should be large enough blocks of time for me to get significant work done. Let's hope I have the energy for it.

Tomorrow I will be posting about my "promotion" for the Memorial Day weekend. I am sending a few emails out tonight as well. I should have done this sooner, but, well, didn't. If you missed it, I will be sending a check equal to Gross sales for the entire weekend (5 PM Friday through Midnight Monday) to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. In addition, I will double that donation up to $100 out of pocket. This means that 200% of your purchase goes to the fund. --I don't expect to have over $100 in gross sales for the weekend, if that does happen I guess I'll just step up for the difference in gross vs net.

Whoops

Well, Saturday is almost done for me. My wife and I are going out this evening so no work then--hey, I want to stay married!

My free time today was taken up with some work on things in the house and I am now left with very little additional time.

It looks like I might have a 4e rules editor/writer lined up to help out on some planned 4e products. After he and I discuss the details a bit more I will be posting information about product plans and the new product line name(s), etc. I guess I feel good that I have at least gotten some behind the scenes work done even if I didn't get the next 2 books polished off.

Not This Weekend

This week has been very, very full and I simply haven't had more than a few minutes at a time to sit at the computer and work. I have two different books more than 90% complete and probably only need 2-3 uninterrupted hours to finish one of them. This said, I won't have 2-3 uninterrupted hours until sometime on Saturday. This is basically due to a wide variety of kids' activities crammed into the last few weeks of school. Not all of these activities are actually school-related but they all seem to cluster together in May.

When layout and artwork has to be done in 20-30 minute increments it is incredibly inefficient. When I finally have some time at night I am simply so exhausted that I don't get anything done. I will see what I can do, but I don't foresee having a chance to work on anything until 9:30 or later tonight and I guarantee that I will be exhausted.

Art and Cartography

Well, I have been looking for someone to make maps and do some artwork for me at reasonable rates. Unfortunately, my sales are such that "reasonable rates" means "dirt cheap or cheaper." Paraphrasing someone else's post on a publisher's board once, when looking for artists you have to consider these factors:
a) inexpensive
b) dependable
c) good
You only get to choose two of the above.

I was "talking" with someone about some art for a few projects but that must have fallen through because the artist hasn't been back in touch with me for a while. I am not upset about it, a bit disappointed though. I know that with what I can offer to pay right now it is unfair to expect someone not to get distracted by better paying projects and/or the latest video game. (I don't know if any of these distractions are involved)

I guess I will finally be posting some ads for art and writing, etc. after all. I was hoping to bypass that by contacting a few people directly but that hasn't worked out.

Weekend release: this week has been very difficult and tiring. I think I'll still have a weekend release but I am not certain. I have always felt that if I can't have it out at least by early Friday morning it is best to wait until next week. Right now I am thinking that anytime Friday would be okay. Art and cartography are a hang-up on these right now and I don't know when I will have some solid, uninterrupted time to work on the artwork.

Mother's Day Sale!

Okay, the sale prices were removed this morning. The sale/promotion did "okay" really, but without Vicki Potter's help including GU in their Mother's Day promotion I don't think it would have done a thing.

This is likely because several of the old-school sites I submitted news to never did anything with it (I think one mod was out of town, go figure, Mother's Day weekend...). It is also because I was really only able to deal with emails, posting, etc. on Thursday and didn't get much done during the weekend. Alas, this happens a lot and weekends tend to have the majority of sales. If I had been on more I probably could have gotten more mentions. I just hate to try to advertise on certain boards without permission or the mod's posting it as news. I have seen other publishers do it and get some pretty ugly backlash.

Interestingly, I sold more copies of the GreatCreators line which, while discounted, were not even included in the promotion. I am still not sure where to go with that product line. JT actually has a few more books ready to go into layout.

My next promotion is going to be Memorial Day weekend. I won't be discounting products but I will be donating all sales proceeds for the weekend (x2 up to $100 out of my pocket) to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. I will post more about this charity and what it does over the next two weeks.

I should have another CS location out this Thursday/Friday. It will be a little dependent on how the week goes. As we get closer to the end of school the activities start piling up rather ferociously. I'll post more news on progress this Wednesday (or sooner).

Mother's Day Sale!

The following information has been posted to several message boards, but in case you missed it:
Happy Mother’s Day!
Sunday, May 10th, is Mother’s Day (at least here in the US) and to mark the day Generic Universe Publishing (GU) is joining Tabletop Adventures to celebrate mothers throughout the world.

GU is offering all of the City Streets releases at 25% off. This sale ends May 10th so act now!
Want to know more about City Streets? Look at the following reviews and download Gior’s Glassworks for free.
Review of Gior’s Glassworks by Kevin Rohan
Review of Gior’s Glassworks by Robert Miller
Review of Kagen’s Books and Knowledge by staff reviewer Peter Ingham
Review of Tavern Denizens by staff reviewer Nathan Collins

City Streets
Has dungeon work worn your adventurers down? Are they searching for something new and different? Need a place to get rid of their newfound wealth? Maybe it is time to hit the streets! City Streets products provide heavily detailed city locations designed for enjoyable role-playing encounters while also providing enough adventure hooks to encourage the characters to head back into danger. Whether it is a tavern, shop, guild house, noble’s manor, or massage parlor, each of these locations possesses detailed information about the building, business, and the NPCs living or working there. NPC descriptions are detailed, but contain no statistical information making them useful with any game system. These locations are mere sparks designed to fire your creativity, and that of the players, to take your game in new directions.

Updates

I did get the website update up earlier this evening. I am not quite done with the information for the "open calls" right now but I went ahead and updated the site. It really won't be a big deal until I actually post that I am looking for submissions, etc. at ENWorld and RPG.net. I need to finish up the writer's guidelines for the Tavern Denizens submissions and have those ready to go before I start posting. If you know of anyone interested in writing, or practicing their writing, please direct them here.

This week is going to be a bit, um, difficult. There were a few cases of the "swine flu" in our general area. The resulting over-reaction changed the schedule(s) for the kids around a bit last week and weekend. They didn't miss any school, the San Antonio schools didn't cancel like some other areas in Texas. In any case, some things did get cancelled and this means that this week is going to be rather "interesting." In any case, I will do my best to keep getting some work done.

Whoopsie!!!

Um, just noticed that the website update I made last Friday never, um, got uploaded. I thought I uploaded it in the morning before heading to my daughter's field trip but I guess I didn't. Worst part is, I didn't notice even though I have seen the front page of the GU website numerous times over the past couple of days.

That is a bit embarrassing. Latest files for the site are on another machine and I was in the middle of updating other files. I guess my task for this afternoon is finishing up the website update(s) and getting everything uploaded.

Grumble

Okay, I struggled to get Brandy's by the Bay out hoping to get it out in time to make the DTRPG/RPGNow newsletters and have time to maybe get a mention in the ENWorld News. Well, despite the late night release (after 11:30 PM) it looks like I was EARLY rather than late and still didn't make the newsletter(s). As a matter of fact, I am almost pushed off the front page listing of new releases. I guess it really depends on who else is releasing products and what time they release them (and how many get released).

I did get it mentioned in the ENWorld News, and that does help, but the majority of sales come from the front page links on weekends and the newsletters (at least so far).

The other way to get into the newsletters is to set up a special and get on the queue for the next newsletter. I am beginning to feel like I might have enough releases to go ahead and do that. I think I will wait for the release of the next Tavern Denizens book though.

I still have to figure out this whole advertising, promotion bit.