Progress Report #2 -- it's working!

The latest thoughts and ramblings from the Palladium Books staff.

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Kevin
Yeah, The Publisher Guy
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Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:18 pm

Progress Report #2 -- it's working!

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Hey Everybody,

There’s so much going on that we can’t keep up! Which, by the way, is AWESOME!!!!

Kathy has a stack of 300 orders she still has to process, at least 1,200 orders (for various items) have poured in over the last FIVE DAYS.

I’ve had to hire a temporary helper in the warehouse (Kathy’s brother, Bill Bailey) and we’re using volunteers like Jeff Hansen and any lunatic willing to help to pull and process orders.

Julius, Jeff, Alex, and Bill, spent NINE HOURS pulling and packaging orders. Wayne and I joined the crew for four of those hours. Julius and Alex came back in the evening to work on orders for another FOUR hours . . . till Midnight! And we still only managed to get about 60% of them done!

The United Megaverse print. Our original estimate on print sales was bit high. As of this morning, we have sold 910 copies. That’s in only FIVE DAYS. That’s fantastic!

Other sales. People have been buying everything! We’re selling T-Shirts, bumper sticks, Rifts® Ultimate and BTS “Gold” editions, regular RPG edtions and every RPG and sourcebook in the building, as well as back issues of The Rifter®, subscriptions to The Rifter® and art prints.

The Pay Pal donations have reached $2252.00 in just THREE DAYS and that’s mostly $5-$20 offerings! Thank you!

Sales have slowed down from the initial deluge of the first 3-4 days, but that’s still an impressive 74-120 orders every 24 hours!!!!! (Normal sales are 18-30 in a day.) If things keep up at this rate, we estimate that we will hit approximately $100,000.00 by this weekend!

YOU guys and gals are making a huge difference! Thank you so much!!

Everybody is posting and spreading the word too! That’s a huge help and of critical importance.

Fans who haven’t played in years are buying product, some are even starting new campaigns.

T-shirts sales are rising because people wanna complete their collection and because they want to promote us by wearing our name on their backs.

My Nokia friends have all placed print orders.

A family owned book chain, McNally Robinson Booksellers, in Calgary, Canada, has contacted Palladium about carrying our games in their stores.

Many freelance artists and writers have begged for me to write-off the money I still own them -- which I refuse to do. So instead, many artists are donating artwork Palladium Books can offer in special auctions or as part of a “new” Super-Collector’s Grab Bag (this Summer?).

All of your wonderful, heartfelt comments and testimonies about why you play Palladium RPGs or why you’re helping us out, or how we have touched your lives are a tremendous inspiration. We’re working like dogs (a good thing) and smiling and laughing while we do it. YOU have already restored hope!

And you wonderful, generous maniacs are asking for more! Well, we have some cool anniversary items coming up.

Coming Soon . . .

A set of six glasses laser etched with various logos and artwork, probably to sell for around $30 +shipping. They will debut at the Open House, and be available online as May’s Anniversary item.
- Rifts Logo
- Palladium Fantasy (the dragon from classic Red Edition RPG)
- Heroes Unlimited
- Nightbane
- Beyond the Supernatural
- Celebrating 25 Years (same John Zeleznik logo as on the Coloring Book and Best of the Rifter).

New T-shirt with the “Palladium Books Celebrating 25 Years” logo. (Other T-shirts may follow.)

Swimsuit Art Portfolio

Open House Jam Print – we’re going to have all or most of the artists at the Open House work together to create a cool image and offer it as a color print.

A Word about Palladium Haters . . .

Ignore ‘em.

Please don’t let the bile and mean-spirits of Palladium Haters bring you down, make you angry or diminish your enjoyment of Palladium Books. The majority of these folk don’t even know me or you, but have “chosen” to hate, belittle, and mock us. Some people just feed on the bad and look for the worse. When they see something amazing and beautiful like your outpouring of support, they can’t appreciate the sincerity, kindness or wonder of it all. Instead, they have to bash at it, mock it, belittle it, and tear it down.

They’re spoiling for a fight and work at bating me (and you) into a public battle just for the sport of it (or spite) and I, for one, won’t give them the pleasure.

I only mention it here, because a number of people are upset about it and have expressed their concern, frustration or anger. Let it go. If these difficult times and this amazing outpouring of love has shown me anything, it’s that we should always try to focus on the good and try to help each other whenever we can. That being nice and treating others with respect and appreciation is what it’s all about. To forgive and forget.

To sorta steal a line from the movie It’s a Wonderful Lifeyou have all shown me that “I am the richest man in the world” because I have YOU as my friends. I feel like I’m living a miracle. Thank you, this is the greatest gift anyone could ever receive. And I don't mean the money, I mean the love and support, your caring hearts and sincere kind words. There is not doubt that this is the greatest moment of my life. Nothing, not the haters or even Palladium going out of business will ever diminish that. Not ever.

Thank you for making these painful and difficult times bearable, even joyous. We will continue to work hard at keeping Palladium going and creating the kinds of games you love.

Thank you, one and all.

Humbly Yours,
Kevin Siembieda
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