Delayed: Friends and Spectres

Updates can be found at the bottom of the post.

When a new title arrives here at Æon House in Dublin from the printer, I’ve made a practice of immediately inspecting every copy. Yes, all of them. This is something I got into the habit of doing early on, one of many nuggets of publishing wisdom passed on to me by our sage friends at Tartarus Press.

Inspecting each copy is one of a few processes I conduct here before they are posted on to those who have pre-ordered a book, and also one of the contributing reasons why it can take me up to two weeks to get all pre-orders into the post.

Because I occasionally get “Where’s my book?” emails, sometimes only a day or two after they’re delivered to Dublin, I thought I’d write a short blog post explaining the labour involved in processing and packing so people have a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes when a new title arrives.

Unfortunately this whole idea was derailed on Friday evening when I sat down to inspect the print run of our newest book, Friends and Spectres edited by Robert Lloyd Parry.

It quickly became apparent that almost the entire print run was poorly bound, nowhere close to an acceptable standard. This poor work did not pass my quality control and I am unsure how it passed that of TJ Books, our longtime printer in Cornwall.

It is not uncommon to pull a few defective copies from each consignment. Sometimes a corner has been dinged or a jacket creased, scuffed, misapplied; I’ve also seen text blocks cut poorly or bound upside down, head- and tail-bands missing, endpapers glued to the boards. A handful of copies. It happens.

With Friends and Spectres, “it happens” happened to over 80% of the 500 copy print run. More specifically, the issue mainly affects the free front endpaper. It seems to have been bound too tightly, causing the leaf to warp and come away from the hinge on the side of the half-title page. To me this is unacceptable and not the quality I want to deliver to readers who, I hope, have come to maintain high expectations of Swan River Press.

Given this unfortunate situation, I have requested that TJ Books seek to rectify the matter as quickly as possible. It goes without saying that this will now delay onward posting of Friends and Spectres, for which I can only apologise—I know a lot of people are keen to read this book, and I’m certain you’ll be pleased when you do.

I will update this blog post (below) as I receive more information, so if you’re looking for an update, please check here first. At the moment I would guess the delay will be in the region of three to four weeks before I receive replacements. Of course, when replacements arrive here in Dublin, it will take time before I can get all copies in the post—given the above, I hope you understand a bit more why that can take so long. I’ll still write that other blog post at some point!

In the meantime, and in the interest of expediency, I will start posting the copies of Friends and Spectres that did pass inspection. That way I will be able to get the remainder in the post much faster when replacements arrive.

I would prefer if you do not email asking if your copy has posted yet. This book has received a lot of orders and answering such a question would require me to search through all the packing slips—and I’m not sure such an exercise would satisfy anything other than anxious curiosity. If you’ve not received a copy, then assume I’ve not yet sent it. If you do receive a copy, feel free to conclude otherwise.

However, if you need me to set aside your copy as a matter of practicality, perhaps posting at an even later date, if you’re going away on holiday or something, please do get in touch. Similarly, if you’d like a refund, contact me as well—but please be aware that the hardback print run is nearly now sold out.

Again, I apologise for this delay. As always, I am grateful for your patience and I will work to get your copy of Friends and Spectres on its way to you as soon as possible. (Please note: all of our other titles are shipping as normal, this strictly affects pre-orders for Friends and Spectres.)

While you’re waiting, you can always read John Kenny’s recent interview with editor Robert Lloyd Parry.

Brian J. Showers
Æon House, Dublin
16 June 2024

Updates

1 August 2024—Trade and contributor copies were collected this morning and will go out in this evening’s post. And that, my friends, are all pre-orders of Friends and Spectres out the door! Thank you again for your patience through all this. Looking forward to the next title, hopefully things will go a bit smoother next time. – BJS

29 July 2024—The last of the pre-orders were processed for customs and went into the post today. From this point on you can set your stopwatch to standard delivery times from Ireland to wherever you happen to be. The only thing left now are the trade and contributor copies, which will be collected Thursday morning and dispatched on the same day.  – BJS

24 July 2024—Just moments ago, all orders were collected and taken to the post office. The good people at the Rialto post office help me with customs paperwork, which needs to be completed for each order. They’ll start doing this today and should have all copies in the post and on their way by early next week. Next I will work on packing trade and contributor orders . . . – BJS

22 July 2024—All orders have now been packed and are awaiting collection. Once at the post office, there’s the onerous task of customs paperwork for each order. This will take a few days. I’m expecting a collection on Wednesday, 24 July. Now I start packing orders for trade orders and contributors. – BJS

19 July 2024—Everything is packed up now save for unnumbered UK orders (well over 100 of those). I’ve taken some stuff to the post office by hand—mainly EU and Irish orders, but also packages for those who ordered more than one title. Am waiting for collection of the remaining, hopefully on Wednesday, 24 July. Once packages are collected and taken to the post office, then all the customs documentation needs to be filled in for each package. This stage is also extremely time consuming and will take days to accomplish. I’m very grateful to everyone at the Rialto post office for helping me with this bit: they get orders into the post as the customs documentation is completed. Will spend the rest of the weekend packing orders. – BJS

18 July 2024—Unnumbered copies for both Ireland and Europe went into the post today also all review and deposit copies. It’s always easier for me to clear these small piles first because none of them need customs paperwork. I’ll work on the numbered copies next, which are a mix of destinations. [I managed to pack all the numbered copies this evening too—they’ll be ready for collection next week. On to the unnumbered copies destined for USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.] – BJS

17 July 2024—The replacement copies of Friends and Spectres arrived on Thursday, 11 July. I have hesitated to announce this because I needed to (again) inspect all copies. I’ve just finished that now; insofar as the books are concerned, all is in order. I will now start the lengthy process of packing, shipping, and customs paperwork and will try to post general updates here as consignments go to the post office. Again, I will not be able to tell you on which day your book has shipped as I would rather focus on shipping the books instead of searching through packing slips to see if your copy is still here (or not). Again, if you need your held back for shipping at a later date, please drop me a line. Thank you again for continuing to be patient while I sort out this mess. – BJS

8 July 2024—This morning TJ Books contacted me to let me know that Friends and Spectres should be delivered to Dublin by Friday, 12 July. The real question is: when will your copy arrive in your postbox? The above delivery date is when the books can be expected in Dublin. I go into it a bit more above, but it takes me roughly two weeks to pack the books, transport them to the post office, and complete customs paperwork. A good gauge would be to assume that your book is the last to ship. From that point you can add on a week or two for shipping time. I will do my best to get your book in the post as quickly as possible. I appreciate everyone’s continued patience. – BJS

28 June 2024—From TJ Books: “Just thought I’d drop you a line to say that all the copies have arrived back at the plant in Padstow. I have liaised with the team and they have begun the process of checking each copy and will re-glued [sic] endpapers where possible. Once we have completed the process and ascertained the final figure I shall be in touch again and I hope this to be toward the middle of next week. Enjoy your weekend[.]” I’ve suggested that they also pay close attention to the warping endpapers as this, to my eye, is a bigger issue than gluing, which of course also needs to be addressed. More anon. – BJS

21 June 2024—The entire print run was collected today from Dublin to be shipped back to Cornwall. This means, contrary to my above hopes, that no copies will ship until further notice. TJ Books requested return of the entire run, even the undamaged copies. As soon as I have an estimated date for the arrival of the replacement copies, I will post here. Thank you again to everyone for your patience. – BJS