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JMS Scripts Ship Date?

Matthew

Member
When is the 1st script book supposed to ship? When I check my order status on Cafe Press is says "production" -- are the books not even printed yet?
 
When is the 1st script book supposed to ship? When I check my order status on Cafe Press is says "production" -- are the books not even printed yet?

They post the scripts the same day that they are printed. They have a big backlog so your copy will probably be printed next week.
 
I got e-mail from Cafepress this Friday in which they said sorry for the delay with the scripts. And they said that they will ship mine on coming Monday. Since I live in Finland, I'll guess it takes about 5-7 days for the book to appear in my mail box.
 
Anyone in Europe received their copy yet?

Mine was apparently shipped to the UK on 7 November, but there is no sign of it yet. Last time I ordered something from Cafepress it only took 3 working days to arrive, which I thought was particularly impressive at the time.

I just don't have a real clue as to how long I should expect it to take.
 
Today I got an e-mail that was sent from Cafe Press on Friday (hey, so I never logged on over the weekend :) ).

It said that my copy would be shippend on Monday (today) and that to compensate for the delay they were giving me a $5 cuopon toward my next purchase (presumably Vol. 2 of the B5 scripts) that I could use between Nov. something (I forget) and Dec. 4.
 
November 26-December 4. And a poster on JMSnews said that when he emailed, Cafe Press said that they expected to open up Volume 2 for orrderin around 11/26 so that's nice.

Jan
 
Groovy. Now we just have to lay our greasy geeky hands on the volume 1 if it ever reaches this corner of Earth that is. Dammit, will I get volume 1 before volume 2 will be out?
 
For those that have received theirs already, could you please post some info about it?

Are you pleased with it? Is the content really as good (if not better) than is described and than we all expected? What's your favorite part? Any surprises in the book? Any problems with it?

In short, while the rest of us wait, please let us live vicariously through your quicker shipping. :) Thanks.
 
Mine was also shipped on Nov 15. UPS website says it arrived at for local delivery at 0700 Pacific Standard time, and went out at 0715 PST. I should get it in about an hour or less. :cool:
 
In short, while the rest of us wait, please let us live vicariously through your quicker shipping. :) Thanks.

I got mine yesterday. Here's what I posted over at the JMSNews.com forums (sorry, I'm lazy today)

Smallish spoilers ahead
S
p
o
o
Space:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:D I got my book. :D

So far I've read the intro, the commentaries, the memos, looked at the photos and read the original version of 'The Gathering'. Some general comments....

-I *like* when JMS is writing in the style he did for the intro/commentaries. A couple of times I laughed out loud, even.

-I'm not completely enthralled with the book dimensions. I've got small hands and those large books and hardcovers end up hurting and/or cutting off my circulation.

-One of the few times I've ever found footnotes to be worth reading. These are precious.

-When the heck did the Grey Council become the Gray Council? Answer: apparently only in the commentaries 'cause that's not how it's spelled in the scripts. Wonder if it was the "proofreader's" work. (I won't go into the proofreading failures here but the "All rights reserved" message was enough to make me cringe.

-Again, the dedication was... just lovely. There are (at least) 14 more books for JMS to dedicate and he chose to honor Rick Biggs for this first one. I think he was waiting for the opportunity.

-As for the early version of 'The Gathering'. It's good...in some ways, very good. JMS has said in the past that he's vastly better when writing without outlines and revisions and this is a good example. In some ways I think it's tighter than the produced version, but I can see how there were things that it ended up paying off for him to have put into the produced one.

More specifically...

-Lyta's hardly much of a character. The produced version does better by her than this first draft.

-Velana's no loss, I don't think. Losing her make Lyta more important to the Pilot whereas in this version she just seems there to establish that there are telepaths in this universe.

-Kosh was certainly talkative when he wasn't busy being unconsious. I think I like the more cryptic Kosh, in the end.

-Poor Garibaldi. Even this early in B5, JMS didn't do the expected and let him talk to his dad one more time.

-I think Carolyn Sykes improved by in the produced version. In this one she was a little too pushy about Jeff going into business with her rather than supportive. It just didn't seem to scan that she'd think he'd just chuck everything to run off with her when things got tight.

-I can see why the network demanded changes. I think this version really does do the characters more justice but there's less tension than in the produced version with G'Kar running around being manipulative and Sinclair in danger of being shipped off to the Vorlons for trial.

And that's enough for tonight, I think. Let me digest it some more.

:D I got my book! :D

Jan

I'm looking forward to the rest!
 
are the books not even printed yet?

The short answer is "No, they aren't." CafePress is a print-on-demand house. They don't maintain inventory (except of some blank materials like unprinted t-shirts and coffee cups, and paper.) When the orders come in, they start churning out whatever it is that gets ordered. As orders come in for different products, they allocate production capacity to fill them, and for new products they basically guess the capacity they'll need to, say, handle the first week's worth of orders when they come in. As has always been the case with B5, the vendor grossly underestimated demand, that's why the books suddenly went on back order. The actual demand was much higher than they anticipated, and they couldn't free up capacity by cancelling other books that already had orders in the pipeline.

I'm sure they're catching up now and they'll be better prepared for volume 2. (My original copy of Volume I shipped yesterday, and I've just ordered a second. I'm going to get two complete sets as this is going to be a limited edition and once they're gone, they're gone. I figure there might be a market for a complete set on eBay in a few years. :))

Regards,

Joe
 
BTW, for those interested, the books were nice and safely packed. Wrapped in plastic, wrapped in two layers of big bubble wrap and in a big box. I was very pleased to see that.

Jan
 
I figure there might be a market for a complete set on eBay in a few years.

I can't imagine anyone willing to pay even more than what they are now. In the end its going to be nearly $600 including shipping.

I guess there will be rabid fans, but if they are that rabid, why not just buy them now?
 
I guess there will be rabid fans, but if they are that rabid, why not just buy them now?

Because they can't afford them now (college students, folks just starting out in the job market) but they will be able to five or ten years from now. Or people who haven't even heard of the show today, but who will become rabid fans in years to come after someone introduces them to the show on DVD or webcast or what-have-you. Because they're on the fence right now and decide they can't justify buying them, then kick themselves later when the books are no longer for sale.

Lots of possibilities.

Regards,

Joe
 
I'm so excited to see these books coming out. Aside from the obvious, it tickles me to see people are actually reading ! :D
 

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