Yesterday morning, I got the books. I went to take pictures to show my friends immediately but I quickly noticed that literally every book was damaged in production. Of the 539 books I was sent, every single one exhibited the very same issue: The thread that bound the pages together was lose.
(These are two different books. The thread is lose in literally every seam but it was always visible on this page in every book.)
Besides me as the artist, there are three companies involved in the making of these books. - The printer that I've been talking about previously, who printed the pages and also oversaw and managed the entire project with me. - The printer for the cover, as it had to be outsourced to a different company. It's cheaper to produce varnish covers with dedicated printers for that. - And finally, the book binder who glued and sewed everything together.
I'm already in talks with my printer about this and we're working on getting this solved. It's pretty obvious to see where the error lies in the production chain; we're both just absolutely confused how 500+ books were shipped without being checked for quality even once by the book binder.
On Monday I'll have another longer phone call with him, but as it currently stands, he'll come to my place and take the faulty books with him and produce an entire order of 500 books for me again, for free. The new order should also have black thread instead of white.
There will be no extra costs to supporters of the campaign because of this error. The only issue rising from this is a delay in the schedule, as I actually planned on shipping and fulfilling orders next week. I don't know yet how the schedule will look like for this now, but I'll keep everyone up to date if I get important information to share.
In a way it feels a bit surreal to me, because the books are perfect in every way if it wasn't for that issue. They look just like I always imagined them. The colours printed perfect. The paper feels good and is very sturdy. It has this old and natural feeling due to the texture. In a way it even feels warm to touch the book.
What does this mean for me now: I'll work on other things regarding the book. I received prints and stickers earlier this month and they look really good. No issues or problems with those. I haven't signed the prints yet as I wanted to do that on a dedicated day with the books as well, but I guess I'll just sit down and start signing anyway. I'll prepare everything I can do for shipping already too. I already have a bunch of shipping materials here, but there's things I can do to make fulfillment faster later.
As always, if there are questions, let me know via comment, backersupport, or send me an email to [email protected] I'm always glad to answer!
