There are a number of questions about at the moment, and it's time I took a moment to address them and give you the official word, in as much that I can. I apologize for the pace at which information comes out. Please remember that we are still a small company and we don't have a staff or support team like a company such as Wizards. We also don't contract all of our work out like some other d20 companies. We create in-house so that we can control the quality of our products. We have some fantastic, talented writers that work for us remotely, but they are as good as family, and not people we've picked up to blaze through a product assignment so that we can publish as quickly as possible. We don't have a dedicated web team that can make announcments or updates. We don't have a customer service department. If you see a web update, then I put it there. If you write to Privateer Press, 90% of the time, you'll get an answer directly from me, and if not me, then Sherry (our President) or Joe (our EIC). So, doing web updates, answering forum questions, and taking care of the daily PR of the company falls upon my own shoulders, which means that while I'm doing all of that, we're not making artwork, laying out books, creating content, etc. This is why things are slow. We're all working double time right now, but all you get to see is the web updates or the products, not the phone calls until 4am in the morning as we plot out our next web update, or cram to get a book finished in time for a convention.
This isn't meant to sound defensive. All of you who have voiced your growing impatience with our publishing schedule, or with the lack of information available, are perfectly justified. We are late. Very late. As I've described elsewhere, we have had some serious set backs with the RPG books over the last 6-8 months, and we're only now getting things back up to speed with them. The minis function largely on their own, however, and we have not 'shifted our focus' in any way. The Iron Kingdoms is a package deal. You may only experience one facet of it, in the RPGs or the Miniatures, but for us, every platform that we introduce the setting to is equally as important. We are driven to describe to you a world that we are passionate about, and we wish to leave no stone unturned. But our uncompromising attention to detail, and our mission to produce only excellence, means that we will never publish as quickly as other companies. If we did, you wouldn't like it as much.
My only goal in posting this is to assure you that your voices are heard, that we do pay attention, and that the Campaign Guide is indeed being produced. It is our primary focus and is getting all of our attention. My desktop is littered with files from the book. My drawing board is covered in artwork, and my easel holds a half-finished cover. Every day, Joe is in contact with all of our contributors, up to his neck editing files. And Brian Snoddy is turning out beautiful painting after beautiful painting to embellish the prose that our wordsmiths have so carefully crafted. We're working harder than ever. It's hard to get that across...maybe we should install web cams.
I won't speculate on a date, except to say that we hope to have the project done as soon as possible, and Morrow help us if it's not before the end of the year. Truly, I believe it will be well before that, but I also know that we'll be sending the book to press during the Christmas manufacturing rush, and I have no idea at this time how that will effect our press time. We thank all of you who have held on this long, and shown your patience. To those of you who are done with it, we hope you'll check out what we've accomplished once it's out...and hopefully, you'll believe it was worth the wait. In any event, we thank all of you for your support, for we would not be continuing in any of this without you. When we published the Witchfire a couple years ago, we weren't even dreaming things could go this far. Still so far to go...
Ah, but I almost forgot! As a tiny little expression of our sympathies for your wait, Joe and I worked all night to bring together a nugget from the Iron Kingdoms Campaign Guide. It's from Chapter 1—all about classes and PrCs. We've put together a download of the Gun Mage character class. We hope this will validate some of the claims we're making. Apologies for it not being fancier, but we figured you'd be happy to have any signs of a pulse. We really are working! Go to the IronKingdoms.com site and check out the New Content at the bottom of the page. You'll see the download link...let us know what you think.
With luck, it will not be so long again until you hear from us.
Thank you!
_________
Matt Wilson
Captain
Privateer Press
