drinksmuchcoffee wrote:It seems a little graceless to be complaining about the unavailability of a book months before its official scheduled publishing date.
Baen and RFC are trying to do something cool for all of us fans by making their titles available early to us. We should be thankful for that, as they certainly are under no obligation to do that.
I'd like to thank RFC for all the great work he has done. And the nice folks at Baen, as well.
To specifically RFC, but in general to one and all: I have never said that the delay was Baen's fault, nor have I ever complained about there being a delay the 1st half of the book's release. What I have criticized, is Baen's lack of communication with those that have put down money to buy a monthly bundle, that was not delivered with the full promised content, on the anticipated delivery date.
What I have criticized is Baen for is simply putting up the phrase "Delayed" and nothing else. When Baen realized that the 1st half of the book was not going to be ready on August 15th, they should have huddled up and decided when they could realistically deliver the 1st half of the book. Baen should have posted the new date up as to when the book would be ready. I would not complain if they put up October 31st, If that was when they would have the book ready to go. But communicating with their customers when a delivery date is going to be missed, is generally considered a good business practice.
My motivation in writing my disputed post, was that I objected to being called "graceless" for expecting proper communication from a a business involving a delivery delay to a customer.
Other than Baen's lack of communication, I have no complaints at all about when the 1st half (or the whole book) gets delivered. By all means RFC, give the book all the time that you wish, You are one of my favorite authors of all time. I have not, nor will I ever criticized your efforts in putting your stories into print, for the rest of us to enjoy. Your work ethic is the Mount Everest, to which all other authors look up at.
Nor RFC, will I ever complain about your efforts to communicate with your readers. Because as shown in these specific posts (as well as numerous other examples in the forum), you again are the apex, of "author to reader communication".
But there is a relational-ship distinction, between you as the author, and Baen as a publishing company, on what your readers should expect of you, vs what Baen's customers should expect from them.
My point has always been, that your readers, and Baen's customers maybe, as with Admiral/Duchess/Steadholder Harrington, two different personas inhabiting the same body, but our legitimate expectations as a reader vs a customer are different.