Producing the poster folded is a stupid idea, when you are clearly targeting collectors, who would probably want to frame it. That poster needs to be shipped in a tube.

Joe, please reconsider that decision.

Yeah I asked him about that and he said it would be small and folded up. Something like a promo in a cd. Still though it's impressive and I want to frame it in the game room. Also nothing from John Youssi. It's based solely on Stern and the developers who have worked at Stern and the other companies they have worked at. So Steve Ritchie with Black Knight 2000, etc.

To me kickstarter is just a way to shift the risk from the producer to the customer. Customers take the risks of an investor without the reward or influence that regular investors require.

Any chance you can raise the number of super LE pledges from 30 to 80?

Me I don't get pissed off
I just try to give people the clearest information I can.

In that vein, I think we have not yet really communicated how cool the Zombie Yeti print will be.
We are working to make it really special, it will be a 24"x36" four color screen print on fine art paper.
Of course rolled not folded.

And this will be a custom piece of artwork created only for this Kickstarter and with recommendations from the community!

We reviewed a lot of pricing for four color art screen prints of this size and found that this price was in line with what we were seeing and what even Stern has offered at things like Comicon this year.

Thank you for your thoughts!

Books have been crowdfunded for centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

And the risk here, wherever it is placed is very low. If funding is successful we will make the best book we can and deliver it to the all of the backers.

And we are asking the community for input, as an investor would have. We care very much to learn what the community wants from this project.

Dameon and I created PaperFlock to bring projects into the world that a traditional distribution system like a publishing house would not or have not invested in. The reason this book is being done this way is that it may be the only way this book could be done at this time. Crowdfunding is a way to prove to establishments that there is a market and a community that cares enough to support a project like this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, the last time the publishing industry actively pursued a book on pinball was about 28 years ago.

Possible, it will be up to Stern

What about the 18" x 24" 30-year commemorative poster? Will that be folded?

Whatever topics you decide to focus on regarding Stern I have no doubt will be vetted properly and sufficiently with Stern management.
Your title of the book, says it all, as it is a history.

If there are any people that could provide insight in writing pinball books (not just knowledge, technical aspects, and history) it would be Rossignoli.
He knew how to incorporate both good background and high quality photos in a cohesive package and his book took YEARS to write, so the timeframe shown here is quite short, especially for any potential new photography.
I have self and professionally published myself for technical and thesis work based on requirements of research, which also was very time consuming.

Maybe Stern has an entire data library categorized with all their accomplishments and details to make it easy for your behalf, I don't know, as I never have asked this question, especially as staff has changed fairly regularly over the past 15+ years.
This certainly would speed things along.

As much as pinball is a "passion" to me which has turned me more into a pinball historian now, and my experiences of 30 years of collecting, I can only tell you one small piece of advice. Don't exclusively focus heavily on games designed and created the past 5 years, as this is not a comprehensive look at the manufactured history of Stern, or their relationships (pseudo or not) with Bally/WMS, DE, GTB, and Sega, nor the actual support that was provided by both collectors, owners, and operators that shaped Stern into what they are today (during the dark times). They did not survive by being alone.

It is too easy for an author to trap oneself based on the simplicity of finding games that fall into this "recent" category and locally well known by new owners today. Some of the most interesting Stern history took place long before games such as Tron.

Only a few people are left now that know the whole sets of stories.

Yeah the 30 year poster is folded kinda like a fold out you might get in a CD or movie box.
Machine folded and inserted into the book.
This is for shipping cost reasons, rolling a tubing a poster is a lot more expensive.

I'm in. The whole idea kind of rubbed me the wrong way at first (especially the Pro-Prem-LE versions of the book), but I've warmed up to the ideas presented...I'm a sucker for coffee table books.

If there is, in fact, a hard focus on Stern's history, I'm sure it would be tempting to focus on their recent boom, however, I hope the book explores, in depth, their beginnings at the dawn of the Solid State era. Dig deep into the history. Talk to the people who were there--the artists, the programmers, the salespeople--and not just current Stern employees pumping the company line. Such people aren't hard to find, and in most cases, are more than willing to share their memories. Bring new information to seasoned pinheads, as well as schooling those who know little about pinball business.

Thanks for posting this. Didn't know about this book.

Nice colelction of books you have. Thanks for mentioning Santiago Ciuffo's Pinball book, which actually is the best selling pinball book of 2014 and 2015. The story of that book is quite interesting: Santiago printed about 60 copies himself in Argentina, which cost him a small fortune. When I tried to order the book I found out he could not export it due to customs regulations. As I was very impressed with Santiago's photography and story Pinball Magazine then licensed the rights to publish the book, payed Santiago an advance payment and published the book in 2014. I funded that myself without use of Kickstarter. The book is still available in the Pinball Magazine webshop: www.pinball-magazine.com/shop/.

I used to think that funding the book myself (and with help from advertisers) was the best way to do it, but lately I'm doubting that more and more. Many Kickstarter projects use Kickstarter as a marketing tool and it seems to pay off as well. See: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/woodpunk/artcade-the-coin-op-art-book. Maybe I should start doing Kickstartes for new issues of Pinball Magazine?

Just want to hope they produce the book if the project is successful on Kickstarter, as Kickstarter does not guarantee that the company will deliver.

Heaps of Indiegogo and Kickstarter projects that got the funds but did not deliver to their customers ...................................

thanks for taking the time to respond, I will be backing

Do you guys have any plans to do a cheaper paperback version or an even cheaper digital version? I'm not much of an "actual book" person.

will it have Batman 66 in it?

I think the key swinks is to distinguish between a project with a realistic probability of completion and one that exists solely as a "Mission Impossible" style setup designed to fail from the outset.

As always I am going to do further discovery before committing any funds, but on face value it sounds like this book project falls into the former category.

awesome, glad that is included and the SLE cabinet is great, thanks for the reply

I'm a backer (and at the $200 level). jeremy's [zombie yeti] prints go for $100 when he offers them, so I figured that was a good value for all that was included.

I will echo the thoughts of others that it would be nice for the 30 year stern poster to be rolled and not folded if possible since most of us would like to matte and frame it. maybe offer an option to ship the poster rolled for the pro level backers and automatically do it that way for the level with the zombie yeti print.

looking forward to seeing how well the finish product comes out

ps
are the numbered prints based on your backer no.? if so, that would be great since I actually wanted no. 13/100

Sure, why not? If you want to remove the expense of upfront costs and potentially under/over ordering which could cause huge harm to a small publisher such as yourself it is a good way to go. I have backed magazines on Kickstarter and it has allowed them to "presell" the majority of the magazines and know it will not financially hurt them while waiting for orders to (hopefully) come in. Plus the free publicity is a bonus, I see lots of Kickstarter campaigns shared on social media and that is just a win-win. Add little bonuses for Kickstarter backers (post cards, stickers, etc) that you will not get if you order afterwards and you are golden.

Sorry if I missed the answer earlier, and that's why you aren't responding, but do you guys have any plans to do a cheap digital version?

I don't collect/buy physical books really, but i'd throw down a ten spot for a digital pdf copy to read.

Hi sorry, no I forgot to answer (

Currently there aren't any plans for a softcover or digital version.
That doesn't mean it's not possible in the future though.

We are of course hoping to get picked up by another publisher after the Kickstarter is complete, so we want to make sure our offering is interesting to them. Sometimes digital versions of things being out there is a turn off to distribution companies. But depending on the publisher we get, if we get one, they may release one, or if no publisher picks it up we could release one, but it won't be for a long while.

*So possible, but not right now, and not for a long while.

Haha, I'll accept that.

Thanks for putting this together.

I considered to spend 125$ in this project, but someone decided to limit this for only 30 supportes. I believe100 would have been the better choice.

damnit! I didn't even notice that the $200 level didn't have the autographs. I guess I picked the wrong one since the $125 books were still available when I made my pledge. you should get them to sign the $200 level dust jackets as well!

Screen Shot 2016-10-25 at 12.51.55 PM (resized).png

Apparently adding LE's after the first batch is gone is becoming a thing in the pinball business.

alter (resized).jpg

Through popular demand.

I have received a lot of questions and requests, and the number one thing I get asked daily is, can I add more LE books to the project!

I can admit, we were wrong about the enthusiasm for this reward, so we work to correct it.

Joe, totally respect you for going after this project. Hope it works for you guys.

As for the LE... the hard part is telling early supporters that they are buying in on "1 of X"...and when something is limited, X is generally considered to be fixed. Watering down the limited nature might make it less appealing to those that are paid supporters.

If you bought one of ten of a particular art print signed by the artist... would be head scratching to find out they later ran 90 more.

That being said, I get that you're looking for support for a project...to make it a reality.

Probably would be good practice to contact everyone that bought the LE version and let them know about the change.

As one of the first 30 to purchase the LE, I find it less appealing to hear that more are being released. I do; however, appreciate that those that missed out now have an option to get it.
I think the fair thing to do is to offer the first 30 who supported the LE something in return. Like shipping the poster rolled at no extra cost.

I am in thanks!

I totally understand this, and we had long discussions about it on the first day when we sold out of the LE so quickly.
I think maybe the difference between this and the signed art print example is that we are telling the LE backers before there is an exchange of currency. A Kickstarter campaign is not a set in stone transaction, it is a fluid thing that often changes during the campaign. And if someone felt the extra $25 for the LE version wasn't worth it because there are more of them now, they are free to change their pledge level without costing themselves a penny.

Of course I think it's a killer deal, where else can you get those 5 peoples signatures on a single object for less than $25?

All Kickstarter backers were updated the minute the change went live through a Kickstarter update! (Which get's emailed directly to existing backers.)

I truly appreciate your understanding!

I think that is fair. We have added the rolled option for the poster, for people who have backed one of the reward levels with a Zombie Yeti Print. Since that will be rolled and tubed, we can roll and tube the poster too.

Expanding the LE run... so fitting.

Next, the book bindings will have flaws, and there will be a 'case by case' program where you can ship your book back and Stern will repair it for you... but we won't tell anyone unless you complain!

not interested in the limitation thing.
i just want the book, the signings and the shirt.
if i am with 1000000 other peaople , who cares.

I don't think they are going to reach their goal. I know I'm not helping.

They add 20 more LE edition books and in 9 hours they sold 17 of them. Hey if you like Pinball and artwork on Stern tables, buy this. Even if you don't like the artwork too much but want to read about the history of the company, designers, the design process, etc buy it. Really it's only $55 and you most likely will not regret backing this when you start reading it. It's like a family dinner for the price of the book. Excellent reading material on your way to the next Pinball tourney or ReplayFX. *I always find it hilarious how Pinball folk scrutinize over some of the smallest stuff. It's like "should I buy the Pinball Life shiny ball for x amount or the oh so shiny and fab ball for $2 more". Just buy the super shiny steel ball bearing for $2 extra you cheap ass you just bought a $5k+ toy.

I've been through a lot of Kickstarter / crowdfunding campaigns.
We are doing very well for the stage we are at, 33% of the way funded in about 20% of the campaign duration.
And we have some exciting new things to announce soon!

I just made my pledge.

Good luck on the project!

Thank you for your support!!

what would be very cool is a zombie yeti t-shirt with saving pinball but no Stern logo for any pledger to buy as a add on limited to just the kickstarter.

hell have a 2nd shirt option with dirty donnie

Love this idea! I will speak with Zombie Yeti about it

Let's hope they use a good quality paper...

Well good. I never said I wanted you to fail. Just that it didn't look well funded and that I personally was not interested. But apparently I don't know enough about it.

I didn't hear about this kickstarter until 2 days ago. I think that because expo was going on (and even though there were flyers on the table about this @ expo), it just didn't click

compounded with the fact that the thread fell off of the 1st page here on pinside (like many things do) when there are a lot of hot topics, I'm guessing that many other people were/are in the same boat