Stern coffee table book Kickstarter?!?

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#53 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hello Pinside,

My name is Joseph Rubinstein, I am one of the co-founders of PaperFlock inc, and am helping develop this book for Stern Pinball.

I would like to personally answer your questions and address your concerns.

Here are a list of things I think I can address in this thread, please feel free to message me if I left something out.
#1. Kickstarter as charity.
#2. Who we are (PaperFlock).
#3. Will the book come out if funded?
#4. What is the relationship between PaperFlock and Stern?
#5. Why Kickstarter?

#1. Kickstarter as charity.
I have been running crowdfunding campaigns, advising on projects, and even speaking on panels about crowdfunding for 5 years now.
Some people view crowdfunding as a sort of charity. There are two main things that cause people to view it this way. The first is when a crowdfunding campaign charges more for a reward than one would normally pay for the same item in a retail environment. This suggests that you are donating extra funds to help support the project. The other is that many crowdfunding projects try to solve a problem that would lead to social good or have benefactors outside of the crowdfunding community.

I personally don't see crowdfunding as a charity. I see it as another way to help create things that might otherwise not get created.
Our project does not charge more for our rewards than you might see in a retail environment, in fact we made sure our offerings were in line or below the price of similar items in a retail environment. Our project also does not imply we are creating a social good.

Crowdfunding is also not new, books have been crowdfunded for centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

#2. Who we are (PaperFlock).
PaperFlock Inc is Dameon Guess and Joseph Rubinstein.
We are both pinball fans, who play and own machines.
We are both business owners, and we both care a lot about this project.
We are here to create something we care about.

#3. Will the book come out if funded?
Yes. The book will definitely come out if funded.
As I stated above I have a long history with crowdfunding /crowdsourcing (https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/joedp) and my partner Dameon has a long history with printing. I have created and delivered on Kickstarter campaigns in the past. We are here, our reputation is on the line, Stern's reputation is on the line, I guarantee the book will come out if it gets funded.

#4. What is the relationship between PaperFlock and Stern?
In January of this year Dameon met with Jody from Stern at the CES convention. They briefly discussed the idea of a book. Dameon brought the idea to me and we spent 9 months working on proposals, contracts, and concepting out the book and the company to create it. About 6 weeks ago we all finally agreed on ideas and terms and signed a contract that gives PaperFlock the rights to use Stern content to create a book, and a crowdfunding campaign to fund the book.

#5. Why Kickstarter?
So why crowdfund this book? Crowdfunding is more than just raising funds, it is also community building and public awareness.
In our proposal we told Stern that "Building and managing a Kickstarter project involves a lot of one on one communication with fans." And that this communication "gives the customer base a chance to participate in the recording of this important history, and hopefully a sense of ownership in the project."

We have setup a forum on our website: http://www.paperflock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2

The purpose of this forum is to have a conversation with all of the Kickstarter backers about what they want in this book. This doesn't mean that we will be able to accommodate every single person's desire for content, but it does mean we are listening and interested in what people are looking for.

Crowdfunding this project means that we care about what the community wants, what the community has to offer. It creates a meaningful conversation between a company and it's customers.

So could Stern Pinball make a book of their own, with their own money and their own ideas? Of course they could.
But they could not make this book. A book full of the communities interests and thoughts. A book with the more than one point of view. A book we all can say we are proud to have participated in.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Interested to hear yours.

Key post

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#66 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from SkillShot:
If you add a chapter about Stern's poor business practices (I.E social media) and their flagrant cash grabs; I might be interested in the book.

You can definitely suggest this on our forum if you become a backer

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#67 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from MrBally:
Jeffrey Lawton, an individual who loves Bingo pinball machines wrote and published Bally Bingo Pinball Machines. No kickstarter. His money and Schiffer Publishing. Same with the follow-up, Bingo Wars-United vs. Bally.

Do you know Jeffrey Lawton? I would be interested in to hear if his books were profitable for him. And if he would consider using crowdfunding today if he was creating a new book.

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#73 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:
All the enthusiast potential authors details provided in this update should be provided on the Kickstarter campaign. These details were omitted from the funding design. These were important.

You are right, we spent a long time talking about how much information about ourselves and our relationship to Stern would be interesting for people to read in the body of our Kickstarter. You can believe it was a much longer document at one time, but we cut it down as we did not want it to be too long.

Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:
I don't pre-order concept ideas with no decisive internal content, no estimated delivery date, and if funded no guarantee of anything being published.

That is a totally fine stance to take.
I personally back a lot of crowdfunding projects.
I also appreciate the chance to interact with project creators and have my thoughts heard before it's too late to change things.
If you have ideas about what the content of the book should be, waiting till it's available on Amazon is not the right approach.
There is an estimated delivery date. May of 2017. There is a personal guarantee from us, and a professional guarantee from Stern that the book will be published. You seem like the kind of person who might be remiss if we skipped an important subject. If you are you can get involved now, before it's too late to change the book

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#74 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Razorbak86:
Does Stern have any editorial control over the content of the final release?

Stern is a content partner in this project.
There will likely not be anything in the book Stern doesn't want in there.

But I have to tell you, from personal experience, They are open to making this book a truly historical document with all the good and bad history in there. In the beginning I did get some resistance from some people there about the nature of telling the Stern story, but through some great conversations they have come around to the view point that there needs to be hardship in the story for there to be triumph. And I do think this story is a great story about triumph.

So they are on board for the hardship part too.

Key post

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#85 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Elvisinmypants:
I'm not against profit, I just believe a book resulting from a project of passion would be worth having. A book put together in six months by and upstart business probably won't be as good. The solicitation of content and direction from the passionate reads like exploitation to me. I guess that is business.

Listen, I'm not going to comment on wether you should feel exploited or not, but if you are concerned about the quality of the book, I would encourage you to get involved and participate to make sure it comes out the way you want it!

Quoted from paul_8788:
I don't know how much it costs to gather materials, design and then print 1000 copies of a book, but I doubt anyone is going to be drinking expensive champagne and snorting blow off a hooker's a** with $50k minus all the costs.

Exactly. After all the expenses there is probably not going to be a lot left over. We are doing this cause we love pinball and love Stern in particular. We created PaperFlock, because no one wants this amount of money running through their personal bank account or personal taxes.

Quoted from spfxted:
I'll do it for $25K

I want to meet your print house!!!

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#88 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from tacshose:
Between Stern's paid disappointing expo party, the recent PR disasters of PF problems, blocking people from FB, Price controls on what a distributor can sell a product for, and general lack of caring and dishonesty, I.E. no changes to PF manufacturing have happened... I think the timing of this book is terrible.

You very well may be right that the timing may be off. We wanted to time it with the 30th Anniversary for obvious reasons, that doesn't mean it's the best time though.

Quoted from tacshose:
Joseph I think you messed up big time letting Stern have any content control as this could have been an interesting behind the scenes book about Stern, the good, the bad, the ugly, but no way that happens with Stern's lockdown machine with the editing pen.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised. We are talking with several longtime pinball people who have do not work for Stern about helping us structure the story / history, and Stern is on board for this. As I said, at first their immediate impulse was to only focus on the positives, but through long productive conversations we convinced them that a more balanced approach would tell a better story and ultimately show how they have persevered.

Now my opinion of Stern seems to be quite a bit higher than your opinion, but we have been dealing with them for 9 months on a creative project. As you might guess that is a difficult thing to do with Stern, and there have been trying / frustrating times, but I honestly believe that they have the best intentions going into this project, and overall with the industry.

The biggest complaints I hear about Stern is price gouging. And I can understand that from a customer point of view, every little bit counts when it comes to $5000+ games, but you also must recognize that whatever their business practices have been, it has allowed them to stay in business when all of the other companies from that time have gone away.

Honestly, what do you think would have happened to pinball if Stern closed it's doors 15 years ago?

Again, if you are honestly concerned about the quality and content of the book, here I am, listening.
Get involved. Tell me the side of the story you think needs to be in the book.

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#90 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Ed likes our project

https://vimeo.com/188173183

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#96 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from dotEXE:
I would really love a Limited Edition of this book, but I'm a bit worried it won't hit that funding mark.

The best way to ensure that we hit the funding mark is support our project

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#99 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Homepin:
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I would back you in an instant BUT I'm not putting my credit card details online for several months - that isn't an option to me.
KS needs to accept other forms of payment IMO.

Well the Kickstarter payment gateway is actually controlled / run by Amazon.com.
So if you have ever ordered anything from Amazon the personal information risk is exactly the same.
And most credit cards actually protect customers from fraudulent online charge incidence these days, you can call your credit card company to find out if you are covered.

If you still feel it's too risky I totally understand and appreciate your sign of support anyway

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#105 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from hool10:
I'm at the $125 level as well. Why? Well here is my reasoning:
Please don't get pissed off Joe by some of the comments here. It's a dumpster fire of a forum with little mod enforcement.

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!

Quoted from vicjw66:
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.

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.

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

Possible, it will be up to Stern

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#106 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

#109 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:
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.

Stern has "reams" of drawings and photos in catalog. Just the oversize drawings cabinet had thousands of drawings in it. The challenge of this book, along with telling a compelling and accurate history of Stern, will be to narrow down the photos and drawings to what we can fit into the book. And we will have a team working on it, not just one person, as in many other book projects, which is why we believe we can get a quality product done in a relatively short time.

Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:
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.

Yes this is good advice! It is far too easy to just focus on what is popular at the barcade now.
Very interested in what you feel has shaped Stern, especially from a collectors point of view.
Many people don't like the LE, Premium, Pro conception, but I see it as Stern adapting to a market changing from operators to collectors and that it helped keep them in business while others who did not change to fit the market could not stay afloat.
That is my impression anyway. How do you all see it?

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#110 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Razorbak86:
What about the 18" x 24" 30-year commemorative poster? Will that be folded?

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.

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#115 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from swinks:
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 ...................................

Yes, we will produce the book if the project is successful. I have responded to this concern before, and I'll probably do it again
I have been involved in many crowdfunding campaigns, all of which have delivered their rewards. Many of the crowdfunding projects that do not deliver their rewards are technology projects. It is very understandable that a technology product may run into manufacturing or even R&D hurdles that prevent them from completing, but in this case the technology to print a book is very secure. In fact my business partner in PaperFlock, Dameon Guess, has been in the printing business for many years. If the project is successful, we will produce books and deliver them to our kickstarter backers.

Quoted from spiroagnew:
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.

Thanks for your support!

Quoted from spiroagnew:
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.

We are doing this and I am excited to tell you all about it as soon as I have it in writing! But if you have any suggestions as to additional people we should talk to and a way to get in touch with them I would greatly appreciate it!

Quoted from unigroove:
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... Maybe I should start doing Kickstartes for new issues of Pinball Magazine?

I would strongly encourage you to do a crowdfunding campaign. My experiences with it have been amazing, both from the creator and backer sides!

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#120 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from swinks:
will it have Batman 66 in it?

Yes definitely!!! Game is SO beautiful, and George Gomez has already promised to share never before seen design sketches!

Quoted from pinsanity:
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.

Please do, this is my personal profile on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/joedp

And feel free to read about the Digital Bolex project, which I founded on Kickstarter, and delivered on to happy customers.

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#123 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from j_m_:
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.

Thank you for your support!

Quoted from j_m_:
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.

That's a good idea! I will run it by the printer to see if that is feasible. So just to be clear the poster comes folded, unless you have also ordered the Zombie Yeti print, in which case the poster and the print come rolled together.

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

Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. I will look into how difficult that is and get back to you.

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#126 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Wolfmarsh:
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.

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#130 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Project Updated!

More LE books added!
Reward level with both the LE book and the Zombie Yeti Print added!
A slip cover for LE books added!
&
Per your requests, a rolled poster option added!
(To see the rolled poster option, check out the "Shipping" section or the newest update.)

Key post

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#133 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

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

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.

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#137 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from 27dnast:
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.

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?

Quoted from 27dnast:
Probably would be good practice to contact everyone that bought the LE version and let them know about the change.

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

Quoted from Backyardace:
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 truly appreciate your understanding!

Quoted from Backyardace:
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 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.

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#142 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

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

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!

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#144 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Magic_Mike:
I just made my pledge.
Good luck on the project!

Thank you for your support!!

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#146 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from swinks:
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

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#153 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from j_m_:
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

Agreed! What do you think is the best way to make sure people are informed? On this platform and others?
I thought about creating a new thread, but honestly I'm not sure the etiquette here.

Quoted from puck:
When I got the kickstarter update eMail about increasing the LE's I was so out. Having never backed out of a kickstarter pledge I was not impressed. Decided to check this thread before pulling my pledge and this offer pulls me back in. It's a small token, but appreciated. Love ZY art and will continue to support anything with his name on it.

I'm very sorry to hear that increasing the LE numbers was such a turn off to you. I admit we should have started with a higher number and we did not properly anticipate the enthusiasm for this rewards level.

I too absolutely love Zombie Yeti's contributions to the pinball community especially and hope to be able to add additional reward items associated to his work soon!

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#155 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

If you feel like checking out George Gomez talking about Stern / pinball...

https://vimeo.com/189165287

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#157 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Matesamo:
All fifty are gone. Hopefully someone will drop (or raise) their pledge level and I can sneak in their spot.

Are you interested in the signed Zombie Yeti custom art print? There are still LE books at that reward level

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#158 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

John Borg talking about how he got into pinball:
https://vimeo.com/189647968

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#163 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from jar155:
Stern shared an update to advertise the additional LE books being available. They banned me from their Facebook page for asking if it might upset previous LE buyers who pledged with the idea that their LE copy would actually be a bit more "limited."

I'm sorry you got banned. That is definitely not my intention.
Would you like me to try to get that decision reversed?
Let me know if there is anything I can do.

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#170 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from tacshose:
Btw JoeDP if you didn't think asking a question on Stern's FB page leads to a ban you need to research the company you are working with much much more, and especially since you are giving them creative and editorial control.

I know there has been some tension recently, I see it on threads and in other places.
I also know they have worked really hard to keep pinball going, and continue to do this.
And I know we all have common goals, maybe different ideas about how to get there.

I don't think they should ban people, but I also see how they could feel defensive right now.

If we all want pinball to grow and be strong we need them, and they need us.

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#173 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

John Trudeau talking about Ghostbusters!

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#175 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from jar155:
John Trudeau is so awesome. He still has such high enthusiasm for his craft.

He is definitely one of my favorite designers and Ghostbusters is my favorite game right now!

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#177 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

This was such a fun interview!

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#207 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I have been absent from this thread for a few days, have been super busy with fun things!

I can't wait to announce new things for the project.

I do believe it will get funded, many kickstarter projects make 50% or more of their money in the last 48 hours.

And we have some great things to announce in this last stretch!

More good news to come!

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#209 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Razorbak86:
Joe, is this book going to be professionally edited before publication?
It may seem like a silly question, but the number or typos on the Kickstarter page makes me wonder. It's not a big deal for a crowd funding website, but more important for a hardback collectible.
No disrespect intended. Just curious.

Hi Razor, Definitely!
We have budgeted a professional writer and a professional editor.
If by chance we get a distribution deal with a large publisher they would insist on this of course, but either way yes, definitely yes.
Professional writer, professional editor.

We know of the typo in the rewards, it was done in a little haste before the launch night at Expo, in a hotel with terrible internet.
Not an excuse, but kickstarter platform isn't an intuitive writing platform and doesn't have standard word processing tools like spell check

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#211 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Slash joins the project!

And new incentives!

FINAL_PaperFlock_Newsletter (resized).jpg

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#230 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hey I know some people are disappointed more LE books were added.
But we need to do what we can to ensure the success of the project.

A lot of the concerns and questions raised recently have been addressed earlier in this same thread so I don't want to go too much into it but...

Quoted from Flippermatt:
Why the hell doesn't Gary take pride in this, back it up 100% and do it himself ?

Gary takes a lot of pride in this project and we believe that having it crowd funded and much of the content open for backers input BEFORE the completion of the book will add to it's integrity and honesty.

Quoted from Strohz:
Why is Lyman Sheets not highlighted in any of the promos or autographing the books? His programming is one of the main reason for Stern's success in my book, so I find it very curious he's not prominently featured. Did he just opt not to participate, or how were the featured employees for the book's history chosen?

He did not opt out, he was just not there the week we were there.
This is a great suggestion and a great example of how the community can help us shape the direction of the book!
I will look into this now.

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#233 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
will you fully document the current QC issues surronding the behind the scenes on all the defective playfields, what was the root cause, and what is\is not being done to fix this issue?
which companies made the junk pfs, what caused this come to a head, what is the fix?
These are the sort of things that interest me.
If so, I will support.

Hi Whysnow,

It's hard to define what "fully document" means.
This is intended to be a look at the last 30 years of Stern Pinball.
As so it's more about the overall large sweeping decisions and moves of the industry and the company.

I am not the author of the book so I can't say specifically, but I believe that something like this would be covered, but maybe not in the deep detail you are hoping for. Trying to be honest. This is a look at 30 years, and as so it will have the appropriate detail for each piece of the story.

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#236 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
thanks. Does not sound like what I am looking for.

No problem I would not want you to invest in something and then later be disappointed by it.

Quoted from cooked71:
joedp I have to commend you on the way you've communicated throughout this thread.

Thanks a lot! I try hard to be as open and honest about the project as I can at all times.
Communicating on social media can be very tough for companies that don't have departments dedicated to this kind of thing.
We all very much appreciate your support!

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#243 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from tacshose:
Hey JoeDP go buy some NIB Sterns like Kiss, WWE, SMVE, etc and have some clearcoat crack, some ghosting, lack of code, etc and when Stern turns their back on you let's see how excitied you are to work with them then...

I did. I bought a Stern NIB GOT about a year ago. I have had one very minor problem with it, before I got involved with this project, so they didn't know me from Adam. I called them on the phone. They answered the phone, a computer didn't pick up and tell me I had 15 minutes to wait to talk to a human. And the person that answered the phone was immensely helpful and talked me through the fix while I was on the phone with them. The fix worked and my machine has not had another problem since.

Quoted from PinMonk:
It's admirable you want to print the book in the USA, but for a very short run like this it's pretty silly/non-productive.

I am open to suggestion
If you have a manufacturer that you believe will do a good job for less money feel free to share.

Quoted from puck:
incorrect... source : worked for over a decade in the print industry

We did a lot of shopping around, my business partner Dameon has been in the print industry for over a decade, and we didn't find a huge price difference between overseas and US for 1000 books.

But we are open to learn

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#252 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Something new and cool is coming

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2

#253 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Signed Slash Package added!

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#254 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

And by the way, we are listening.

This time before we added the 25 Slash books, we lowered the number of LE books from other reward levels, so the number of LE books is the same.

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#272 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from ZenTron:
If you pledge $110 for Pro Book, you get two?
id like to get two Pro books. Thanks

Hey yes if you pledge more than the amount of the kickstarter pledge level you choose the extra money becomes a "credit" you can apply at the time of distribution.

We are using the company / service BackerKit, which has a robust post Kickstarter shopping cart system in which you can add rewards before anything is shipped.

As like I said, if you have extra money in your pledge over the amount of the reward level you chose you will be able to associate that money to the available rewards like extra books!

Quoted from citerne:
4 days left
7 030 $ to go
See the last stats at :
https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/paperflock/keeping-the-ball-alive-30-years-of-stern-pinball

Yeah just yesterday they said it would take 5 days to make it to $44K, and now we are at $45K, less than 24 hours later!

They just don't know what we have planned, and that Slash is on our side

Quoted from ronlisa:
I jumped in last night at the $125 level. I thought the LE book with the autographs was just too cool to pass up... not to mention helping out on getting this book to become a reality also.

Thank you all for your support with this project! I can't wait to make it an amazing product everyone will love!

BTW some cool exciting things happening tomorrow too so look out for your update email!

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#280 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Kickstarter update...

You've seen the artwork on the new Batman 66 game right?

It is absolutely amazing right?

Well, I have great news! The talented artist behind that game's artwork, Christopher Franchi, is coming on board to do one of the covers for our book!

We got a chance to speak on the phone and he told me about how he got involved with the Batman 66 machine.
Christopher has been an original Batman fan since he was a kid, and a pinball fan for over 10 years, but he had never worked on a pinball machine.

One day just about 6 months ago Christopher received a Facebook friend request from Greg Freres. He was not familiar with at the name at the time, but noticed Greg's profile said he worked for Stern Pinball. Christopher accepted the request and less than 2 minutes later received a message asking whether he'd like to sign an NDA. Christopher's response was an emphatic "Hell yes!".
While working on the Batman 66 game Christopher also had his normal day job, so he would work on Batman 66 at night, and basically didn't sleep for 4 months.

Well Christopher, your months of hard work were worth it! That is a great looking machine and we are thrilled to have you working on a cover with us!

Learn more about Christopher's art here: https://www.facebook.com/Metaluna-5-Media-169657579716029/about/
We are so close to our goal! Please share this post and the project with everyone you know!
And as always thank you all for your support! Joe and Dameon, the Paperflock Team!

If for some reason you are unfamiliar with his work on Batman 66 here is some examples of his incredible work!

Chistopher Franchi Art (resized).jpg

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#285 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Homepin:
Pretty normal with most kickstarter/indiegogo projects. Many people "hang back" to see how it goes and if the promoter is smart and has done their homework, as is obvious in this case, they come up with all sorts of extra incentives to buy in as the project evolves.

Exactly I think there is an emotional / psychological pain in investing or backing a project that fails.
So many people, rather than risking that pain, will click the little "Remind Me" star and if the project seems like it could make it, they will back it in the last few days.

There have been numerous APA (American Psychological Association) studies recently that emotional / psychological pain is as real as physical injury.

"As researchers have dug deeper into the roots of rejection, they’ve found surprising evidence that the pain of being excluded is not so different from the pain of physical injury." - APA article on social rejection 2012

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#286 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Also in case you didn't see it we are sending out die cut glossy printed Xmas ornaments to our backers for the holiday!

Screen Shot 2016-11-29 at 12.31.51 AM (resized).png

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#291 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Cursed:
Go to click it and they are sold out? what? Am I missing something here, they have not even been made yet?

Sorry about that.

We are trying hard to balance people's desire for the limited books to be limited and people getting what they want.
If you have not been able to find a level that suits you please PM me.

Thanks, Joe

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#298 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from MIL:
Just wondering how the LE books ( across all LE levels ) are going to work Joe ?
I mean , if the target is reached and this goes ahead and at that time you have say 100 LE books pledged (eg. 75 from $125 level , 10 from $225 level etc. , etc. ) . Is the printing a one-off type thing and the 100 LE books are all that will be printed .. ever !

Hey Scott, I answered this in our pm too, but I think we will end up printing all of the limited books, but I don't believe they will go up for sale. But yes all of the printing we are planning to do for these editions of the books are a one time thing, at least the way we are currently intending to do the printing.

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#307 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

We made it!

#308 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Rondogg:
I have a feeling Stern has a pretty big closed door agreement with this book...

Don't know what this means exactly so it's hard to refute.
Do you intend to say that they won't be trading information with the book makers?
Or do you mean to say they are going to have a heavy hand in editing?

Stern has already shown us a lot of openness and trust, they have taken us back and dusted off drawings that haven't seen the light of day for 20+ years, they have let us create photo and video documents of their process and staff, and they have trusted us with the message in that content. There are a lot of companies that would have been uneasy with the process we have already been through.

So I'm not going to say we will always agree on everything, but there has already been a substantial trust built, and I believe more to come

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#311 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from puck:
Joe can you clarify
eMail just sent..
"As a Kickstarter backer you will be helping us decide what design goes on both the Jacket and the T-shirt! We will be working with artists popular in the pinball community to create covers and designs for these rewards!"
Vs
Kickstarter Page
"Zombie Yeti artwork"
I am guessing that this was just done to appeal to a broader audience that doesn't know who ZY is, but would love clarification.

Yeah absolutely! We are intending to create custom artwork for this book with ZY and now also Christopher Franchi.
The Kickstarter backers will get a chance to help determine what these amazing artists create for us!

We are planning to use one of the ZY designs for the jacket, but what ZY designs will be influenced by our Kickstarter backers!

0

#312 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Last day!

A little over 6 hours to go!

0

#315 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Cool new update with Christopher Franchi rough sketch for cover!

0

#316 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Some LE allocations moved, no new LE books added!

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#327 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Rondogg:
Any word if Kaminkow is involved in the project? Pretty big omission if he isn't...

We definitely intend to interview him for the project!

Quoted from tacshose:
Hey if Paperflock was producing an independent book about an autobiography of Stern being written by a reputable documentarian author I would be all in for a history lesson

Hey you have no idea what we are going to produce.
And we are for sure intending to hire a reputable author, and produce something full of interesting history.
It's not going to be all super negative as you would like I imagine, but you are awful early for shitting on a project that we are asking for community suggestions and support for. You don't like it fine, but getting mad about a coffee table book looks silly. There are companies out there killing people with unsafe products, go get mad about something that is actually causing harm.

Quoted from Rondogg:
You have forced my hand. Just upgraded my donation to the LE level to make up for your lack of enthusiasm.
Look, cost cutting is a Stern Hallmark from day one. It's why they are still in business and Williams isn't. You want to complain about their business practices and "send a message" then don't buy one of their overpriced games NIB. Don't stick your pecker in the mashed potatoes of someone trying to make an awesome book for the 99% community of pinball fans who never had a problem with Stern.

Thank you for your support!

People are mad at Stern for selling $5000 games, but who out there is selling NIB machines for less?
You want Stern to return to the days of W&B well they have to sell as many games as W&B did then.
The more they sell the cheaper they can make them.
You want them to work with you, find a better way to create / release updates, don't fight them.
When has someone every worked with you better when you fight with them?
Stern is a company that has been fighting for years keep the industry going.
They have an incredible team.
They are making games that are wicked fun to play with great licenses.
They are adding facilities and features, in short they are doing what they need to do to keep the company healthy.
You want better code / machines / whatever, they need our support.

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#330 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Minneapolispin:
Does anyone know if this book will be for sale beyond the Kickstarter campaign? Or are they just printing copies for those that pre-order?

It may possibly be for sale after the campaign, but I cannot guarantee it. So if you for sure want a copy, I would jump now!
Only a few hours left!

Quoted from jlm33:
(disclaimer - my personal opinion of course, not spoken as a Moderator or Pinside representative)
I really hesitated - I finally decided to support the project. Not that I disagree with what Whysnow wrote. But I chose to support the guys behind this project. And I have no illusion about what it will be; a free marketing tool for Stern.
And yet, despite Stern's current vision of the pinball market (which seems amazingly short-sighted to me / "Milk them while you can"), I still thank them for having kept pinball alive. But this will be for me a hommage to the company that released a few of the best games of all times and managed to stay alive in difficult times. Not a free pass to their current business model.
Stern: you have (had?) a very loyal and thankful customer base but there won't be a 40th anniversary book if you carry on like that.

Thanks for your support!
We are much more likely to build a healthy relationship with Stern if we all support each other.

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#334 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
Sorry but you are missing the HUGE point...
People are mad at Stern for selling 5k games with LESS stuff, MORE QC issues, LESS code, CONTINUAL LIES to the customers about what is going on with QC issues and code issues, LOWER quality components, and BLANTANT censoring of anything even remotely negative (still cant believe they kicked out a well known member of the community for having the 'audacity to question a crazy 15k price and application for a game).

Listen I'm not saying everything in the pinball world is rosy and perfect or that we as a community can't push Stern to focus on the things the community is interested in, I'm just saying coming at them swinging is probably not the best way to get what you want.

Quoted from Whysnow:
I call bullshit on Stern saving pinball... WE saved pinball! The people that bought, played, and paid to play during the dark years. Shit, Bally/Williams gets more credit with saving pinball than Stern.

I hear you, you are right, Stern, by themselves, did not save pinball. The operators, collectors, and players were right there with them doing it together. That's what we should focus on. And B/W can have credit too, they made some great machines, but they also chose not to keep doing it. I don't know the whole story, but it seems to me if they wanted to push through the hard times, that is a choice they could have made. And it is a choice that Stern made, and we should be grateful to them for that. There were probably much more profitable avenues they could have taken. Making pinball machines is tough!

That's all I'm saying, let's be on the same team, working with Stern, and whoever else is making pins to make the industry better.
Infighting is not sexy, does not help draw people to the hobby / sport, and doesn't build any bridges.
You want to see change in something, get involved. See what you have to offer.
Start a league in your area. Find something positive for the industry as a whole and approach it from that perspective.
Anyway, that's my two cents, and what I am choosing to do.

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#344 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
I do lots to promote and have tried to help out with Stern also, but you can only do so much.

You gave it a try and didn't get what you want right away, might as well turn vindictive and toxic.

Quoted from Pinballlew:
I don't agree that any of these machines should cost this much and I do believe the price is killing pinball on location. All the manufacturers are guilty of this and without a serious adjustments pinball will only be profitable in select areas. The bottom line prices are sky high among all the manufacturers. Gary says we must support location pinball to keep pinball relevant then increases prices that hurts operators...doesn't make sense to me. Where is his support for the OP's?

Well I have spoken to 3 operators about their Ghostbusters purchase, and all three of them said the GB machine paid itself off in record time. One OP told me that his Premium machine paid itself off in less than 3 months, not 3 years! That is amazing to me, makes me want to get into operating just that machine

And I know one machine doesn't tell the whole story, but it means Stern is moving in the right direction that their newest machines are breaking profit records for their operators. JT told us that doing a GB machine was on his short list for a long time! Some of Stern's more recent policies involves them giving their designers and artists more free reign and really respecting the art.

JT also told us he had the idea for magnet slings years before when he was at a different major pinball company, and that pinball company scrapped the idea as too expensive, and Stern embraced it. Gotta give credit where it's due.

Quoted from Pinballlew:
I do know this though...Stern makes great games that are fun and although I from the sideline think they could do things better in a lot of areas...I think they do a pretty good job and create lots of good games.

100%!

Last thing I'll say is, Stern picked up a lot of people that made the games you love from W/B, so Stern today is kind of an amalgamation of all three. The designers you love were out of work or doing something totally unrelated to pinball, and Stern brought them back to the industry. Just the fact they got these guys working on pins again has got to be at least a little respectable.

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#356 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
do your research on the hawker and you will see a common trend regarding timelines...

Please do research me, I'm very proud of my history with crowdfunding.

I have spoken on panels for social media and crowdfunding for organizations like TechZulu, NFFTY, Slamdance Film Festival, Austin Film Fest, and others. Stories about my projects have been featured on WIRED, Engadget, Indiewire, MovieMaker, TechCrunch, the Creators Project, Mashable, and more. I have run a successful kickstarter campaign raising over $300,000 and advised on dozens of other campaigns, helping others raise over $1.29 million to date.

I have worked on specialized social media campaigns for the biggest companies in the world including Red Bull, Coke, Warner Bros, Microsoft, and Disney just to name a few.

None of my crowdfunding campaigns have ever failed or have ever failed to deliver an excellent end product.

The Digital Bolex project created a low cost cinema camera many said was impossible to do. It took longer than expected, but when it was done it was so much more camera than we originally set out to make and so much more than the backers paid for.

Incidentally, all the video for this campaign was shot on this camera

You can attack me all you want, I'm used to it, but if you actually cared about the finish product you could just talk to me as I'm here listening to everyone.

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#360 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
so when will the book be delivered?

The book will be delivered in May of next year as indicated on the pledge level of every reward on the kickstarter page.

Quoted from master_of_chaos:
if i get nothing, well, than we can talk again about scam.

I promise you will get a book, that I honestly hope we will all be proud of / happy with

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#367 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
kickstarter is a scam. It is a crowdfunding milennial BS where many people make 'jobs' out of starting continual crowd funding projects to make money. They take on zero risk, zero investment, and have zero obbligation or issue if they dont deliver.

You have obviously never run a kickstarter campaign.
#1. As pointed out in this same thread many pages ago, crowdfunding books is a practice that is hundreds of years old, the internet makes it so you can reach more people, but it is not a change of practice.
#2. Creating and running a Kickstarter campaign is ALOT of hard work, behind every post you see there are hours and hours of shooting, editing, sound design, writing, photo editing, dozens and dozens of calls to potential partners. If all someone wanted was an easy way to make money, doing it though crowdfunding would not be a smart choice. You can ask anyone that knows me this has been a lot of work for the past almost year of my life.
#3. Crowdfunding enables artists and creators to not be beholden to big companies or distributors, which to me is a very good thing, that enables products the artist and backer are more happy with.

Anyway, there is probably nothing I can say that will satisfy some people, and that's OK everyone is entitled to their opinion and have the right to express it.

If people have real concerns or are interested in participating in the creation of the book I am here, we are starting a forum on our site very soon, and anyone can message me here or email me at: [email protected]

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#369 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from robin:
As for suggestions for this book. What I would love to read about is difficult challenges and how they got solved. We all know about many of the issues that came up over the years. I would like to read about the solutions and how they got there. Hope that makes sense.
I also love reading about "things that didn't make it into the game". Features that got left out of DE/Sega/Stern games. And why. That's always a good read.
It would be nice to read about the challenges of licensing (+ some examples if possible).
I would love to read how code comes to life. I mean, where does a programmer start? How does code come to be? Does much code get re-used from older games? Tell me all about the challenges code!

I have taken note of all of your suggestions!

We have already started collecting photos and anecdotes about "things that didn't make it into the game", which is one of my favorite subjects too!

Quoted from robin:
I hope this book will dare to ask some of the more difficult questions. We all know making pinball is hard. This book is a great opportunity to show us just how hard it is.
Just some ideas

I love this phrasing, and is exactly what I talked to Stern about before launching this campaign. I told them that this is the story of Stern and that for any story to be worthwhile there must be hardship, there must be challenges, and including those in the story is what helps people identify with the characters and care about the outcome. And I'm happy to say that Stern is onboard with this!

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#419 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hey Guys sorry I haven't been on here much.
The kickstarter wiped me out, then the holidays, then getting back to work here in the new year.

But I'm here, we have a great announcement for tomorrow!
And we will be active on our forum starting tomorrow too!

Thanks for hanging in there.

0

#422 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from j_m_:
hey joe, I never received my xmas ornament. were those mailed out to everyone?

They were, I'm very sorry you didn't get it, I heard some people are still getting theirs late. If you want I can email you something. Just PM me.

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#424 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

OK here you go! I think this is an exciting one...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paperflock/keeping-the-ball-alive-30-years-of-stern-pinball/posts/1787981

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#425 7 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from puck:
I was pleasantly surprised by what you put together as a free thank you.

Glad to hear it!

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#455 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hi Everyone, I haven't read through the whole thread, but yes the project is still going strong we are working hard on it, we have done a lot over the past 60 days and we are working on a really big update on Kickstarter. I will not be posting here too much as we are trying to build out communication through Kickstarter. If you are a backer please feel free to message me there.

And yes I have LOTS of other projects and do get busy, that doesn't mean I don't care about this one and won't make sure it will be a great book!

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#456 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

I know it's been a while again, new post coming very soon!

We are waiting on the answer to a few questions, but as soon as we get them we will have a big new post!

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#835 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hello Pinside.

I know many of you have been disappointed in my participation in this forum, the number of updates we have posted, and many other things.
Many of you have also contacted me via the private message system.

I do apologize about our lack of responses.

I will now be participating in this forum now until completion.
And I will be slowly responding to each of the private messages, but it might take me a little while.

There is a lot of good news!
The book editing has come a really long way over the last 45 days.
I believe the story is really compelling and engaging.
We will be posting a new update on the Kickstarter about this and other things.

This is one of the most difficult things to grapple with for this project as it gives the book it's structure and it's message.
And I believe we have gotten to a great place with all of these things.

We are currently on our 6th revision of the material and have sent it out to key readers, some who have no background in pinball, and some who are very knowledgable about the subject. And of course Stern is also reviewing this revision.

Our next steps will be to collect all of the comments from our readers and determine if any edits or additions would make the project better.

As I said, I will be on this forum now until the project is complete. I may not comment everyday, but if you address me I will respond.

Thank you all for your support and patience, I promise we are doing our best to create something we will all be proud of for years to come.

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#841 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hi, again thank you all for your support and patience.
It really means a lot to us.

Quoted from Whysnow:
This was your post from 8 months ago.
Where have you been and what has been going on? ... what is different now?

As many of you know working with Stern to make a community based project has its challenges.
We have been working diligently on the book, and are excited by the progress.
Some things have changed and we have gotten blessing to resume our community out reach.

There is always give and take in these situations, and over the past 6 months there have been many changes.
Some have complicated things quite a bit, while others are creating more allowances.

Pushing / pressing issues at the wrong time can in many cases be detrimental to the overall well being of a project like this, so we were patient. Now we believe we can move forward quickly and finish this project in a really great way!

I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but just know, we are ready to move forward and excited to do so!

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#845 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hi Everyone,

Just today we had a long editing meeting and created our 7th revision of the book that reviewers will be reviewing soon!
Kickstarter update tomorrow.

Quoted from Rondogg:
Do you have a new timeframe goal?

Thanks for your question, we do not want to announce a timeline yet, but we are hopefully in the final stages of the copy (text) edit.
After we lock the copy it will be much easier to create an estimated timeline.

Quoted from Max_Badazz:
You know what would smooth everything over with everyone...... adding the translucent overlapping pages

This was a dream of ours! Unfortunately we are pretty sure it is cost prohibitive at the purchasing capacity we have with current orders.
We will look a little deeper into it, but we know it is very pricey.

Quoted from Billy16:
Joe--welcome back. Hope you stay back. Wish you would have never left.

Thank you, me too

Until later, thank you all again for your patience and support, Joe

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#860 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your comments.

Yes we looked into the transparent pages, yes they are VERY expensive, and the conclusion we came to was we needed to sell a lot of books to justify the cost.
So we know the cost at the higher quantities, but I'm not sure the cost at the lower quantity.
But I can tell you cost per book usually goes up the lower the quantity not down, so it is probably not possible.

When looking at a project like this you have to consider there are MANY costs associated with this process, not just the printing costs.
The writers get paid, the editor gets paid, the photo editor gets paid, the graphic designer gets paid, each of the 3 cover artists get paid, and we also have to buy and print T-shirts, jackets, and other things.

So our budget for printing the books, and paying everyone, and creating the other rewards is VERY tight!

Quoted from Dbaum88:
Drop Target Zine was not late on their kickstarter but produced gorgeous pinball books like 1-2 months after their kickstarter.

Yes there are many other books created on kickstarter that are not late.
I don't want to make a bunch of excuses, but telling a compelling story that covers 30 years and involves so many people is a huge task.
And the complications with I'll say political issues only made it harder.

So I deeply apologize for the delay, we are trying to make the best product possible for posterity, and trust me, Dameon and I did not plan to dedicate this much of our lives to this project, so we would love to have been able to deliver the book on time, it just wasn't in the cards this time.

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#862 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from jar155:
Probably a good idea not to name Jody personally as a complicating factor...

It was not Jody, honestly.

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4

#877 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hi Everyone,

I have been traveling for the last two days, sorry for the lack of communication.

Some of you have reached out privately for support, thank you all, it means a lot.

Quoted from j_m_:
joe, sorry to be a "debbie downer" again, but to be honest some of your comments are just head scratchers. I don't understand how you can act as if you and dameon are the ones telling this compelling story when neither of you are even writing the darn thing.

The writer is only one part of this vast team. First of all he has written what we have asked him to write based on our requests, and second we are very very very involved in the editing process, doing a significant amount of the editing myself. Editing is really where the story is formed. There is a lot of rewriting in the editing process too. And we have connected him with all of the sources that we want in the book.

So while the individual words are not ours the overall story is definitely ours.

Also, being that Dameon and I are not professional writers, I think that most backers will appreciate that we hired a professional writer to do the word-smithing

Quoted from KerryImming:
If the money is held in anything but a guaranteed principle escrow account it would be negligence.

This ^

We consider holding the money for this project to be a serious matter so we have created a corporation and gotten a business account in order to protect the money and make sure it is in an escrow account that can be used to complete the project even if one or both of us dies! (please don't kill us though)

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#913 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

I'm here!
We kept hearing that we would get approval any day so I kept waiting
And honestly I had a really busy personal month.
But a new update has been posted, and our copy has been approved!

So we finally have the green light to move forward with all the next steps!

So much hinged on this approval, but now that it has been approved we are moving forward on all fronts!

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#915 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Billy16:
I knew you'd be back, Joe! Now let's get this wrapped up--we all probably deserve something a little extra due to the long wait--and ship this out!

We fully agree everyone deserves something a little extra, and have talked about what that can be!

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1

#919 6 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Ballsofsteel:
apparently it takes a year to write a book about pinball...mostly photos too.....hahahaha

It does take a while!

And maybe just as long to go through the approval process

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#931 5 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hi Everyone,

I am waiting one more week to do a big update, but we had a few more copy revisions to work through, after the text was approved. And the stage after locking the copy is the design stage. We have all or most of the material we believe we need in order to create the book layout, but after the copy is approved we move into design.

We have done some design work to establish some formatting things, but the majority of the design is not done yet.
The reason it is not, is because before design can be done the copy has to be approved.

It is usually pointless to do design work if the copy is going to change.

The good news is the design is the LAST STAGE before going to the printer, well except for proofing I guess, but that is a quick one compared to the rest.

So, I'm sorry for the delays, we are working as fast as we can on this, and I will have a big update in 1 week.

Thank you all, Joe

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#933 5 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Again, I will post about this next week when I can, but we are making moves to get the book done as fast as we possibly can.

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4

#939 5 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Hello Everyone,

New update just posted to kickstarter, as soon as I possibly could, as promised!

Pasted here for your convenience:

-------------------------------------

Hello Kickstarter Backers!

This last month has seen some complications, but also some great steps forward.

First the complications: we have had additional copy revisions after we sent our final revision, but the good news is we believe we, this morning, received the final notes and are prepping the FINAL version of the text today!

The other complication is we had to find a new graphic designer. This required a lot of searching and interviews to find someone we felt was really right for the project, but also in a budget range we could afford.

I'm very happy to announce that just yesterday, we met with and employed a new graphic designer!

His name is Zach Guenther and he has a small design studio here in Los Angeles called Minimaal Studio.

You can see some of his very nice work here: https://www.minimaalstudio.com

We talked with him for hours yesterday and previous days on the phone to make sure our aesthetics and design goals were aligned for this project.

We talked about celebrating each machine, a design focus on the art of the games, creating a separate space to enjoy the story, and a separate space to focus on the machines.

We really concentrated on the experience of the book, especially on repeat viewings, and I think we came to some really great design decisions that will make this book a joy to interact with again and again.

I know time frame is the big question right now.

We believe the design process will be around 8 weeks for a book this size.

The content is collected.

The story is written.

The people are in place.

And we are excited about finishing this project in the best way we can.

Thank you all for your patience and cooperation, Dameon and Joe.

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#942 5 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from puck:
Huge!
Thanks for the update, a big risk imo saying 8 weeks. That’s promising a lot unless he is working on it full time.

Hey man, thanks for your comment. Yes we are trying hard to be as open and honest as we can be with the process right now. Yes it is probably a risk saying the actual time frame we are hoping to finish in, as there is always a chance we run over.

It's very difficult to decide how much information to share in this community.

Quoted from puck:
Any update on all the other backer rewards? Or is that post book work?

All of the rewards are under-weigh! There are a couple covers that are lagging behind, but I believe we will have them in time to not delay the other steps. All of the artists know what our situation is.

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#946 5 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from Rondogg:
You JUST now hired a graphic designer?

No, we signed on a graphic designer as soon as the project funding was successful.
This graphic designer has become largely unavailable.
So as I said in the post "The other complication is we had to find a new graphic designer".

No money was lost on the switch between designers.
And we are now in a good place to finish the book in a very strong way.

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1

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#969 5 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Quoted from j_m_:
facebook update today, but I noticed that joe has been avoiding pinside altogether (again)

I'm here. Just have a lot on my plate right now.

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#970 5 years ago

JOE

JoeDP

Inactive member

Los Angeles, CA

8y 29,400 101 1

Here is the update that was posted on Kickstarter:

Hello Kickstarter backers!

Our new designer shared his mockup for the first 27 pages with us today!

The designs look great, and we're looking forward to sharing samples with you soon.

On another note, the photo retouching is going really well too. We are most of the way through retouching the photos for the "story" section of the book. These are the older photos and require the most retouching/editing so this is a good accomplishment.

Here is a sample of some retouching:

Thank you all for your support looking forward to getting the book done!

Retouching (resized).jpg