Dear Mr. Garcia, Thank you so much for your thoughtful review of our book. As the author of the work, I am grateful for the fairness with which you treated a product you were, regrettably, disappointed in. I hope I can answer some of your major concerns; and I have what I hope you will agree is some happy news to share. The book *is* a bit cryptic. This is by design, as our stated mission was to deliver an authentic-seeming “spell book” in the form of a unique cookbook. The ingredients and recipes are playfully opaque in places, just like a true grimoire of ages past might be. It requires experimentation and surmise to complete many of the recipes - if you use the book alone. Again, this was quite on purpose - as it was meant to be part of the fun. We did provide backers a plain-text, plain language resource by pdf if backers didn’t want to have to decipher things, and just wanted to “get cooking”. Online help was (and is) made available even for those who did not back at the digital level, for specific recipes by request (publically via the Kickstarter or our Facebook pages, or privately by email). Such support remains available, as we love to hear from our customers and only jokingly want to drive them insane! Several customers have made good use of this offering. For any of your viewers who would like to make use of these resources, they may be requested from the Red Duke Games or The Necronomnomnom Facebook pages, or by email to RedDukeGamesLLC@gmail.com. Per your suggestion, we will look into creating a glossary for free download on our website. We tried to be anything but culturally locked. There are recipes from many cultures - but we did perhaps rely too heavily on services like Amazon to get you that weird ingredient if you couldn’t find it at the local market (in fact, we had to special order some things ourselves). As you generously note, we could not possibly be specific for every region where we might have a potential customer. The joys and pitfalls of global community...! As our spellbook aesthetic was the overriding goal, we positively did ignore the niceties of page numbers, glossaries, and even tables of contents. I was strong-armed into even including our names and a title page. As a self published work, I felt we could and should flout all convention in order to keep to our goal of a "mysterious book of unknown provenance". We succeeded, but also produced unintended consternation in some customers, like yourself. A quick note on the "extra" pages: these were indeed for backers to use for their own notes and recipes - but also were inserted with conventions in mind. They are for signatures and custom doodles when Kurt joins us. He loves to draw his monsters, and many have come away with a unique piece of art in their book. I assure you that we did our level best to improve the shipping situation. We were able to achieve a 10-30% savings for 85% of our international backers. Sadly, due to the vagaries of geography and fulfillment, not all regions (such as yours) saw a material benefit. We consciously choose to deliver as soon as possible rather than as cheaply as possible in those cases; as too much further research and negotiation was judged to inevitably produce diminishing returns and (very undesirable) further delays. You were entirely fair in your characterization of your particular experience. We are glad to be able to say that most of your fellow backers overseas saw at least a noticeable reduction in the fulfillment costs, but regret that it could not have been everyone. So, the promised good news: Response to The Necronomnomnom has been so amazing, that we are thrilled to soon be offering a real bookstore version of our tome of eldritch delectables. This is a *far* more civilized, though still delightfully arcane version of our labor of love. You can preview the book here if you like: www.amazon.com/Necronomnomnom-Recipes-Rites-Lore-Lovecraft/dp/1682684385/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+necronomnomnom&qid=1565972968&s=gateway&sr=8-1 It would be our pleasure to send you a personal copy for your perusal and more complete enjoyment. We hope you will find that it nicely addresses many of your concerns, and we truly appreciate your well-crafted, honest feedback. Our sincere thanks and best regards, Mike & Tom of Red Duke Games
You disappoint me sir. It’s because of people like you, that the rest of us can’t have nice things. If you don’t like your copy sell it to someone who appreciates the time and effort that went into such an amazing work of art. The book was dumbed down to appeal to persons such as yourself. It demeans the artist and the work. Shame on you and the publisher.
So you miss the part of the video where I appreciate the art, right? And if the book was "dumbed down" to appeal to people like me (it was not, I have spoken with the authors) and I dislike it, it was a bad decission. I think you've taken my criticism too personally. Why don't you make a video about how much you liked it and why? I would be interested in hearing contrasting opinions.
Agree with you completely Paco. The reason we did not back it was that we suspected it would be "culturaly-locked". And the despite the fact that it is an excellent "conversation piece", as you mentioned, we would very much like to use it and test some of those recipes. Now, some people might say that finding those ingredeints can be an "adventure" on itself, but I disagree. It feels more like an oversight. Also, the lack of an index or a glossary are indicative of the fact that the creators were focused on the artistic side and the concept, but not the execution. Hope we get a better product next time! (it was a KS after all, no guarantees!)
Thank you. I would have understood the artistic piece only (plenty of amazing books out there that have been created just for visual joy) and I would have gone with that if this book had been a "journal of the lovecraftian gourmet" in which an adventurer tells their stories of lovecraftian food. But selling it as a cookery book does set some expectations that, sadly, it doesn't meet. And I wanted it to. I wanted it to meet those expectations soooo badly! :(
Dear Mr. Garcia,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful review of our book. As the author of the work, I am grateful for the fairness with which you treated a product you were, regrettably, disappointed in.
I hope I can answer some of your major concerns; and I have what I hope you will agree is some happy news to share.
The book *is* a bit cryptic. This is by design, as our stated mission was to deliver an authentic-seeming “spell book” in the form of a unique cookbook. The ingredients and recipes are playfully opaque in places, just like a true grimoire of ages past might be. It requires experimentation and surmise to complete many of the recipes - if you use the book alone. Again, this was quite on purpose - as it was meant to be part of the fun.
We did provide backers a plain-text, plain language resource by pdf if backers didn’t want to have to decipher things, and just wanted to “get cooking”. Online help was (and is) made available even for those who did not back at the digital level, for specific recipes by request (publically via the Kickstarter or our Facebook pages, or privately by email). Such support remains available, as we love to hear from our customers and only jokingly want to drive them insane! Several customers have made good use of this offering.
For any of your viewers who would like to make use of these resources, they may be requested from the Red Duke Games or The Necronomnomnom Facebook pages, or by email to RedDukeGamesLLC@gmail.com. Per your suggestion, we will look into creating a glossary for free download on our website.
We tried to be anything but culturally locked. There are recipes from many cultures - but we did perhaps rely too heavily on services like Amazon to get you that weird ingredient if you couldn’t find it at the local market (in fact, we had to special order some things ourselves). As you generously note, we could not possibly be specific for every region where we might have a potential customer. The joys and pitfalls of global community...!
As our spellbook aesthetic was the overriding goal, we positively did ignore the niceties of page numbers, glossaries, and even tables of contents. I was strong-armed into even including our names and a title page. As a self published work, I felt we could and should flout all convention in order to keep to our goal of a "mysterious book of unknown provenance". We succeeded, but also produced unintended consternation in some customers, like yourself.
A quick note on the "extra" pages: these were indeed for backers to use for their own notes and recipes - but also were inserted with conventions in mind. They are for signatures and custom doodles when Kurt joins us. He loves to draw his monsters, and many have come away with a unique piece of art in their book.
I assure you that we did our level best to improve the shipping situation. We were able to achieve a 10-30% savings for 85% of our international backers. Sadly, due to the vagaries of geography and fulfillment, not all regions (such as yours) saw a material benefit. We consciously choose to deliver as soon as possible rather than as cheaply as possible in those cases; as too much further research and negotiation was judged to inevitably produce diminishing returns and (very undesirable) further delays. You were entirely fair in your characterization of your particular experience. We are glad to be able to say that most of your fellow backers overseas saw at least a noticeable reduction in the fulfillment costs, but regret that it could not have been everyone.
So, the promised good news:
Response to The Necronomnomnom has been so amazing, that we are thrilled to soon be offering a real bookstore version of our tome of eldritch delectables. This is a *far* more civilized, though still delightfully arcane version of our labor of love.
You can preview the book here if you like:
www.amazon.com/Necronomnomnom-Recipes-Rites-Lore-Lovecraft/dp/1682684385/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+necronomnomnom&qid=1565972968&s=gateway&sr=8-1
It would be our pleasure to send you a personal copy for your perusal and more complete enjoyment. We hope you will find that it nicely addresses many of your concerns, and we truly appreciate your well-crafted, honest feedback.
Our sincere thanks and best regards,
Mike & Tom of Red Duke Games
You disappoint me sir. It’s because of people like you, that the rest of us can’t have nice things. If you don’t like your copy sell it to someone who appreciates the time and effort that went into such an amazing work of art. The book was dumbed down to appeal to persons such as yourself. It demeans the artist and the work. Shame on you and the publisher.
So you miss the part of the video where I appreciate the art, right? And if the book was "dumbed down" to appeal to people like me (it was not, I have spoken with the authors) and I dislike it, it was a bad decission.
I think you've taken my criticism too personally. Why don't you make a video about how much you liked it and why? I would be interested in hearing contrasting opinions.
The book was on Kickstarter which is an international platform, and it offered international distribution and took money from international backers.
Agree with you completely Paco.
The reason we did not back it was that we suspected it would be "culturaly-locked".
And the despite the fact that it is an excellent "conversation piece", as you mentioned, we would very much like to use it and test some of those recipes.
Now, some people might say that finding those ingredeints can be an "adventure" on itself, but I disagree.
It feels more like an oversight.
Also, the lack of an index or a glossary are indicative of the fact that the creators were focused on the artistic side and the concept, but not the execution.
Hope we get a better product next time!
(it was a KS after all, no guarantees!)
Thank you. I would have understood the artistic piece only (plenty of amazing books out there that have been created just for visual joy) and I would have gone with that if this book had been a "journal of the lovecraftian gourmet" in which an adventurer tells their stories of lovecraftian food.
But selling it as a cookery book does set some expectations that, sadly, it doesn't meet.
And I wanted it to. I wanted it to meet those expectations soooo badly! :(