Book 6: Utterly Dwarfed (+2020 Calendar) now w/ reduced shipping to Europe + Canada

UPDATE: After hearing everyone's concerns, Ookoodook has been able to secure reduced shipping rates for pre-orders of the book and/or the calendar to Europe (including non-EU Europe) and Canada. If you ordered the book at the higher postage rate, check your email for information on how to receive a refund of the difference.


Yes, we're doing this a bit early this time, but it's time for another compilation!

http://www.giantitp.com/Images/produ...2dpi_RGBds.png

The Order of the Stick: Utterly Dwarfed is the sixth book in the main The Order of the Stick story, featuring all the regular strips from #947 to the end of the current story. Which, yes, is not finished yet. But it's close enough that I have a pretty good page count, and the realities of printing and shipping mean that if I want this on store shelves in time for the holidays, I need to start the wheels moving now.

Anyway, it's a mammoth full-color book that traces the Order's flight north, their stop at Tinkertown, the whole Godsmoot thing, and so on. You know and love the story, now see it on pieces of paper folded up and glued together! Along with a bunch of other features, like:

• More than 10 and less than 20 bonus comics!
• Nine pages of author commentary only some readers care about!
• A map of the Northern Continent that a distinct but in some places overlapping subset of readers cares about!
• A recap of the story so far by someone who looks a lot like Durkon Thundershield!
• A foreword by Haley Starshine!
• Some other odds and ends that fit in the inevitable gaps when it turns out a chapter ends on a recto page but needs to end on a verso!
• Maybe a preface? I don't know, the person I invited hasn't gotten back to me yet!

Add it to your collection today! By which I mean, pre-order it today from Ookoodook, and have it delivered in early December, because that's how pre-orders work! Or you can pre-order a digital copy from Gumroad and have it delivered to your email inbox on December 10, 2019. For additional information, check out the Product Page, or keep reading to have some questions answered.

But before you do, oh no, it's a calendar!

http://www.giantitp.com/Images/Front...lendar_6in.png

Yes, we're also putting this year's OOTS calendar on sale at the same time. For 2020, we're sidestepping the inevitable vision-related puns and going with a magic theme. Each month will feature one of the OOTS story's spellcasters slinging some sorcery in a glossy 12" x 12" image that will look great on your wall, or hanging in midair if you're the more mystically inclined type yourself. Like the book, this will ship in early December, so if you're interested in both you can order them from Ookoodook together and save on postage. Or you can order the digital version from Gumroad; it's releasing on the same day as the book (December 10). Here's a look inside:

http://www.giantitp.com/Images/Calen...Sample_6in.png

So there you go: New book, new calendar, very exciting.

Frequently Asked Questions:

General Questions

Q: I'm confused. Where can I order these?
A: If you want paper copies from Ookoodook, you can pre-order the book here and the calendar here. If you want digital copies, you can pre-order them both from Gumroad here.

Q: What strips does this book cover?
A: Everything from #947 to the end of the current storyline, which hasn't been posted yet as of this writing but certainly will be by the time the book needs to ship to the printer. I'll update this answer when I know the exact strip number. Basically, everything in the "new art" era, starting with the first strip with Sigdi in it.

Q: How long is the book?
A: 352 pages. It's our second-biggest book ever, being only 16 pages short of Blood Runs in the Family.

Q: Why are you putting these on sale so early if they're not going to be released until December?
A: The last book I did, Good Deeds Gone Unpunished, was given a longer pre-release window at the request of my distributor (the people who make sure the book shows up on store shelves). Not only do they have the same needs this time around, but I discovered that the longer period led to the smoothest book launch I had ever done—that even when the book hit a snag and was delayed by a few days, the printer was able to make up the time later in the process. So from now on, I'm going to try to always give a solid 4 months between announcement and release if I can.

Q: What number is on the book's spine?
A: "6" because it's the sixth book in the main story. It's the tenth book in the series overall, but three of those are prequels and one is a collection of random (mostly non-canon) stories.

Printed Edition

Q: When will the physical books from Ookoodook ship?
A: They're currently scheduled to arrive at Ookoodook at the end of November or beginning of December. Given that it takes a few days to pack them up and ship them back out, we're more comfortable saying "early December" for the shipping date. We don't want to lock down an exact release date because despite our belief that this longer window will reduce delays, we can't exactly promise that nothing could possibly disrupt that timetable.

Q: Will the physical books be available in my local gaming store?
A: Yes, assuming they've carried Order of the Stick books in the past. This title will be fully available to game store distribution, though I'd expect them not to show up on store shelves until the middle of December.

Q: What if my game store doesn't carry Order of the Stick products?
A: Then you should ask them to! Our stuff is available through all major hobby game distributors, even those outside the US, so just go to your local gaming store and ask them to place an order. If a store stocks roleplaying games, they have the capability to order the Order.

Q: Why is the overseas shipping so expensive?
A: Because overseas postage rates are expensive, and most of the companies you're thinking of that charge less have international warehouses they can ship from, or use bulk rate shippers due to the large volume of products sold. Ookoodook is a very small company that does not have those kinds of resources, so they have to bring them to the post office like everyone else. If the postage is too high for your budget, we suggest either purchasing the digital edition or waiting until it shows up on your local gaming store shelf.

Q: Why should I pre-order rather than just waiting until the book is released?
A: Good question. Two reasons. One, pre-ordering lets me to judge how many copies I should print, and accurately estimating that is what allows me to produce a printed product at all. If I print too many copies, I spend too much money now and end up with loads of unsold inventory that costs more to store. If I print too few, I have to reprint right away and due to the economies of scale, that costs more than it would to print a larger run the first time. Only by getting it pretty close to where demand is can the numbers work out such that I can pull this off without losing a lot of money. So if you care about the financial health of the comic (because you would like me to keep doing this), it's helpful to pre-order. And two, in this particular case, I also literally do not have the funds to print the book until a certain minimum number of orders is reached because these color compilations are much, much more expensive than the black-and-white ones and I don't have that kind of money sitting around. Pre-ordering makes the book possible at all. While I don't have any reason to think we won't get enough sales to pay for the printing bill in fairly short order, if everyone decided not to pre-order that would be a distinct possibility.

Calendar

Q: OK, but the calendar must be a lot cheaper. Surely it doesn't need to be on sale this early.
A: No, it does not. But people ordering the book now may want to buy the calendar, too, and I didn't want people to feel like they had to hold off buying one to wait for the other to be put on sale at the usual time around Thanksgiving, in case they were hoping to avoid paying twice for shipping. In any event, everything said about trying to judge how many to print goes double for the calendars, which have a limited shelf life (unlike books, which I can keep in stock until they eventually sell). We've had the calendar sell out in pre-orders before, because I set the print quantity based on how many orders have come in by early November—so it's possible to miss out if you wait!

Q: If the calendar is on sale now, does that mean there won't be an ornament? Or t-shirts?
A: No, there will be. But since they ship from a different company anyway, there would be no savings to releasing those now. They'll be released in late November as usual.

Digital Edition

Q: Can I buy this book as a digital PDF file?
A: Yes! You can pre-order it from Gumroad today.

Q: When will the digital PDF files be released?
A: The link to download the digital files will be automatically sent to your email inbox on December 10, 2019, at 12:00 pm Eastern Standard US Time.

Q: Why are you delaying the PDFs until December? Why can't I download it today?
A: It's being delayed until the physical book is published so that some customers don't have to wait longer than other customers to read it. We really want the print edition to succeed, and if readers thought they could read the story three months earlier by buying the digital edition then they would be far more likely to do so. By holding the digital edition back to be published at the same time, we ensure that people buy the edition that they really want rather than rushing to get the one that comes out first. (Also I haven't finished all the strips that go in the book yet.)

Q: What reasons is there for me to pre-order a PDF? It's not like there's a printing cost to it.
A: Yep, that's true. The truth is, we provide the pre-orders for PDFs mostly as a courtesy to customers who want to order it now before they forget about it. Also, we don't want to be fielding questions for four months about whether or not we're going to have a PDF release. Having the pre-order accomplishes both these goals. But unlike the pre-order for the print version, we don't get any particular benefit from PDF pre-orders. Feel free to wait until it's available to download!

Q: What does the watermark look like?
A: It's on the first page (the cover), and it's a small grey ribbon-shape with the Gumroad "G" logo, next to which it says "Sold to" and then the email address that you gave when you purchased the book. So don't buy using your top secret email.

Q: Why are you using Gumroad instead of (insert name of other company)?
A: Because they charge the lowest commission, which means I could lower the price more. Plus, most other companies that offer a watermark service add it to every single page, which seemed like overkill to me. One page is enough.

If you have any other questions, go ahead and ask them here and maybe I'll add them back up to the FAQ afterward.

Given past experiences, I'm going to go ahead and pre-warn to not derail this thread with tangentially related conversations about such topics as printing economies, shipping costs these days, or the details of our business models. I've done my own research and made the choices that work best at balancing competing priorities, and I'm not looking for unsolicited advice on how I should print and distribute my books.

Also, please read the FAQ above, since if you ask a question that is already answered there, we're probably going to delete it to keep this thread relatively uncluttered (so that I can see any completely new questions that are asked).

Thanks.

Oh, and yes, there will be a comic shortly.

Nice! My brother-in-law reads this comic only in print form, so it will be nice to finally discuss events with him! Can't wait to get it!

Thank you - pre-ordered physical book and digital calendar - ordering was quick and easy with both vendors (I like the option of Amazon pay on Ook) - thank you for Christmas in July :)

NOTE : The link in the News points to the previous Book thread and not this one.

Could it be you linked the wrong thread in the news?

Whoops, thanks. I had that thread open in another window to see what I wrote last time and must've copied the wrong URL. Fixed now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Giant

For 2020, we're sidestepping the inevitable vision-related puns

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You know Elan's gonna put one in at the end.

Interesting Thor is the background silhouette, which still leaves Belkar as the only Order member without one.
Who do ya'all think "wrote" the forward? Haley is the only Order member who hasn't gotten one yet, but it could be someone else. NVM apparently I can't read.

Edit: Also, super excited about the map of the Northern Continent.

Neat! My daughter much prefers reading the physical books to the strips on-line. Nice to have two Christmas gifts (the book + calendar) for her already squared away!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Procyonpi

Who do ya'all think "wrote" the forward? Haley is the only Order member who hasn't gotten one yet, but it could be someone else.

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:smallconfused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Giant

• A foreword by Haley Starshine!

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After brief consultation with my SO, both have been ordered. Much appreciated the early pre-order, so we can be more sure it will arrive in time!

Grey Wolf

The URL when you click on the Book 6 image on the front news page takes you to an invalid page.

Nice! Being European I can't really pre-order, but I'm totally getting this the second it hits the stores.

Congratulations in advance! Looks really cool!

If I had a question, it would be whether the title The Campaign from Hel(l) was considered at any stage. (I was so sure I'd guessed it that I didn't dare say it on the forums.)

Physical copies of the book and calendar pre-ordered.
I'll probably also buy a pdf of the book, but that can wait.

Woo-hoo! Pre-ordered the physical book and calendar. Will order the PDFs at some point too.

So, I pre-ordered the book (from the link in the "New Comic is Up" thread. Then I came here and noticed the calendar was available for pre-order as well, so I went back and pre-ordered it as well.

Do the two ship together? Is there a reduced shipping charge for getting them both at the same time? If so, will Ookoodook automatically combine my two separate orders into one? Or should I cancel my pre-orders and combine them into one order?

Thanks! I can hardly wait!

I'm almost certain they would be a lower charge for shipping them together, and yes, they are scheduled to go at the same time. So yeah, you're probably best off canceling and re-ordering.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Giant

Yes, we're doing this a bit early this time, but it's time for another compilation!

If you have any other questions, go ahead and ask them here and maybe I'll add them back up to the FAQ afterward.

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If you feel like sharing: which other titles did you ponder before settling on Utterly Dwarfed for this book?

I've seen a wide variety of titles suggested in various discussion threads, but that was always from fans "on the outside looking in." Some were funny, some seemed apt, some not so much.

From "inside looking out" pespective(yours): what other title(s) did you ponder before making the final call on Utterly Dwarfed?

(Yeah, I'll be preordering the pdf)

What's the deadline for pre-orders for the book?

So, if the end (of this book) is nigh, I expect a nasty Thanos-Level cliffhanger.

If you will be taking a hiatus at book's-end, Giant, you've certainly earned one!

I preordered the PDF. The title is certainly not what I expected (I was expecting some sort of pun on Hel).

I should add that I recognize the brilliance of the actual title, in view of the means by which the main antagonist in this arc was overcome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KorvinStarmast

From "inside looking out" pespective(yours): what other title(s) did you ponder before making the final call on Utterly Dwarfed?

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I couldn't really tell you because I've had this one locked in for a few years and I don't actually remember my other options. They were mostly just different, less interesting variations on using the word "dwarf" though.

As I said to someone on Twitter, the reason I didn't use a pun about Hel is that it's not her story. It's Durkon's. And Sigdi's. I wanted a title that reflected them, and the nice thing about "dwarf" is that it doubles to also mean "to make look small in comparison" such as, say, next to a god, or an infinite void filled with gravestones. So it also reflects this book's place in the overall story, which is to zoom out and show that it's a much bigger problem even than they thought it was.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GregTD

What's the deadline for pre-orders for the book?

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Technically, everything up to the day that the book shows up in December is a pre-order. But in terms of when we need to have X number of orders in place in order to afford printing the book, we're looking at mid-October. Pre-orders before then help us get the book made.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Giant

I couldn't really tell you because I've had this one locked in for a few years and I don't actually remember my other options. They were mostly just different, less interesting variations on using the word "dwarf" though.

As I said to someone on Twitter, the reason I didn't use a pun about Hel is that it's not her story. It's Durkon's. And Sigdi's. I wanted a title that reflected them, and the nice thing about "dwarf" is that it doubles to also mean "to make look small in comparison" such as, say, next to a god, or an infinite void filled with gravestones. So it also reflects this book's place in the overall story, which is to zoom out and show that it's a much bigger problem even than they thought it was.

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Huh. So if you take that title, flip open the book, and look at nearly any page...
it will work. The title works for virtually every aspect, as long as one looks at it from the right angle.
Fascinating.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Giant

As I said to someone on Twitter, the reason I didn't use a pun about Hel is that it's not her story. It's Durkon's. And Sigdi's. I wanted a title that reflected them, and the nice thing about "dwarf" is that it doubles to also mean "to make look small in comparison" such as, say, next to a god, or an infinite void filled with gravestones. So it also reflects this book's place in the overall story, which is to zoom out and show that it's a much bigger problem even than they thought it was.

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That's me! I'm someone on Twitter!

I appreciate the further explanation-- I didn't fully get what the title referred to after seeing it.

I'm very pleased about the early pre-order window for the calendars this year. I've missed the last several years because I'm always swamped with work in the usual pre-order time window and forget about it until it's too late.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Giant

Technically, everything up to the day that the book shows up in December is a pre-order. But in terms of when we need to have X number of orders in place in order to afford printing the book, we're looking at mid-October. Pre-orders before then help us get the book made.

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That was what I was looking for. Thank you

I like the composition of the cover. For those in the know, the vampire facing away from the Order show he really isn't a part of the team. For those not in the know, it conceals that he is a vampire, leading to a delightful surprise and hopefully more materials purchased from the Giant's fine vendors.

Awesome work, Rich.

*golfclap*

So yeah, inquiring minds want to know.

I ordered my book last night. However, since I was, shall we say... a little tipsy... I forgot to order calendar as well.

Seeing how the postage is, lets say steep and leave it at that... is there a way to get in contact with the seller/warehouse and let them know I'd like to add a calendar to my order as well? I'd really prefer not to pay that kind of money for postage again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rogar Demonblud

I like the composition of the cover. For those in the know, the vampire facing away from the Order show he really isn't a part of the team. For those not in the know, it conceals that he is a vampire, leading to a delightful surprise and hopefully more materials purchased from the Giant's fine vendors.

Awesome work, Rich.

*golfclap*

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I also like the detail of Belkar yelling or otherwise agitated / trying to convince Roy of something, and Roy not only not listening, but looking up and into the distance, pointedly where Belkar isn't in his field of vision.