Good news: The final artwork and audio masters have been sent off to Qrates. The production of the Space Quest III vinyl is underway! The next step is that I receive test pressings, approve those, and then the production of the vinyl will commence and be sent out to all 233 (WHOOOHOOO!) backers.
There will also be an extra 100 copies printed up that will be stored in Qrates’s warehouse somewhere (Michigan, I think?). I’m still not sure how the ordering process for that will be. Maybe Qrates has a storefront system (I would assume they do?), but if not, I’ll just sell it via spacequesthistorian.bandcamp.com. I will not be handling any shipping myself, though, not of the 233 copies that were pre-ordered (WOOHOOO!), nor of the extra 100 in their warehouse. All shipping and logistics will be taken care of by Qrates.
Now for the slightly less good news: When preparing the audio masters, you’re expected to fill out this track list sheet. You’re warned not to go 10% over their recommended maximum of content for a vinyl side. There’s a lot of “please don’t” and “recommended” in the wording, but when I tried to save the data for Side Ortega (James Mulvale’s side), the track sheet put its foot down. The total time came to 23:38 and it refused to save that data.
In the end, I had to excise one of the tracks in order for it to accept the track list. And that track was “Intro (Dance Mix)” – which is essentially the same as the Intro music that’s already in the first track, but with a different drum beat. So it’s not a huge terrible loss, all things considered – it is just an alternate version of a tune that’s already on the album – but I just feel awful that the campaign promised 12 tracks when in reality it will only have 11.
So my apologies for that. I should have filled out the track list sheet and checked this sooner, but I was operating under the assumption that Qrates’s dashboard would inform me if a side was too long when I created the campaign. It didn’t.
But, that minor glitch aside, the Space Quest III vinyl is off to the races! I’ll update you when I receive the test pressings.