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Thank you, & be careful!

Writer's picture: Richard SimonRichard Simon

Updated: Nov 14, 2024


My last post (‘Delays, Disappointments & Decisions’, 7 November) received a very heartening response: more than thirty people contacted me to say they would be happy to pay in advance for a copy or copies of Thomia and ask me for my bank account number, etc. I've written individually to each one of them, thanking them for their trust and generosity and promising to send details of how (and exactly how much) to pay as soon as I've worked it all out. Today I opened a bank account to deposit payments in, but before I start taking anyone’s money I need to be absolutely certain about a few things.

I probably need to explain them to you.


  • First, the price given in my earlier post is for the book itself. I promise you that a copy of Thomia will not cost more than this; if we’re lucky, it may end up costing less. In fact, I am trying to work out a fairly substantial pre-press discount for advance purchasers. Fingers crossed on that!

  • Second, many of you live abroad, and getting your purchase into your hands poses a problem. I can send individual books by post or make bulk shipments via seafreight, but either way there’ll be an additional cost. This will vary depending on what delivery method is used, as well as from country to country. I want to get some kind of a fix on these numbers before I start collecting payments.

  • I will of course do my best to reduce shipping and processing costs as far as possible; one way might be to deliver all copies ordered from any given country in a single shipment to a single address in that country, from which copies could be picked up directly by their rightful owners, or else posted on. If anyone (or any Old Thomian association) in Australia, Canada, the UK or the USA would like to help me out with this, please let me know and perhaps we can work something out. There are commercial firms that offer this service but they represent an additional expense and I’m trying to keep costs down.

  • Third: for yourself, of course, the best thing to do would be to get your copy delivered to some friend or family member here in the Greater Colombo area and make your own arrangements with them about getting it to you. I will then happily deliver Thomia to your local ‘agent’ myself!


I need to receive enough pledges to cover the cost of printing. Since I’m not making a profit as such, I'll need to get at least 250 pledges (half the print run) before I can pay the printer’s advance. I hope we’ll be able to get there before the end of the year, but that lies in your hands. If you haven’t considered an advance purchase already, please do so; it may be the only way we get to see Thomia printed at all...


A WARNING IN SEASON!


A couple of days ago I received a message from someone who has pledged to purchase an advance copy, in which the sender seemed to be thanking me for the bank details I had sent him. This threw me into a panic, because I haven’t given those details to anyone yet! It turned out (thank goodness) that I had simply misunderstood his message, and that no-one was secretly scamming him in my name after all.

However, the incident got me thinking. If you receive a message, allegedly from me (especially one containing bank details and asking for money), please check very carefully to see that it really is from me. Check the email address: note the spelling, the presence or absence of full stops and other punctuation marks, etc. All financial transactions regarding this account will be enacted and discussed only through the Yahoo! address on which you have already contacted me to make your pledge. I check this every morning, as I did this morning, to make sure it hasn’t been compromised. I will also do my best to work out a more secure method of fund transfer; apparently PayPal is coming to Lanka soon, so perhaps that will be the solution.

In the meantime, be careful and don’t send any money until you’re quite sure it’s me who’s asking. And if you haven’t pledged your pre-order yet, now is the time to do so!

Small steps, but we’re getting closer,

Richard

Monday, 11 November 2024

(Edited Thursday 14 Nov)







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1 Comment


Arun
Nov 14, 2024

Pleased to read the note on caution. Waiting to hear what the next couple of actionable steps are. Best wishes!

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