a note on some improvements

[dr.mt...@gmail.com]

The recent interest in Shen (thousands of views in a day) has prompted mt to look at the first chapter and make some changes.  I've tightened up the narrative of the history of Shen.  

In regards to the complaints about reading the 4th edition online; I've dealt with that.  But its worth noting that the technology in that site is roughty 2020.  There has been some improvement and a raising of expectation wrt resolution since the site was built.  It's OK for a fast reference and for a feel of the book ('Is this worth buying, I'll look') and I've read large chunks wo effort - and I have poor vision.    It can be redone to a higher resolution but it is not a priority for me being a lot of work if the new edition is used.   epub however is not a lot of work, and the new hardcopy is £30.  ChatGPT suggests £18 for epub which I think is about right.  

However wrt tigtening the history of Shen, I've done that and I'l post it on this site for anybody who is interested in a story spanning 30+ years of development.

Mark

[Joshua Scholar]

By the way, I ordered a hardcopy from The Great British Bookshop 3 weeks ago and was supposed to get back a confirmation of printing within a week.  That never came. I gave them 2 more weeks because of Christmas.  
So I just used their contact form and we'll see if they get back to me on Monday.

I notice that on the trustpilot page for them there are only 7 reviews, but 5 of them are only 1 star reviews.  3 of those reviews are from people who never received their book and the company refused to help them.  In one case the customer's query was not responded to, and in the other 2 cases they were told that if they didn't pay extra for tracking then they're out of luck that they never received a book.  

One other customer said they received a book that was mostly blank paper, that the company was slow and reluctant to acknowledge fault, which I guess implies that they eventually did.

In my case they don't even claim to have printed the book so they probably won't say it was lost in shipping, but but this might not be a reliable company.
I'm not asking you to do anything about this, but I thought you might want to know.  As I said I don't expect to hear back from them immediately, but it would be nice if they were better run.

Josh Scholar

[dr.mt...@gmail.com]

Yes, that is disappointing.   It is most probably the carrier.    I ordered a preprint

of my autobiography for a reviewer and tracked the delivery to the USA where

it stayed and stayed with the US PO service.   I gave up on it ever getting there 

and yet it did - weeks later.   Generally it works pretty well.

There is a delay with print-on-demand and it may be that your book got caught up

with the Xmas traffic.  But this is generally a few days at most.  Expect to see your 

copy unexpectedly.   I see you are given a choice of 4 delivery options; did you go for

tracked?  

I looked at the Trust Pilot reviews and there were only 7 reviews; 2 5* and 5 1*.  But two of 

the 1* reviews were complaints about the book quality which is not a GBB responsibility 

but that of the author.   Still its not much fun when your book disappears like that.

Mark

[dr.mt...@gmail.com]

Regarding confirmation of printing; I can track progress through my panel

but I order as an author not as a reader.   So I'm not sure if you get this with

GBB.  But I can see exactly the status of any copy under print.

M.

[dr.mt...@gmail.com]

However I can only see *my* orders and not customer orders which

I guess is for privacy protection.

M.

[Joshua Scholar]

It shouldn't be the carrier if I never got confirmation of printing at all unless they don't actually print books and order them from another print on demand shop before passing them on.

And no, I didn't ask for tracking.  I don't remember that being offered.

[Joshua Scholar]

Yeah I think I can see status, and my status is just "confirmed"

I assume that "printed" comes after that and "shipped" after that.

[dr.mt...@gmail.com]

Ah OK. it looks as if you a window.  I have

Created

Approved

In Progress

Printed

Packed

The only difference is that I can control the priority of the

printing - forcing my order to jump the queue.   You

don't have that.

Yes you have delivery options from Royal Mail 2nd class

(cheapest), Royal Mail 1st class (also untracked),

Yodel Economy (tracked) to DPD (tracked, most expensive).

If you don't choose you get the cheapest service.

M.

[Joshua Scholar]

I'm in the United States, so mine is USPS, and that is usually tracked.

[dr.mt...@gmail.com]

Well if you're ordering from the UK

using Royal Mail 2nd class - the 

cheapest default - it will not be tracked by

them and AFAIK not by USPS either.

M.

[Joshua Scholar]

By the way, they did get back to me and say that a number of orders were lost transmitting them to their print facility, and they will print my book within 3 days.

[dr.mt...@gmail.com]

they're ok else I wouldn't use them.

M. :)