Rotten luck with artbooks. :( Some help needed, if you can!

I had barely finished writing my t-shirt post yesterday when the postman rang (once), to say he had eight packages for me. Oh my!!! He carried them all inside (they are beastly heavy - we're talking 500 pounds altogether), and I opened the first to look at my new artbook. 

And went about as pale as the book I was holding. 

You know, I have worked with this printer for five years. They printed Cannae, in all versions and editions, and they printed my last artbook as well as all my calendars. I have had bad luck with them for prints once in the past, but that was with a paper finish that was just not suited to my work. I thought I'd be fine if I used the same paper and finish I had used since 2014, and thought I didn't need to invest in a trial copy.

Well, what do I know. I now have 250 books that I will never, ever sell or even give away. :( Some images even look nice in that pastel way, but it's simply not what I want to showcase my work with. 

What does that mean?

First, it means the artbooks will take some more time, but they ought to be there by Christmas. I have ordered a trial copy with a different printer, which I have used for banners and stickers before, and which are much better to work with. (The printer that botched this one is located in Schwaben. Schwaben, for the non-Germans, is proverbial for its stinginess. Those jokes you tell about Scotsmen in the rest of the world? In Germany, they are Schwaben jokes. That means they do very affordable things, but won't budge an inch when they send you rotten work. Technically, yes, it's my fault for not getting a trial copy, but other printers would still be more helpful. So I'm not expecting them to refund me anything.)

Secondly, that means I just don't have the money right now to do the calendars for the Celebration tier - BUT I will have it next month. No matter what. The calendars will then be sent to you in the Celebration tier around early November, which means they will still be well in time for the new year. 

Thirdly, any help at all would be hugely appreciated. Your patronage already means that losing a four-digit sum for crappy books is painful but not life-threatening, and I'm incredibly glad for that. If any of you feel you can help out a little more than you do already - and a lot of you already do - let's make it official! I've made a new tier called "A friend in need". I will create a new painting just for you, and each of you in that tier will get an A4 size print of it in November, together with your postcard calendar. It will be an exclusive print that will never be available to anyone but you. 

<3