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The Benny Store

Created by John Pointer

Yesterday Was Weird started as a simple post that went viral and helped millions of people cope with the grief of a loss, and remember the love that lives on. It is now an illustrated hardcover book for anyone who has to face “weird days” of their own. If you would like me to write anything special in your book just send me a message and I’ll be happy to customize it for you, a friend, or a loved one. If you'd just like a plain book without a dedication or note, select "plain" from the dropdown menu and get $10 off. As you scroll through the other items in the store, there are still about 50 shirts available, but not in all designs, sizes, styles, or colors. Most of them are charcoal gray, but there are some in black and a couple left in baby blue. If you can’t seem to find what you want, email me and I’ll let you know if I have one. If you have any other questions just ask. Sincerely, John (AKA Benny's Person) [email protected]

Latest Updates from Our Project:

The Gift of Gratitude
almost 4 years ago – Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 05:50:21 PM

Nothing makes me feel better than adding hand-written dedications and special messages when people ask, so I've decided to offer them on every order as my way of saying, "Thank you all." Everyone has taken such good care of me through this whole process, I just want to pay that forward, whether it's for you, a friend, or a loved one. 

Let me know how I can help, and feel free to share this video with anyone you think should see it.

Thanks again... for everything.

Free Download from the Kindle Store, June 24th-26th
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 12:46:49 PM

Benny's Book is in the Kindle Store 

...and you can have it for free!

Click to Download your Free Copy

Thank you all for your support through this whole process, from the original post to the long process of publishing the book. We've come full circle now with the digital release of the illustrated version on the Kindle Store. From June 24th-26th, you can download it for free by clicking here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089SLV8FX

Share the link far and wide. The more people download it and leave a review, the higher it will rise in the Kindle rankings. 

If you miss the free download dates the regular price is only $2.99, but you can also just wait for the next free download window. I'm allowed to offer that up to 5 out of every 90 days.

ALL ORDERS HAVE SHIPPED and THE BOOK IS ON AMAZON!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 11:07:33 PM

That's right, at long last, every Kickstarter Reward and Pre-Order has been shipped and the book is on Amazon! 

  •  Would you please take a moment to visit the page and write a review? I'd love to see what number you got! Please post that as a picture or video. By the way, pics and videos really turbocharge a book's climb up Amazon's ranking scale, so these pictures will be both fun and useful!
  • Because any book on Amazon is like a digital needle in a world-wide electronic haystack, these reviews are the simplest, most precious and effective thing you can do to help other people find it.  
  • The book is currently ranked #1,354,907 out of all books on Amazon, #157,557 in Health, Fitness & Dieting (... I have no idea why), and #5,896 in Death & Grief.
The Paw-Stamped Version is Available at Amazon.com!
The Paw-Stamped Version is Available at Amazon.com!

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Very Important: If you believe you ordered a book but didn't get yours, PLEASE contact me: [email protected]. There are still 25 people who never gave me their address, so I don't know where to send their orders.

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Finally, let's talk briefly about the Amazon Store vs TheBennyBook.com:

  •  The Amazon Store will only allow me to post one book per ISBN number, so the one I have listed is the most popular choice of all the pre-orders: Paw-Stamped. 
  •  All three versions (plain, paw-stamped, and stamped & signed) are still available at TheBennyBook.com 
  •  The advantage of buying through the Amazon Store is that it will help the book rise in search results and ranking, so if you want a paw-stamped version, please order it through Amazon.
  •  Both the Amazon Store and TheBennyBook.com shipments come from the same boxes in the same place. If you want anything other than the paw-stamped version, order it from TheBennyBook.com and it'll get the same shipping treatment and speed as the books ordered through Amazon.
  •  The Amazon Store would *not* accept any of the other related merchandise without my having to buy UPC codes for each variation. It would cost me $2500 up front plus $500/year to get my own UPC code for use on Amazon. I can't do that, so for now...
  •  The surplus shirts, posters, gallery prints, and WWBD wristbands are all available at TheBennyBook.com, *not* the Amazon Store. 

As always, thank you so much for your interest, encouragement, and support in bringing Benny's Book to life! I'll be right here for you, so contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

John (AKA Benny's Person)

The last step!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 12:41:00 AM

As always, the fullest updates are over on Benny's Facebook page (http://facebook.com/benny.pointer) and you can also join the closed discussion group called Yesterday Was Weird - The Benny Book at https://www.facebook.com/groups/416343722447443

But here's the big news: I am finally actively shipping the international orders!!!

Thank you all for your patience. This has been a crazy ride!

Once those are all shipped – likely Monday, June 30th – I'll stock the Amazon store and start selling the last few copies of the first edition here: 

https://www.amazon.com/Yesterday-Weird-Benny-Pointer-Person/dp/0999687107

If you've already gotten your copy, please feel free to leave a review. It will help a lot!

Thanks again to all the backers. I could not have done it without you!

Update Summary!
over 5 years ago – Sun, May 26, 2019 at 01:30:15 AM

Hi everyone, I've been posting a lot of updates over on Benny's facebook page – https://facebook.com/Benny.Pointer – but wanted to make sure I checked in here in case anyone wasn't getting those.

Here's the latest:

I've been actively shipping since early April, but if you ordered a shirt, yours were delayed. I had some challenges getting the shirts printed, so I started with plain book orders. All of the domestic orders for books without shirts have shipped. Please let me know if you haven't received yours yet.

The Super B shirt design came in a few weeks ago and I shipped most of the domestic orders. I just got the "I Gotcha" design back, so we're shipping those out this weekend. All domestic orders should be in the mail Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week.

International orders posed an extreme logistical challenge, but it is solved and those orders will begin shipping this week. My first quote for international shipping was $97 per book (!!!). At that price, I considered personally flying the bulk of the international shipments to Australia, the UK, Europe, and Canada, but finally found a deeply discounted rate through Shipstation.com - $17 per book, which is close to the original shipping cost I charged backers - $15. I also get much better pricing on multiple books, so if you ordered 4 books, it won't cost $68 just to ship them.

I signed up for that service almost two weeks ago, but they told me it could take as long as two weeks to activate. I am watching the dashboard for that option to pop up and then I will crank through those orders and the Kickstarter phase of this adventure will officially draw to a close!

If you have any questions at all, please comment here, or better yet, email me: [email protected] or [email protected] (I get both in the same place, so there's no functional difference).

I can't thank you enough for all of your patience. This has taken a *very* long time. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and I wouldn't have gotten through it without your kindness and understanding.