diff --git a/awsbackoff.go b/awsbackoff.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31fe87b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/awsbackoff.go
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+package connector
+
+import (
+	"log"
+	"math"
+	"net"
+	"net/url"
+	"reflect"
+	"regexp"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/ezoic/go-kinesis"
+	l4g "github.com/ezoic/log4go"
+	"github.com/lib/pq"
+)
+
+type isRecoverableErrorFunc func(error) bool
+
+func kinesisIsRecoverableError(err error) bool {
+	recoverableErrorCodes := map[string]bool{
+		"ProvisionedThroughputExceededException": true,
+		"InternalFailure":                        true,
+		"Throttling":                             true,
+		"ServiceUnavailable":                     true,
+		//"ExpiredIteratorException":               true,
+	}
+	r := false
+	cErr, ok := err.(*kinesis.Error)
+	if ok && recoverableErrorCodes[cErr.Code] == true {
+		r = true
+	}
+	return r
+}
+
+func urlIsRecoverableError(err error) bool {
+	r := false
+	_, ok := err.(*url.Error)
+	if ok {
+		r = true
+	}
+	return r
+}
+
+func netIsRecoverableError(err error) bool {
+	recoverableErrors := map[string]bool{
+		"connection reset by peer": true,
+	}
+	r := false
+	cErr, ok := err.(*net.OpError)
+	if ok && recoverableErrors[cErr.Err.Error()] == true {
+		r = true
+	}
+	return r
+}
+
+var redshiftRecoverableErrors = []*regexp.Regexp{
+	regexp.MustCompile("The specified S3 prefix '.*?' does not exist"),
+}
+
+func redshiftIsRecoverableError(err error) bool {
+	r := false
+	if cErr, ok := err.(pq.Error); ok {
+		for _, re := range redshiftRecoverableErrors {
+			if re.MatchString(cErr.Message) {
+				r = true
+				break
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return r
+}
+
+var isRecoverableErrors = []isRecoverableErrorFunc{
+	kinesisIsRecoverableError, netIsRecoverableError, urlIsRecoverableError, redshiftIsRecoverableError,
+}
+
+// this determines whether the error is recoverable
+func isRecoverableError(err error) bool {
+	r := false
+
+	log.Printf("isRecoverableError, type %s, value (%#v)\n", reflect.TypeOf(err).String(), err)
+
+	for _, errF := range isRecoverableErrors {
+		r = errF(err)
+		if r {
+			break
+		}
+	}
+
+	return r
+}
+
+// handle the aws exponential backoff
+func handleAwsWaitTimeExp(attempts int) {
+
+	//http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/api-retries.html
+	// wait up to 5 minutes based on the aws exponential backoff algorithm
+	if attempts > 0 {
+		waitTime := time.Duration(math.Min(100*math.Pow(2, float64(attempts)), 300000)) * time.Millisecond
+		l4g.Finest("handleAwsWaitTimeExp:%s", waitTime.String())
+		time.Sleep(waitTime)
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/pipeline.go b/pipeline.go
index 3bbb73d..7ff7199 100644
--- a/pipeline.go
+++ b/pipeline.go
@@ -2,10 +2,6 @@ package connector
 
 import (
 	"log"
-	"math"
-	"net"
-	"net/url"
-	"reflect"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/ezoic/go-kinesis"
@@ -27,78 +23,6 @@ type Pipeline struct {
 	CheckpointFilteredRecords bool
 }
 
-type pipelineIsRecoverableErrorFunc func(error) bool
-
-func pipelineKinesisIsRecoverableError(err error) bool {
-	recoverableErrorCodes := map[string]bool{
-		"ProvisionedThroughputExceededException": true,
-		"InternalFailure":                        true,
-		"Throttling":                             true,
-		"ServiceUnavailable":                     true,
-		//"ExpiredIteratorException":               true,
-	}
-	r := false
-	cErr, ok := err.(*kinesis.Error)
-	if ok && recoverableErrorCodes[cErr.Code] == true {
-		r = true
-	}
-	return r
-}
-
-func pipelineUrlIsRecoverableError(err error) bool {
-	r := false
-	_, ok := err.(*url.Error)
-	if ok {
-		r = true
-	}
-	return r
-}
-
-func pipelineNetIsRecoverableError(err error) bool {
-	recoverableErrors := map[string]bool{
-		"connection reset by peer": true,
-	}
-	r := false
-	cErr, ok := err.(*net.OpError)
-	if ok && recoverableErrors[cErr.Err.Error()] == true {
-		r = true
-	}
-	return r
-}
-
-var pipelineIsRecoverableErrors = []pipelineIsRecoverableErrorFunc{
-	pipelineKinesisIsRecoverableError, pipelineNetIsRecoverableError, pipelineUrlIsRecoverableError,
-}
-
-// this determines whether the error is recoverable
-func (p Pipeline) isRecoverableError(err error) bool {
-	r := false
-
-	log.Printf("isRecoverableError, type %s, value (%#v)\n", reflect.TypeOf(err).String(), err)
-
-	for _, errF := range pipelineIsRecoverableErrors {
-		r = errF(err)
-		if r {
-			break
-		}
-	}
-
-	return r
-}
-
-// handle the aws exponential backoff
-func (p Pipeline) handleAwsWaitTimeExp(attempts int) {
-
-	//http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/api-retries.html
-	// wait up to 5 minutes based on the aws exponential backoff algorithm
-	if attempts > 0 {
-		waitTime := time.Duration(math.Min(100*math.Pow(2, float64(attempts)), 300000)) * time.Millisecond
-		l4g.Finest("handleAwsWaitTimeExp:%s", waitTime.String())
-		time.Sleep(waitTime)
-	}
-
-}
-
 // ProcessShard kicks off the process of a Kinesis Shard.
 // It is a long running process that will continue to read from the shard.
 func (p Pipeline) ProcessShard(ksis *kinesis.Kinesis, shardID string) {
@@ -130,14 +54,14 @@ func (p Pipeline) ProcessShard(ksis *kinesis.Kinesis, shardID string) {
 		}
 
 		// handle the aws backoff stuff
-		p.handleAwsWaitTimeExp(consecutiveErrorAttempts)
+		handleAwsWaitTimeExp(consecutiveErrorAttempts)
 
 		args = kinesis.NewArgs()
 		args.Add("ShardIterator", shardIterator)
 		recordSet, err := ksis.GetRecords(args)
 
 		if err != nil {
-			if p.isRecoverableError(err) {
+			if isRecoverableError(err) {
 				l4g.Info("recoverable error, %s", err)
 				consecutiveErrorAttempts++
 				continue
diff --git a/redshift_basic_emitter.go b/redshift_basic_emitter.go
index 6c54dde..3544076 100644
--- a/redshift_basic_emitter.go
+++ b/redshift_basic_emitter.go
@@ -32,7 +32,28 @@ func (e RedshiftBasicEmtitter) Emit(b Buffer, t Transformer) {
 	s3Emitter.Emit(b, t)
 	s3File := s3Emitter.S3FileName(b.FirstSequenceNumber(), b.LastSequenceNumber())
 
-	_, err := e.Db.Exec(e.copyStatement(s3File))
+	stmt := e.copyStatement(s3File)
+
+	var err error
+	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
+
+		// handle aws backoff, this may be necessary if, for example, the
+		// s3 file has not appeared to the database yet
+		handleAwsWaitTimeExp(i)
+
+		// load into the database
+		_, err := e.Db.Exec(stmt)
+
+		// if the request succeeded, or its an unrecoverable error, break out of the loop
+		// because we are done
+		if err == nil || isRecoverableError(err) == false {
+			break
+		}
+
+		// recoverable error, lets warn
+		l4g.Warn(err)
+
+	}
 
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Fatal(err)