Community

Hi listeners.

 

I’m so, so thrilled to see that lots of the books have made their way to you! I also really appreciated the kind comments from folks letting me know their books had arrived safe and sound. Despite taking so many precautions, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous about how well the books would be treated on their journey. From the sounds of it the extra padding from the bubble wrap has worked out well!

I’m also very pleased to say that the last box of books was collected this week! I’ve seen them all scanned and marked as in transit now in the Australia Post portal too. I only have two books left which still have pending charges, so if you haven’t received your notification to say your book is on the way, please do reach out to me via my support email [email protected] so we can get that sorted for you, or I can provide you the correct tracking number.

As we’re now at this stage, and I’ve had a couple of queries about it, I have made the digital versions of the game available on my store on itch.io and RPG Trader. Noting that the price is set to USD$14, rather than AUD$14 like the campaign. This slight increase in price is to reflect that it was the support of all of you that allowed me to bring this game to life, and therefore the price from the campaign should feel unique. Also, because I’d like to add community copies of the game on Itch whenever there's a sale.

I’m particularly excited about adding the game to Itch, as that’s also meant I’ve been able to set up a community board where you could share snippets from your games. Or any other interesting insights or lore you’ve created if you would like! There is no pressure to share of course, but this way you’ll have a place to go if you are keen to let us delight in your presenter’s dark tales.

For tonight’s song recommendation I’d like to leave you with The Big Heat by Stan Ridgway.

Dorian.

*Soundwave graphic created by @kjpargeter. Profile art by Natalie Chenard.

Hi listeners.

I am happy to say all of the remaining, paid for parcels are now ready to be picked up by Australia Post! About half were collected yesterday, but due to a slight mix-up with the courier, the other half are still pending confirmation of pick-up. Which I’m hoping will either be this week or early next week. Otherwise, I’ve been advised which facility I can go to for a bulk drop-off myself if needed.

I’m also thrilled to say I only have a handful of books left where I’m still following up with backers for payment. I really appreciate all the folks who got back to me so promptly about updating payment details and reached out to their banks to flag the shipping charges were legitimate.

It’s strange to suddenly find myself so close to having finalised everyone’s orders! Although even once I do, I’ll be checking in on the tracking notifications periodically to make sure the books get marked as delivered, and will keep following up with those remaining backers so I can make sure their books can get posted too.

For today’s song recommendation, I’d like to leave you with Germ Free Adolescents by X-Ray Spex.

Dorian.

 
*Soundwave graphic created by @kjpargeter. Profile art by Natalie Chenard.

 

Hi listeners.

I am very happy to announce that not only have I finished posting the first batch of books, but not long after that I unexpectedly received all of the reprints! Add to that the generosity of both relatives and friends diving in to help me and now I have all the books packaged up!

With that in mind, I’ve put through the shipping charges for all remaining orders as I have enough parcels to qualify for a few local pick-ups. I’ve also reached out via email to the small handful of backers where the charge wasn’t able to go through, and explained the cause as I could see it from the Stripe error codes. But I want to reassure everyone through this update too, that your books are not at risk! I have them packaged up and set aside for when the charges can be completed.

From here I am waiting for those shipping charges to come through to me via Stripe so that I can finalise the labels with Australia Post. Although this may take me a few days as there are well over a hundred to process! A number which still boggles my mind no matter how many times I see it. But I am thrilled to have made so much progress, as I can’t wait for you all to receive your books!

For today’s song recommendation I would like to leave you with Hope Road by Anne Clark.

Dorian.
 
*Soundwave graphic created by @kjpargeter. Profile art by Natalie Chenard. 

Hi listeners.

I’m continuing to work through fulfillment and have now finished checking all of the books! Some didn’t survive the transit to me unscathed, but I am very happy to say the printer’s customer service team was quick to respond and are organising a reprint for me as we speak. I don’t anticipate this causing significant delays, not the least of which because I still have plenty of books here to wrap up.

 

This week, I also finished uploading all of the shipping and customs details into the Australia Post portal, ready for final checks and processing. Some backers will see that they’ve been charged for shipping as part of the very first batch! This was a great way for me to work out how many days it would take from me putting the charge through, to receiving the funding so I could pay Australia Post. Which seems to only be a few, even across different banks.

 

Having also received some tips about how to do more aggressive checks of parcel integrity, I’ve decided to swap from honeycomb paper to bubble wrap to ensure books stay as centred in their rigid mailers as possible. I had wanted to use the honeycomb wrapping to make the packages more recyclable for backers whilst providing padding for the books, but I feel the bubble wrap does hold them in place better and doesn’t have any real impact on the overall weight.

 

My plan for this weekend is to continue prepping this first batch of parcels, including paying for and printing the shipping labels. Although admittedly I was a little over excited to be at the stage of shipping the first books out, and made this batch a bit bigger than I had initially planned to. So if you have seen the shipping charge come through, please bear with me as I get the books all bundled up and ready to take to the post office!

 

For tonight’s song recommendation I’d like to leave you with a wonderful cover of Hounds of Love by Eivør.

 

Dorian.

*Soundwave graphic created by @kjpargeter. Profile art by Natalie Chenard.

Hi listeners.

 

I am so, so excited—and admittedly rather nervous—to announce the download links for Midnight in Jubilation are on their way to your inboxes as you read this update! All documents have now been reviewed by my accessibility consultant and are ready for use! Following their good advice, I’ve made a lower size, lower resolution version of the graphics PDF available for download too, which is also screen reader compatible. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the file size of the primary graphics PDF under 20 megabytes without losing some image quality, so while I recognise a lower resolution version isn’t exactly ideal, I hope this supports anyone who needs a version under 15 megabytes.

 

If you have any troubles with the downloads, please let me know via my support email: [email protected], so I can look into it.

 

In further exciting news, the shipping rates have now been approved in the pledge manager and I have finished checking over a good portion of the books! Given the sheer number of you who so generously supported my campaign at the physical tiers, I’ve also been considering how best to make the packaging and shipping stage more manageable from here.

 

My current thinking is that I will still send out the notification shortly about locking addresses, but then look at dividing the parcels up into smaller batches. This means that rather than charging everyone at once for shipping, I’ll be aiming to put the charges through a few days before I start working on that batch of parcels, and you won’t be charged too far in advance of your book being ready to post.

 

Thank you all for your ongoing support!

 

For today’s song recommendations I’d like to leave you with Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell and I Wanna Be Adored by Black City Lights.

 

Dorian.

 

*Soundwave graphic created by @kjpargeter. Profile art by Natalie Chenard.