Fulfillment will still begin on June 15th - have you filled out your backer survey? - but we can now show you the novellas in all their glory!
As a glamorous, charism...
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Brackenbury Books
23 days ago
Okay, NOW the surveys have been sent!
Hi there!
In our last update we got ahead of ourselves about the crowdfund surveys being sent.
Turned out only the initial smoke test, sending surveys to 5% of our backers ...
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Brackenbury Books
27 days ago
Backerkit Surveys Have Gone Out, Fulfillment Begins June 15th, The Dinkus, and...MYSTERY PROJECT???
Hello,
Finished files for all four books are with the printers, who are now busily doing their thing, and so...
Backerkit Surveys for New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas we...
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Brackenbury Books
about 2 months ago
News & Art Previews
IN SHORT
• Due to an unexpected staffing gap that I myself will be filling temporarily, the novellas are delayed until approximately May 28th.Â
• This means you can expect t...
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Brackenbury Books
6 months ago
Progress & The Big Survey
Hello!
This a little update to let you know two things.
ONE
Progress with the novellas is on schedule. We're a little over halfway through the editing process, have some of...
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Brackenbury Books
8 months ago
Has your pledge gone through?
Heya!Â
For New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas we still have 7 failed credit card charges, so you may wish to check if your pledge has gone through.Â
If it hasn't, you can co...
Fulfillment will still begin on June 15th - have you filled out your backer survey? - but we can now show you the novellas in all their glory!
As a glamorous, charismatic crowdfund backer you shall have all four of these books made available for download or shipped to you on June 15th or very soon after.
But maybe you didn't back us, or know someone else who missed the crowdfund and would like to get these books!
Well, June 15th will also double as the official release date of WHAT ROUGH BEAST? by Bryn Hammond.
Each book will become available for pre-order directly through our website about a month in advance. Thank you so much for helping make these books possible! It really feels like Brackenbury Books is ascending to a whole new level with these.
Alright, our next update will be to confirm that fulfillment has begun. See you on the 15th!
In our last update we got ahead of ourselves about the crowdfund surveys being sent.
Turned out only the initial smoke test, sending surveys to 5% of our backers to make sure everything works as it should, had been sent.
A few minutes ago the other 95% of surveys were sent!
Once more, with feeling, surveys are for:
Paying shipping. (Vital!)
Updating or confirming your mailing address.
Updating or confirming your payment information.
and
Last minute additions of Add-On goodies to your order .
So please check your spam folders if you haven't seen your own survey, and let us know if something has gone missing.
IMPORTANT: If you are a digital backer wanting to upgrade to physical formats, Backerkit will briefly show shipping as being the maximum possible rate because it won't know where you are ordering from until you put in your address. Once you've done that, the shipping cost will adjust appropriately.
Finished files for all four books are with the printers, who are now busily doing their thing, and so...
Backerkit Surveys for New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas went out today!
Overall, surveys are for:
Paying shipping. (Vital!)
Updating or confirming your mailing address.
Updating or confirming your payment information.
and
Last minute additions of Add-On goodies to your order .
So please check your spam folders if you haven't seen your own survey, and let us know if something has gone missing.
IMPORTANT: If you are a digital backer wanting to upgrade to physical formats, Backerkit will briefly show shipping as being the maximum possible rate because it won't know where you are ordering from until you put in your address. Once you've done that, the shipping cost will adjust appropriately.
****EDIT***
🧠Sara The Very Smart Fulfillment Person We Work With For A Reason tells us we've only sent out...
...THE SMOKE TEST...
...meaning like 5% of backers are getting their surveys to test things out before we send the other 95%. 🙃
Sorry for the mix-up, and we'll be very loud about it when we send that 95%!
FULFILLMENT BEGINS JUNE 15th
Because things got delayed a bit, the books will arrive with us right before our fulfillment person takes a short, well-earned vacation. Not wanting to split a few orders before and most after the vacation, we're playing it safe by beginning to ship everything on June 15th.
Digital fulfillment begins on June 15th as well because of Backerkit's "All at once" fulfillment system.
COVERS HAVE BEEN SIMPLIFIED. ALSO: THE DINKUS
When doing final layout for the printer your brave publisher here felt that the "NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY NOVELLAS" bar at the bottom made the covers a bit too crowded, especially for THE HUNT... and SUPLEX & SORCERY. So those were removed, the bottom text on THE HUNT... made more legible, and so here we are - the final cover designs!
You know those symbols, sometimes a simple # and other times a small illustration, that are used to indicate breaks in a manuscript? They have the best possible name - a dinkus.
The plural is "dinkus'" but we prefer "dinkiiiii".
As with everything we do at Brackenbury Books we've been intentional in the dinkus' we've designed for the three novellas in this set which use them. For example, above you'll see the dinkus we're using for SUPLEX & SORCERY, a line running between two posts like the ropes on a wrestling ring...
BACKERS GET ALL FOUR BOOKS SHIPPED TO THEM, STARTING JUNE 15TH
...but the public at large will see a gradual release as follows:
Due to an unexpected staffing gap that I myself will be filling temporarily, the novellas are delayed until approximately May 28th.
This means you can expect to see your Backerkit surveys arrive near the end of April, perhaps at the very start of May.
We've got fun art to share...see below.
IN DETAIL
A goal I have for Brackenbury Books is to get us to a place where I can hire employees, but for now we have volunteers - who receive honorariums - that sometimes can have to step back suddenly when the rest of their life makes big demands of them. That's what's happened recently with both our layout person and a publishing assistant I was training as a backup - nobody said publishing would be easy!
The good thing is that all the actual material for the books is safely with us, I'm taking the layout into my own hands, and our printer for this project is located in the same state as our fulfillment warehouse. It would take a metaphorical elephant landing on our heads to cause any further significant delay. Should there be an elephant, we'll let you know.
Meanwhile, thanks to the record-breaking success of New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2026, we were able to upgrade the cover for Audrey Stolling's 'zine from this...
Art by Daniel Vega
...to a full wraparound illustration!
Probably not crossing the Delaware...
After some final touches to the layout, we'll be sending the 'zine you unlocked to a different, Chicago-based printer that will be able to get us the finished product pretty quickly. Thus we hope to show you some preview pics of the finished 'zine before fulfillment begins.
BUT THAT'S NOT THE ONLY STRETCH GOAL YOU UNLOCKED LAST FALL!
Art by Caster Jones
This is just one of four maps we've commissioned, one for each novella. The setting of Myrial will be found in Steve Hugh Westenra's The Barbarian at Star's End.
Caster Jones has done each of the four maps in a different style. For this novella I asked them to riff on one of the sources of inspiration swirling around in Steve's and my earliest discussions of Barbarian, Lin Carter's Gondwane novels.
Art by Lin Carter himself
Alright, we don't want to give everything away in advance so I'll stop here. A brief update will go up when, or very soon after, we safely have everything off to the printer. Thank you for your patience, and...
Keep your swords sharp and your sorcery numinous,
P.S. Don't forget you can listen to a reading of the first two chapters of Barbarian, and the other three novellas, on our Youtube channel.
Progress with the novellas is on schedule. We're a little over halfway through the editing process, have some of the frontispiece illustrations already in hand, and are feeling good about meeting our goal of fulfillment happening in April.
TWO
Currently we are fulfilling three crowdfunds all together as part of a big combined survey, the first of its kind that Backerkit has ever done.
Understandably some people who have backed this crowdfund have been asking where their survey is - thinking that "New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas" might be part of this big mega survey.
It is not.
That big, combined survey only covers the following crowdfunds:
New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2025
Beating Hearts & Battle-axes
and
Sometime Lofty Towers
If you've only backed "New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas" then don't worry, there's no survey for you to be looking for, nothing you need to do right now.
You'll hear from us some time in March, though we'll try for at least one progress update before. Until then, happy holidays from all of us here at Brackenbury Books!
