For New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas 2026 we still have several failed credit card charges, so you may wish to check if your pledge has gone through.
If it hasn't, you can comment beneath this update and we'll respond, or perhaps first you can check out this help page for ways you may be able to resolve the issue yourself: https://help.backerkit.com/category/616-payment
Meanwhile, work proceeds apace! Caster Jones, for example, is already hard at work on the maps for each novella...
We unlocked every stretch goal, invented new ones, and unlocked one of those!
Right now backers are being charged for their pledges.
Backers will be charged for shipping approx. four weeks before fulfillment. This is also likely when surveys will be sent out to collect necessary information such as mailing addresses, though the surveys may come sooner.
Our current goal for fulfillment is April 2027, so expect to be charged for shipping in early March 2027 at the earliest. Backers in Canada will have a $5 USD shipping discount, all other backers living outside the United States will have a $10 USD shipping discount.
All backers are cordially invited to join our New Edge Sword & Sorcery Discord server through the link you'll find in the "Backer Only Content" section way at the bottom of this update.
Though we'll be much quieter for a little while, if you'd like more regular updates and other fun info, we can be followed on Bluesky, Facebook, andInstagram. Keep an eye on them, or join our newsletter.
More than anything else we do in a year, this crowdfund has been about our love, love, love for classic Sword & Sorcery mass-market paperbacks. Thank you so much for helping us bring more into the world!
As a publisher, strong communication with your authors is key.
As mentioned above, our goal is to fulfill the crowdfund in April, 2027. With a new layout & design member joining our staff and all four manuscripts in hand earlier than last time, we're feeling good about meeting that goal. Our printer being in the same state as our storage is another big factor working in our favor.
As ever, should there be delays we will keep you informed.
Please do join The New Edge Sword & Sorcery Discord (Link at the bottom, in the Backers Only Content), a great online hang-out that I'd love to see your digital faces in, a fun spot to chat about our publications, Sword & Sorcery in general, and otherwise connect with your fellow readers, writers, artists, and more.
It's also a breeding ground for goofs like how Meatball Subs Are The Only Real Sandwich, and the only time I get to eat one is when we've finished funding new Sword & Sorcery!
It feels good to watch our family of novellas grow! And this year's will have twice as much interior art...
Alright, that's all from me for now. Please make sure to read through IN SHORT for the practical details of what's happening with charging backers for pledges, charging for shipping, and more.
Keep your swords sharp, and your sorcery numinous,
Custom Dinkuses Unlocked, Onward to Double Art, and 24 Hours Left!
You CRUSHED those custom dinkuses late last night, and so the mystery stretch goal is revealed...
NEW MYSTERIES TO SOLVE...
Oh yes! There are now three mystery stretch goals, and if we unlock Double Art then all three shall be revealed!
TONIGHT!
Don't forget that tonight at 7pm EST, right at the top of the crowdfund, there will be a livestream interview with the author of LONG IS THE NIGHT - Audrey Stollings!
Bonus 'Zine Unlocked! Time to learn about The Dinkus, and New Stretch Goals...
BONUS 'ZINE UNLOCKED - YOU DID IT!
Now every digital backer will receive a PDF, and every physical format backer will receive a risograph-printed and stapled 'zine containing 17,000 words telling four stories of Zeynep & Kawtar!
NEXT STRETCH GOAL..."CUSTOM DINKUSES"???
Don't worry, a dinkus isn't rude, it's that symbol or line you sometimes see which is used in manuscripts to denote a significant break within the work between major sections. In our recently released novella WHAT ROUGH BEAST? (available as an add-on) we used this:
No shame in that game! But now, thanks to you, all four of our 2026 novellas will instead use a custom illustration by each of their respective interior illustrators for their dinkuses...dinkus....dinkii? Y-you get the idea.
OKAY, SO WHAT'S THE "MYSTERY STRETCH GOAL"?
You'll have to unlock Custom Dinkuses to find out...but with the crowdfund ending on Saturday at 12pm EST and us already having made some progress on this stretch goal...I think the mystery is likely to be revealed!
FINAL LIVESTREAM...
Friday, Sept 25th aka tomorrow at 7pm EST I'll sit down with LONG IS THE NIGHT author Audrey Stollings to talk S&S, her novella, what the heck even is "Acid Gothic", and more! Please join us for this right at the top of the crowdfund.
ONE WEEK LEFT: The Story Behind Our Novellas...and a Peek at The New Dummies
Yes, the crowdfund ends on Sept 26th at 12pm EST. Between the crowdfund exclusives, the shipping discount, and how you won't pay shipping until approximately mid-March 2027, there simply is no better time to seize this set of Sword & Sorcery novellas!
But what's the story behind them? Why do we make these novellas, and make them the way we do?
MADE WITH LOVE FOR THE CLASSICS...
It should come as no surprise that we here at Brackenbury Books are big fans of classic second-wave Sword & Sorcery paperbacks from the mid-to-late 20th Century. We love their brisk, episodic storytelling wrapped in dynamic, compelling painted covers...
...and we hope it shows!
These are "dummies", with blank interiors & matte covers. The final products will be glossy and filled with adventure!
Notice how each novella has the subtitle "A Tale of...."?
This is because we feel strongly that Sword & Sorcery is character-driven first and foremost, and no matter the cover art or the title we want fans of any character we publish to have an easy time knowing they've found a story starring their favorite.
Or...favorites?
MAKE MINE A DOUBLE
The idea came to us in 2023, but our quest truly began in 2024 with Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery, a love-letter to a classic line of Scif & Fantasy two-in-one books called "Ace Doubles"...and a way for a very new, tiny publisher to afford to put out two novellas instead of just one!
One book, two novellas!
What you see above is two copies of the same book, flipped over to show each side. You read through one novella, flip the book around hey hey a second novella to enjoy! Keeping this format in mind we chose to pair two different takes on Mongol-inspired S&S; one locked into a city under siege, the other taking its characters on a long desert journey.
Simon Underwood's Orhan on the left, Linne Sterte's Goatskin and Sister Chaos on the right.
From the beginning we knew a nice full page piece of interior art placed right before the first page of the story (called a "frontispiece") was vital. We carried this practice forward into the next year, when we expanded to crowdfund a full set of four novellas!
Our 2025 novellas, available as a set and individually as add-ons.
That time, thanks to our mighty supporters we unlocked a new art feature: FANTASY CARTOGRAPHY.
HERE THERE BE SWORD & SORCERY
Sword & Sorcery is a sub-genre of Fantasy, so of course we want to do everything we can to help you feel like you're being taken Somewhere Else...
These four maps are from our 2025 novellas, all illustrated by Caster Jones.
We decided we couldn't risk living without Caster Jones' varied and wonderful maps, so with our next set of novellas we didn't make them a stretch goal; they now come standard. Speaking of those novellas, that brings us to...
NEW EDGE SWORD SORCERY NOVELLAS 2026
In the interest of variety, we didn't bring back all four of the same creative teams this year but...
...at this point you may have noticed some recurring author names and cover artists. Does that mean there's detailed series continuity you need to learn? Can you enjoy the 2026 novellas if you haven't read everything that's come before?
STAND ALONE, FIT TOGETHER
It's important to us that no matter which book you start with, you can have a great time. So, starting with Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery, we've worked with our authors to make sure that while you'll feel rewarded for collecting the full runs of any given character...
The Goatskin series (so far!).
The Orhan Timur the Snow Leopard series so far.
...you can start with any book on its own, with no knowledge of the character or setting, and have a great time!
It's our hope that eventually other characters than Goatskin & Orhan will develop their own novella series...
...AND BOUNDARY-PUSHING, INCLUSIVE STORYTELLING!
We love that we're getting to build these series that exemplify what we first set out to do with our magazine, bringing forward everything that makes Sword & Sorcery special while broadening its majestic vistas!
Thank you for making this possible. So, what's next?
WE CAN'T TELL THE FUTURE; YOU CAN HELP US SHAPE IT
As you can see, we're always looking to build upon the Sword & Sorcery we've published before. We also want to keep trying new things; right now we hope to make posters featuring our gorgeous cover art available - check out the poll attached to this post - and make retro style risograph 'zines a regular thing - check out that stretch goal attached to this post! But first and foremost there's the less tangible, never-ending quest to keep finding authors & artists who can take us Somewhere Else...
If you haven't already, please consider backing and sharing this crowdfund, lending your mighty thews to ours as we stride forward into the future of Sword & Sorcery!
For New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas 2026 we still have several failed credit card charges, so you may wish to check if your pledge has gone through.
If it hasn't, you can comment beneath this update and we'll respond, or perhaps first you can check out this help page for ways you may be able to resolve the issue yourself: https://help.backerkit.com/category/616-payment
Meanwhile, work proceeds apace! Caster Jones, for example, is already hard at work on the maps for each novella...
We unlocked every stretch goal, invented new ones, and unlocked one of those!
Right now backers are being charged for their pledges.
Backers will be charged for shipping approx. four weeks before fulfillment. This is also likely when surveys will be sent out to collect necessary information such as mailing addresses, though the surveys may come sooner.
Our current goal for fulfillment is April 2027, so expect to be charged for shipping in early March 2027 at the earliest. Backers in Canada will have a $5 USD shipping discount, all other backers living outside the United States will have a $10 USD shipping discount.
All backers are cordially invited to join our New Edge Sword & Sorcery Discord server through the link you'll find in the "Backer Only Content" section way at the bottom of this update.
Though we'll be much quieter for a little while, if you'd like more regular updates and other fun info, we can be followed on Bluesky, Facebook, andInstagram. Keep an eye on them, or join our newsletter.
More than anything else we do in a year, this crowdfund has been about our love, love, love for classic Sword & Sorcery mass-market paperbacks. Thank you so much for helping us bring more into the world!
As a publisher, strong communication with your authors is key.
As mentioned above, our goal is to fulfill the crowdfund in April, 2027. With a new layout & design member joining our staff and all four manuscripts in hand earlier than last time, we're feeling good about meeting that goal. Our printer being in the same state as our storage is another big factor working in our favor.
As ever, should there be delays we will keep you informed.
Please do join The New Edge Sword & Sorcery Discord (Link at the bottom, in the Backers Only Content), a great online hang-out that I'd love to see your digital faces in, a fun spot to chat about our publications, Sword & Sorcery in general, and otherwise connect with your fellow readers, writers, artists, and more.
It's also a breeding ground for goofs like how Meatball Subs Are The Only Real Sandwich, and the only time I get to eat one is when we've finished funding new Sword & Sorcery!
It feels good to watch our family of novellas grow! And this year's will have twice as much interior art...
Alright, that's all from me for now. Please make sure to read through IN SHORT for the practical details of what's happening with charging backers for pledges, charging for shipping, and more.
Keep your swords sharp, and your sorcery numinous,
Now every digital backer will receive a PDF, and every physical format backer will receive a risograph-printed and stapled 'zine containing 17,000 words telling four stories of Zeynep & Kawtar!
NEXT STRETCH GOAL..."CUSTOM DINKUSES"???
Don't worry, a dinkus isn't rude, it's that symbol or line you sometimes see which is used in manuscripts to denote a significant break within the work between major sections. In our recently released novella WHAT ROUGH BEAST? (available as an add-on) we used this:
No shame in that game! But now, thanks to you, all four of our 2026 novellas will instead use a custom illustration by each of their respective interior illustrators for their dinkuses...dinkus....dinkii? Y-you get the idea.
OKAY, SO WHAT'S THE "MYSTERY STRETCH GOAL"?
You'll have to unlock Custom Dinkuses to find out...but with the crowdfund ending on Saturday at 12pm EST and us already having made some progress on this stretch goal...I think the mystery is likely to be revealed!
FINAL LIVESTREAM...
Friday, Sept 25th aka tomorrow at 7pm EST I'll sit down with LONG IS THE NIGHT author Audrey Stollings to talk S&S, her novella, what the heck even is "Acid Gothic", and more! Please join us for this right at the top of the crowdfund.
You CRUSHED those custom dinkuses late last night, and so the mystery stretch goal is revealed...
NEW MYSTERIES TO SOLVE...
Oh yes! There are now three mystery stretch goals, and if we unlock Double Art then all three shall be revealed!
TONIGHT!
Don't forget that tonight at 7pm EST, right at the top of the crowdfund, there will be a livestream interview with the author of LONG IS THE NIGHT - Audrey Stollings!
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