Did we all collapse after the campaign for a week straight? Yes, pretty much our entire team did.
And then we picked ourselves up and got back to work. After all, you unlocked a ton of amazing stretch goals which we now get to create. So here's our July progress report:
FUNDING
The primary funds for everything have landed in our bank account. Only about $7300 in credit card payments failed, and there's plenty of time to take care of that in the surveys when those come out.
SURVEYS
We're aiming to release surveys on August 1st. They're almost done, with just a few fiddly details to sort out with BackerKit support. They will include the opportunity to select any add-ons that you missed, as well as temporarily opening a pre-order store for the people who missed the campaign and have been begging for the opportunity to pledge.
SHIPPING
We have all the good news: shipping prices should be very similar to what they were on Grandmaster. We will also subsidize some of the extreme costs for backers in places like Norway and India. In fact, we've capped shipping fees at $50: anything over that in real costs we will cover!
It gets better: we're covering the cost of all VAT/GST charges, as well as the new three Euro charge for import to the EU. International packages will ship with duties pre-paid (DDP) and should arrive at your door without needing any extra payments or paperwork. So the only charges that we're passing through to you are shipping and handling: actual postage, warehouse fees, packaging, and so on. BUT it gets even better: warehouse packaging is cheaper than Grandmaster, since we're pre-packing all of the bundles at the factory.
We're hopeful that this will reduce the massive burden of postage, duties, and import fees for international backers.
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Upon completion of the campaign we confirmed product numbers and quotes with our manufacturer. They're in the process of sending us final templates for every item and our art team is updating all of our files to match. We're also well into development on the Circuit Journal and the timeline poster.
There's another bonus project in progress as well: a complete revamp of the Valdemar timeline website.
SUPPORT
As always, our support team is available to help you at [email protected].
If you applied for a scholarship and missed pledging, we will add you manually once the surveys are ready.
If you missed the campaign, we'll re-open late pledges in August.
Anything else, send us an email and we'll get right on it.
Backerkit has a feature called Overtime Mode that engages as soon as the campaign ends. Every time a new backer pledges or an existing backer adds something to their pledge, 10 minutes gets added back onto the clock.
If you can keep the Backer Train going long enough that Overtime Mode lasts for more than one hour, we'll unlock one final community reward: a THIRD sticker sheet, featuring new fan art by Forestghost!
Well, this is it! We're closing in on the final minutes of the campaign. If you meant to pledge, now is the time. BUT THAT'S NOT WHY WE'RE HERE.
Ben, our campaign manager, is going live with BackerKit in a few minutes to talk about this campaign, upcoming projects, and chill with other creators in preparation for Booktopia: a big September event where we'll be funding Misty's Deluxe Halfblood Chronicles.
And remember to get that pledge in if you haven't yet, because as of this writing there are 108 minutes left and when this is over we're going to have an AMAZING nap.
Thanks! Misty's Crowdfunding Team
(P.S. We're so, so close to unlocking the final physical stretch goal!)
Well, everyone, this is it! We're in the final few hours, but thanks to you we have a lot to share.
Also, our support team will do their best to help everyone who has questions today, but due to volume we can't guarantee answers before 5pm, so we've tried to cover the big questions below. There's also tons of information in our FAQ and in our Post-Campaign Guide. If that doesn't help you, [email protected] is open for campaign questions and [email protected] can assist with technical issues.
Onward to the updates!
NEW STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKS
With $450,000 raised overnight, the large foiled postcard is officially unlocked! This makes 16 unlocked stretch goals, blowing far past our original projections, and bringing the retail value of the Deluxe Heralds bundle well over $200. We love it when a campaign takes off and economies of scale make it possible to add so many cool extras... and there are just a few more goals that we're hoping to reach!
$475,000 – Turn a filler box in the special packaging into a full-color Herald's Chest. It's still just a box, but it will be pretty (and you can put things in it. Or maybe WE can put things in it...)
$500,000 – We raise enough to cover the cost of every single scholarship request. Currently 707 scholarship add-ons have been purchased, but we need 1500 to meet the number of applicants. At $500,000 raised, we'll be able to cover the difference and make sure that everyone who applied for the book receives one!
All Current Unlocks
NEW ADD-ONS
You asked for them, we added them! Stickers and bookmarks are now available as add-ons. Remember that each Deluxe Heralds pledge already includes this, so these are just if you want extras.
Note: since Art of Heralds comes with perforated pages (for easy framing/coloring/etc) we may include the stretch-goal sticker sheets inside the book for extra protection.
SCHOLARSHIPS: DON'T PANIC!
We've had several people worrying that they might receive a scholarship and not have time to redeem it, so we're making it extra easy for you: scholarship recipients who don't pledge in time will be manually added to the pledge manager when the campaign ends. We're serious when we say that nobody gets left behind. And yes, we will be bringing back our shipping scholarship program as well.
If you applied, please log into BackerKit and check this page to see if yours is unlocked!
WILL THERE BE POST-CAMPAIGN PRE-SALES?
People are also asking if pre-sales will be available after the campaign. Yes, with a caveat: we have a hard cap on how many books we can sell. Right now only 737 out of 5000 are left, with up to 250 more in reserve. Once every copy is claimed, that's it. If today's pledges go wild, we may sell out in within the next eight hours (not likely, but not impossible.)
NEW COLORING SUBMISSION
Thanks to Jennifer for giving us one more piece of fan art to share with you as part of our Community Coloring Gallery!
Jennifer D.
Oh, and the poll and commenting on this post open to everyone, not just backers! We'd love to hear from you.
Wow, thanks to everyone to pledged recently to unlock the second full-size sticker sheet! Deluxe Heralds will now ship with double the stickers (and we'll see if we can actually add those sheets to the center of Art of Heralds.)
For those who have joined our community to make this book possible, thank you!
For those who are considering pledging, please get your pledge in by tomorrow, because the campaign is closing in a day.
STORIES FROM FANS
For many of us, physical books are memories -- the covers remind us of how they made us feel when we read them the first time, the emotions are encoded into the page, and the wear tells us that we're revisiting an old friend.
When we design a book like Deluxe Heralds of Valdemar, it's an act of love: for the story, for the memories, and the author.
These stories and photos from fans speak for themselves:
This is the first set of Valdemar books that my mother gave me and she passed away a year ago. This book would hold years worth of memories for me.
My best friend gushed, I read, and we were both hooked. I’ve owned at least three versions of each of these early books over the years. I am currently proud of my complete ebook collection, which I read every year or so. (The friend and I are still good too!)
I read this for the first time when I was about 10? The Queen's Own omnibus was given to me as a gift by a close family friend and I adored it. I read it literally to pieces. (The binding glue started crumbling... lol) My dad bought me a new copy of the hardback, I bought myself the paperbacks of the separate books years later, and I loaded up on all the Valdemar I could get.
I started reading Misty when I was 12-13 years old, I spent my babysitting money to buy books and asked for them for every birthday/holdiday presents. Misty has been my all time favorite author since then and I still have the original paperbacks I bought when they first came out and I would love to have an omnibus that I don't have to worry will fall apart while I'm reading it.
My mom was a huge fantasy lover, and passed that love onto me. She died when I was nine, and I inherited her book collection when I moved out on my own. Mercedes Lackey is the only author she kept up-to-date on until her death in 2003, and I would dearly love to be able to put this compendium next to her well-loved copy of the Arrows Trilogy.
"Arrows of the Queen" was how my aunt first introduced me to Valdemar when I was in middle school. I was a shy kid and related a lot to Talia's struggle to make friends at the Collegium. It has been one of the most-read books on my shelf since.
Talia has always been one of my favorite fantasy characters and Heralds. I can relate to some of her struggles and have often wished I could do more to help the people around me. She has such a deep well of strength and compassion and integrity. I see my own search for understanding and connections in hers. She offers hope that with a little help, there might still be a way through even when it seems impossible.
