I'm happy to report that only 200 cards experienced errors on processing shipping charges, while almost 3500 cards went through easily. We're available to provide support for cards that failed at [email protected].
As a reminder for the small number of people who were surprised, we charge for shipping after the campaign and that's what yesterday's charges were for. Those costs were also communicated in backer surveys (as well as about five other places and updates!)
With cards processed, including pre-orders, we're proceeding with our official order with the manufacturer! It's thrilling that we were able to unlock every stretch goal and now get to make an entire package of goodies for you. Pre-press nerds get ready, we'll be sharing milestones with you throughout the process.
Yesterday we worked through almost one-hundred support emails and a number of Discord tickets, but are happy to share that everyone who reached out had their questions answered. Since we didn't mention it officially, YES, every shipping scholarship request was granted.
- Ben & the Crowdfunding Team
MESSAGES FROM MISTY
Misty reached out last night and asked us to help boost the signal on her friend Kevin's new deluxe book campaign, as well as a crucial and urgent activist call to save the oldest natural history museum in the United States
1 - AUTHORS SUPPORT AUTHORS
"Long-time friend and fellow author Kevin J. Anderson just launched an ambitious BackerKit campaign for The Complete Saga of Seven Suns. It’s the biggest work in his entire career: 13 books, 6200 pages, 2 million words. He’s been working on this series for 25 years. Have a look at the beautiful signed/limited deluxe set and the regular editions, too. I think my fans will love this series, and Kevin is offering a special reward to any of my backers who also support Seven Suns—a free ebook set of his Gamearth fantasy trilogy (Gamearth, Gameplay, and Game’s End)—using this link https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/wordfire-press/the-complete-saga-of-seven-suns-an-epic-space-opera?ref=mercedes I hope you have room on your bookshelves."
2 - SAVE THE ACADEMY
"The oldest natural history museum in the country has been closed to the public. The fate of its priceless collections, including plants collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is in uncertain hands. There is a threat they may be moved or sold, potentially into private hands, and moving them risks destroying them, 200 years of service to the public can’t stop now. The Academy of Natural Sciences is the FIRST natural history museum in the United States, and we won’t let it disappear on our watch. Keep the Academy open to the public! #SaveTheAcademy @acadnatsci @savetheacademy @drexeluniv
Post about re-opening the Academy’s public museum, tagging @DrexelUniv and @acadnatsci"
Due to the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday weekend (hi from Canada!) we decided to hold card processing for Deluxe Heralds of Valdemar until Thursday October 15. This way our staff will be available to assist with anyone who needs us to hold payments for their cards.
INSTRUCTIONS:
If you have outstanding shipping, add-ons, or failed payments due, and you DO NOT want your card charged this Thursday, please email [email protected] and we will exclude you from automatic card processing. These emails MUST be received by Wednesday evening to guarantee that we have time to exclude you. You will still receive a 48-hour notice
This manual assistance is offered as a courtesy for backers; it's a lot of extra work, so we ask that you please be gentle and patient with our support staff. We'll do our best to help you out!
With the successful final charge from our pay-over-time backers, the Deluxe Heralds survey completion rate has crossed 90%. This means that we are on schedule to lock orders and charge shipping in October.
If you did not pledge for Deluxe Heralds, this is your last opportunity to reserve a copy in the pre-order store.
Here are the important dates:
October 1- Deluxe Halfblood BackerKit campaign ends (if you want the matched set) [link]
October 5 - Deluxe Heralds pre-orders close & orders locked (no more changes allowed unless you email [email protected]). Backerkit will email a 48-hour warning.
October 12 - Cards charged for shipping and pre-orders. We will provide an opportunity to delay the charges on an individual basis. Stay tuned for details. Backerkit will email a 48-hour warning.
October 19 - We place the full manufacturing order.
Due to the volume of backers on this campaign, please be patient if it takes a few days for us to answer support emails.
Here's a brief FAQ:
What if my address is going to change? We won't lock addresses until right before we ship next year. You can change right up until the last minute. We'll provide tons of notice.
Can I order a Deluxe Heralds book later? We may be able to order a small number of extra books from the manufacturer, but cannot promise that we'll have a surplus.
What about the Deluxe Halfblood campaign? Can I wait to pledge? That campaign ends on October 1st. The pre-order store should have an open window later, but pledges now help us unlock stretch goals.
It's September and we're here with another project update.
First of all, we expect that the final installments for the pay-over-time backers should process on or around September 27th. When those come through the last group of backers will be able to complete their surveys. We're already at 89% survey completion, which is amazing!
We should be able to lock orders and charge cards for shipping and add-ons in October. We'll provide plenty of notice and, as in prior campaigns, can hold back individual cards if you need yours to process at a different time. Full instructions will be provided in a future update—there's no need to email about this now.
Locking orders sets final item counts, so we can place our final manufacturing order on schedule. From there, we'll expect to work through the following steps:
Deliver full book interior files
Deliver all book exterior (cover) files
Deliver all stretch goal art files
Manufacturer reviews for errors and sends notes
Second round of digital delivery
Receive digital proofs
Fix any remaining errors
Second set of digital proofs
If any physical specs changed, manufacturer sends second set of blank dummies for approval
Flat print proofs and signatures sent (all of the pieces of everything for color and print quality review)
Upon approval of those pieces, manufacturing line set up and one more full set of proofs sent
Proofs approved, manufacturing commences
We've given ourselves several months for this process. We'll share updates, photos, and videos at each major stage.
Concurrently with delivery and manufacturing, we're thrilled to be running our first deluxe book campaign for Arc Manor, featuring Misty's Deluxe Halfblood Chronicles [link]. Funded in under seven hours, we're now well into stretch goals. This campaign runs through October 1st.
Deluxe Halfblood - Back
Deluxe Halfblood - Center
Deluxe Halfblood - front
Additionally, we want to highlight that Care Halverson, who designs all of our gorgeous deluxe books, is also an established author and is currently running a campaign for her own novel IronBlood [link]. This cross-collab with Halfblood provides extra benefits for people who pledge to both campaigns. Care was worried that her campaign wouldn't succeed... and we've taken great pleasure from seeing how much support and love Misty's fandom has given to Care's project, already raising more than 800% of her original goal. Thank you to everyone who helped boost the signal for our awesome team member!
IronBlood Campaign
Finally, we plan to start negotiating rights for the next deluxe Valdemar trilogy in October! If all goes well we'll be able to announce the title for our 2027 volume in just a few months. Stay tuned :)
Thanks from Misty, Larry, and the Deluxe Book Team
We'll keep the store open until 90% of backers have completed surveys. At that time we'll lock everything down and place our manufacturing order. We're not officially offering the deluxe bundle now that the campaign is over, but if you absolutely must have it for some reason, email [email protected] and we can manually create a pre-order for you with the item.
As of this writing, 76% of backers have completed their surveys. Remember that we need accurate counts in order to begin manufacturing, so please keep the survey momentum up. Last campaign more than fifty people pledged and paid full price for Grandmaster and never completed their surveys. We can't ship your books if we don't know where you live... so please, please get that done!
FAQ - "When will you charge cards for shipping and pre-orders?"
In the past we've waited until shipping is due to begin, but since we won't be adjusting shipping prices, we'll plan to charge for shipping this fall, a few weeks after we place the manufacturing order. We will give you at least fourteen days of notice, plus a 48-hour reminder, we will schedule the charges for directly after the first of a month, and we will be able to hold charges on an individual basis for people who need an alternative schedule.
SCHOLARSHIPS UPDATE
All scholarship requests from the campaign have been granted, imported into the system, and surveys sent. If you requested a scholarship, you received it. Please check your inbox for the survey link!
HOWEVER -- a small number of people who requested scholarships also pledged for the $25 level, using the same email address. If you receive a survey link for the scholarship and are unable to access it, please email [email protected] and we'll manually consolidate your orders for you.
FAQ - "Something isn't working for me, how do I get help?"
Please email [email protected] and be patient. Our fabulous support person, Corvyn, will answer you as quickly as possible during regular weekday business hours. If you email on a Friday afternoon, however, or at the same time as fifty other people, it may be a few days before you hear back. Thank you for your patience!
DELUXE HALFBLOOD COMING SOON
The Deluxe Halfblood Chronicles are coming to BackerKit on September 10th!
If you see our home-grown ads out in the wild, you can help us "warm our pixel" by clicking through and following the campaign.
And, since the pre-launch reservations were so successful on Heralds of Valdemar, we're doing it again: a $5 reservation comes with a $25 savings on the full two-volume set!
This will be our first campaign in direct collaboration with one of Misty's publishers. Arc Manor liked our work on Grandmaster so much that they asked us to design the books and run the campaign for the deluxe editions of all four Elvenbane novels!
This is especially exciting for us because we've been able to design Arc Manor's deluxe editions to perfectly match the format and materials of Grandmaster and Deluxe Heralds, so everything will look just right side-by-side on your shelf.
If you are one of those people who will absolutely never click on an ad (like Ben, who hates them with a passion), you can skip the whole "pixel" thing and follow the campaign right here.
Thanks, Misty's Crowdfunding Team (Ben, Care, Athena, and Corvyn)
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