What a campaign we've had! We are so grateful and excited that you are along for the ride. Looking back at the last month, here are a few of our milestones:
We were fully funded before we launched (we were the first ever campaign to do this)!
We reached the narration goal (we're super excited about this one)!
We raised over 3x of our main goal!
I just gotta say:
We're over here celebrating with gratitude, and we're excited to get started producing some cool stuff!
So, on to some business.
SURVEYS
We are currently preparing surveys, which we will have to you in the next week or so. Make sure to keep an eye out for those.
SCHEDULE
Here's what to expect with regards to the schedule. (I'm going to address a few items below the graphic.)
Reflections & ARTWORK DELIVERY
We have this listed as happening in mid-May, but since 99% of the production for these items is complete, we'll send these out as soon as we have everyone's surveys in. (Likely even sooner, since digital distribution doesn't hinge on orders being locked.)
STORY SUBMISSION TIMELINE & INFO
Many of you have either already started your stories or (in some cases) already completed them. We are putting together a submission form for you to send us your story along with some details, and we will send you a link when it's ready. Once you have that form and have completed your stories (and ensure that they follow the guidelines listed here), you are welcome to submit the form with your story.
With the submission deadline June 30, editing will start in earnest in July, but depending on the number of stories we receive early and our editor's schedule, we may get started on editing some of the stories sooner. Regardless, once we have your story, Jane, our editor, will coordinate efforts with the alpha / beta reading teams to begin that part of the process.
A FEW OTHER THINGS
Tales Digital Delivery:
For those who have elected for a digital version of Tales, we are planning on providing an option for you to receive those piecemeal as they are ready. You are welcome to select this option during the survey process, but there will also be the option to await for the completion of the full anthology. I mention this, because we are planning a layout/format for the anthology that collects similar submitted stories into categories, and then we will introduce each section/category with a special story (and/or introductory remarks). Either way, totally up to you, and regardless of which option you select, you will receive the full anthology when we are finished.
No Post-Campaign Store:
Many campaigns, once they finish, will open a post-campaign store, allowing people who missed the pledging period to also back the campaign. We are not planning to do this for this campaign, primarily for the sake of author royalties.
To explain: for the purposes of distribution of the anthology (when we get to that point), we will be partnering with a service that manages sales and royalties -- essentially one that will: 1. provide reporting to individual authors, and 2. handle the payment disbursal. Our goal with this is two-fold:
We want to make sure authors have clear access to the numbers and receive any royalties automatically, and
We want to reduce the burden on our own team (with regards to accounting, reporting, and disbursal), so that we can focus on producing the anthology.
Since the BackerKit post-campaign store does not have these (automatic) capabilities built-in, we will wait until the anthology is ready for sale to begin, well, selling it. Ultimately, we feel that getting the anthology completed, released, and marketed sooner will be the best use of resources and time.
If you have any questions or thoughts about this, or anything else, please let us know.
THANK YOU!
Thank you all again! We are so glad and grateful that you are on this journey with us, and we can't wait to dig in!
All the best, Michael & The Team @ The Black Piper
