Small cuddly robots...
over 9 years ago
– Tue, Jun 09, 2015 at 09:55:29 PM
So these little guys just showed up at my door...
Now, I cannot possibly care for them all... I simply don't have enough bandwidth to go around. So I'm hoping there are a lot of people out there that want to give them homes soon.
The Death plushie has been long sold out... so you'll imagine my surprise when I found ten of them hiding in one of the boxes. I haven't quite decided how to distribute them yet, but the safe bet is on Willy Wonka style, just randomly sticking them in with Snuggle Bundle orders.
The boxes also included a bunch of old 18x24 signed posters, mostly "This is the way the world ends..."
These will just be a free pack-in with the Applied Education posters, for as long as they last.
Not much else to report on my end at the moment... Kickstarter is still wrapping up pledge collection, so I'll keep you posted as soon as I know for sure when I'll send out the pledge managers.
Funded!
over 9 years ago
– Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 06:52:24 AM
So... I know we'd talked about using this money to print some books, but I know a guy who knows a guy who has a line on some really spectacular magic beans...
Seriously though, I am just blown away, exhausted, excited, dumbfounded... I'm not sure I really even have the words. So instead, let me quote an excerpt from chapter thirty-one of my upcoming novel, 'Thanks':
Thank you. Thank you thank you thank. You. Thank you thank you. Thank. You. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you thank you. Thank thank thank you you you. Thank you.
"Thank you," said Thank You, thankfully.
Thank you thank you, thank you thank you. Thank you.
The whole novel is just riveting, so it was hard to choose a passage, but I think the above really captures the essence of it.
So, here we are. You have all entrusted me with a great deal of money, and as collateral I have, essentially, put my livelihood on the line. A lot of my ability to make this my living is based on trust. You trust me to have my comics up when I say they'll be up, you trust me to provide you with opinions on games etc that are not influenced by advertisers etc, and you trust me to deliver the products I say I'll deliver. It's not a responsibility I take lightly. I like my job quite a bit, and it's something I want to continue to do for a long time to come.
All of the products involved in this Kickstarter are rewards that I believe I can reasonably deliver, and within the general time-frame I've set forth. I know some Kickstarters over-commit, and it takes years for them to finish delivering rewards (if ever). I don't intend to be one of those. This project will be a large part of my life this year, but next year I want to be working on other things, so it is my wholehearted intention to get this thing done and everyone happy as soon as possible.
So where do we go from here? Some of your pledges have already been collected, and the rest will be collected in the very near future. It's still going to be a couple of weeks until I can send out the pledge manager though, at which point you'll have the opportunity to sort out your add-ons, purchase additional add-ons if you decided "now that I think about it, I did want an extra sticker sheet..." or whatever. You'll be able to purchase the plushies and blankets at that time.
Again I want to reiterate: when the pledge managers go out, the sooner you fill out the surveys, the sooner I have (mostly) final counts on the additional items we need to print, and the sooner I can start getting those made.
In the meantime, I'm finalizing the book files and getting those off for proofing. Getting the book underway is my top priority, because it will take the longest to print. And I'm just about there. I'm expecting cloth swatches on Thursday so that I can pick out the exact cloth/color that the hardcovers/slipcase will be wrapped in. Once I know that, I can finalize the dustjackets (specifically, choosing a shade of gray on the spine portion that compliments the shade of the slipcase), and that's pretty much the last step.
Once the book is off to the printer, that's mostly on autopilot for a while, at which point I switch gears to the posters, bookmarks, prints, stickers and DVD sets. All of that stuff should only take a few weeks to print, so I'll get those back and have plenty of time to sign things before the books show up.
It is my full intention to keep you posted on all the major steps of the process, good or bad. You'll know when things get sent off to print, you'll know when I receive anything back.
This is a huge project, but its manageable by breaking it down into its smaller chunks. Certain rewards, like the Posters and Plushie/Blanket orders, are self-contained, do not need to wait for other rewards, and can be shipped out as soon as they're ready. And again I will keep you posted on that status of all of these things.
When you get your pledge manager from Backerkit, please pay attention when entering your shipping address. If rewards are lost as a result of being sent to an incomplete/wrong address, you may be charged for replacements.
I understand that we have many months between now and most of the rewards shipping, and situations can change. You may need to move, etc. That's okay. One of the reasons I chose Backerkit for our pledge manager is that you can log in at any time and update your shipping address. Before I ship any rewards, I will send out an update reminding you to check your address.
Finally, most of all, I'm going to ask for some patience and understanding through this process. I have a very big job ahead of me. But I also still have my other jobs to do as well, drawing new comics and being a father.
And thank you all for joining me on this endeavor. Drawing this comic has provided me with so many amazing experiences over the years, this one included, and I'm so excited to make this collection a reality.
T-Minus 9 hours and counting...
over 9 years ago
– Tue, Jun 02, 2015 at 11:23:57 AM
The campaign closes in less than ten hours! Here's what the next leg of this endeavor looks like...
Once the campaign is over and (obviously) fully-funded, Kickstarter will begin charging pledges. I don't imagine this will happen immediately in the seconds that follow, but likely over the next couple of days.
You will receive an email from Kickstarter if your pledge was successful, or you will receive an email if your pledge was declined for some reason. The following excerpt was taken from the Kickstarter FAQ:
If your pledge was declined, just log in to Kickstarter and click the “Fix payment” button in the banner at the top of your screen. This will guide you through the process of changing your payment method. We'll also send you an email every 48 hours with a direct link to correct the issue. But don't delay: backers have 7 days to resolve payment issues before they're dropped from the project.
So you will have an opportunity to remedy any issues. But so we're all on the same page here, if you don't fix your pledge in time, there is nothing I can do about it later. Your spot as a backer, along with any rewards, are forfeit!
When the campaign ends, it's going to take Kickstarter a couple of weeks to collect the pledges and get them to me, so we'll be in a bit of a holding pattern. I have the surveys etc all set up, but I can't send them out until the pledges are processed. So figure, as a rough estimate, around Monday June 22nd the surveys will start going out. I'll keep you posted as we get closer.
I'll be using Backerkit as my pledge manager for this campaign, because it provides a great deal of options above and beyond Kickstarter's built-in surveys and should make my life a LOT easier when it comes time to ship rewards, etc.
When you get your Backerkit email, you'll be asked to jump in and manage your pledge. (If you want to get an idea of what that will look like, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffuJxxFj8PI ).
I want to stress that the sooner you get in there and sort out your add-ons and whatever, the better for everyone. I want to get going on having the posters, DVDs, prints, bookmarks, stickers, etc all manufactured as soon as possible, but to do that I need to know how many to have made. So when you get your pledge manager email, don't delay!
The Backerkit pledge manager is also where you'll input your shipping address. You'll be able to edit this address freely up until I lock them down, which won't happen until a couple of weeks before the books start shipping. So if you think you may be moving this summer, don't stress about it. You'll receive Kickstarter Updates from me warning you that rewards will start shipping and you need to verify your addresses.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of what to expect of the next few weeks. The campaign is ending, but we're really just getting started here!
