Prepare for Backerkit!
about 5 years ago
– Sun, Mar 31, 2019 at 08:08:27 PM
OK, while I won't be sending files to the printer for a month or so, I've got shipping figured out. I'm likely printing in Latvia, three titles worth (see below), and then having all of the books shipped to the UK. From there, my fulfillment partner will break up any international orders as needed, and get them into Royal Mail.
Then they'll re-ship the books to my distributor.
The KS was so awesome I have to reprint several titles. I'll be printing Citadel, Hall of Judgment, and Fantastic Dungeon Grappling all at once, and HoJ is technically going to be a second edition now! It'll have the upgraded maps, will be a sewn lay-flat binding, and be on 150gsm/100# paper.
This means that after the Kickstarter, the prices on both Hall of Judgment and Citadel will be the same, at $28. This is the last chance to get Hall of Judgment at the current $25 pricing!
Inside the USA
It's media mail. So it'll be a basic $6-8 for pretty much everyone except for the Shield-Guard and Retail levels. This will be handled by my distributor, who will take delivery of all the book orders and putting them into distribution! Not only will you have your stuff, but you might see it in your Favorite Local Game stores one day.
All the books will be coming from the USA, and all the books except for the D&D-based Dungeon Grappling will be colocated at the distributor. It's all covered at media mail rates, which including handling fees are basically about $6 for the first pound, and then a bit more than $0.50 per pound thereafter.
Outside the USA
You'll be glad to know that because of the printing and drop-ship to the UK, shipping is . . . well, it's better than it could be, but I can't honestly claim it's good.
There are two tiers of shipping.
Powered by GURPS Material
This is the good news. Because all of the titles are being printed and shipped and will arrive as a unit, the orders of all Powered by GURPS material (including bookmarks) will be able to be bundled together.
The basic shipping fees for just the pledge levels are:
- Print Berserker and Styðjas : $8 to the UK; $12 to the EU; $15 to everywhere else, including Canada
- Viking Raider: $8 to the UK; $16 to the EU; $21 to everywhere else, including Canada
If you add bookmarks, there should be a modest handling fee to cover the expense of handling from multiple deliveries; it's likely to be a few dollars.
Dragon Heresy Material
This is where it gets ugly. If you add any of the Dragon Heresy books (Dragon Heresy or Lost Hall of Tyr 2nd Edition) to your order, they have to come from the USA. That means if you only order one book (doesn't matter which one), it'll still be $35; if you order two or more, it jumps up very quickly to about $55-65 and gets more painful from there.
Backerkit Phase
With that taken care of, I've filled out and submitted my "survey" with Backerkit. There is precisely a single question plus your shipping address: "Would you like to opt-in to my mailing list?"
I expect the "smoke test" to go live to about 30 folks next week. I think I've got things figured out, but we'll see. From that point, if it's worked out, the surveys will be sent out to everyone. That will close on Saturday, April 21. A few days later, all PDF rewards will be distributed by Backerkit, including a preliminary file of Citadel.
I will leave that "in the wild" for perhaps one full week, which will give you eagle-eyed folks the opportunity to call out any typographical or content errors that can be fixed without breaking layout. The book is (delightfully) very full. So there will be very little room left for "but it would be cool if . . ."
And by "very little," I mean "essentially none."
Manuscript Status
I've still got a bunch to do on the book. Books, really. But I'm making excellent progress.
Fantastic Dungeon Grappling
I sent a preliminary final file to SJG. They'll make sure it's acceptable (they do this with all my books, it's not unusual) and if so, give me permission to release. I have to put some marketing copy on the back cover, and then it's done.
Hall of Judgment
The PDFs are already upgraded and if you bought it or backed it previously, you've already seen the new maps. Even so: the book will be a tetch thicker due to the paper upgrades, so I will likely have to tweak out the cover, and then do a check to fix any errors. I know there are a few - stat lines and stuff - so this is a GREAT time to tell me what they are if you already have the book. In fact, I'll send that announcement out to the HoJ Kickstarter list as well.
I want to say: I'm thrilled that this Kickstarter pushed HoJ to a reprint. It's my first one on a real product. Sure, I've topped up inventory by POD on Dungeon Grappling, but I guess I'm not surprised, but I am very grateful, that it's a GURPS product that is the first one to see enough demand to call for reprint. And with boxed sets in the wild again, hopefully more people will want the boxed set and the setting!
Citadel at Norðvorn
Obviously the most important. Emily has completed the entire first editing pass, and I've addressed the issues she pointed out and accepted the changes. And paid her, because like Mal Reynolds, it's very simple: "She did the job, and then she got paid."
Consider this a full-throated endorsement for Revised by Emily: she's an excellent editor, timely, and is both a gamer and a pro. Hire her.
So the basic layout is looking pretty good. I have to finish up one short bit for social interactions (flyting rules and notes on how to use reaction rolls to gain appointments with nobles and such) that should take up no more than a page. I have to do art direction for three maps. I have to stat up the dragonkin (eðlufolk and gangaeðla) and pound on the layout of the short monsters section. I've got to assign maybe four pieces of loose art, plus the relationship map I've been using to help with plotting. Then re-generate the Table of Contents (that's done by script) and generate the Index.
The Index is very manual, and requires a word-by-word reading of the book. This serves two purposes, the first of which is to ensure that the text is as good as I can make it; it also generates the index.
That's "it." Monsters will be a tedious job; the layout challenge is non-trivial because of the number of moving parts. The rest are a series of small jobs, though indexing will take the better part of a day, that's all it will take.
Artwork is still coming in, and will turn, as Zarina says, "from a trickle to a roar" over the next two weeks. I expect to have it all in hand by Tax Day.
If you haven't looked at and updated your Attribution Credits yet, please do so.
If your Kickstarter pledge is still giving errors, don't despair. There are no pricing changes from the campaign to Backerkit, so if it doesn't work out because of issues with Kickstarter (and each campaign, there are folks for whose credit cards/payment information Kickstarter takes an irrational dislike), don't worry overly much - you can get what you need in Backerkit!
Bookmarks
These will also go through some edits and revision. The final form of the business end - the actual tracking for Fantastic Dungeon Grappling - has been revised to match the FDG book exactly, which of course is required. The art on the other side is going to be one of five different pieces of art, taken from some of the better works from my various projects and book covers. If you order a single bookmark, you'll get it as you saw on the Kickstarter. If you order 5, 10, or 25, you'll get either 1, 2, or 5 sheets of five bookmarks each; you'll have to cut them apart yourself, but this is the best way to reduce handling charges.
Endgame
It's entirely possible that I've been de-stressing by watching just about all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, several of them (Captain America: Winter Soldier; Avengers; Thor: Ragnarok) I can watch over and over and over with no loss of enjoyment. But to borrow a line from Benedict Cummerbund: "We're in the Endgame now."
Lots of small things have to come together in the next month, but I'm watching out for them. Thanks for making this my best campaign ever, and I look forward to completing it . . . and then on to the next one!
