Riyria Fantasy Novel: Disappearance of Winter's Daughter

BackerKit Invitations & surveys have gone out
over 6 years ago – Thu, Nov 02, 2017 at 03:59:07 PM

So the project was approved and you can now get into your BackerKit self-service portal or the following tasks:

• Answer your survey questions (like what name do you want specified in the ebook)
• Distribute your excess pledge amounts to the additional items you want to purchase
• Add any additional items that you want to get copies of (for instance the Montemorecey shirts, which were added late, or an audiobook to a reward level with physical books
• Pay for any additional items or makeup for extra pledge level shortfalls
• Specify shipping address for those receiving physical goods.

I'm currently away from home (had to go to the "big city" to do an author talk last night. But when I get home I'll start uploading some of the digital content like the screen savers and The Jester. I still have a little work on the ebook, but should have it ready even before the December 5th date.

And one more thing.  Just a reminder we are going to repeat the AMA...now with functioning audio!  It'll be tomorrow night at 7:30 EDT.  And, of course, you can re-ask questions that we might have answered, but because of audio problems, the answers didn't come across.

Oh, and if you don't see your Backerkit survey invitation.  You can retrieve it by using this link and using your Kickstarter email.

Next Steps
over 6 years ago – Thu, Nov 02, 2017 at 12:37:12 AM

Hey all, Robin here. I thought I would take a moment to fill people in on what to expect as we move from the very important funded stage to the orders shipped stage.

• So, when a Kickstarter closes and it's reached it's goal, the credit cards of all the backers are charged. Some of those payments will fail. Sometimes because a card was cancelled (for fraud or went missing), and sometimes there is some other issue (like a wrong verification code or a change of address). In any case, Kickstarter reaches out to the people with failed payments and tries to get them resolved so those people aren't removed from the Kickstarter.  We've had very few people fall into the "order failed" bucket (currently only 18 of 2075 with pledges of less than $500 outstanding). No, there weren't any Rare Editions in the error group, so none of those came available.

• On November 9th Kickstarter will consider any remaining error pledges as lost causes. They'll mark them as unfunded (which essentially removes the person from the Kickstarter) and they'll send us the funds raised (minus their fees of course).

• While you are technically supposed to wait until 14 days after the Kickstarter to submit a BackerKit project for approval, I submitted mine now. The reasons? Well, we have very few failed backers, and the time is running short in all that we have to do to get people books by Christmas. Once the project is approved (up to 48 hours from now), you'll all get a Kickstarter invitation.

• It's important that you accept the invitation and perform your survey right away. When you do you'll be taken through the BackerKit sign-in process where you will (a) be asked what country you are in (only if you have any items that require shipping) (b) be asked to answer a few questions (like what name you want included in the electronic book edition), (c) see the amount of excess funds you pledged that can be applied to additional items (d) be taken to a page where you can pick your additional items and specify attributes for it (such as what size T-shirt do you need) (d) if you don't have enough pledged funds to cover your desired additional items, you'll be asked for a credit card to pay for them and (e) you'll be asked for your address (if you have physical products like books, t-shirts or posters).

• Over the next several weeks, Sara and I will be herding the cats to get the surveys answered. In particular, we need to determine how many of each t-shirt needs to be ordered and also determine how many codes we need to purchase for the audio versions.  At some point...once the vast number of people have answered their questions, we'll "lock down" the project. You'll still be able to change your address, but you won't be able to add or remove anymore "add-ons." At that point, we'll order the shirts and audio codes. This will also trigger a payment of the fees collected in BakerKit to be sent to us (minus their fees of course).

• As we develop various digital items, they'll be added to BackerKit where you can access them through the Digital Download area. Some digital content (such as the glossary of terms and names and the Jester comic will be provided via links on the Internet and those links will appear as a "backer only" update. Keep an eye on the project updates, where we'll announce the posting of various digital items.

• The books are the "long pole" in our tent, but once the shirts arrive, we'll be shipping those to the "digital only" customers who have shirts. This means the addresses on those records will be locked a bit sooner than the one with the physical books.

• Once the books arrive, Michael will be signing them and Sarah and I will be inserting the bookmarks and reboxing. Once all the books are signed, we'll ship them to the fulfillment center. For orders that have t-shirts, we'll process those ourselves and you'll receive a single box with your book, bookmarks, and shirts.

• For most people, your shipping cost is correctly calculated. What people am I talking about? Well, anyone who (a) has no additional items  (b) has a digital only pledge level and have selected just one physical additional item  or (c)  people who only have posters as their additional items. For anyone else (basically people with a physical pledge level and at least one physical add-on, or people with multiple physical add-ons) your shipping fees are too high. Why? Because each item had it's own shipping cost which was calculated as if it were being mailed all by itself, but when we combine multiple items in one box, it costs less. Once the boxes are shipped, we'll know what the difference is, and process this excess based on how you answered the questions in your survey. For most, that will mean a refund through a check or credit card, but we've also added the ability to leave that extra money as a tip (a suggestion several backers wanted to be an option).

And that's it.  The important things for you to be on the lookout for at this point.

• Your invitation to the BackerKit and getting your survey answered as soon as possible,
• Keeping an eye out for the "lockdown" date, which is the last day you can adjust what add-ons you want to purchase.
• Use the self-service BackerKit portal to change your address if you move. We'll have three major shipments. (1) posters which can go out as soon as we have addresses (2) shirts (for people who don't have physical books (3) shirts and books once the books arrive.

Whew, that's a lot but that's because there are still a number of moving parts.  But we are getting there and it all hinges on the BackerKit approval which should happen in the next few days. Before I go there are a few other things to note:

• If you are still in an "error backer" as of November 9th, you can still get into the project, but you'll have to make a payment for your pledge through BackerKit.

• If you have posters, they can be mailed out as soon as we have addresses. They can't be combined with books and shirts as they are shipped in a tube. So if you have posters and some other form of physical rewards (shirts or books) you'll receive two packages.
  
• More than a few backers asked if they could donate their extra shipping fees as a tip, and so I've added that ability. We have separate tips for (a) the logistic team (Robin and Sarah) and (b) the creative mind (Michael).

Montemorcey shirts added to the Kickstarter
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 11:33:05 PM

Hey all, Robin again. So, there were only 12 Montemorcey shirts left over from the last Kickstarter and there were a lot of people who were requesting reservations, so I just bit the bullet and decided that I would print up more of these. As such, we now have two t-shirts:

• Rose and the Thorn - Black -Unisex
• Montemorcey - Black - Unisex

Most people were able to get the shirts they requested from the last update, and it's late (3:00 AM here) and I don't trust myself to do a good job in the notifications, so I'll update people tomorrow to let you know what you have reserved and also break the news to the 4 people who missed out on what they were looking for. But the good news is 50 people were able to get what they requested.  Also, I made a few errors in how I reported the shirts last time, so tomorrow morning I'll post the current list of what's available. To be absolutely sure of my numbers. I have to actually put each shirt in the cart of each person so that will take a bit of time, but it's the best way to ensure that I have accurate counts. I don't want to end up selling the same shirt to two people because I screwed something up along the way.

• Answer the survey
• Distribute your extra pledges to various add-ons
• Purchase any add-ons that you decided you now want
• Provide shipping address (for those getting physical rewards)

Current list of available shirts
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 07:13:43 PM

Robin here...so just a reminder, if you want a black unisex version of either the Rose and the Thorn or Montemorcey, you can add those to your cart on your own when you get access to the BackKit self-service portal (I’ve already added the Montemorcey for those who wanted to reserve them. We’ll need to get everyone to go through their surveys fairly quickly as we’ll need to lock down the project and order the correct number of shirts in the various sizes. That way they’ll be here in time to marry up with the books.

We sold out a lot of the shirts that are currently in inventory from the last Kickstarter, but we still have a few things left. Again, if you want to reserve them respond in the comments section of this update with regards to what you want and I’ll put them in your cart, otherwise they’ll be “up for grab” when the Backer Kit opens up.

Rose and Thorn Women's Shirts 

• 3 - Rose & Thorn Women Black XL 
• 3 - Rose & Thorn Women Red XL

Riyria Women's Shirts 

• 3 - Riyria Women Black Large
•  5 - Riyria Women Red Large 
• 3 - Riyria Women Coral Large 
• 3 - Riyria Women Black XL 
• 4 - Riyria Women Red XL

Riyria Men's Shirts 

• 2 - Riyria Men Grey Medium
• 11 - Riyria Men Grey Large 
• 1 - Riyria Men Light Blue Large
• 7 - Riyria Men Grey XL 
• 2 - Riyria Men Red XL 
• 1 - Riyria Men Light Blue XL 
• 1 - Riyria Men Light Blue 3XL

Oh, and if you want one of these shirts reserved, just respond in the comment section of this post. Many people had problems finding the direct message ability last time (especially since I mentioned BackerKit rather than Kickstarter--doh!  Too many late nights).

Still reviewing BackerKit setup one more time but I will be pushing it to them for approval before the day is out.

Wallpapers and Screen Savers
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 04:07:09 PM

Hey all,
We've created wallpapers & screen savers for the following resolutions:

• 960 x 640
• 1024 x 768
• 1136 x 640
• 1280 x 1024
• 1920 x 1080
• 2048 x 1536

For each resolution there are two images:

• One with ONLY Marc's illustration
• One with Marc's illustration & the name of the book/author