Backerkit confusion
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 03:21:04 AM
Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a lovely Holiday period and your celebration of choice was filled with love. I have returned from a few days spent with family to a bunch of messages and comments regarding the book not being in peoples libraries yet. I'll admit I am as confused as you are. I have messaged my contact at backerkit and received an automated response that all backerkit staff are out of the office until January 1st due to Christmas. The digital file I sent them to be uploaded to your libraries also is still pending on my end. I can only assume someone needs to confirm something on their end but I will continue to look into things and try uploading again. I'll let you know as soon as I figure something out.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 02:33:10 AM
Hey everyone. First off I want to wish every single one of you a Happy holidays and I hope you are spending time with your loved ones if you're permitted (Some of us in the UK aren't allowed to legally).
The book is done! Thank you all for your patience during this global pandemic. I know it has been hard on everyone. The digital version of the book has been submitted to Backerkit. They are my digital distribution partner, so once it has been accepted, approved and uploaded by them you should get an email and find the book already available in your library for download. Yay!
The hardbacks have been ordered and paid for. All 5000 of them. Weighing in at 9 metric tonnes. (I had best sort out a storage facility!) The printers will start work on them after their Christmas break.
Likewise the magic item cards have all been ordered and paid for. You guys really liked the idea of these cards. I had to order just over 597,000 of them weighing in at around a tonne. That's a lot of playing cards! The cards are being printed in china as the 2 printers in the EU I was going to use ended up closing down due to the pandemic. This has resulted in a slightly higher price and a slightly longer turnaround time, but I have been assured they will be done quickly. (I have already received samples from this company and am happy with the quality of their work.)
The digital copies of the cards will be sent out at a later date as the files I currently have are formatted in a way that was specific for the printer. It will take me a little while to reformat them so they are suitable for use by you guys. But as we hit the stretch goal, every single backer will get a full set of digital cards.
My personal plan now is to take a few days off to spend with my wife and my little boy since Christmas is all about family. I hope you all are able to do the same. Then I will get right back to work in reformatting the cards for you all.
Happy Holidays to you all.
A very gracious creator
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 11:52:09 PM
Hey everyone, following on from yesterdays updateI just want to thank you all for your understanding and support surrounding this project, The new date for the books to be delivered digitally is Christmas day. Which happens to be 30 days from now. As a result of this, I have launched the map pack project early so I can send everything out to everyone at the same time, rather than dealing with 2 lots of projects and multiple dates etc.
Thanks again to you all for everything, if you were interested in the digital maps, feel free to check out the page.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spell-sleuth/tabletop-maps-for-multiple-games
The good, the bad and the ugly.
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 11:15:22 PM
Hello everyone! First of all I'd like to thank you for your patience. Most of you are aware this book is the work of me, myself and I. This isn't a large company employing several writers to work on it, it's just me. I have help from external artists (one of which has become a full time employee) and obviously printers, proofreaders etc. But the vast majority is done all by me, including the dice tower and spell tracker addons. They're made by me too! :) I have a few bits of news I need to share with you outlining the rest of the process for the project.
The good!
The issues I have been having with the banks have all been resolved. I now have access to my funds so I can now pay for the printing of the books using the campaign funds rather than my personal finances. Obviously this is huge and is a massive load off my mind.
The bad!
Unfortunately, the digital copies which were supposed to be headed to you all this month, will be pushed back a few weeks. I am now going to be sending them out on Christmas day. There are a few reasons for this, between the proofreaders taking longer than they quoted, artwork still being commissioned etc. but the main one is there are a couple of stretch goals I missed off when writing the book. So there is a little bit more work needed to be done which I hadn't realised until a couple of days ago.
The pandemic has been extremely hard for a lot of people, myself included. A few months ago I was hospitalised with Covid-19 and I am still suffering some lingering effects. But on top of the physical issues I am having, it has taken a massive toll on my mental state as well. In the last month we have lost a few family members and to be honest, I have done very little work on the book in the last month because of this. It's been a very stressful time.
The ugly!
The printers I was using for the cards have reissued me a quote and it is around 30% more than the 1st one due to their materials increasing in price. Nothing I can do about that but it's just frustrating since I was sending these out at cost price. What I am going to have to do, is use some of the funds raised from the map pack miniature campaign (launching next month) to cover those extra costs.
For those that hadn't seen, one of my artists has been working on some maps for virtual tabletops and also for printing out and physical use. The maps were set to launch on December 1st after the books were sent out. This is so you all had your digital books before thinking about supporting a second campaign. I felt this was the fairest thing for all of you. So I will also be moving back the map pack campaign until just after Christmas, again, so the books are with you first.
Unless of course you all are interested in the maps to carry on as originally planned. I'll see what the community thinks about that. The map pack is for 50 maps, for £10. You get 2 versions of each map, gridded and gridless. Depending on your format, so 100 total files. Some stretch goals are also in the works. People who back in the first 24 hours get a reduced rate of only £8 and 5 bonus maps.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spell-sleuth/tabletop-maps-for-multiple-games
This is the link to the map pre launch page,
Thanks for reading. I wanted to be up front and 100% honest and transparent with you all. Hopefully a 3 week delay isn't too much of a problem for you all.
Stay safe, please. Thank you.
For those who inquired.
over 5 years ago
– Sat, Nov 07, 2020 at 02:10:14 AM
Hey guys. Sorry for the quick succession of updates, but a handful of you were interested in the map pack that will be launching once the digital copies of the book have been sent out so here I am with the info for you.
For day 1 backers, you will save 20% and get the 50 maps for just £8. Additionally, you'll get 5 bonus maps that the rest of the backers won't get, so if you are interested make sure to back early.
Again, this is 50 maps for virtual tabletops, or you can print them off and use them in person, the price for all 50 maps is just £10 (or £8 for day 1 backers). So just 20p each!
Feel free to follow the link and bookmark the page so you are notified when the project goes live next month!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spell-sleuth/tabletop-maps-for-multiple-games
Cheers guys.
