Surveys are out! Plus some good news, and some bad news.
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 08:59:34 AM
Hey Team!
First things first: As many of you have already seen, your BackerKit surveys went out a few days ago. If you haven't yet seen your email from BackerKit, you should be able to access your survey right here. And if you're wondering what this "survey" business is all about, it's basically just a quick form that confirms which rewards you pledged for and gives you an option to add on any extra books you might want, if you're in the mood.
At the time of this writing, there are 28 backers who haven't completed their surveys, so if that's you, pop on over and let me know you're all set! Surveys will lock on October 15th, and digital rewards will start firing out shortly afterward.
Which brings us to some good and bad news about audiobook rewards specifically.
The Good News: Excalibur Knights audio is officially signed, paid for, and rights-reverted! Now, we just have to wait for the listings to be unpublished from Audible, and we'll be all set to start getting those bad boys out to you, maybe even sooner than expected.
The Bad News: It turns out that the Enochian War audiobooks are going to be tied up under the current agreements just a little longer than expected. In a nutshell, this is because Shadows of Divinity is part of the Audible Premium Plus library and was thus subject to an additional level of exclusivity terms over there. On the bright side, this is only in effect through the end of the year, so we should still be able to get the Enochian War audiobooks into your hands by the end of January, publishing gods willing.
I do apologize for this delay. As originally mentioned in the "Risks" section, my main concern about the proposed December delivery deadline was that all this audio rights reversion business could end up taking longer than expected for any number of reasons, but I really was hoping we'd be able to hit a swoosh and just get it all done on time.
In the meantime, I'll be on the job prepping all the other ebooks, print, and assorted goodies to get moving your way once it's time.
Thank you so much for your support! Can't wait to share some fun stories with you soon.
Cheers,
Luke
BackerKit surveys are coming!
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 12:08:47 PM
Hey Team!
This is a quick update to let you know that payments have cleared and we'll soon be sending out reward "surveys" — which, for those of you new to Kickstarter, basically means a quick form that lets you confirm your rewards and check if you want to change anything or add any extras.
The service I'm using for this part is called BackerKit, and here's the spiel on how it works:
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Soon, you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards.
You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!
After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.
If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://lukemitchellbooks.backerkit.com.
If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://lukemitchellbooks.backerkit.com/faq.
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Talk soon, team! Can't wait to share these stories with you. :-)
-Luke
Holy coconuts, we did it! Hold tight for updates and backer surveys.
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Sep 06, 2023 at 02:56:57 PM
Wowzers, Team…
First off, thank you so much to everyone who came out and supported the campaign! It means a lot, and we certainly succeeded at taking a good, big bite out of the total price of this big audio rights buyback for Enochian War and Excalibur Knights. So, thank you! Truly.
Secondly, I just wanted to touch base and let you know what to expect moving forward.
If you haven't already, you should be seeing the charge for your selected reward from Kickstarter shortly. As soon as those funds clear and are released to me, I'll start getting rewards out ASAP.
The first thing to go out will be the digital rewards, with the exception of the audiobook files. Ebooks, digital bookmarks, and all promised discount codes and so forth will be ready to roll shortly after funding clears. The audiobooks will be slower, as I'm now working with the original publisher to get rights reverted and master files transferred.
I'll post updates here as we move through each step.
Lastly, if you backed a tier that involves physical items (bookmarks, pins, or signed print), those will likely arrive with you around the same time as the audiobooks are released, as we need to allow time for printing/manufacturing, shipping to me, and then shipping to you.
In short, look for ebooks sometime in the next few weeks — and audio + physical rewards sometime in either November or December, depending on how quickly we're able to move with the rights stuff.
Can't wait to share some fun adventures with you!
Happy reading until then,
Luke
NEW BONUS STORY is HERE. (This one's kind of a doozy…)
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 03:18:47 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
It's the Final Countdown!
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 03:12:56 PM
What's up, Team?
As we rolling into the last weekend of the campaign, I figured a public update was in order (in addition to the backer-only updates I've been using to distribute our bonus short stories each week).
(I'll also be posting one of those backers-only updates right after this, by the way, containing your next bonus story. Apologies for the update double-tap!)
Anyway! Whether you're eyeing this project from the sidelines or have already backed and are eagerly awaiting your rewards, I thought you might enjoy a look at what I've been seeing behind the scenes: Namely, how we appear to be backsliding this week (but also how I'm hoping this is the slump before the jump).
Here's our journey so far:
Which, you know… never fun to see funding decreasing…
BUT, of additional interest (AKA part of my "slump before the jump" hopes) is this little tidbit:
Which basically means that, at the time of this writing, there at least 119 people who were interested enough to follow the project but haven't yet pulled the trigger on joining as backers.
From what I hear, chances are decent that at least some of these Watchers will join us by campaign's end — all of which to say, I'm optimistic we'll pick up enough steam in the last few days here to at least nab our next stretch goal of $5,000 (earning all backers a complimentary copy of Excalibur Knights #4 when it publishes in a few months).
Heck, we might even stretch beyond that and unlock another 4-story bonus pack for everyone involved — but we'll see!
The ball is officially in your court, my friends.
Not that it… ever… hasn't been… but, you know…
SPORTS!
Anyway. If you've been waiting to hop in, now's the time! We've officially funded, it's officially happening, and there's really nothing left to lose at this point but the chance to join us in bringing some hot new sci-fi goodness to the world.
I can't wait to share these books with you.
We'll see you on the other side!
(And now I'm off to go post that new bonus story for the backers.)
Cheers,
Luke
