UK, EU & RoW: Backerkit Orders Locked and Cards Charged
3 days ago
– Mon, Dec 09, 2024 at 02:02:18 AM
Hello everyone,
A very brief update as we start the week. We've got the books at our UK warehouse and are very close to being able to begin fulfilment of orders in the UK, EU and the rest of the world. As such, we're starting the 48 hour timer on locking Backerkit orders for non-US backers. This gives you 48 hours to make any changes.
Unfortunately customers who've purchased Orbital Blues: Afterburn addons and those in the United States will have to wait a little bit longer as we have to wait for other products to be manufactured and for other books to be shipped to the States.
We'll be looking addresses for these orders at a later date. If you're in our first shipping wave, we'll be charging cards and shipping books early next week.
We appreciate your understanding. Best wishes,
Tom
New EU Shipping Rates
26 days ago
– Sat, Nov 16, 2024 at 03:14:02 AM
European backers, we hear you!
Quick update: we've implemented a new rate provider in Europe that has been able to shuffle costs down slightly. We've switched to a service that scales better for low weights (single books, mostly).
The European shipping rates have been updated on Backerkit, and your survey updated. If you were paying by card, you don't need to do anything since you've not been charged yet. If you paid for the shipping via Paypal, we have processed a partial refund to match the new rates.
You don't need to do anything unless you asked for a refund and want back in on the new rates, in which case I'd recommend emailing [email protected]
Thanks,
Zach
BackerKit Pre-Orders / Surverys are Live!
about 1 month ago
– Thu, Nov 07, 2024 at 03:33:15 AM
Hi gang
Short and sweet update! We got the shipping working and the rates all in Backerkit. Please head on over and complete your surveys. Check your emails and spam folders for your Backerkit survey links.
Please also share the pre-order store with your friends.
The books are on their way, so we're going to shut the pledge manager in a week or two so we're expecting a rapid turnaround with books.
Speak soon with more updates,
Zach/Jelly
PS: We're in the final 12 hours of our Sad Gay Vampire TTRPG, Paint The Town Red. If you like gorgeous books with stunning art and graphic design that put emotions at the forefront of storytelling, please come on over and take a look at our project. If you remain undecided, here's even a free-quickstart to push you over the edge!
Pictures of Books
about 1 month ago
– Fri, Nov 01, 2024 at 08:28:13 AM
Short update, we've got pictures of the books fully assembled from the printers through:
It looks absolutely gorgeous.
That's all we've really got to say. Fulfilment is progressing at expected state. We've going to have the Backerkit up as soon as we can.
Speak to you soon,
Zach
PS: If you think vampires are cool, we have a new project coming on Backerkit on Thursday. Come Paint The Town Red with us! It's got me and Johan Nohr of Mork Borg / Into The Odd fame bashing out a sad gay vampire RPG. Free quickstart on our website too!
Printing Update
2 months ago
– Tue, Oct 08, 2024 at 03:18:12 AM
We're hard at work making books. Our friends at trt.ee sent us some images of the book in the process of being printed. It's not yet been sewn, folded or case bound, but we have some previews of the sheets, post imposition and printing but before they're made into the book. Turns out 8000 books is a lot of paper!
We also have some book covers! Printing onto bookcloth like this is hard and I am very happy with how it's looking.
So, we're expecting to have all of these books in the UK by the end of the month. Then we could start printing and shipping to you, but we have to send nearly 5000 books spread across 3000 packages, nearly double the size of our next biggest project to date.
To support this, we've actually upgrading our warehouse providers by moving to a new supplier. Finalising the rates for the new providers has been the reason we've been delayed on getting our Backerkit out. It's otherwise ready to go, but we've had to set up new accounts, sign new contracts, work out taxes and handling fees, calculate new rates, and then get all this information into Backerkit correctly.
This isn't an easy process, and getting it right is very important for you and for us. Devastating success (like we've experienced with Gardens of Ynn) can be a really dangerous pressure on a small business. Let's say we get the shipping rates wrong, and we don't charge the backers enough. If we're off by a small amount say, £2 per package/order, and we ship 3000 books, we just lost close to $10000. That's a lot of money, and a big chunk of the profit on a project like this. If we go the other way, that's even worse, because you, the backer, have to pay through the nose for shipping, and it might discourage future orders.
It might seem, from the lack of updates, like we're delaying, moving at a snails pace or being evasive, but we're actually working dead hard behind the scenes to make sure everything makes it to you in the best way possible. I always say to my collaborators that when choosing between "good, cheap and fast" I just ask for really good, and that's true here. I've even hired a new, full time employee (welcome Tom!) as an E-Commerce and Logistics Manager to help make sure that fulfillment for this and other projects moves freely.
We're in the final stages of sorting the move. We're working on getting the Backerkit page up soon and charge you shipping and get you books as fast as possible, I imagine it will be quite a short pre-order window.
Pre-order folx, I hear you, but Stygian and Ynn aren't going to be going anywhere. They'll be on sale via our webstore and at friendly local gaming stores throughout the world (and if you know a store that you think would like our games, have them email [email protected] to buy books off us).
I'm hoping that everyone gets their books before Christmas, and since the US East Coat Longshoreman strike action has ended (congrats on the agreeement if any of you are reading), that is looking more and more likely.
Stay patient with us, and know we're working as hard as we can!
Thanks
Zach
PS: If you think vampires are cool, we have a new project coming on Backerkit on Thursday. Come Paint The Town Red with us! It's got me and Johan Nohr of Mork Borg / Into The Odd fame bashing out a sad gay vampire RPG. Free quickstart on our website too!
