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Hey all! Short and sweet here, the pins for this campaign have been shipped out and tracking says they should be arriving on either Tuesday or Wednesday! After that, grading and packing can begin, and finally shipping-- thank you all so much for your patience, and I'll be sure to update with photos once I've got them in hand!
Our first package-fulfillment live stream is this Friday, (link to our twitch channel here!) meaning you need to have your address locked by this Thursday (ideally before that)! If you have moved to a different address since you locked your order, please email us at [email protected] with your new address and we will revise it manually! (If you're not sure if your address is up to date and want to check, you should be able to do so through your BackerKit account- or you can send us an email and we'll check it for you!)
For 95% of you, this should already be taken care of and you don't need to do anything further. We've sent out the final notice to the last ~30 stragglers to lock forms/addresses, thankfully around half of those have since locked their orders. We will not wait on the remaining few orders to start packing orders, we will simply contact them individually in the coming days.
We will ship everyone's packages at the same time, that way we can send out your tracking numbers all at the same time (and everyone should receive their rewards around the same time). Truthfully, I can't get an exact estimate on how long packing all ~1800 packages will take, as we have never taken on an order that large before- and we still have to work on the pilot episode itself every day. My best estimate would be 1-2 months, but we will likely bring on some extra hands to get through the packages faster. Once shipped, packages within the US will take 3-5 days, international shipping times vary. Once you receive it, please check your tracking number for most accurate estimates.
Thank you so much again for your patience as we thank you for supporting our project, we can't wait to see you on stream this Friday!
Unfortunately we spoke too soon! We had a few hiccups in fulfillment- we were short on T-Shirts, campus maps, and ID cards (especially those, y'all liked them way more than anticipated!) The good news is that all of those orders will be arriving throughout this and next week. We sincerely apologize for the further delay in shipments, but it's all in the name of making sure we can start packing everyone's orders at the same time, and no one gets left behind. That being said, we completely understand if you want something extra for waiting this long- plus further proof that we are indeed working on fulfillment. So...
We will be packing your orders live on YouTube/Twitch!
While we've been waiting for the extra orders to come in, we've used our spare time outside of episode production to revamp our live stream setup. While live, we'll be packing your orders, hanging out with everyone in the chat- and maybe some fun bonus stuff while we're at it! (Don't worry, we won't be showing or mentioning your personal order info on stream- just packing the packages themselves!) Sort of like the live streams we did during the campaign, but less fundraise-y and more hang-out-y! If you've ever chatted with us at a convention while we were tabling, it'll be a lot like that. We hope these will be fun, and a nice way to see the progress of our fulfillment with your own eyes! We haven't announced this anywhere else yet, but expect some more details on our socials in the coming days.
While we're here- some of you still need to confirm your address/card info!
Around 30 of you to be exact. We're sending out another round of notices in the meantime, so keep an eye out in your inbox!
To be transparent, making a 22 minute animated pilot is already a massive workload for our small team- not to mention our social media and admin upkeep on top of that. Regardless, we're working full time, and we can't wait to pack your orders on stream soon- we hope to see you there! If anyone has additional questions regarding your order or in general, drop a comment below or send an email our way to [email protected].
Thank you all so much again for your support and patience, flimp on! -Milo
I currently do not have access to my main phone, email, bank, Stripe, Venmo, CashApp, or Shopify. My phone is physically broken (the screen is dead and unusable), and my backups did not restore correctly. I’ve tried HDMI to USB-C and other methods, but nothing has worked.
I have a temporary burner phone now, but it only has Instagram and a few basic apps. I do not have access to email or any of my financial accounts.
This situation is directly affecting shipping and payments:
Shopify is set to manual payouts so payment plans don't instantly remove money. I can't transfer anything right now.
Stripe payments from BackerKit are also stuck since I have to trigger deposits manually.
I don’t know how much is in my bank account. I only get text alerts with balance updates every few days.
I submitted an ID for account recovery but used my passport, which is apparently slower to process because it’s not considered a standard ID.
Please do not reply to this message. I won’t see it. Replies go to my email, which I cannot access.
If you need to reach me, message me on Instagram only at @akirawav3. That’s the only platform I currently have access to.
Hey everyone! I wanted to share a quick update on where things are at.
Thanks to recent Shopify sales, I’ve been able to gather around $500, which is helping me move forward with fulfillment. I’m happy to let you know that every order containing Lute will be shipped this week!
All the bags have arrived safely at my home, and I’ve purchased larger shipping boxes to ensure everything is packed securely and gets to you in perfect shape.
BackerKit also recently added a new packing list feature, which makes things a lot easier on my end. I can now see what each order needs in a clear list, rather than shipping every bag one by one. This will help speed up the process and cut down on confusion.
I truly want to apologize for the delays. I’ve been facing ongoing financial struggles, and juggling multiple weekly payment plans has made it challenging to ship everything as quickly as I’d like. But I’m doing my best to keep things moving, and I’m so grateful for your continued support and patience through it all.
Thank you again for sticking with me. It means the world.
Hi all! So sorry for the delay in getting this update out to you, a lot of my energy and time had to be devoted to locking down a day job and subsequently adjusting to the new schedule and learning the ropes.
Foxwright Apothecary pins have been delivered to me (and are stunning, my new manufacturer is amazing)-- and my wife and I are working to get those processed and sent out. As for Pride Potions, pins are complete and going to be shipped from the manufacturer to me in the coming week, so those will also be in hand-- I'll be sure to get photos when they arrive!
Thank you so, so much for the patience-- and Happy Pride 2025!
The copies of Ardulum: Mirrors of Andal have arrived, all ebooks have been sent out, and I've just packed up the last rewards from Year 3! There are two individual backer's rewards that will be combined with the Lesbians in Space Hardcovers coming soon, but this means Year 3 is coming to a close. It's been wild ride, and one of our most complex years, including publishing our new RPGs. Thanks again to everyone who supported us!
Over the next week, I'll begin locking down all the orders and marking them as shipped. If you feel like you're missing anything from the Year 3 campaign, please let me know!
If you want more Space Wizard books, We're keeping busy, especially as we're running three new crowdfunding campaigns this year. Make sure to check out the one running now and until June 26th, for Space Wizard Science Fantasy Year 4, part 1! This is for the next seven books coming from Space Wizard this year, and we're already almost 200% funded! We're changing it up a bit to get you your rewards sooner and make it a little easier to get a subscription for all the books.
Here's the list of books in Part 1:
Isaac - a woman develops a relationship with her deceased father's care-bot, from Allee Mead.
Waves Take Your Bones - The first in a trilogy where a young asexual woman and a gay man get drafted into a medieval naval fleet to fight zombies (and zombie pirates), by Athena Giles
It's You, Isn't It? - A colony world is overrun by indigenous creatures, but maybe there's more to the story? By Antony Paschos
Crying Out For Magic - It's like Heartstopper, but with magic! Two young men find each other through connected universes, one of which is ours and the other has failing magic, by PSC Willis
Intent Magic - The second book in William C. Tracy's new progression fantasy series, featuring martial arts-based magic, and fast moving continents in a world controlled by the gods!
Relic of Haven - Return to a world of post apocalyptic giant crabs and human scavengers with the sequel to Empress of Dust, by Alex Kingsley!
A New Beginning - Following Earth's surprising victory over an alien species that has dominated the galaxy, an intrepid crew strikes out to explore alien space in Edward Isaacs' debut novel!
Our next campaign, running in September with BackerKit's Printopia, will be for Lesbians in Space: The Sapphics Strike Back, the sequel to our very popular anthology from last year! You can sign up to get notified for it right here. I'm already working with Serene Chia again on the new cover!
Finally, our Space Wizard Year 2 Part 2 will start in November, for another 7 books releasing between December 2025 and June 2026, and you can sign up for that one right here!
Here's the books coming in Part 2:
The Dragonscale Comb, sequel to The Rosewood Penny- The much awaited continuation of the romantasy by J.S. Fields!
Corruption - A bisexual young man must discover the secret of magic disappearing, in a land with fiery seas, from Alexander Verbeek-van den Toren!
Tea Tale - Kristina Kelly's next story in the popular cozy fantasy romance with D&D elements!
The Healer's Magic - The conclusion of C.J. Hosack's epic YA adventure, about an adopted young woman who searches for her parents in a world where magic is dictated by bloodline!
Fractal Terminus - Even more lesbian horror/comedy in space? It's getting even weirder in AZ Rozkillis' next scifi tale!
Talio Rossa and the Elixir of Life - More epic fantasy in a city of canals and holy magic, with a M/M relationship, the sequel to last year's Talio's Codex, from J. Alexander Cohen.
Mothball Magic - It's the Golden Girls meets the Dresden Files! Four geriatric people must stop the Queen of Winter from taking over the world, in Rena Rocford's debut novel!
Did you know you can run your own crowdfunding campaign with me? For Year 4 Part 2, I'm with a group book collaboration called The Book Bazaar. We're an indie-run publishing based group collaboration crowdfunding event featuring many Booktopia 2024 participants as well as a slew of debut authors, returning authors, artists, and so much more.
We are currently taking applications for campaigns that want to participate until July of 2025. So, if you have a project you want to include as part of a group crowdfunding event, this is your opportunity to get in on a smaller sized event, make some great indie connections, and help get your publishing project funded! For details and the application form, take a look at The Book Bazaar on BackerKit or The Book Bazaar website.
That's all for now!
- William Tracy
Make sure to follow us on Bluesky (@wctracy.bsky.social), Instagram (@spacewizardpress), and Facebook (@spacewizardpress)!
I just put in the order for the last book of Space Wizard Year 3, Ardulum: Mirrors of Andal! As soon as I get copies, which will hopefully be the first or second week in June, I'll be mailing out the LAST REWARDS from this campaign!
That means I will also be closing the Pledge Manager, so if you are one of the 8 backers who haven't filled out your survey or reconciled a failed credit card, this will lock you out from any further changes.
However, just as one door closes, someone opens a window (or something like that)! In this case, Space Wizard Year 4 is starting TOMORROW May 29th at 1 PM EST! If you want even more queer goodness, please check out the new campaign! We're doing things a little different this year and dividing the campaign into two halves, one in June and one in November. What this means is if you get the Space Wizard subscription, you'll get all your books by the end of 2025, rather than having to wait a full year. Then you can get the next 6 months of books in November!
We've got some great books this year, and as an added bonus, if you back the campaign in the first 48 hours (so before 1 PM on May 31st), you'll also get a free audiobook of one of 9 Space Wizard stories!
Here's the full list, and you can be one of the first backers!
Books coming in year 4 PART 1, June 2025:
Isaac - a woman develops a relationship with her deceased father's care-bot, from Allee Mead.
Waves Take Your Bones - The first in a trilogy where a young asexual woman and a gay man get drafted into a medieval naval fleet to fight zombies (and zombie pirates), by Athena Giles
It's You, Isn't It? - A colony world is overrun by indigenous creatures, but maybe there's more to the story? By Antony Paschos
Crying Out For Magic - It's like Heartstopper, but with magic! Two young men find each other through connected universes, one of which is ours and the other has failing magic, by PSC Willis
Intent Magic - The second book in William C. Tracy's new progression fantasy series, featuring martial arts-based magic, and fast moving continents in a world controlled by the gods!
Relic of Haven - Return to a world of post apocalyptic giant crabs and human scavengers with the sequel to Empress of Dust, by Alex Kingsley!
A New Beginning - Following Earth's surprising victory over an alien species that has dominated the galaxy, an intrepid crew strikes out to explore alien space in E.J. Isaacs' debut novel!
So please check out Space Wizard Year 4! You are the people who keep our small press going, and help uplift marginalized and queer voices in science fiction and fantasy literature!
I'll have one last update when I send the final books out!
Hi everyone! Milo here, apologies for the late update- but I wanted to catch everyone up to speed! There's a lot of ground to cover, so I've broken things into topics, and I'll include a TL;DR at the bottom.
Rewards shipping is taking longer than what the initial timeline said, why?
For a few reasons. Namely:
The current political situation in the USA has complicated manufacturing and shipping costs, especially with international orders.
We experienced a rough burnout during November of last year, which delayed overall production and led to a few script re-writes. Thankfully, this resulted in a much stronger script which resonated well with beta readers, more on that later.
Even without these factors, we are a team of 3 who are handling fulfillment ourselves while simultaneously animating the episode. We have a lot on our plate regardless!
When charging for shipping, a percentage of cards declined (which is common) and we wanted to ensure as many people had paid for shipping as possible before beginning fulfillment. Thankfully, 90%+ percent of backers have paid for shipping now, and you can still pay for shipping after we have begun package fulfillment. If you need any help with doing that, send an email to either us or BackerKit support!
All that said, we have made great progress- and we should be able to start merch fulfillment next week.
When can I expect my rewards to arrive?
It depends, but the first batch should be shipped out next month. We have around ~1700 orders total, and we plan to send out our packages in batches. We will also need to place additional orders for extra merch that many of you purchased as add-ons (thank you!)
Will tariffs affect my shipping cost?
No. However, if you are ordering from outside the USA, and your total order cost exceeds your countries "de minimis" threshold, then you may be subject to an additional import fee. This fee is set by your countries government and is not paid to us. As most de-minimis thresholds float around ~$150 USD, this applies to only 1 or 2 of our international orders. If you want to double check if your order applies, Google "(your country) de minimis threshold from USA". Otherwise, you shouldn't have to pay any additional money for shipping.
How is the production of Mandelbrot Hall going?
A bit behind schedule, but otherwise really well! Our hiatus and script rewrites set us back a bit, but it gave us the energy to make a much stronger script. We also revisited our visual style to make things both easier to draw and more visually striking. It's not a huge shift from what we've animated in the trailer already- it mostly focuses on background art, but either way you'll be seeing it on our socials very soon!
Right now, we are aiming to finish production on the episode by February 2026, with the public release on YouTube happening after a brief screening run (details TBD). For those of you who got a digital bundle, those will be sent out after the episode premieres to the public.
TL;DR:
We apologize for shipping taking longer than expected, but if all goes according to plan, we will start fulfillment as early as next week, with the first batch arriving as early as next month.
Tariffs will not affect your shipping cost, but if your order is from outside the US and is over ~$150 USD, you could be subject to your contries de minimis laws.
The production of Mandelbrot Hall's pilot episode is behind schedule, but going really well- with an expected completion date of February 2026, and the public release to follow after a TBD screening.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to drop a comment, email backerkit, or email us directly at [email protected]. Thank you all so much for your patience, flimp on!!
![Heavenly Embassy - Ita Backpacks ! [WAVE 2]](https://bk-prod-r2.imgix.net/active_storage/backerkit_production/blob/d8smdwjjawtl4kawd1ip7d65d138?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&lossless=true&w=300)
