Heya!

Little update because I know the next one will take a while again:
I just received word that the next load of books will leave the book binder to be shipped to me on the 8th November, so in roughly two weeks. Shipping from them to me takes a few days and as the 11th November is a holiday, and German post offices don't work on Sundays, I'm expecting the books to come the week following to that.

Now, in my last update I mentioned I will charge shipping soon. I've done that by now, and following that, the PDFs should have been sent out to every backer (unless your card has been denied or you have not filled out the survey yet).
If you have not received the PDF yet but you have been charged shipping, please let me know. 

Big thanks to all the mails and comments I got on the PDF btw. It genuinely warmed my heart when I got people writing me how much they like the art, the writing, and the general atmosphere and feel of my book. 
I can't properly put into words just how much heart's blood is in this work and seeing people enjoy it is a special kind of honor.

As a last little organizational thing - originally I had planned this project with its schedule to be finished before university starts again for me, with a nice buffer just in case. 
My semester is now full in the going and I'm juggling this project (alongside all of these many many phone calls), uni classes, my (actual) full time work, and homework. 
I just wanna say, thank you for your understanding in case my response might be a bit slower than usual. 
I try to respond on the same day, even hour if I'm wake, I get mails and inquiries, but currently my plate is a bit fuller. 

As always, if you have questions, let me know either in the comments or via Backersupport. Thank you very much.

Heya!

Another update already so soon:
I sent out the final notices for locked orders. In 48 hours they should be locked, and I will charge cards for shipping costs then. 
After that I'm able to distribute the PDF, so expect it coming into your inboxes in the next days!

As for the books, on Friday I confirmed with my printer that the books are getting reprinted after they had to get inspected by both him and the book binder again. I was told they should be done in roughly two weeks. 
Will keep you all update on that one, I really cannot wait to have them in my hands again. 
On the day the pallet of boxes was picked up again I actually felt kind of heart broken. I put so much energy, dedication and love in this book over the last years, the fact that I'm feeling so strong about it genuinely warms my heart now in hindsight. It just matters a lot to me.

Once again, feel free to write a comment or contact me via Backersupport if you have questions. Thank you for supporting me.

Heya!

First of all, due to the unforeseen fact that we have to reprint the entire order of books, there's a few scheduling issues with my printer and it takes longer than we thought. We basically have to squish the book into a free slot and that one should be coming up soon.
It also took a while as the books had to be taken back to the book binder, inspected on damage and all these days of shipping add up, even if all the traveling is contained within the south of Germany.

I now have all shipping materials needed. All prints are signed, and absolutely everything I need to fulfill orders (boxes, wrapping paper, stickers for the adresses) is here, but not the books. Once they come in again I can immediately start shipping.

The PDF is completely done, and I'm thinking about sending it out before shipping already. Originally I wanted to send them on the day shipping starts but due to the big delay I'm wondering if it might be nice to send them out earlier to bridge the time. I just feel a bit bad for letting people wait so much.

As always, if there are questions feel free to leave a comment or write me via Backersupport. 

Heya!

Yesterday morning, I got the books.
I went to take pictures to show my friends immediately but I quickly noticed that literally every book was damaged in production. Of the 539 books I was sent, every single one exhibited the very same issue: The thread that bound the pages together was lose.

(These are two different books. The thread is lose in literally every seam but it was always visible on this page in every book.)

Besides me as the artist, there are three companies involved in the making of these books.
- The printer that I've been talking about previously, who printed the pages and also oversaw and managed the entire project with me.
- The printer for the cover, as it had to be outsourced to a different company. It's cheaper to produce varnish covers with dedicated printers for that.
- And finally, the book binder who glued and sewed everything together.

I'm already in talks with my printer about this and we're working on getting this solved. It's pretty obvious to see where the error lies in the production chain; we're both just absolutely confused how 500+ books were shipped without being checked for quality even once by the book binder.

On Monday I'll have another longer phone call with him, but as it currently stands, he'll come to my place and take the faulty books with him and produce an entire order of 500 books for me again, for free.
The new order should also have black thread instead of white.

There will be no extra costs to supporters of the campaign because of this error.
The only issue rising from this is a delay in the schedule, as I actually planned on shipping and fulfilling orders next week. I don't know yet how the schedule will look like for this now, but I'll keep everyone up to date if I get important information to share.

In a way it feels a bit surreal to me, because the books are perfect in every way if it wasn't for that issue. They look just like I always imagined them. The colours printed perfect. The paper feels good and is very sturdy. It has this old and natural feeling due to the texture.
In a way it even feels warm to touch the book.

What does this mean for me now:
I'll work on other things regarding the book. I received prints and stickers earlier this month and they look really good. No issues or problems with those. I haven't signed the prints yet as I wanted to do that on a dedicated day with the books as well, but I guess I'll just sit down and start signing anyway.
I'll prepare everything I can do for shipping already too. I already have a bunch of shipping materials here, but there's things I can do to make fulfillment faster later.

As always, if there are questions, let me know via comment, backersupport, or send me an email to [email protected]
I'm always glad to answer!

Hello! 

Today was eventful, and pretty exhausting on a very hot summer day in Germany.
I drove to my printers place today to watch my book getting printed. It was an incredible experience to see this happen in real time as I got a lot of explanations on what was currently happening by the workers there. 
Many years ago I had an internship at a printing company for half a year and getting blasted by the smell of those machines again was weirdly nostalgic.

In two weeks I will call the company again and check in on the state of the book. When it's finished, they will ship it to me. I'll then charge cards and lock orders, so I can start shipping orders to everyone who pledged. 

As for the surveys:
Currently 92% of backers filled out their survey! Thank you so much. I will start sending out reminder emails to those who haven't soon. This is a reminder that I cannot ship your order if the survey isn't filled out, as I can't charge shipping then.
Originally I wanted to order stickers and prints once I got to 95% but I think I'll start doing that over the weekend now. I'll order more than the quantities needed for the campaign anyway, to check on quality and have some prints and stickers in backhand. 

And about the pdf: 
I had to give it a small edit in the last weeks but that got me the idea that I should add a scan or photo of the cover and backcover as well, to make it more complete and not simply just the pages. That means I will have to wait until I get the books to finish it properly.
The pdf will be sent out once orders are being shipped then. I already asked Backerkit if I can upload it despite being oversized and I was approved for that.

Thank you so much for sticking around!
As always, feel free to write me via email ([email protected]), Backersupport or simply write in the comments if you have a question.