Sword & Sorcery magazine featuring short fiction, non-fiction, and gorgeous art. Made with love for the classics, and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling! Luxurious hardcover, classic softcover, and accessible digital formats.
This campaign funds three issues of New Edge Sword & Sorcery magazine (#5, #6, and #7).
Issues 5, 6, & 7 Digital & Softcover designs
Hardcover Designs
Each issue will hold approx. 45,000 words of Sword & Sorcery fiction, as well as interviews, essays, book reviews, and more.
WHAT IS SWORD & SORCERY?
A unique fantasy sub-genre known for outsider protagonists with personal motivations, often facing dark and dangerous magic in short episodic tales with historical inspiration and horror elements!
WHAT IS NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY?
A dynamic magazine "Made with love for the classics, and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling!"
Our double-headed battle-axe logo, looking back to the classics, and forward to an exciting literary future!
Our magazine pages are a spacious 8 1/2 x 11 inches, offset (traditionally) printed like a book, using quality, cream paper that is firmer and more durable than standard, floppy magazine paper.
Images of previous issues
Hardcovers feature lay-flat sewn-stitch binding, as well as ribbon bookmarks and custom design end pages color matched to the exterior.
Hardcover of issue three.
Treated carefully, issues of our magazine can last a lifetime!
Sword & Planet is Sword & Sorcery's older, science fantasy cousin.
Sword & Planet was birthed in 1912 with what is still the most adapted and riffed-upon work in the genre, Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars (which kicked off a long run of books called the Barsoom series).
Art by Luis Melo
Sword & Planet stories usually feature...
...strangers from another world...
...stranded on an alien planet...
...where they fight and fall in love with the locals...
...while encountering a mix of high and low tech, like retro-futuristic flying warships in a world where many fights are still won with a sharp sword...
...where weird local lifeforms replace 'monsters'...
...and 'sorcery' translates to psychic powers or strange technology.
We've dedicated an entire issue to S&P stories and articles further exploring this unique SFF subgenre, great for total newbies through to those who feel as if they've walked the sands of Barsoom themselves!
Jirel of Joiry wasthe first Sword & Sorcery heroine, created by legendary Weird Tales regular, C.L. Moore.
Like Alice in Wonderland with a big f***ing sword, Jirel had compelling adventures in bizarre dream-logic realms, balancing a rich emotional life with terrifying struggles against dark forces!
In partnership with the estate of C.L. Moore, there will be a new Jirel story by Molly Tanzer. It's called...
Art by Sasha Durdevic.
And that's just one of 19 stories & 16 non-fiction pieces you'll receive! Let's meet our other authors, and artists...
Images from portfolios and past issues. Artists include: Lur, Pbbeta, Sage, Carly A-F, Palace Bloom, Matthew Brooke, Ursa Doom, Andrey Garin, Goran Gligovic, Alexey Gorboot, Matt Harris, Helana Janecic, Damiki Laloo, Gary McClusky, Justin McElroy, Luís Melo, Trevor Ngwenya, Jorge Puldio, Chuah Shih Shin, Matt Spencer, Linnea Sterte, Remco Van Straten, Artyom Trakhanov, Simon Underwood, Daniel Vega, and Michael Zug.
Most of the reward tiers are self-explanatory - digital, or print & digital, editions of issues 5, 6 & 7. But maybe you're new to Backerkit?
HOW TO USE BACKERKIT
Don't worry, it's easy to support us! Think of BK as Kickstarter, but BETTER.
1) CREATE AN ACCOUNT If you've ever supported a Kickstarter that used Backerkit for fulfillment, like our own 2023 campaign, then you should already have an account.
2) SELECT A PLEDGE LEVEL Explore the campaign and, if you'd like to support us, pick a tier!
3) INCLUDE ADD-ONS More items become unlocked as stretch goals are reached! You can add Add-ons to your existing pledge through the campaign.
4) CHECK OUT!
5) MANAGE YOUR PLEDGE If the campaign is successfully funded, you'll be prompted to fill in your shipping information. You'll also have another chance to select any Add-ons you might want.
Don't forget to check out our FAQ for any questions you might have.
At a base funding level, this crowdfunding campaign pays for the publication of issues #5, #6, and #7 of New Edge Sword & Sorcery. Additional money raised will be used to pay contributors more, improve the magazine, and make NESS more accessible to international readers!
1. DOUBLE ART ($32,200) - LOCKED
Most stories and articles get two original B&W illustrations, while each issue's novelette-length story will get four!
2. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING DISCOUNT ($35,200) - LOCKED This stretch goal covers reducing shipping costs for all backers outside the United States: $5 USD off for Canadian backers, and $10 USD off for anyone outside of North America.
3. AUTHOR PAY RAISE ($39,600) - LOCKED
+1 cent per word for contributing authors.
4. ARTIST PAY RAISE ($40,950) - LOCKED
+25% base rate for contributing artists.
5. AUTHOR PAY RAISE ($45,300) - LOCKED
+1 cent per word for contributing authors.
6. ARTIST PAY RAISE ($46,700) - LOCKED
+25% base rate for contributing artists.
And so forth, with no limit on contributor pay raise stretch goals!
New campaign exclusives and Add-Ons will appear over the course of the campaign, but to start we've got...
EXCLUSIVES
ALL BACKERS will receive a 4x6 inch postcard featuring the cover art from issue five.
RETURNING BACKERS will receive a 4x6 inch postcard featuring the cover art from issue six.
FIRST 48 HOUR BACKERS will receive a 4x6 inch postcard featuring the cover art from issue seven.
Front designs for all three postcards.
Back design for issue 5 postcard, formatted to be compatible with USPS requirments.
THE FIRST BACKER of the campaign will be mailed special print materials related to the production of last year's issues, materials suitable for hanging up or even framing - including an original piece of art from issue #3.
Art by Saprophial, published in issue 3 for "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth" by Molly Tanzer.
THE TOP BACKER, meaning the backer who is most active in our Community tab, will receive softcovers of 5, 6, & 7 that have each been annotated (using post-its, not writing on the page unless you give him permission) by editor & publisher Oliver Brackenbury, providing special insight into the process of producing the issues.
Just two pages from one of last year's annotated issues. Our editor will be available for any handwriting translation you may require! Art on the left-hand page by Michael A. Zug.
ADD-ONS
PREVIOUS ISSUES: Get caught up! Issues 1, 2, 3, and 4 of New Edge Sword & Sorcery are available in digital and softcover formats.
RAINBOW METAL BATTLE-AXE PIN:
Every pin's coloring is unique.
These 1.5 inch pins of the New Edge Sword & sorcery battle-axe are made with soft enamel using anodized rainbow plating on a zinc alloy base metal.
Just three possible color gradients!
The rainbow effect is randomized, making each pin unique!
UNLOCKABLE REWARDS
Special rewards will be UNLOCKED and added to backers' orders, for free, when we hit different milestones!
Please take note of the estimated shipping charges, and understand shipping charges may change between the crowdfund and fulfillment.
Because they have to travel that much further, orders destined for outside of North America will get a bookfold mailer with bubble-bagged issues inside for added protection from whatever the world may throw at them.
During the fulfillment process, BackerKit will calculate any shipping that may be required when you fill out your delivery address.
Shipping costs will not be assessed and billed until then! You are only being charged for your pledge amount at this time. We hope this helps to keep the cost of shipping down due to current fluctuations in domestic and international shipping costs.
To further keep shipping costs down, we will be shipping all three issues together. Back issues purchased through our Add-Ons will also be shipped with those three new issues for the same reason.
Brackenbury Books, BackerKit, and our fulfillment partners are not responsible for any VAT, duty, or customs charges any packages may incur.
BackerKit surveys will be sent once all books involved in this campaign arrive at our fulfillment partner. Our current estimate for shipping is Q4 2025 (AKA somewhere in the last three months of the year). Estimates are not guarantees!
Don't forget: If we make our International Shipping Discount stretch goal, then all orders from Canada will get $5 USD off their shipping, and all orders outside North America (”International”) will get $10 USD off their shipping!
Thanks to everything we learned publishing our past issues, we're confident about producing issues #5-7 in a timely manner, and at the high level of quality our readers have come to expect.
We've successfully funded four campaigns across two crowdfunding platforms, with our first two fulfilled and the last two being fulfilled soon. Our editor & publisher has also successfully crowdfunded a webseries in the past, another project which requires collaboration between a large team of creatives while keeping within budget and on schedule.
To further mitigate risk we’ve brought on a crowdfunding & fulfillment professional, Sara McHenry (https://www.saramchenry.com), who did excellent work for us with our previous issues. Since 2013, she’s helped her clients raise over $3.5 million in crowdfunding money for their creative projects. Her specialties include setting budgets and timelines, structuring reward tiers, working with vendors, shipping logistics, and motivating the unmotivated creator.
Should any challenges arise with things we have no control over, such as supply chain issues, our backers will receive timely, detailed updates on the situation.
