Midway Progress Report, Submissions for 2026, and Our First Novel
IN SHORT
• Progress has been good and, knock on wood, it will continue to be. Most content for the three issues is complete or close to it and should be ready for l...
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Oliver
3 months ago
A Dunce Cap Has Been Placed on Our Editor! (Wee Apology & Progress Post)
OOPS
We're sorry folks. In a fit of excitement on Wednesday our editor thought he'd solved the riddle of how to send you all digital back issues of NESS without it causing p...
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Oliver
3 months ago
Digital Back-Issues Have Been Sent!
IF YOU BACKED NESS 2025 AND PURCHASED DIGITAL BACK ISSUES AS ADD-ONS...
...then hurrah, we just figured out how to distribute those without complicating fulfillment of the n...
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Oliver
4 months ago
Has your pledge gone through?
Heya!
For NESS 2025 we still have 16 failed credit card charges, so you may wish to check if your pledge has gone through.
If it hasn't, you can comment beneath this upda...
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Oliver
4 months ago
167% Funded!!! (What Comes Next?)
IN SHORT
• WE FUNDED! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
• We unlocked every stretch goal in our tracking graphic, made it bigger, then hit every stretch goal in the bigger graphic!
• We u...
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Oliver
4 months ago
Last Chance! And....OVERTIME???
WANT TO PLEDGE, TELL YOUR FRIENDS, OR BOTH?
NOW IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!
Also, did you know about crowdfund overtime?
We're making great progress on the next author raise. ...
We unlocked every stretch goal in our tracking graphic, made it bigger, then hit every stretch goal in the bigger graphic!
We unlocked every bonus story, then added bonus poems and unlocked all of those!
Right now backers are being charged for their pledges.
Backers will be charged for shipping approx. four weeks before fulfillment. This is also likely when surveys will be sent out to collect necessary information such as mailing addresses, though the surveys may come sooner.
Our current goal for fulfillment is "Q4 2025", so expect to be charged for shipping in September at the earliest. Backers in Canada will have a $5 USD shipping discount, all other backers living outside the United States will have a $10 USD shipping discount.
All backers are cordially invited to join our New Edge Sword & Sorcery Discord server through this link: https://discord.gg/HAjPqvxmDD
Though we'll be much quieter for a little while, if you'd like more regular updates and other fun info, we can be followed on Bluesky, Facebook, andInstagram. Keep an eye on them, or join our newsletter, in particular to find out when we'll open to submissions for a Sword & Planet poem for issue #7.
IN DETAIL
Wow! I am very much still absorbing the impact of the crowdfund, in more ways than one. Now I've got a story and a poem to write...
Fulfillment Schedule Having learned the hard way last year that it's better to predict a later fulfillment date and maybe surprise folk by getting stuff out early than to do it the other way around, we're playing it safe by saying that issues will be shipped out in "Q4" aka "October, November, or December".
When we're closer to shipping we will do our best to provide a more specific shipping date.
Author Progress The idea to do a third, S&P issue came later in the process than we usually have our authors begin writing, however we also got two finished stories through our open submissions back in August. Overall we feel good about where our progress is right now and everybody's working hard to make that wall of green!
Author names cropped out to not look like we're naming & shaming.
Artist Progress Art starts much later, during the middle of the crowdfund, so there's less green to be seen here and yet...there's green beyond the three completed lines for our cover art. We have received early sketches from several artists, while Oliver is working hard this week to finish pairing artists with stories & articles so the rest of them can begin work.
Arist names cropped out to not look like we're naming & shaming.
An early concept sketch of Jirel of Joiry by Simon Underwood.
Please do join The New Edge Sword & Sorcery Discord, a great online hang-out that I'd love to see your digital faces in, a fun spot to chat about the magazine, Sword & Sorcery in general, and otherwise connect with your fellow readers, writers, artists, and more.
It's also a breeding ground for goofs like how Meatball Subs Are The Only Real Sandwich, and the only time I get to eat one is when we've finished funding another publication.
Reader, you better believe this sucker tasted good when I picked it up on Saturday:
Alright, that's all from me for now. Please make sure to read through IN SHORT for the practical details of what's happening with charging backers for pledges, charging for shipping, our rough schedule and more.
We have other exciting book projects planned for the rest of 2025 and with the success of this crowdfund you've put us in the position to make them as great as we possibly can. Thank you.
Keep your swords sharp, and your sorcery numinous!
Progress has been good and, knock on wood, it will continue to be. Most content for the three issues is complete or close to it and should be ready for layout in July, then sending to the printers in August.
We're on track for a release in Q4 of 2025 and should be able to give a more specific release date by some time in September. See below for further details.
Submissions for our 2026 issues will open in early August, and close after about a month. We're aiming to take six stories, compared to the two we took last time. Guidelines will be basically identical to last year's, which can be read here: https://newedgeswordandsorcery.com/submissions/
Overage from the NESS crowdfund plays a vital role in our other projects for the year, such as paying for the excellent cover art by Saša Đurđević for our first ever novel, SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS.
We won't lie, taking on three issues for the first time, instead of our usual two, was intimidating! However this concern about falling behind has motivated us to push hard and do a pretty dang decent job staying on top of things.
Here's our walls of green, with names of authors & artists cropped out so we aren't shaming anybody:
Authors
Artists
As you may have seen if you follow us on social media, the end page designs for our hardcover editions are also finished and dang they're a treat. Babe & Oak have done it again!
ISSUE 5
ISSUE 6
ISSUE 7
Can you spot how this design has been tweaked beyond the colors?
Okay that's all there really is to report for now. But before we go back into the magazine mines, we'd once again like to encourage you to check out the crowdfund for our first ever novel, SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS. We've loved working with David C. Smith when he's been in the magazine, and our experience with this novel has been no exception.
Hello all,
I know the next update was announced for "no later than July", so in antici...
pation of the next update, I was wondering whether there would be a possibility to upgrade one's pledge (from softcover to hardcover) in the Pledge Manager.
Thanks a lot - looking forward to the next update!
We're sorry folks. In a fit of excitement on Wednesday our editor thought he'd solved the riddle of how to send you all digital back issues of NESS without it causing problems with fulfillment later on.
Long story short, it turns out he misread something and was wrong.
If we tried this it would make things more complicated for everybody.
So we're going to stay the course and wait until we're fulfilling the new issues to send out the digital back issues.
But hey, there's some consolation in knowing those issues were purchased at a crowdfund-exclusive discount and well, now you know for sure that if we ever do figure out a solution we'll be swift to implement it!
MEANWHILE
Only a few weeks since the crowdfund ended, we're feeling good about the progress made by our authors... ...and artists.
Names cropped so we aren't shaming anybody.
No other big news to report yet. We'll be pretty quiet for a while as we keep building our walls of green, but will come back with an update no later than July.
IF YOU BACKED NESS 2025 AND PURCHASED DIGITAL BACK ISSUES AS ADD-ONS...
...then hurrah, we just figured out how to distribute those without complicating fulfillment of the new issues later....and so we've sent them all out!
Please check your email and if by tomorrow you still don't see what you've purchased, let us know in the comments.
Meanwhile, if you know anybody who'd like to get the new issues but missed the crowdfund...
