Updates
Check out the latest news and keep up with progress
PROJECT UPDATE
Claudie Arseneault
CREATOR
Backed 5 projects in Book Bazaar Summer Bonanza
8 days ago
Project Update: Little Early Autumn Update
Hello backers!
September has rolled in and is now well underway, and I thought I'd give a short update on how we're doing.
As of right now, Common Bonds 3 is in the editing weeds, so to speak. We've gone through a first round of feedback and are working our way through the second one. It's taking a bit longer than anticipated, mostly because the three of us on the editorial team are very busy with other projects. But it's progressing and whew, it's going to be so good. We're really looking forward to sharing with all of you!
I've looked at our predicted timeline and it's a little wobbly. We're doing our best to get these to you all ASAP, but "shipping out in November" is going to be a tough one. When in doubt, I'd rather always give us all the time to do it right, and give the stories all the attention they deserve. I'll have more definite timelines when we're done with the editing, but I thought an early warning that we might run over our desired shipping times was in order. It will, however, absolutely be worth the wait.
Cheers everyone! I must return to the editing cave!
September has rolled in and is now well underway, and I thought I'd give a short update on how we're doing.
As of right now, Common Bonds 3 is in the editing weeds, so to speak. We've gone through a first round of feedback and are working our way through the second one. It's taking a bit longer than anticipated, mostly because the three of us on the editorial team are very busy with other projects. But it's progressing and whew, it's going to be so good. We're really looking forward to sharing with all of you!
I've looked at our predicted timeline and it's a little wobbly. We're doing our best to get these to you all ASAP, but "shipping out in November" is going to be a tough one. When in doubt, I'd rather always give us all the time to do it right, and give the stories all the attention they deserve. I'll have more definite timelines when we're done with the editing, but I thought an early warning that we might run over our desired shipping times was in order. It will, however, absolutely be worth the wait.
Cheers everyone! I must return to the editing cave!
PROJECT UPDATE
Claudie Arseneault
CREATOR
Backed 5 projects in Book Bazaar Summer Bonanza
about 2 months ago
Project Update: Locking Down Orders
Very very quick update this morning:
90% of you have now completed the survey! Yay!
If you did, should be receiving a notification from BackerKit that we are locking down orders in 48 hours. All this means is that you will no longer be able to go back to add/remove items to yours. Your physical address can still easily be changed, and we do not intend to lock that or charge shipping until much closer to our finish line.
The rest of your digital rewards will be coming along shortly after!
We expect to be quieter around it through August and September as we work on the anthology, but we'll update everyone if anything exciting happens.
Cheers,
Claudie
90% of you have now completed the survey! Yay!
If you did, should be receiving a notification from BackerKit that we are locking down orders in 48 hours. All this means is that you will no longer be able to go back to add/remove items to yours. Your physical address can still easily be changed, and we do not intend to lock that or charge shipping until much closer to our finish line.
The rest of your digital rewards will be coming along shortly after!
We expect to be quieter around it through August and September as we work on the anthology, but we'll update everyone if anything exciting happens.
Cheers,
Claudie
PROJECT UPDATE
Claudie Arseneault
CREATOR
Backed 5 projects in Book Bazaar Summer Bonanza
2 months ago
Project Update: Surveys and Digital Goodies
Hello everyone!
Things are proceeding at a good pace here at the Common Bonds Headquarters (a very real place, I promise). We have completed a first round of editorial notes for everyone, and I've familiarized myself with the backend of BackerKit to proceed with surveys and digital goodies distribution.
Digital Rewards
Because these are new tools, we'll proceed with a little bit of care and not hit the shiny distribute button on everything at once. I will first send two things, the Behind the Scenes Zine and Kaeralgan the Vicious and the Sky Mobulas, and if that goes well, the rest will follow.
Please note that the three following digital rewards will only be ready this fall, and will be sent along as they become ready:
Things are proceeding at a good pace here at the Common Bonds Headquarters (a very real place, I promise). We have completed a first round of editorial notes for everyone, and I've familiarized myself with the backend of BackerKit to proceed with surveys and digital goodies distribution.
Digital Rewards
Because these are new tools, we'll proceed with a little bit of care and not hit the shiny distribute button on everything at once. I will first send two things, the Behind the Scenes Zine and Kaeralgan the Vicious and the Sky Mobulas, and if that goes well, the rest will follow.
Please note that the three following digital rewards will only be ready this fall, and will be sent along as they become ready:
- Common Bonds 3 (obviously)
- Undying Loyalty (Nerezia 9)
- The Fox Now Wears His Skin
Surveys
Similarly to Digital Rewards, the surveys will first go out as a smoke test, to about 5% of you, and we'll resolve any issues there before sending them out en masse. These surveys will ask you to reconfirm any add ons you had, give you a last change to add more, and ask for your addresses. You will still be able to change your address down the line, if needed. We'll give you a heads up before that locks.
That's about it from us for now. Keep an eye on those inboxes (and spam folders) this coming week so you can be sure not to miss anything.
See you next update!
PROJECT UPDATE
Claudie Arseneault
CREATOR
Backed 5 projects in Book Bazaar Summer Bonanza
2 months ago
Project Update: Regarding AI Accusations
This is not the first post-campaign update we wanted to make, but here we are.
It has come to our attention that an author we have contracted to publish has been suspected of using generative AI in their work. As is clear in our submission and publication guidelines, we do not allow for stories that have deployed generative AI in any part of their development.
This is never an easy challenge to face, but we are committed to ensuring that our backers’ money is going only to human-made work but also that we are not disqualifying human-made work without doing our own due diligence.
We firmly believe that an author-first approach requires publishers to make their own evaluation, case-by-case, based in human interactions and human judgement. Only then can we ourselves ensure that cultural differences, language barriers, and other elements that disproportionately affect marginalized writers are properly accounted for. Our goal with Common Bonds is to elevate aro stories and voices, and we simply can’t do that if we aren’t first considering how to best protect those who entrust their work to us. It would be a failure to our commitment to marginalized authors to not specifically acknowledge and account for the way fear around ai can incite witch hunts that disproportionally affect Black, neurodivergent, and Global South-based writers, especially.
We are already figuring out next steps and how to proceed, and we ask that our community gives us time to approach this with the care that is needed to ensure the least harm. Thanks so much for all your support, and we’ll return to you with a clear and transparent decision in the future.
Common Bonds Team
There will be news (more fun news) regarding the distribution of digital rewards soon, but we hope you understand that this as well as editing work for the anthology has taken priority. See you soon.
PROJECT UPDATE
Claudie Arseneault
CREATOR
Backed 5 projects in Book Bazaar Summer Bonanza
3 months ago
Project Update: Down to the Wire
What a campaign end we've just had.
It's been a few hours since the clocked ticked down to zero (after several loops of 10-minute-overtime!) and I am still absorbing what happened the last 24-36 hours.
When this week started, BackerTracker, which estimates where your campaign will end, thought we'd be lucky to hit $14,000. Yet here we are, sitting pretty at $15,032 from 372 backers.
We received about 1000 in pledges in that last 12-13 hours alone. You all really showed up for us, pushing the campaign just over the first stretch goal of $15,000, allowing us to raise our contributors pay to 0.08 USD/words and $60 per poems. This is what every Common Bonds contributor has received, so we're thrilled to get there again!
Thank you all so much for this. You are split about 50-50 between people who have repeatedly supported our work and people who are new taking a chance on us, and in both cases, I am so grateful for the trust and excitement.
What comes next?
Well, the team will give itself a little treat, first of all. Then we'll look at completing the editing on these beautiful stories and getting all the digital rewards sent to you. The latter is likely happening towards the end of July.
If you know someone who wanted a copy of any Common Bonds but didn't back in time, we have a small preorder shop open through BackerKit. If you get print copies of CB1 or CB2 here rather than through your local indie, it will be shipped alongside the third at the end of the year.
We intend to close this shop and charge for shipping when the anthology is ready to be printed and shipped. By then we will have its exact size and weight, and will be able to charge as accurate an amount as possible. Until then, we'll keep updating everyone on our progress!
Thank you all again and happy Pride!
It's been a few hours since the clocked ticked down to zero (after several loops of 10-minute-overtime!) and I am still absorbing what happened the last 24-36 hours.
When this week started, BackerTracker, which estimates where your campaign will end, thought we'd be lucky to hit $14,000. Yet here we are, sitting pretty at $15,032 from 372 backers.
We received about 1000 in pledges in that last 12-13 hours alone. You all really showed up for us, pushing the campaign just over the first stretch goal of $15,000, allowing us to raise our contributors pay to 0.08 USD/words and $60 per poems. This is what every Common Bonds contributor has received, so we're thrilled to get there again!
Thank you all so much for this. You are split about 50-50 between people who have repeatedly supported our work and people who are new taking a chance on us, and in both cases, I am so grateful for the trust and excitement.
What comes next?
Well, the team will give itself a little treat, first of all. Then we'll look at completing the editing on these beautiful stories and getting all the digital rewards sent to you. The latter is likely happening towards the end of July.
If you know someone who wanted a copy of any Common Bonds but didn't back in time, we have a small preorder shop open through BackerKit. If you get print copies of CB1 or CB2 here rather than through your local indie, it will be shipped alongside the third at the end of the year.
We intend to close this shop and charge for shipping when the anthology is ready to be printed and shipped. By then we will have its exact size and weight, and will be able to charge as accurate an amount as possible. Until then, we'll keep updating everyone on our progress!
Thank you all again and happy Pride!
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