I am excited to share that the books will be hitting port in the US in 3 days time. Then they have to go through customs and then to me, so I would say by the end of June likely I'll have them, or the first days of July. From there, I ship them out right away!
If you need to update your address for this for any reason, drop me an email at PublishingGoblin (at) gmail (dot) com and we can do that still. Please do not reach out to send me an address just in case, because you forgot what your address is on this project. You can check your survey to see what address you have on your survey at any time by just logging into Backerkit and checking your survey on this project. Then, if you do need to update it, drop me the email.
And later this year, October, the next piece of Fiction from Publishing Goblin will be coming. Gay superhero spicy romance novel. If that's your thing, give it a follow. If it's not, no worries. There will be more coming next year following the Tales From the Alley stories.
Talk soon when I start shipping books out! 7DA your pub gob
I'm sorry to say, I thought I would have the Tales From the Alley books by now to start shipping. But it's all ready to go and-- oh, it's going to take up to a month to reach me by boat? Okay, I suppose.
I did get to see a flip through video of the books though, and they look great, as do the tarot cards. So when they get to me, we'll all be quite happy with the results, promise.
ALSO, be aware, I am personally shipping these orders, so I am happy to adjust your addresses at ANY TIME right up to the day I pack and ship your order in later June. So no worries if that changed. You have plenty of time to update that.
Apologies for the wait, but know that they're beginning their journey about the world in their own way: nice and slow.
I know it's been just 3 days, but we're in motion now, baby. The final print files are in the hands of our manufacturer, and the manufacturing has been paid for. They said they can do less than a month turn around, so I expect to get these pretty quick.
That said, I want to give you all time to take a look at your shipping fees. They are now applied to your orders in your surveys. I know that the international ones are really rough, but I am actually undercharging for almost all of them. That's just the cost of shipping from the US to those locations. Let me know by email ([email protected]) If you think there are any mistakes on your shipping charges.
I will seek to lock y'all down to charge shipping on the 30th. That gives us time for you to take a look, let me know if there are issues, and then also after I charge, for folks with mischarged cards to get it fixed before I begin shipping out books in May.
And I said that there were tarot cards incoming!! These are our two characters I chose to spotlight for cards in this duo. I'm really hype for you to meet these characters in the books-- especially Wember since we made them together in polls! I wouldn't have made this fun lil Wickerfolk friend if you all hadn't voted that way in the story polls, and now there's a whole new guy in the world!
I'm already starting to think about what things I haven't fully covered, namely what I might yet want to write into stories, so you can take heart that we will be coming together in another year for a sequel book!
So it's been a little bit, but as of today, the book is completed. I did my editing passes, spell checks, additional edits, and layout work. The book is 268 pages total, with stories covering a total of 250 or so of 'em. I let a certain superfan read it early to help me catch my errors, but I went ahead and just hit the errors and edits again altogether. (I hope you're having fun, Kim!)
This is our cover, front, back, and spine. Kollapsar did some gorgeous work for us here, and I had fun laying the company logo and little blurb on the front cover, hopefully blended enough to look like it's part of the scene.
But I also promised you all that there would be tarot cards to act as bookmarks for two of our stretchgoals. I honestly screwed that up a fair bit, honestly. I very nearly forgot to start-- then it took me a bit to decide what the cards would be, then I reached out to an artist fairly late, and then I accepted I was just gonna bug Kollapsar to get on it.
As of the moment, they're at this stage. Our first card is the keeper of the procession-- Wember! This is our wickerfolk friend that we voted into the collection. Wember has become a delightful part of the world, with their own story, and then included here and there in a couple others. Wember is a collector, a finder of things who puts them back where they belong. But when they don't have anywhere to go? Wember brings them home to set up their Procession-- a great traveling march of toys and action figures that Wember gives stories to.
And this other character is an oldie for me, but like Dr. Ala Okoye, is getting new life for all of you to meet. This is Huan Pai, the Baba Changa. She has an important location that you'll come to explore in a story before she arrives, then she has two stories that center her after that.
There are many important folks in this book that I could have done cards for, but the Goblin's Tarot actually includes Jimmy, Kent, Juli, and even Keith, someone who is at best, in this collection, a side character. If you haven't read any stories in this collection, know that you'll get a chance to soon. But these are a number of our main characters.
And then, we have Secret Halls, the game set in this world, where Kollapsar is ALSO doing the art for all the characters in that game, and all of those above are getting illustrations there. So I felt like Wember and Huan Pai deserved these two cards in our book.
Where's the Book?
Okay so the book is done, the cover is ready, and the cards are nearing their completion. So where's the book then, Seven?
I was going to just print with an on-demand printer I've used a bit and ship books directly from there. But they want to have their own barcodes on my books, and I hate that. Plus, if I get a proper run of 400 books going, I can also get the edges of the pages sprayed black, like my most recent book releases. And I love that a great deal.
So I am using the printer I did my poetry collections with and am pushing them to get me the books within a month's time. That means they'll be coming to me and then out to you, it also means the quality will be a little better, AND ALSO I get to have my own barcode without someone else's thrown on.
So hang tight, I've got things moving with the printer and I am excited to say the book is fantastic, exciting, engaging, and full of weird stuff. Which is the way to do a book, I think. I'm also inspired after so long away from writing fiction to get back in, so look out for another book next year. : )
Talk in a month's time, when I should have books in hand-- suppose I should figure out shipping costs and get those to you on the way there. So I shall!
