Surveys are out to all backers! Please fill them out.
That's the bulk of the update really. But it seems silly just to write a two sentence update, so let's lightning round a few quick items.
- All things related to rewards are either ordered or have arrived at my house already. Barring people adding on egregious amounts of stuff in the surveys, I should have more than enough to fulfill all orders just from what's ordered. But hey, if I'm proven wrong and people add-on a bunch of stuff, I'll order things again.
- For those of you who are local, I did set local pickup as an option (choose Local Pickup as your country and fill out the rest of the survey using the instructions on the page) if you want to pick up your order at my events in either Bowling Green, Ohio (October 10th) or Hudson, Ohio (October 24th). More specifics for these are on the survey.
- Brielle's backstory short story is edited, formatted, and ready to send out with the rest of the rewards. There will be no delay on this reward (yay!).
- Over the new two weeks while people are filling out surveys, I'll be focusing on making minor edits to the Project Tasman .epub file (as I noticed some minor formatting wonkyness the other day) and hand notating sheet music bookmarks for the early bird pledges. So. Much. Hand. Notating.
That's all. Tell me a joke in the comments if you want.
Project Tasman's BackerKit campaign has officially ended. Technically it's been done since Friday night, but admittedly I needed a few days of emotional break before I wrote this post up. To say that running this campaign was a tiring, albeit fulfilling, experience, would be an understatement.
I want to begin by taking a moment to thank everyone who helped get eyes on the Project Tasman campaign. Whether you pledged yourself, shared the campaign with others, or whatever you did in order to help me out, I'm incredibly grateful for you. A little over ten years ago, I released my first book (a book of short stories released under my deadname). The book got zero preorders. Hell, it didn't even get its first order until a month and a half after release. There were multiple literal years where I sold few enough copies of my book(s) that I could count the sales on one hand. To go from that a decade ago to having a crowdfunding campaign that's fully funded within the first ten hours is surreal.
For those who backed the project, I have surveys like 90% ready to go at this point to send out to you all. That said, I do have one question out to BackerKit support. Additionally, they recommend I wait 14 days after end of pledges to send the surveys, so as to allow anyone whose payment failed time to correct. So, that means I will be aiming to get the surveys out on or around September 18th. It's a few days later than I planned, but not too bad. Most items that I need are already ordered, so that slight delay shouldn't delay shipping much, if at all. I do intend to ship rewards during the month of October. Since the main release of Project Tasman isn't until November 11th, that means most (if not all) backers should get their copies of the book before the general public release! The sooner you can get your survey completed after those go out, the better, but I do plan to keep them open until early October.
Additionally, for those of you who are able to come to one of the two following events, I will offer local pickup of your rewards at the following book events that I have planned in October. Please note that if you are planning for local pickup, I do need your survey completed in advance of the event. While this shouldn't be a big deal with timing, it is critical so that I bring everything I need. - October 10th (1-3pm Eastern): Grounds for Thought, Bowling Green, Ohio - October 24th (11am-1pm Eastern): The Learned Owl Bookshop, Hudson, Ohio
I'll have more updates when surveys go out. Until then though, I just want to thank everyone for supporting this book. Time to prep for release now, it seems.
Oh my god. It's finally here. The final week of the Project Tasman crowdfunding is finally here.
Girl (non-gendered). I'm so tired. Admittedly most of that has nothing at all to do with writing or with this campaign. But I do think that once the crowdfunding ends, I might sleep for 24 hours straight. Or at least I'd like to.
Since the project started back on August 3rd, some really cool things have happened! Project Tasman was fully funded in under 10 hours. We hit the first stretch goal. I got to show off the cover and title for the earned short story about Brielle's background. And, as of less than an hour before writing up this post, the book got its 100th backer!
I know I said it on BlueSky a bit earlier, but I am so incredibly grateful to be in this position. This book means the world to me. I took a risk crowdfunding it because I felt that this book was worth all the stress, the worrying, the effort. It is. And I am so thankful that so many of you feel the same way.
We have approximately $775 to go until the next stretch goal where everyone who ordered art prints will get a third art print with their order and an alternate cover for the hardback version will be unlocked. BackerKit's little trackery thing I have on my end thinks we'll end just short of that goal. And if that happens, I would understand. So many people have already been so supportive of me. But, selfishly, I'd love to get there. And to the next goal in an additional $1,500 after that. An even the final stretch goal at a quarter million so I can quit my job and write full-time. But even if those don't happen -- even if not a single additional dollar flows into this campaign, I am so proud of taking a chance on myself and on this book.
I plan to have a wrap up stream on Friday night before the campaign's end at 10pm Eastern to celebrate the end of funding. I'd love to see you there. Until then, I'm going to do my best to keep drumming up interest in this book. I'd love it if you'd help me do the same.
Cover and Title Reveal for Brielle's Bonus Short Story
Hi all!
As we sneak under 10 days left in the campaign, we recently crossed the $3,000 mark. That was my unofficial line after which I would reveal the cover for Brielle's back story short that all backers getting at least an ebook will get.
The short story will clock in at approximately 4500 words and will give background into Brielle's past via her experiences on the final day of the life of her best friend, Maddie. The story is titled "May My Obituary Be a Celebration of My Life and Not A Statistic in a History Book". As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Panic! at the Disco giant titles, especially for chapters of stories or for shorter works. The wonderful art below was created by Beanie, whose work you will recognize from the covers of Kotov Syndrome and Woodpusher.
Good time zone everyone (morning for me...barely). Morgan here to give an end of week update where the campaign is. As of writing this, Project Tasman is currently at $2,807 raised, which is over $300 past the first stretch goal that we hit last week. In this week alone, Project Tasman has hit a couple notable milestones for my books, as it is now the most pre-ordered book I've ever written just from the BackerKit pledges! Additionally, perhaps sillier, it is also officially the book I've had to spend the most on shipping supplies for -- and I still need to get boxes and/or envelopes. I don't mind, but I do find it funny.
With the first stretch goal being hit last week, I mentioned that the short story that was Brielle's backstory was unlocked and will be given to all backers who got at least an ebook as an additional reward. Said short story is currently off with my editor for a final review. There is now an official title for the short story is now decided on and a cover has been created by the lovely Beanie at BeanieWorks (aka the cover artist for Kotov Syndrome and Woodpusher). I mentioned on BlueSky that the short story cover and title will be revealed publicly revealed once we get to $3,000 raised for Project Tasman, so we're edging ever so much closer to that goal. While we're waiting on that, I will say that the original working title of said short story when I wrote it in 2017 was "Creature Comfort", as said working title was based on Arcade Fire's song by the same name. That said, nine years, additional context in my life, societal change, and an entire story inspired by one of the characters later, it didn't feel like the right title for the story anymore.
One question I have for backers is this. Would any of you like to be added to my author newsletter going forward when the BackerKit project is over? My newsletter is more regular updates when I don't have an active project going (typically one newsletter every 1-2 months) and includes updates on all my projects, in person events, and book recommendations from other (mostly indie) authors. If you are interested and just want me to add you using the email you pledged with, leave a comment and I can add you to the mailing list for the next edition (likely September).
Finally, thank you so much to everyone here who has not only pledged to support the project, but has shared the news about it in some way. I get that not everyone is in a position to support a project financially. And that's okay. Sharing the word about the book to others who might be interested goes a long way as well.
I did not anticipate having to write up another post on Sunday before we even hit one week live but here we are. As of a little bit ago, the first stretch goal for Project Tasman has been hit! That means that all backers will be getting an ebook copy of Brielle's backstory. Additionally, anyone who backed at a level that gets an art print will get an additional fine art print with their order -- meaning you get two rather than just one.
For those who don't know, Brielle was the original character who I'd written about that helped make Project Tasman a reality. I'd originally written her in a short story in 2017 where Brielle lives through the final day of the life of her best friend and roommate, Maddie. I brought Brielle over when I started writing Project Tasman on Twitter because the whole idea behind what I was writing in Project Tasman was so new to me. I wanted to have something I could tether my sanity to -- a character I knew how to write already. And thus Brielle came with. This short story has been rewritten a few times since it was originally penned, though the spirit has stayed the same the whole time. I'll be sending it off for edits in the morning (once my editor is awake and sees goal is hit) and...I need to think of a name for it. I may look to release the short story as a standalone in the future (or perhaps bundled with Project Tasman's ebook?), but I am too tired and excited to make real plans around that right now.
I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has backed the project, shared it, told your friends about it, or whatever within this first week. I am so proud of how things have gone. I mentioned before that I couldn't have imagined it'd get to this point, and here we are again, at a point I'd hoped to maybe get to but that still felt like a dream when I was writing the description.
$1,500 more until the next stretch goal wherein I have to commission an artist to make an alternate cover for the book. I hope we get there. I'd love to spend money on a human artist for that reason.
Surveys are out to all backers! Please fill them out.
That's the bulk of the update really. But it seems silly just to write a two sentence update, so let's lightning round a few quick items.
- All things related to rewards are either ordered or have arrived at my house already. Barring people adding on egregious amounts of stuff in the surveys, I should have more than enough to fulfill all orders just from what's ordered. But hey, if I'm proven wrong and people add-on a bunch of stuff, I'll order things again.
- For those of you who are local, I did set local pickup as an option (choose Local Pickup as your country and fill out the rest of the survey using the instructions on the page) if you want to pick up your order at my events in either Bowling Green, Ohio (October 10th) or Hudson, Ohio (October 24th). More specifics for these are on the survey.
- Brielle's backstory short story is edited, formatted, and ready to send out with the rest of the rewards. There will be no delay on this reward (yay!).
- Over the new two weeks while people are filling out surveys, I'll be focusing on making minor edits to the Project Tasman .epub file (as I noticed some minor formatting wonkyness the other day) and hand notating sheet music bookmarks for the early bird pledges. So. Much. Hand. Notating.
That's all. Tell me a joke in the comments if you want.
Project Tasman's BackerKit campaign has officially ended. Technically it's been done since Friday night, but admittedly I needed a few days of emotional break before I wrote this post up. To say that running this campaign was a tiring, albeit fulfilling, experience, would be an understatement.
I want to begin by taking a moment to thank everyone who helped get eyes on the Project Tasman campaign. Whether you pledged yourself, shared the campaign with others, or whatever you did in order to help me out, I'm incredibly grateful for you. A little over ten years ago, I released my first book (a book of short stories released under my deadname). The book got zero preorders. Hell, it didn't even get its first order until a month and a half after release. There were multiple literal years where I sold few enough copies of my book(s) that I could count the sales on one hand. To go from that a decade ago to having a crowdfunding campaign that's fully funded within the first ten hours is surreal.
For those who backed the project, I have surveys like 90% ready to go at this point to send out to you all. That said, I do have one question out to BackerKit support. Additionally, they recommend I wait 14 days after end of pledges to send the surveys, so as to allow anyone whose payment failed time to correct. So, that means I will be aiming to get the surveys out on or around September 18th. It's a few days later than I planned, but not too bad. Most items that I need are already ordered, so that slight delay shouldn't delay shipping much, if at all. I do intend to ship rewards during the month of October. Since the main release of Project Tasman isn't until November 11th, that means most (if not all) backers should get their copies of the book before the general public release! The sooner you can get your survey completed after those go out, the better, but I do plan to keep them open until early October.
Additionally, for those of you who are able to come to one of the two following events, I will offer local pickup of your rewards at the following book events that I have planned in October. Please note that if you are planning for local pickup, I do need your survey completed in advance of the event. While this shouldn't be a big deal with timing, it is critical so that I bring everything I need. - October 10th (1-3pm Eastern): Grounds for Thought, Bowling Green, Ohio - October 24th (11am-1pm Eastern): The Learned Owl Bookshop, Hudson, Ohio
I'll have more updates when surveys go out. Until then though, I just want to thank everyone for supporting this book. Time to prep for release now, it seems.
Oh my god. It's finally here. The final week of the Project Tasman crowdfunding is finally here.
Girl (non-gendered). I'm so tired. Admittedly most of that has nothing at all to do with writing or with this campaign. But I do think that once the crowdfunding ends, I might sleep for 24 hours straight. Or at least I'd like to.
Since the project started back on August 3rd, some really cool things have happened! Project Tasman was fully funded in under 10 hours. We hit the first stretch goal. I got to show off the cover and title for the earned short story about Brielle's background. And, as of less than an hour before writing up this post, the book got its 100th backer!
I know I said it on BlueSky a bit earlier, but I am so incredibly grateful to be in this position. This book means the world to me. I took a risk crowdfunding it because I felt that this book was worth all the stress, the worrying, the effort. It is. And I am so thankful that so many of you feel the same way.
We have approximately $775 to go until the next stretch goal where everyone who ordered art prints will get a third art print with their order and an alternate cover for the hardback version will be unlocked. BackerKit's little trackery thing I have on my end thinks we'll end just short of that goal. And if that happens, I would understand. So many people have already been so supportive of me. But, selfishly, I'd love to get there. And to the next goal in an additional $1,500 after that. An even the final stretch goal at a quarter million so I can quit my job and write full-time. But even if those don't happen -- even if not a single additional dollar flows into this campaign, I am so proud of taking a chance on myself and on this book.
I plan to have a wrap up stream on Friday night before the campaign's end at 10pm Eastern to celebrate the end of funding. I'd love to see you there. Until then, I'm going to do my best to keep drumming up interest in this book. I'd love it if you'd help me do the same.
As we sneak under 10 days left in the campaign, we recently crossed the $3,000 mark. That was my unofficial line after which I would reveal the cover for Brielle's back story short that all backers getting at least an ebook will get.
The short story will clock in at approximately 4500 words and will give background into Brielle's past via her experiences on the final day of the life of her best friend, Maddie. The story is titled "May My Obituary Be a Celebration of My Life and Not A Statistic in a History Book". As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Panic! at the Disco giant titles, especially for chapters of stories or for shorter works. The wonderful art below was created by Beanie, whose work you will recognize from the covers of Kotov Syndrome and Woodpusher.
