Just a quick update to let you all know that I've locked down everyone's addresses to start shipping off prints. Those going outside of the UK (where I'm based) may take a little longer to arrive, but I'll be in touch over the next few days with tracking info where available.
Note that I'm NOT shipping The Chosen One Con paperbacks yet... though you may have been charged shipping for these already! The plan was to split the shipping so I could charge shipping for these later, but I totally did that wrong. If you've been charged shipping (and are rightly confused) then don't worry! I calculated the shipping fees based on a similar-sized paperback for today's shipping rates to your country. If in a few months time, those shipping rates happen to go up, then I'll swallow the cost. If by some miracle the shipping rates go down, then I'll issue partial refunds for the difference.
The book won't be ready for a few months yet, but I'll be back in touch then to verify everyone has the right address before going ahead with shipping. In other words, don't worry!
if you have any questions though, don't hesitate to get in touch.
Hi everyone! It's been a hot minute, but I finally have all the physical prints for those who bought the relevant reward tiers or addons. These include the fake advert, map, and portrait prints, as well as the art cards and bookmarks. I think they turned out quite well!
Shipping is getting locked down for these and anyone who ordered paperback copies of my Cruel Gods books as an addon. You will be charged shipping for those optional addons, but not for the prints if you backed a tier that included them as a reward, so please let me know if there are any issues! Note, shipping is NOT ready for The Chosen One Con just yet!
I'm aiming to get these addresses confirmed and items shipped by this weekend. Tracking will be provided where possible and I'll do an update when we get to that stage.
And if you fancy any of these prints, I'm sure they'll be a way to offer them later 😉
In other news, I've finished my draft of The Chosen One Con and it's now with beta readers. One beta reader has already finished and loved it! Assuming the rest of my betas don't feel the opposite, I'm still aiming for a summer release.
Hi everyone! The fake TV guide is now complete and digital rewards have been sent out for the relevant tiers! Please check your spam as you should have recieved an email on where you can download your digital rewards, including a ePub and PDF version of the fake TV guide (called MV Weekly) as well as ePubs of my Cruel Gods books if you bought them as an add on.
A note about the TV guide: there are two versions, the ePub and PDF. The ePub is a smaller version to read on your ereader of choice and comes with some images, whereas the PDF version comes with many more images and illustrations, including an additional 'fun and games' section featuring a word search and crossword puzzle. Please enjoy both versions!
There is also a small content warning for the mention of weight loss potions.
If you have any problems accessing these rewards, please get in touch!
So what's next?
Now it's time for prints! For those of you who backed tiers with physical prints, as well as any physical add-ons, I'll now start looking into shipping so I can get these sent through the most. The Chosen One Con book itself isn't done yet, so that won't be sent any time soon, but prints, art cards, posters, and any additional add-ons can be sent earlier. I'll let you know when we're ready to start shipping.
For those of you who bought physical copies of my Cruel Gods books as an add-on, these will also be sent straight from the printer to save on additional packaging costs.
Remember that Backerkit does charge shipping! Again, I'll try and warn you in advance for when we're ready to go ahead with that.
Hi everyone, another update for you! Edits are now here for the fake TV guide and the portrait art for Max is also here. That was one of the stretch goals I was most excited about. But with these now ready to go, we can start locking down orders.
Once that's done, those digital rewards can finally fly free and I'll start getting print rewards together for those who opted for physical versions. There are still time to get these as an add on, but not for long.
In other news, I'm also editing the third draft of The Chosen One Con and having a blast doing so! My goal is to get these edits done by the end of Feb for beta readers in March and then further edits in April. It's a tight schedule, but with a little magic, we'll make it work.
(This means no video games for me, boo)
However, now for the exciting part... the portrait!
I love showing off art, and I thought it would be fun to go through the process of the portrait as I did with the city map. This portrait was designed by the wonderful Aowna, who also did the art for the character cards. I loved the way Aowna portrays these characters, and of Max, so I couldn't resist a chance to work with them again.
My idea for the portrait was an image of Max hunched over a potion bottle while being haunted by TV screens. It's what I wanted the initial book cover to look like, but I was talked out of it lol but! I got to recreate it as a portrait that will appear as a black and white version in the physical book.
Naturally, it all began with a terrible MS Paint version:
Aowna then set me a couple of sketches of what the layout and pose could look like, and I settled on this one:
I already fell in love with the initial sketches! The colour and lighting were perfect!
Then Aowna sent some more updates slowly filling in the detail:
And if we skip ahead, this is the final version:
I absolutely love the details of this piece! It shows a haunted Max hunched over his potion bottle, which has a tiny bluebell motif on it that's relevant to the book. The screens that surround him also feature the same face repeated in various different emotions, and this represents a certain character you'll also meet in the book...
If you love this portrait as much as I do, then it's available as a printed addon. I'm hoping book two can feature a similar piece of Lyle, our second MC!
Hi everyone! It's been just over a week since the surveys went out, and over 90% of you have responded, which is excellent. This is a reminder to you stragglers to get your surveys in soon as we'll begin locking those orders down this week in order to send out your digital rewards!
The Max portrait is almost done (and looking very fine!) and I've also finished the design and layout for the fake TV guide, I'm just waiting on edits for the text. While we wait, here are some screenshots of the (unedited) PDF version of the TV guide so you know what silliness to expect:
The TV guide is 60 pages long and introduces the world and story at just after the beginning of The Chosen One Con. There are no major spoilers to worry about - just subtle hints and teasers here and there! The PDF version comes with stock art, and is the prettier version, whereas the ePub will be a much plainer version for those who just want the text and less images.
If you're having any issues with your surveys, get in touch! I'll be back hopefully soon with these digital rewards.
