Hi everyone!

We have lots of good news to share today.

First of all, the manufacturing process has begun for Grandmaster and Art of Grandmaster. All of the files are at the printer. We expect next steps to include

So far we've made a half-dozen small, technical changes at the request of the manufacturer, mostly to conform files to the correct bleed and color space. For example, one piece of B&W art was processed in the digital file as 4C black (black from mixing colored ink) and now it's been provided in 1C black (just black ink).

We're prioritizing the vellum signature page, which will be sent to Misty and Larry, then back to the factory for insertion into the book.

Secondly, we've confirmed that (for now) the tariffs will NOT affect import of Grandmaster to the USA. Books and printed materials are not covered under the emergencies act, so they remain subject to the existing 7.5% tariff, which we budgeted for.

However, due to uncertainty with the USA for import/export, we are planning on fulfilling all non-USA orders from a fulfillment center in Hong Kong. This means that these orders will NOT enter or depart the USA. We're sourcing all manufacturing from Canada and China. After running the numbers, we do not expect shipping prices for backers outside the USA to be affected. While you may still need to cover VAT, by skipping the USA we expect to avoid any additional charges.

Our current plan for backers in the USA continues to be fulfilling from our warehouse in Los Angeles. If that remains the case, shipping costs for US backers shouldn't change either. If US tariffs on books change, though, we may need to revisit our plans and budget for US fulfillment. Thanks for your patience while we navigate the chaos caused by Trump's trade war.

We have also finalized the specs for Art of Grandmaster. It is significantly larger than originally planned, with perforated pages, bonus coloring pages, and a foil-printed cover. However, the trade off for the larger size and better paper, which we gained by consolidating manufacturers, was losing the individually-numbered covers. Thank you for understanding.

Miraculously, and despite the global chaos, we remain on budget. Whether we'll be able to ship orders in June as originally planned now depends on the speed of manufacturing. We'll keep you updated as the factory slots us into their production schedule. It's likely that international orders will ship first, since they won't have to cross the Pacific Ocean on a ship.

In other news, we expect delivery of the audiobook soon and look forward to distributing it!

We've also quietly been working with SJ Tucker on multiple new songs. She's been in the studio the last few weekends and has sent over some gorgeous unmixed files for us to review. We can't wait to share "Threes" with you!

Finally, we're getting ready next week to launch our next campaign, for The Gamers: Attack of the Pwns. This fantasy comedy episode of the long-running Gamers series was co-written by Larry Dixon and you can learn more about it here.