The seventh installment of Skies of Fire, a dieselpunk airship adventure.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hey Everyone,
First of all thank you for the tremendous outpouring of support last week. It means the world to us that you care beyond just getting a comic or two every couple of months. It's been a difficult year for everyone but the upheaval I think has really made us think about what really matters in the world around us and the way we live our lives.
Today's my birthday. I turn 32, half of 64, divisible by 8. It feels like there's a lot of change in front of me but birthdays are also a time to reflect and think back to where we've been and where we're going. In the spirit of that, this update is going to be radically transparent and get into the nitty gritty of where we are as a company and where we'd like to go.
First, a mea culpa. I woke up Monday morning with a jolt remembering that we still have a round of revisions for the Desertlands Postcards pending. That, despite having all other items printed and ready to go. It's ultimately our fault for not following up with Dimitris, the artist sooner, but unfortunately he informed me that the earliest he could get the final files to us was next week.
My apologies everyone. This is a mistake I've made before and am kicking myself for making again. I'm acutely aware that small setbacks can ripple into long delays as every interruption in the Production -> Manufacture -> Distribution timeline exponentially increases the chance of more setbacks and more delays.
Thanksfully, postcards easy to manufacture and can be rush ordered, so hopefully we'll only be delayed by a week, two max. Apologies again but working to rectify the situation ASAP. We're still on track to complete fulfillment by the middle of October.
One thing I've tried to do is continuously improve and legitimize the business aspects of Mythopoeia, including logistics and fulfillment. This past year has seen us incorporate as a corporation and bring on board a CPA to help handle our finances and taxes. We've also generally shrunken our turnaround from campaign close to fulfillment as we've gotten better at handling production, manufacturing, and shipping, knowing how long things take and thus when to order and how much.
The next step, I think, is for us to begin working with a fulfillment company. Doing so seems like a prudent move given the state of global shipping and our desire to publish and create more work. That conversation has accelerated due to Vince's illness. That said, after exploring several options and having discussions with multiple companies, it seems like doing so for this campaign would be unrealistic given our timeframe.
For this campaign, I've decided to ship all EU/UK packages from the USA. Doing so will come at a cost of around $1,500-2,000 more than we initially budgeted, but I'm prioritizing the timeliness of the campaign so that we can hopefully get more done by the end of the year.
It's never felt right to me when a creator begins a new campaign before closing out the last. Crowdfunding is built on trust, and how can you maintain and ask for more of that trust if you haven't yet fulfilled all of your past promises?
We want to keep building that trust, and so we're going to do everything we can to fulfill this campaign on time even with all that's going on.
The collected hardcover for Glow has been on our slate for a while and something we'd like to run a campaign for before the end of the year.
We're currently talking to printers and getting quotes, designing and compiling the print ready files, as well as working on cool new rewards that we like to do during a trade campaign.
There's a lot of back and forth that still needs to happen, but again launching this campaign will be predicated on how soon we close out this current one.
Finally, I'm excited to announce that Mythopoeia will soon be publishing it's first tabletop roleplaying game!
The Wildsea is a post-fall fantasy roleplaying game set in a rampant ocean of verdant green in which you play a motley crew of wildsailors consisting of humanity's weathered descendants, cactoid gunslingers, fungi hunters, silk-clothed spiderfolk, and other stranger things.
The opportunity to publish the Wildsea is another reason we want to finish fulfillment of this campaign as soon as possible. Felix, the creator, is actually a longtime fan of our work, and it was complete happenstance that we should meet and he share his wonderful world with us.
Vince and I have been dabbling in roleplaying games for a while now. It seems a natural fit with our passion for worldbuilding and stories. Though we haven't published anything but small games ourselves, we've learned a lot about the genre - enough to know that The Wildsea is special. Felix has created a vast and vibrant world backed by simple narrative mechanics that tell a cinematic story in a world that is at once both unique and familiar.
We'll be posting more about The Wildsea in the weeks to come through channels like our website, social media, and mailing list, including releasing the quickstart rules in a couple of days. Expect more soon.
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The plan as of right now is to launch both the Glow Book 1 and Wildsea RPG Kickstarters towards the end of the month. That's ambitious and still subject to change, but it feels like the right next step for Mythopoeia by building upon what we've learned these last few years. To be honest, it's a little daunting, but some of the most important things I've learned as a creative is to make the most of opportunities and that there can be no great reward without great risk.
Suffice to say, I hope you'll join us on this exciting new chapter. Until then, it's back to work on all of the various logs we have in the fire. More writing, more design, more calls, and shipping - hopefully soon. Please, don't be a stranger: you know where to find me.
Talk soon,
Ray
Hey Everyone!
Thank you all for the kind words sent via email and comments on this campaign page. It's always overwhelming seeing people respond positively to your work and honestly is the main reason why we keep doing this. We hope you're enjoying the adventure thus far! We have one more issue to go to close out this initial run of Skies of Fire... six years in the making. We're almost there!
The past two weeks have been spent ordering books and building out the BackerKit. Today I'm sending all of the surveys out so please be on the lookout for a BackerKit email! If you do not see one, please check both your Updates and Social tabs as sometimes the email likes to filter down into those tabs.
If you're having trouble accessing or seeing the email, try the following link:
https://skies-of-fire-7.backerkit.com/
In BackerKit you will be able to order additional stuff via Add-Ons! Generally speaking, we bake in the shipping rates into the margins of the add-ons. Fire away!
I'm scheduled to begin shipping NA / ROW next week. All of the books are either in hand or on their way. Looking to begin fulfillment next week and hopefully wrap up the week after. Will keep you updated when we begin shipping!
Finally, it's with a heavy heart that I need to announce today that Vince is taking a sabbatical from the company in order to focus on his health. Without going into too much detail, his condition has gradually deteriorated over the past year.
That said, we're currently in the process of transferring UK / EU fulfillment to a company based in the Netherlands. This definitely won't affect any of the postage rates for this campaign, but may impact our fulfillment timeline. My number one priority right now is getting everything ready for the fulfillment company and ensuring that everything goes as smoothly as possible.
Please, bear with us as we plot uncharted territories. And please, if you can, have Vince in your thoughts and prayers.
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Health and happiness above all else.
To better times, and the end of this accursed year!
Cheers,
Ray
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.