48 Hours Left in the Stormlight Campaign!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Dec 24, 2022 at 03:30:21 PM

Happy October! As we write this update, Brandon and the team just returned from a trip to New York Comic Con. We’re now one month away from Dragonsteel 2022 (November 14-15) and the release of The Lost Metal. A limited number of badges are still available, so get yours today!

This week we’re wrapping up our Kickstarter for Stormlight collectibles, so we wanted to send one more reminder before that campaign ends. We also thought it would be helpful to share some updates if you haven’t been following that campaign. Watch for our regular October update on the Secret Novels campaign next week with more details.

Miniatures, Figurines, and More

The Stormlight Premium Miniatures Kickstarter is focused on unpainted miniatures (averaging 1.5”-1.75” tall), like the kind you’d use to play D&D. They offer more than 30 characters and look great whether or not you intend to paint them.

We’ve heard from a lot of folks who wanted more prepainted options, so the campaign has expanded to include two more painted figurines. These are about double the size of our regular miniatures, they come in collector-quality display packaging, and they range between 3” and 3.75” tall.

If your pledge includes any figurines, you’ll be able to choose exactly which ones you want in BackerKit (after the campaign closes). If you want all of them, you can choose the $70 Painted Figurine Set pledge level.

Stretch Goals at Every Level

With over $3 million in funding, the Stormlight collectibles campaign has unlocked over a dozen stretch goals. Many of these have been added thanks to community feedback, including some designs that haven’t been revealed yet. We've now unlocked every stretch goal for this campaign:

Design Reveals

Whether or not you decide to back the Stormlight collectibles Kickstarter, it’s an exciting campaign because it represents a major visual development project for The Stormlight Archive. The character designs created for these miniatures will also be used to guide illustrations for Book 5, future merchandise, and future games like the recently announced Stormlight pen-and-paper RPG. Here’s an example of the character design process for Navani:

Many of the campaign updates for Stormlight Premium Miniatures include this kind of development art, so check them out if you’d like to see official designs for all these characters.

We are so excited to be getting closer to the Year of Sanderson. Behind the scenes, everyone at Dragonsteel is working hard to get your rewards ready for release, so stay tuned for next week’s update. Thank you for your patience, your support, and your love of these stories!

October Update: Products and Boxes and Warehouses Oh My!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Dec 24, 2022 at 03:30:18 PM

It has been a busy month! (Are we surprised?) Below are a few updates, another infographic, and some pictures!

Backlist Leatherbound Add-ons

We have fulfilled Elantris, Mistborn, and The Way of Kings for all backers who added these titles earlier this year. The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages are still in production. We are unable to provide an estimate on when we will be able to fulfill these titles, but we do hope to get them out by the end of the year. Leftover inventory for these titles will then be posted on DragonsteelBooks.com.

Reward Production Progress

Secret Novels:

• Secret Project #1: As announced previously, this book is at the printer and actively in production!
• Secret Project #2: Touchups to art and layout were finalized this weekend and this book has officially been turned in to the printer!
• Secret Project #3: This book is well into the final editing phase. This is the active project for our editing team at the moment, and—if all goes well—it will be sent to layout before our next update.
• Secret Project #4: As Brandon announced in his update this week, he is 70% through his final revision of this book. Our current expectations are that this will be in the final editing phase by our next update.

We are still unable to make any announcements in regard to audiobook narrators. Stay tuned!

Swag Boxes:

• Designs are finalized for all rewards in quarter 1, and for many of the rewards for quarters 2, 3, and even 4!
• Prototypes have been received and approved for all rewards in quarter 1, and for more than half of the rewards for quarter 2.
• All reward items for quarter 1 have been ordered from various production companies. Orders for rewards through the remainder of 2023 will be placed as we clear out space to store and process them.
• We have received just under half of the rewards to be shipped quarter 1. We are gearing up to begin assembling and packaging each month's boxes as soon as we receive all reward items planned for that month.

Warehousing Update

After many other attempts, we finally managed to find a new warehouse—so new that it is still under construction! We were hoping to show some pictures of the new space, but the walls dividing our warehouse from those next to us are not yet built. However, we are happy to announce that sometime next year we will be able to move in to a much larger warehouse! Until then, we have a warehouse nearby in which we should be able to store most of the several hundred pallets of product we expect to receive before the end of the year. (Not bad growth when our current warehouse can barely hold just over 100 pallets!) Since just the boxes for Secret Project #1 totaled 90 pallets (see picture below), we are happy to have more space!

Gift Certificate

You asked, and we heard you! Many of you are gifting the rewards from this campaign to someone special and wanted a way to let them know. While you are welcome to come up with your own method, we are happy to provide the following options. Click on either one to download a printable PDF file.

A Year of Sanderson

If you pledged to any "A Year of Sanderson" pledge levels, this certificate can be used:

Quarterly Books

If you pledged to one of the "Quarterly Books" pledge levels, this certificate can be used:

These PDFs look great if printed in either black and white or color. They will fit a standard letter-sized piece of paper. We left room for you to write a note to your recipient, and recommend that you include details about the format(s) of the novels you are gifting.

Conclusion

That is all for this month. We have a lot of fun projects and plans keeping us busy. Expect a few more updates before the end of the year, including some specific information coming in December on exactly what to expect as we begin fulfillment first thing next year!

Production Begins!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 11, 2022 at 05:02:52 AM

Wow! It is June already! We wanted to update everyone with the status of your reward production and fulfillment.

Add-ons

General Status

Add-ons and pledge upgrades have been locked and card charges processed. As we have begun production of rewards and are no longer able to increase our ordered quantities, we have disabled add-ons and pledge changes for those who have not yet completed their backer surveys.

Leatherbound Titles

As the Elantris and Mistborn unsigned leatherbound books were actively in stock in our store when our campaign launched, we were able to begin shipping these titles as soon as we closed the pre-order store. All these shipments have been sent and should arrive soon!

The remaining pre-order titles—The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages, and The Way of Kings—are actively in production. When we receive these titles at our warehouse, we will begin shipping them to applicable backers. We do not have exact dates for these, but we should have the rest in stock by the end of 2022.

Want our leatherbound titles but you missed the add-on window? Don’t worry! We will have remaining stock available on our store after pre-orders are fulfilled. We will also continue to reprint each title as it sells out. Every leatherbound title we carry, including Warbreaker and the new release later this year of Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self, are expected to be available from our online store at some point this year. We are unable to guarantee all titles will be available at the same time. Keep an eye on our social media channels (@DragonsteelBooks) for updates!

Production Begins: Numbers Update!

Now that things have settled down, we can look at the numbers. Including backers who joined via the pre-order store in BackerKit and all add-ons, our final numbers were:

• Approximately 192,000 backers
• Approximately $45.5 million raised
• We will be shipping just under 100,000 premium hardcover book boxes each applicable month
• We will be shipping just under 42,000 swag boxes each applicable month

We have begun ordering multiple products and are moving forward in the development process for the rest. Due to the huge numbers we are dealing with (this campaign was a bit larger than we anticipated…), delays in production are possible. Because of this, it may become necessary to adjust the monthly order of boxes, but we will update you if a change is required. At this time it is too early to know for sure.

Backer Surveys

If you have not completed your backer survey, it’s not too late! We ordered rewards based on estimated numbers, including those who have not yet completed surveys. Please complete your backer survey so we can send you your items. Feel free to contact us with any questions or difficulties.

Future Update Schedule

We don’t want to spam everyone with updates that say simply “We are still working on production.” In the future, we will likely only post updates when something big happens or changes, such as when rewards ship, Brandon completes a milestone on the secret novels, or we have something exciting to show off.

We look forward to continuing this journey with you!

Pre-Order Store Closed—Reward Production Begins Soon!
over 2 years ago – Tue, May 03, 2022 at 09:48:35 PM

Happy May, everyone! We have reached our next milestone in our campaign timeline! Our BackerKit pre-order store is now closed and we are unable to accept any more late backers. While it is likely we will put our extra stock on DragonsteelBooks.com after we complete fulfillment—as we did with our last Kickstarter—these quantities will be limited and are not guaranteed. We also expect these books to eventually be available through traditional channels, but they will not be premium hardcover editions.

Secret Project Progress Update

Brandon announced recently that he has finished all revisions on Secret Project #1! His editorial team will now complete all edits and layout and then we will send the book off for printing.

Backer Surveys

Thank you to the more than 91% of our Kickstarter backers who have completed their backer surveys! Completing these surveys finalizes your account in our BackerKit pledge manager, which is how we will be able to provide your digital reward downloads and ship your physical rewards. If you do not complete your survey you will not receive your rewards! Please see our previous update (#14) for details. Note: If you backed through our pre-order store (meaning you ordered in April) you will not receive a survey, as this information was already filled out when you placed your order.

Late surveys will continue to be fully accepted through May 15th. After that date, add-ons and pledge changes will no longer be available and we will begin production of all physical rewards to be shipped Q1 of 2023.

What Happens Next?

All pre-order store backers and all Kickstarter backers with completed surveys will soon be notified that your orders will be locked in 48 hours. You will have a final chance to look over your pledge and make any edits, add-ons, or upgrades before your pledge is locked. However, you will still be able to update your shipping address at any time until your address is also locked.

Beginning next Monday (May 9th), card payments will be charged where applicable (all PayPal payments were charged at the time you entered payment details). Due to the high number of charges, this process will take a few days to complete, but should be finalized by the end of the week.

Any pledges with a leatherbound book pre-order will have their addresses also locked shortly afterward so we can ship your books as soon as our restock arrives—the timing of which will vary by title throughout the remainder of the year. After your address has been locked, you will be unable to edit your shipping address yourself. Please open a ticket with our support team if you move and we will be happy to update your shipping address. Note: If you did not add a leatherbound to your pledge, your address will not be locked until December and you can still change it in your account.

Thank you all, and please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you are unable to find answers to in our FAQs, comments, and updates!

Backer Surveys Sent: Action Required From All Backers!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Apr 20, 2022 at 11:00:31 PM

Whew! It’s been a busy two weeks following the crazy month of March! Thank you all for sticking with us through this. Please read below and fill out your survey or we cannot fulfill your rewards!

First and what seems to be most urgent on everyone’s minds:

• All BackerKit surveys have now been sent! We are happy to report that a very high percentage of our backers have already completed their survey.
• All backers of any tier must complete this survey to be able to receive your rewards. If your survey is not completed, we will be unable to fulfill any of your rewards, including digital downloads.
• No, it is not too late to fill it out. We ask that you fill it out by April 30th so we can begin ordering products in May and have accurate t-shirt sizes. If your survey is not complete by that time, we will not be able to guarantee your shirt size will be available in your swag pack. We will also be unable to guarantee add-ons will be available.

If you have any questions, please check out our main Kickstarter page, our campaign FAQs, and the FAQs below BEFORE contacting us.

Survey FAQs

These are the most common questions we have received this past week.

• I can’t find my survey email? How can I fill it out?
• What is the final day to complete my backer survey?
• How do I set up notifications to receive campaign updates?
• Can I upgrade my pledge? If so, how?
• How do I update my shipping address if I move?
• What t-shirt size am I? Do you have other sizes?
• If my payment failed on Kickstarter, how can I get my rewards? What if it fails on BackerKit?
• When will my credit card be charged if I purchased an add-on?
• Why am I being charged $500 shipping when I include any add-on through my survey?
• When will I get my leatherbound add-on, what if they all sell out, will you have them on your store in the future?
• I wasn’t charged shipping in Kickstarter and now I’m being charged in my survey. Why?
  

Thank you!

We have said it before and we will say it again. We cannot say it enough. Thank you all for your patience, for generating such a wonderful community of fans, for fostering support and camaraderie, and for joining us in this campaign. Thank you for sharing us with your friends and family and inviting them to join in. We will be back with another update in a couple weeks as we close out the pre-order store and begin to move into the production stage of this adventure.