Hi everyone!

So many of you have been writing in asking when we will open up pre-orders for people who missed the Deluxe Heralds campaign... and that day is today!

Visit the pre-order store

We'll keep the store open until 90% of backers have completed surveys. At that time we'll lock everything down and place our manufacturing order. We're not officially offering the deluxe bundle now that the campaign is over, but if you absolutely must have it for some reason, email [email protected] and we can manually create a pre-order for you with the item.

As of this writing, 76% of backers have completed their surveys. Remember that we need accurate counts in order to begin manufacturing, so please keep the survey momentum up. Last campaign more than fifty people pledged and paid full price for Grandmaster and never completed their surveys. We can't ship your books if we don't know where you live... so please, please get that done!   

FAQ - "When will you charge cards for shipping and pre-orders?"

In the past we've waited until shipping is due to begin, but since we won't be adjusting shipping prices, we'll plan to charge for shipping this fall, a few weeks after we place the manufacturing order. We will give you at least fourteen days of notice, plus a 48-hour reminder, we will schedule the charges for directly after the first of a month, and we will be able to hold charges on an individual basis for people who need an alternative schedule. 
 

All scholarship requests from the campaign have been granted, imported into the system, and surveys sent. If you requested a scholarship, you received it. Please check your inbox for the survey link!

HOWEVER -- a small number of people who requested scholarships also pledged for the $25 level, using the same email address. If you receive a survey link for the scholarship and are unable to access it, please email [email protected] and we'll manually consolidate your orders for you.

FAQ - "Something isn't working for me, how do I get help?"

Please email [email protected] and be patient. Our fabulous support person, Corvyn, will answer you as quickly as possible during regular weekday business hours. If you email on a Friday afternoon, however, or at the same time as fifty other people, it may be a few days before you hear back. Thank you for your patience!

The Deluxe Halfblood Chronicles are coming to BackerKit on September 10th!

If you see our home-grown ads out in the wild, you can help us "warm our pixel" by clicking through and following the campaign.

And, since the pre-launch reservations were so successful on Heralds of Valdemar, we're doing it again: a $5 reservation comes with a $25 savings on the full two-volume set!

This will be our first campaign in direct collaboration with one of Misty's publishers. Arc Manor liked our work on Grandmaster so much that they asked us to design the books and run the campaign for the deluxe editions of all four Elvenbane novels!

This is especially exciting for us because we've been able to design Arc Manor's deluxe editions to perfectly match the format and materials of Grandmaster and Deluxe Heralds, so everything will look just right side-by-side on your shelf.
 
If you are one of those people who will absolutely never click on an ad (like Ben, who hates them with a passion), you can skip the whole "pixel" thing and follow the campaign right here.

Thanks,
Misty's Crowdfunding Team (Ben, Care, Athena, and Corvyn)

Hi everyone, Ben here!

Over the weekend I received a package from our manufacturer -- the complete set of blank dummies for our Deluxe Bundle. These unprinted products are where we confirm that the paper, dimensions, weight, and feel of every item is exactly what we wanted. Once this is approved, we can move to the next stage of manufacturing: finalizing our art to match these templates, then submitting a print proof request to the manufacturer.

We released surveys on Saturday afternoon, August 1st, and 58% of you have already completed yours! That's a fabulous return rate. For everyone else, please get to it as quickly as possible -- the completed surveys tell us exactly how much of each product to order!

A few questions have come up from early surveys, addressed below:

Do I need to order a separate timeline poster if I'm receiving the deluxe bundle?
No, a timeline poster ships as part of every deluxe bundle. If you add another, you'll receive two.

I'm outside of the USA and shipping seems really expensive. What are my options?
We've kept shipping prices the same or lower than the Grandmaster campaign, even though this package is larger and heavier. We're also subsidizing the entire cost of GST/VAT and import fees. We are currently covering between $10-$190 dollars in shipping cost per international package (India, Switzerland, and Norway, we're looking at you.) If the shipping fees are still too high for your budget, you can email [email protected] to request a shipping scholarship.

I'm an international backer and I don't mind paying full price for shipping. May I?
Feel free to contribute by adding one or more Shipping Scholarship add-ons to your pledge.

I'm moving soon, should I wait to fill out the survey?
No, please complete the survey now. You'll be able to update your shipping address in 2027 before rewards ship.

Why does it say I'm receiving three copies of the Arrow Code Decoder?
We don't know! But it will be a PDF and you have our enthusiastic permission to download it once, three times, or as many times as you wish when it is released.

I made two or more pledges. Can you combine my orders to ship together?
Yes. Email [email protected] and we'll bundle your orders into a single shipment.

Hi everyone!

We're getting ready to send out surveys to all backers, as well as to temporarily open pre-orders for people who missed the campaign. Here's what you need to know:

Shipping Scholarships are back! You can apply for one directly within your survey, or contribute to the scholarship fund with an add-on.

Grandmaster ships separately! If you selected the Grandmaster or Art of Grandmaster add-ons, they'll ship from the ZOE warehouse this fall. You'll see a special question about split shipping costs.

Shipping discounts and/or scholarships will be granted before cards are charged. We'll let the community know if need exceeds available funds. In that case, we'll ask for additional help to cover the difference so that nobody is left behind.

IMPORTANT: Even if you can't afford shipping, it's essential that you complete your survey. If you don't have a card and don't have anything to enter in those fields, email [email protected] and we'll manually close your survey for you.

Have questions: Please start with the FAQ, it's quite comprehensive.

If something doesn't make sense or you're worried about any aspect of the campaign, please email us at [email protected]. We're very happy to help.

As a reminder for everyone, crowdfunding starts with pledges, THEN we manufacture the rewards. This process takes time. We've put timelines everywhere, but it's easy to pledge quickly and not realize that the gratification will not be instant. Fulfillment is currently on schedule for May/June of 2027.

Hi everyone!

Did we all collapse after the campaign for a week straight? Yes, pretty much our entire team did.

And then we picked ourselves up and got back to work. After all, you unlocked a ton of amazing stretch goals which we now get to create. So here's our July progress report:

FUNDING

The primary funds for everything have landed in our bank account. Only about $7300 in credit card payments failed, and there's plenty of time to take care of that in the surveys when those come out.

SURVEYS

We're aiming to release surveys on August 1st.  They're almost done, with just a few fiddly details to sort out with BackerKit support. They will include the opportunity to select any add-ons that you missed, as well as temporarily opening a pre-order store for the people who missed the campaign and have been begging for the opportunity to pledge.

SHIPPING

We have all the good news: shipping prices should be very similar to what they were on Grandmaster. We will also subsidize some of the extreme costs for backers in places like Norway and India. In fact, we've capped shipping fees at $50: anything over that in real costs we will cover!

It gets better: we're covering the cost of all VAT/GST charges, as well as the new three Euro charge for import to the EU. International packages will ship with duties pre-paid (DDP) and should arrive at your door without needing any extra payments or paperwork. So the only charges that we're passing through to you are shipping and handling: actual postage, warehouse fees, packaging, and so on. BUT it gets even better: warehouse packaging is cheaper than Grandmaster, since we're pre-packing all of the bundles at the factory.

We're hopeful that this will reduce the massive burden of postage, duties, and import fees for international backers.

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Upon completion of the campaign we confirmed product numbers and quotes with our manufacturer. They're in the process of sending us final templates for every item and our art team is updating all of our files to match. We're also well into development on the Circuit Journal and the timeline poster.

There's another bonus project in progress as well: a complete revamp of the Valdemar timeline website.

SUPPORT

As always, our support team is available to help you at [email protected]. 

If you applied for a scholarship and missed pledging, we will add you manually once the surveys are ready.

If you missed the campaign, we'll re-open late pledges in August.

Anything else, send us an email and we'll get right on it.

Thanks!
Misty and the Heralds Campaign Team

Backerkit has a feature called Overtime Mode that engages as soon as the campaign ends. Every time a new backer pledges or an existing backer adds something to their pledge, 10 minutes gets added back onto the clock.

If you can keep the Backer Train going long enough that Overtime Mode lasts for more than one hour, we'll unlock one final community reward: a THIRD sticker sheet, featuring new fan art by Forestghost!

Here's a preview: