Fantasy Novel: Age of Death by Michael J. Sullivan

Surveys have gone out!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 10:44:18 PM

Hey all, Robin here. I have a lot going on so bear with me on this update.

• First, the surveys have gone out!  And over lunch yesterday Michael pointed out that "survey" is a really bad term because people might not understand what that means. This isn't like a "satisfaction survey" where we're asking you, "Did you like being part of the Kickstarter?" What this actually is, is an essential communication that provides you your rewards. The survey tells us things like (a) where to ship your physical rewards, (b) what acknowledgements you want to appear in the book, (c) how to assign extra pledge funds (to things like the tote bag, tips, or bookmarks). So if you don't do your survey we can't get you your stuff, and you'll miss out on some important time-sensitive perks (like having your name in the book). Now, if you didn't see the email with your survey you can go here to fill it out.
• Just a few reminders: (a) if you are receiving any physical books you are also getting a full set of the 5-bookmarks so you don't need to "add them" to your order. Only add them if you want more than 1 set. (b) All books are signed -- not just Age of Death. So if you use the add-ons to order additional books those will come signed as well. 
• If you want a tote bag, please, please, please fill out your survey as soon as possible. I need a count so I can get these custom items printed up and it's by filling out this survey that I know how many to get.
• Yesterday, I took Michael "across the mountain" and he signed 960 books (AoM, AoS, AoW, and AoL) . In other words enough stock to handle all the shipping (except for Age of Death which doesn't yet exist).  He'll still have 1,750+ of those to sign, but at least 35% of the signing of that is done.
• I'm finishing up the design of the Age of Death bookmark today, and hope to be sending it to the printer on Monday.
• If you live outside the US and want signed hardcovers, doing it through this Kickstarter would be the best way to do so. Why?  Because we have significant discounts applied to our overseas shipping. Just pick the books you want from the add-ons page.
• The beta read is going well. We've had 3 people who have completed it and 17 more working through the book. No major problems have appeared, and we're able to address most issues with surgical tweaks. Because of timing, this isn't an "official" beta read but it's all we had time for.
• Michael is doing his last pass on the book, nothing he's done so far will impact the copyeditors to any huge degree, so that's promising. Speaking of copyeditors,  One will be done on Oct 4 the other on Oct 9, so we'll be pretty busy with the accept/reject and getting the book ready for the gamma readers and recording.
• We lost only 12 backers due to failed credit cards. If you were one of them and want "back in" send us a message and we'll get you hooked up.
• Our current funding is up to $124,500!  $119,337 (backed) - $536 - failed pledges + $4,629 in additional monies through BackerKit. Way to go all.

And in closing, and on a more personal note, So far I've received more $1,700 in tips.  Thank you all for your extreme generosity. We have two Night in Avrlyn guests on Saturday, but on Monday I'm going to go to the beech for a few days to relax, eat oysters, have a few nice meals (that I don't have to prepare), and maybe a few rum drinks. I might even take a no-account author along to chauffeur me about. I'll be sure to take some pictures!

BackerKit Survey Instructions
over 4 years ago – Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 02:39:20 AM

Hey, all, Robin here. I've finished setting up BackerKit, so I want  to fill you in on the next steps.  First some updates.

• The book has been sent to our beta testers for an "unofficial beta" - the reason its unofficial is because the time ran out and we had to get the book to the copyeditors. The good news is the beta people are reporting that they are enjoying the book, and the few minor tweaks are easy to implement.
• The copyeditors are hard at work, and they will be getting changes back to us in a few weeks. Once that comes in and I go through the accept/reject on their changes, you'll be getting your ebook.  There will be one more set of polishing (gamma reader feedback), but at that stage, anything that will be found is extremely minor (a comma here or there, or a last minute typo).  If you find any other little "nits" - please report them, so they can be addressed for the retail release (and of course Kickstarter backers will always get the latest version).
• At the end of the Kickstarter there were 93 failed pledges totaling $3,621.50.  We are now just down to 16 for a total of $701.00 - that's a great recovery rate!  If you are one of the few people still having problems, you can send your  money via Paypal (use address [email protected]), and I can manually insert you into BackerKit. Just make sure when you send it that you mention it is for the Kickstarter.
• The BackerKit setup has been submitted for final approval - and this can take up to 2 business days. As soon as it's approved you'll get your survey invitations

Okay, with that housekeeping out of the way, let's discuss how BackerKit works so you know what to expect.  The first thing you should know is that BackerKit is a "self-service" portal which will allow you to do all kinds of things regarding your pledge.  Things such as:

• Change your pledge level - so, if for instance, you started with DIGITAL DELIGHT but later decided you wanted the hardcover, you can "upgrade" to HARDCORE and pay the difference from BackerKit
• Distribute your "extra" pledge funds to add-ons such as Tips for Robin, the Tote, bookmarks, or extra books.
• If you are an overseas customer and you wanted 2, 3, or 4 books, you can now add those to your pledge and we'll be able to accurately calculate  the  shipping discounts for you.
• Answer your survey to tell us things like what name you want in the Acknowledgements and what questions you want answered during our Q&A session.
• If you have physical rewards, you can specify your mailing address, AND if that changes between now and when we ship product, you can update it yourself.
• Receive your digital rewards: BackerKit has a much improved delivery system for electronic files than Kickstarter. I'll discuss that more when we have files to share with you.
• As we start shipping product, your tracking numbers will be in your Kickstarter self service portal. Again, this is a huge improvement over Kickstarter which doesn't have any system for communicating such information.

One more thing to note, using BackerKit means that people who missed the Kickstarter can still get in on the fun. So if you know someone who wanted to be in the Kickstarter but it ended before they could pledge, just have them send an email to [email protected] and we'll get them in.

Okay, so you'll receive an email with a link in it to your BackerKit self-service portal and when you click on it you'll get something that looks like this:

This will show you what your pledge was, what reward level you picked and what email address we have on record. If you need your email address changed, just let us know and we can update it for you.  A few other things to note about this screen.

• If you wanted to upgrade to a higher pledge level you can hit the "switch your pledge level "  and choose something else. Any additional funds can be paid for with a credit card from within BackerKit.
• You need to specify your country so that any shipping fees will be properly calculated.

Once you click Get Started you'll be asked two survey questions.  

•  Name you want in the acknowledgements - this can be your name (either first, last, or full), a group of names ("The Sullivan Family" or "Susan & Frank Johnson"). It can even be the name of a friend or loved ones.  You can also include a nickname such as Susan "the rogue" Johnson.  If you DO NOT want your name in the acknowledgements enter N/A and we'll exclude you.
•  Questions for Q&A - Michael and I will be doing a recorded Q&A session and this is where you can ask questions about writing, publishing, Kickstarters, or really anything you are interested in.  Once we have the questions , we'll do the recording and that will be one of your rewards. If you don't have any questions, just input N/A.  If you have multiple questions - type in as many as you like

Here is what the filled out screen looks like:  

NOTE: If you have the 2-book, 3-book, or 4-book reward levels (DOUBLE TROUBLE, THREE BOOK NIGHT, FOUR TO GO) there will also be questions that allow you to "pick" which additional books you want to receive. 

Once you click the "Next: Add-ons" button you'll be presented with a screen that allows you to distribute your extra pledge amounts, or increase your pledge to get things you didn't initially specify at the time of the Kickstarter.

In my sample above you'll see I have $8 of credit and I'm going to use it to (a) Give myself a tip and (b) order extra bookmarks.  Once I've added these items to my cart, you'll see that I have used up all my "extra pledge" and I now have a zero balance. 

You'll also see all the "bonus stuff" you'll be receiving based on your pledge level (such as the short stories, screensavers, and so forth).

Now, if I also wanted the tote, I could also put it in my cart. 

As you can see my balance is no longer zero, but that's okay - It'll just mean I need to input my credit card information at the end. NOTE: Your credit card will not be immediately charged, that will occur when I "lockdown" the pledges so I have final counts for ordering things such as the totes. 

When adding bookmarks or totes, please specify whether you are in the US or not.  If you are adding a tote and you aren't in the US, your cart may be higher than it needs to be, but once we know (a) what country we are shipping to and (b) whether you have books such that the shipping of the books and tote can be combined. I'll calculate the exact postage and apply a credit before the credit card is charged.   

If you have any physical items (books, bookmarks, tote) then BackerKit will ask you to fill out your address. Please note: If you are outside the US please add your phone number as overseas shipping requires this, and if we don't have it, we'll have to either (a) track that down or (b) use our phone number which really doesn't help if customs needs to call you.

Next up is a confirmation page where you can check everything over - your address, the add-ons you've selected and also the list of things you'll be receiving for your pledge. If you added stuff such that money is due, there will be a place on the right hand side for inputting your credit card information. NOTE: Your credit card WILL NOT be charged at this time. That will happen when your record is "locked down."

The last thing that will come up is a screen that easily allows you to share the project with others through twitter, facebook, or email

Please do use this link to help spread the word. As I mentioned earlier, people who missed the Kickstarter can still participate after the fact, so by sharing this information, it may push our funding for this project even higher.

And that's pretty much it. It would be a HUGE help of you could do your surveys as soon as possible. Why?  Because it helps me determine ordering information such as how many copies of Age of Myth and Age of War I need, as well as the number of totes required. There are still 27 people from the last Kickstarter that haven't done their surveys (some of which are due books and we are still waiting for mailing addresses to send them). I spend quite a bit of time "tracking down" people who haven't done their surveys because I want to make sure everyone gets everything they paid for. So, your help in doing your surveys would be greatly appreciated.

I'm sure there will be a lot of questions that come up as people start filling out the surveys. As I said, the project has been submitted for approval and they should start coming out in a day or two.

Thanks again for the amazing support - Michael and I really appreciate it...now I'm going to start the layout of the book and working on the creation of the ebook.

By the numbers and next steps
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 10:45:11 PM

Again, thanks for the amazing support. Here's how we did.

Now, some it's likely that a good number of the "Errored credit cards will eventually be collected" and Kickstarter usually notifies and retries credit cards for a period of a few weeks to try to get as many pledges through as possible. I have had some instances where people (especially overseas people)  just couldn't get their credit cards and Kickstarter to play nice. If you fall into that, you can send your pledge money via Paypal to [email protected] (if you use the "friends and family) send we won't be changed the Paypal processing fee.

As for how many books we sold. Here's some data on that and it's broken down by region.

Until I get the surveys in I won't know "how many" of the extra books are Age of Myth, Age of Swords, Age of War, Age of Legend, and Age of Death, but once we get that data I'll certainly let you know.

Bottom line we sold 2,628 hardcovers and 3,125 ebooks for a total early-early preorder of 5,7253 copies. Which is a nice launch to the book.

Usually, after a Kickstarter a survey is sent out.  In our case, this is some of the information we will need from you.

• What name do you want to see in the acknowledgements - it can be you, a loved one, an entire family, or you can opt out if you don't want to be credited with helping to make the book a reality.
• Michael and Robin will be doing a number of Q&A sessions, so there will be a question on the survey where you can ask questions. If you have more than one, just type them all in the same field.
• If you picked the 2-book, 3-book, or 4-book levels there will be questions so you can tell us which books you want for those.
• If you are receiving a physical book, there will be fields to fill out for your address. Now, if you think you are going to be moving, no worries. The addresses won't be "locked down" until we have books in hand for shipping. You'll be able to go in and change your address at any time up until 2 - 3 days before we turn the fulfillment house lose.
• If you pledged extra money, you will be able to "allocate" those funds to add-ons such as tips for Robin, your totebag, or extra books. Again, this will be handled through your BackerKit self-service portal.
• If you didn't pledge extra money, but you want to get the tote or tip Robin, you can do that from BackerKit. You will add the items to a cart and then enter credit card information in BackerKit.

We have some data imported into BackerKit (pledge levels and rewards) but the backers aren't there yet, so we can't do anything with the surveys quite yet.

If you know someone who missed the Kickstarter, and they are bumming...tell them all is not lost, they will be able to join "after the fact" by using the BackerKit pre-order store. Again, once it launches we'll let you know more about that.

Oh, and if you are a Goodreads member, please consider adding Age of Death to your  "Want to read" shelves. That way others will see that the book is coming out and they might add it to their shelves as well. Here is a link to the page.

In other news, the book is with the copyeditors and I expect to have it back from them Oct 4  and Oct 9. In the meantime I'll start working on the book layout, the screensavers, and the bookmarks.

We'll talk soon!

And Done! Thank you for your amazing support
over 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 11, 2019 at 12:04:33 AM

Robin and I would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support of the Legends of the First Empire series.

This has been our best Kickstarter to date.  Some highlights:

• 2nd most-backed fiction Kickstarter of all time
• 4th most-funded fiction Kickstarter of all time
• Named a "Projects we Love" by the Kickstarter Staff
• 3,120 backers (567 more than my previous best project)
• $119,337  in funding ($8,471 more than my previous best project)

Tomorrow I'll be make a post which will detail how many books we've sold and to fill people in on "next steps."  But in a nutshell...

• Data will be exported from Kickstarter an into BackerKit
• A survey will be created which will ask you things such as what name do you want in the acknowledgments, any questions you want answered for the Q&A videos, address (for shipping) and what titles do you want for additional books for the DOUBLE TROUBLE, THREE BOOK NIGHT, and FOUR TO GO, levels.
• Please fill out your surveys as soon as possible -- especially if you have "other books" as we have to get counts and order copies of Age of Myth and Age of War from Del Rey.
• You'll get access to the BackerKit self-service portal where you can distribute extra money for add-ons like your tote, tips for Robin, or ebooks for Age of Legend. If you find things in the "pre-order" store that you want to add to your pledge - you can do so there and just pay the difference from within Backer Kit.
• It'll take a few weeks for money transfer from Kickstarter to us, but we will probably start posting digital rewards even before those monies are completely transferred.

Again, great job all. You are the absolute best and I'm honored to be with you on this journey.

Next (and probably last) stretch goal posted!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Sep 06, 2019 at 11:28:01 PM

Well, it took longer than I  expected, mainly because of a slow couple of days due to  the holiday and the natural dropping out of people as the project nears its conclusion, but we did become one of only 6 projects to hit the $100,000 mark. Great job all! Robin and I thank you for your continued support.

We posted the next stretch goal and it's at  $110,886. Why such a strange number? Well that's what it will take to pass our highest-funded project (Age of Legend).  If we reach this Robin and I will create a 30 - 60 minute "behind the scenes" video which will give you insights to the creative process.

To help make the goal, we've also provided an add-on to give people an opportunity to receive one of our most popular items from past Kickstarters: a Montemorcey Tote:

For those that don't know, Montemorcey is the finest wine to be found in Elan, and this high-quality canvas bag is a rare item that you can show off to your friends who are wild about Riyria and Legends of the First Empire. Because shipping overseas is expensive, we are limiting this to US only and you can receive your tote by adding $25 to your pledge.  If you are outside the US, and don't mind paying extensive shipping fees (around $23 depending on the  country), let us know and we'll calculate exact postage for your area.  

To add this to your order here are the steps:

• At the top of this page, click on "Manage your pledge"
• Choose "Change your pledge"
• Increase the amount of your pledge by $25 but DO NOT change your reward level.
• After the Kickstarter is over, you can "apply" that $25 credit by adding the tote to your order.

Oh, and by the way, the same process can be used to add a tip for Robin (something people missed during the last Kickstarter so we are re-instating it.

If you have any questions, let me know!