Welcome to Booktopia 2024! 📚 a literary extravaganza of creativity and collaboration from a diverse group of writers and artists collectively running book crowdfunding projects from September 5th toSeptember 26th.
The more Booktopia projects you back, the more limited FREEBIES you will earn ✨
⚔️ 2 FREE Cross Collaborative Freebies for every Cross Collab Project Pair you support!
📚 1 FREE Limited Edition Booktopia 2024 reward if you back FIVE [5] or more projects at a reward tier*
*Only pledges to physical reward tiers or main digital offerings qualify towards earning these FREEBIES. Please refer to individual campaigns for unlock requirements.
Join the fun - Back Booktopia 2024 📚 projects to qualify for
free rewards!
We're so excited to share this video of Veronica Giguere, our audiobook narrator, recording the complete story "Moving Targets" from the upcoming Grandmaster Audiobook.
"Moving Targets" is one of our favorite Valdemar short stories, one that Misty and Larry love performing at conventions, especially for the moment when listeners get the joke. And yes, the painting that we've commissioned for this story, from artist Dasha Park, is everything that fans of Valdemar and that *other* world could hope for. (You'll get it when you watch Veronica's stellar performance!)
VALDEMAR SINGLE UPDATE
We'reless than $9000 away from unlocking a new Valdemar single from S.J. Tucker. If those of you who are waiting keep pledging, we'll hit that target easily.
In fact, we're so certain that we're going to reach this goal that Sooj and Ben have already started work on the single, a new version of Threes. If you all can keep the pledging to a dull roar—rather than overwhelming us with a hundred new pledges in the next couple hours—we might even have a new recording ready by the time we reach $275,000.
It's Saturday and we've unlocked a stretch goal so secret that we didn't even know about it!
Care Halverson, who designed our book cover, just casually dropped this painting in our Discord conversation, like it was no big deal.
So we asked, Care said yes, and we're adding it to Grandmaster: both books get an extra art plate!
The goodies don't end there. As a thank you to all of our backers, we're also dropping some additional digital goodies from Care in the Backer-only section below, including a couple of coloring pages and some wallpapers for your phones!
Send your finished coloring pages to [email protected] and we'll include our favorites in an upcoming project update.
A VALDEMAR SHORT STORY SURPRISE
It turns out we're not the only Booktopia campaign with Valdemar stories!
We were excited to connect recently with Anthea Sharp, the bestselling author of the Elfhame series, and a frequent contributor to Misty's Valdemar anthologies. Anthea is currently crowdfunding a fairy tale collection called Mermaid Song, with a companion volume called Faerie Hearts. And Faerie Hearts contains (with full rights and permission, of course) one of Anthea's Valdemar stories: "The Gift of Love!"
As soon as this update is done we're heading over to pledge for Anthea's books, because how cool is that?
TRIVIA CORRECTIONS
Question Nine created a LOT of discussion. While more than 80% of backers selected the correct answer, a small number of close and careful readers made a very good case for other options.
We will [edit] not count this question towards the final trivia point tally.
It's so much fun seeing the love that you all have for every aspect of this world. The collective knowledge about Valdemar that this fandom shares is staggering and magnificent.
THE MID-CAMPAIGN SLUMP
A few backers have commented with concern about the pace of pledges slowing down and whether we'll reach our stretch goals.
The good news is that the mid-campaign is almost always slow. All of the excitement and momentum happens at the beginning and at the end. That makes this a great time to share more detail, build community, and enjoy the journey before we have to buckle up for the final whirlwind of a week.
BUT... this is also a great time to join the campaign if you're one of the thousands of followers who's waiting for the right moment! After all, now we have COLORING PAGES.
We ran the numbers again, thanks to how many Deluxe Grandmasters you all have pledged for, and then we chatted with our manufacturer. Based on these numbers, we may be able to fulfill a backer request to provide the optional choice of a vegan leather alternative in our backer surveys.
Please let us know in the attached poll if, given a choice between the two options, you would choose leather or vegan leather when filling out the post-campaign pledge manager.
We are not taking leather covers away. Based on the ratio in the poll results, we will get a quote from our manufacturer to see if we can produce a variant vegan leather cover in addition to the existing leather cover. If we're able to fit this into our budget, the choice will be offered in the post-campaign backer survey. No additional action will be required now.
As we've shared elsewhere, our approach to manufacturing on this project has been intentional and environmentally conscious. We're using wood-free pulp from natural fibers for the pages, to help reduce deforestation. We're consolidating manufacturing to a single vendor to reduce our freight footprint. And we chose the highest quality full grain leather because it's biodegradable, rather than the forever plastics that vegan leather is made from, which can release more harmful chemicals into the environment both during manufacturing and when the material begins to break down. However, we also understand that, for some backers, the moral calculus around use of leather is non-negotiable, and we respect that. (Bonded leather, the cheapest "deluxe" option, mixes plastics with leather scraps, which is why we didn't consider it.) Ultimately, neither cover option is going to be 100% environmentally friendly, despite our efforts to mitigate our impact as much as possible.
Commenting and voting are open to followers as well as backers, so that everyone's voice can be heard.
We'll let you know the results and our decisions in a future update. If it doesn't raise the per-unit costs of the book too much—vegan leather is cheaper, but the volume-based discounts that make Grandmaster possible to manufacture would also go down—then we hope to have good news for people who don't want a leather-bound book on their shelves.
NOTE:Please be kind to each other in the comments. This can be an emotional issue, with valid arguments for and against either option. Our goal, if possible, is to provide MORE options. We expect that everyone will tolerate that other people's perspectives may differ regarding which choice is most ethical. The final decision is ours and we appreciate that this community isn't one that makes ultimatums or demands.
I have to say, your support of this campaign has been amazing! Thanks again for helping make it all happen. I'm having fun unlocking all the extra goodies. :) Here's the newest!
Foiled quote card (design by Mulan Jiang) - physical to print backers, digital art to eBook supporters
What's next?
Another bonus or two in this final week, I hope! Can we get to five figures by the end of Booktopia? The challenge is on! Stay tuned~
As ever, I so appreciate your backing this campaign bringing these beautiful books to life.
When a robot built for construction work first sees an angular, sleek prototype military robot slink onto the base he’s working outside of, he immediately falls in love. Read about the love between two robots in The Warm Machine!
Fairy godmothers aren’t supposed to fall in love. This romantasy is perfect for fans of Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas. This gorgeous limited-edition hardback with beautiful edges and interior art is not to be missed.
We are so excited to introduce you to another collective art compilation! The Animal world is filled with fun collective group nouns paired with inspirational words, giving you another work of art through the hearts of many.
