Reward surveys have gone out, and more than half of them have already been filled in! You're all marvelous.

Good news: For the 15 backers who scored Early Bird sketches, you can see the sketch listed in your cart. It's a free bonus item I manually added to your orders.

Bad news: apparently nobody got the survey question that asks what you want for those custom sketches.

Whoops.

No idea if there's an easy behind-the-scenes way to change that. (As the project creator, there are still ways I can mess with your survey settings!...but it's very possible those will just screw up something new.)

I've already reached out to BackerKit support, so I'll have more useful info when they get back in the office on Monday. In the meantime, this is your preliminary "I'm aware of the problem, and I'm looking into it" post.

- Erin Ptah

Project funds are in, none of your payments bounced, and I have finished adjusting all the fiddly little settings on your Volume 7 backer surveys!

Now I've requested the BackerKit survey review, where a Professional Expert in the fiddly little settings will double-check my work.

If all goes well, surveys should hit your inboxes some time this week. (Knock wood, fingers crossed, etc.)

In the meantime, the Volume 7 BackerKit pop-up bookstore is live! Non-backers can still make last-minute orders through the store. They don't get the exclusive backer rewards, like the mini-print or the wallpapers, but it's the fastest and easiest way to preorder the book.

If you missed the campaign, check out the store. If not, tell your friends.

- Erin Ptah

In order...

Collecting the funds: Happens over the next 2 weeks (until November 22).

Keep an eye on your email for a notification about your pledge. If it went through, awesome! If the payment bounced, BackerKit will send you instructions on how to fix it.

Backer surveys: Will go out shortly after November 22.

That's where you fill in your shipping address (if you got a book), pick your add-on options (if you got add-ons with options), and have a chance to get your hands on the original Volume 7 cover art.

Early Bird sketch rewards: If you scored one of these, you'll get the "what am I drawing for you?" question as part of your backer survey.

That's how I did it with the Volume 6 campaign, and it worked out beautifully.

Your exclusive mini-print: The poll results are in, and Storm Mage is the exclusive mini-print for Volume 7 backers!

It was the clear leader for most of the poll's run time...but Day On The Town almost overtook it at the last minute. I might order a run of that too, and just add it to the list of "mini-prints available for any Leif & Thorn fan to buy."

The "More Book" stretch goal: For the first time, we did not make it. Got 96% of the way there! It wasn't an impossible goal! But we just slightly missed.

And, look, in some ways it's not surprising. I wasn't in a big shopping mood after Tuesday either.

...That said, the backer surveys will give you one last chance to grab post-campaign add-ons. So I'm thinking of announcing "if we raise the last $152 during the survey period, I'll make the book longer anyway." Stay tuned. 

- Erin

...In retrospect, whoo boy do I regret setting the Leif & Thorn Volume 7 campaign deadline on the Friday after a major election.

On the other hand: seems likely that "getting kicked into a different reality with all the same people but completely different worldbuilding and politics" is going to be extra-appealing to a lot of people right now.

If you're just coming to the campaign now: grab a book. Take a chance on the whole backlist, even.

If you're already a backer: thank you so much for joining us. Spread the word by sharing one last campaign post on Tumblr, Mastodon, Bluesky, and/or Facebook.

Or, hey, tell a friend IRL. That's good too.

And I'll do my best to keep creating stories that make the IRL horrors a little easier to slog through.

- Erin Ptah