The Veneziad - Special Edition Hardcover

First Batch of Surveys Going Out!
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 05:25:28 AM

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for your patience as we sorted out those technical difficulties at the end of last week!

We're just about ready to start sending out surveys, but the last piece of that process is what's called a smoke test. To do this, we send out surveys to about 5% of backers to make sure everything in Backerkit is working as it should and that we haven't broken anything. We'll be conducting this test over the next 24-48 hours. If everything goes well, you can expect the rest of the surveys to go out by Wednesday at the latest!

While we do that, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Spam Folder: Survey emails can occasionally find their way to your spam folder. Once we announce that all surveys have gone out, if you don't see anything come through from Backerkit check your spam folder first.
• Apple ID Email Addresses: If the email address tied to your Kickstarter account is a secure Apple ID address, the survey email may be blocked entirely. The email addresses look something like this:  "[email protected]". Again, once all surveys go out, if you're not seeing the email from Backerkit, check to see if your email looks like one of these. You can try contacting Kickstarter support to change that, though we've seen backers have mixed results.
• If either of the above situations is the case, or you can't find your email invite at all, either message us here on Kickstarter or send an email to [email protected] to let us know and we'll get that straightened out for you.

Small Delay in Getting Surveys Sent Out
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 10:56:39 AM

Hi Everyone!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us since the campaign wrapped up, and normally we'd be writing an update to let y'all know that we're just about ready to send surveys out. Unfortunately, there's been a bit of a hold-up with our post-campaign support tool, Backerkit. We have to pay them to use their service (surveys, late pledges, etc.) and their payment processing tool is... uh... still processing. 

We've been in touch with them about getting that taken care of but it may take us a few days longer than usual to get surveys sent out. So to keep y'all in the loop, here's what needs to happen on our end for things to continue as normal:

• Backerkit Fixes the Payment Processing Issue
• With that resolved, we'll be able to get the post-campaign support that we've configured reviewed and approved by Backerkit. This typically takes up to 48 hours.
• Once we get the green light from Backerkit, we perform what's called a smoke test. Once we kick this off, a random 5% of you will get your surveys early, and the responses we get from those surveys will allow us to make sure everything is working as it should be.
• About 48 hours after we perform the smoke test, if everything looks good, we'll be able to send out surveys.

Because of this issue, we may be able to get a few of these steps expedited, but we won't know until we get there. Our hope is that we'll be able to send the smoke test out by Wednesday of next week, if not sooner!

Sorry for the inconvenience everyone! Once the folks at Backerkit help us get back on track we'll be able to get this rolling!

That's a Wrap!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 03:08:05 PM

Hey Everyone!

It's been an absolutely wild ride this month, and we could not be more floored at the final results of the campaign! Over $508,000 and over 5,900 backers! Not only is it the most funded and backed campaign ever for Wraithmarked, but it's also the most funded and backed campaign in our lovely city of Rochester, NY! 

There are not enough words to express just how grateful we are to each and every one of you. Thank you, a thousand times!

NEXT STEPS

Now for a little housekeeping. With the campaign done, here is what you can expect in the coming weeks and months.

• First, Kickstarter will process all of your payments. That will take approximately 15 days.
• Once the payments have been processed, we will send out surveys to the email addresses you have attached to your Kickstarter account.
• Answer your survey questions and grab any extra Add-Ons you want. Charges for additional items will be processed automatically as you complete your survey.
• It's going to take some time to get all the products made, and then coordinated to fulfill! But you can expect to see an update from us at least twice a month. Sometimes these updates may be about progress with the books, they may be about the other goodies y'all have gotten like the bookmarks, pins, stickers, etc. or they may just be us checking in to let y'all know we're all still hard at work. Regardless, stay tuned here for all the latest!
• As the products get made, expect periodic reminders from us to complete your surveys and/or update your shipping addresses.
• This is further down the road, but in the weeks leading up to fulfillment, we’ll post another address update reminder before finally sending an email giving everyone 48 hours to update their addresses if needed. Once that window closes, you will not be able to update your address yourself and will need to contact us directly to make those changes. See our FAQs for more information.
• With addresses locked, we will start packing and shipping. This final step will take some time. We appreciate your patience. ❤️

Please be aware that the times mentioned above are estimates. We try to stick to them as much as possible but sometimes it takes an extra day or two to move on to the next phase of the process. Especially with big campaigns like this. 

If you ever have questions, please feel free to send us a message here or contact us via email at [email protected] and our support team (8am-4pm EST, Mon-Fri) will be happy to help!

Deluxe Bookmarks are now available as Add-Ons! Grab an extra or two and help us strive for 500k!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 09:33:31 AM

Hey everyone!

Closing in on the final stretch and we realized that, while all of you are getting one copy of The Veneziad's Deluxe Bookmark with the book, we never set it up as an Add-On in case some of y'all wanted to grab more. 😅 (For more info on how to Edit your pledge to get one about that scroll to the bottom of this update)

We have it added in now, and here's a super quick mockup of one side of the bookmark! We're going to be sending this off to Irina Shirokova to have a custom design made for both sides of the bookmark, which will be shared at a later date.

As we've mentioned in previous updates, we don't skimp on our bookmarks, which typically come with foil accents and painted edges. Some more examples of past bookmarks can be seen below:

If you're satisfied with your one free bookmark with every tier, absolutely no problem, but IF you wanted more and/or want to help us close this final gap to 500k in the next few hours, this is the perfect opportunity!

Regardless, thank you everyone for your incredible support! This project has been WILD to be a part of!

-the Wraithmarked team

How do I edit my pledge?

Great question! It largely depends on whether you're accessing Kickstarter from a computer or through the app. Kickstarter has instructions for each, and you can find them at the links below. Once you're editing your pledge, you can add more copies of the bookmark (or anything else) in the Add-Ons section of your pledge. 

• From a computer: https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005126814-How-can-I-change-my-pledge-amount-or-reward-selection
• From the App: https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053930194-How-can-I-change-my-pledge-amount-or-reward-selection-through-the-app

We did it! Colored interior pages! Also, less than 72hrs to check out another awesome Kickstarter!
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 07:42:55 AM

Wow, everyone!

We wrapped up work on Friday just under the $300k mark, and by Friday night y'all had helped us cross that threshold. More than that, though, none of you seemed content with that. Over the weekend you helped push us all the way to our final stretch goal of $350k!

$50k in 48-hours in the middle of a campaign is absolutely wild, so thank you so much for all the love and support!

As some of you have already commented, getting to $350k allows us to print this book in full color! This will be a Wraithmarked first and we cannot be more excited about it!

Also, we wanted to share The Black Rose Auction Deluxe Boxset by Bonkers Romance

If you're looking for more cool books to fill your shelves, you have less than 72hrs left to check out THE BLACK ROSE AUCTION by Bonkers Romance!

Slip into the worlds of these six romance books, each a steamy twist on a fairytale classic.

 Together, these fairytale remixes are THE BLACK ROSE AUCTION — where Little Red Riding Hood is a mob princess, Cinderella is in love with her stepsister, and Beauty gives in to the beast. 

Each dark, fearless story will be available early as an ebook, paperback, and hardcover — and Kickstarter supporters get them early. Prepare to be seduced…

Not to worry! Wraithmarked and Bonker are both well aware that just cause you're a history and historical fiction buff does not necessarily mean you're a romantasy reader, and vice versa! 

However, it's super rare to have two publishing campaigns running on Kickstarter at the same time with ~4000 backers each, and given how beautiful both THE VENEZIAD and THE BLACK ROSE AUCTION editions are, we thought there might be a feeeew among you who would be interested in checking each project out!

Worst case scenario, we just show you guys more of the cool stuff indie publishers are busy putting out!

THE BLACK ROSE AUCTION has also kept itself super accessible, with the eBook bundle coming in at less than $5 a book, the paperback boxset at less than $15 a book, and the hardcover set at less than $25 a book, and that's despite all the cool glossing, design, and page edges! (While supplies last)

So if you're a fan of romantasy, or just looking for another incredible set of books to grace your shelves in the coming months, check out THE BLACK ROSE AUCTION!