Pins Unlocked!
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Oct 19, 2023 at 08:09:46 AM
Greetings Backers,
We’ve unlocked the pin set! I’ve now created an add-on item for the pins which you can include in your order if you wish. Howard has made preliminary designs for two of the pins. He’s still percolating ideas for 2 or 3 more. The set will include all of the pins created for this project. The pin set is included in both the NCO and HESH reward tiers.
At this point both NCO and HESH are very good deals.
The NCO tier is getting $85 of merchandise for $75
The HESH tier gets $165 of merchandise (including the exclusive HESH coin) + your name printed in the book for $150
No matter what pledge level meets your needs and budget, thank you so much for being one of our backers. Every bit of support helps.
Howard and Sandra Tayler
Kickstarter Funding Ends Friday
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 08:23:04 AM
Greetings Backers,
Just three days remain in the Kickstarter for Mandatory Failure: Schlock Mercenary Book 18.The project closes this Friday, October 20th, at 5pm Eastern time. Today is a good day to review your pledge. We want you to be sure that you’ve selected the support tier and add-ons that fit your budget and bring joy to your heart..
Once the project closes we will send out surveys, and you will have the opportunity to add items from our store, like other books, coins, and pins. Additional shipping charges may apply to these, and apparel items may not be available
We still have some outstanding stretch goals (using both definitions of the word “outstanding.”) The Chinook pins are still about $9,000 away, which may seem like a lot, but it’s definitely within reach. If you’re planning to gift books to a friend, family member, or local library, this would be a fine time to add those to your pledge.
You can also help us spread the word. Every time we run one of these Kickstarters we hear from fans who missed it. We have mailing lists and we do social media blasts, but people still fall through the cracks. If we knew where the cracks were, this wouldn’t happen, which is why every additional post from backers is so helpful. If you want to help, please post links to this Kickstarter in places where Schlock fans can find them!
Or perhaps you can introduce Schlock Mercenary to new readers. The twenty-book run is deep, but Book 18 is a great place to start. It's a self-contained story, and kicks off the final run up to the big finish in Book 20. Think of books 18, 19, and 20 as a trilogy, because that’s how Howard thought of them when he was writing them.
Thank you so much for backing this project. Your support makes these books possible, and affords us the joyous opportunities to make even more stuff for you in the future.
—Howard and Sandra Tayler
Progress Report: Pins, Patch, and Bonus Story
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Oct 10, 2023 at 09:29:35 AM
Greetings Backers!
It is time for us to give you some progress updates on things we’re making for this project.
TL;DR: updates on mission patch, bonus story, print, pins, warehouse, and 70MoMEM, with pictures.
Mission Patch
This is the final design for the mission patch
We’re really pleased at how it turned out and look forward to seeing it in person. We’ll place an order for these as soon as we have money in hand and a count for how many were ordered. Make sure you put one of these in your order if you want one.
Bonus Story
Howard and Ethan have both been hard at work on the bonus story. Howard is crafting the words and Ethan has been making amazing pictures. I’ve managed to get this single-panel sneak peek for you:
Pins and Print
Howard had a brilliant idea for the limited edition print with Chinook facing off against herself. Here is the sketch he made so that I could see the picture in his head:
These scribbles then began to be rendered digitally.
Lots of work remains to take this digital sketch and turn it into an awesome print, but Howard pulled these images and began using them as the basis for the two Chinook pin designs. It is really cool to see how the design needs to change, lines thicken, head and hands become bigger so that the result is viable to be cast in metal and enamel.
None of these designs are done yet, but Howard is actively working on them. I'm excited to see the end result, and I hope we get to make these pins. (The limited print is guaranteed and now available as an add-on item)
Warehouse Prep
Sandra and shipping manager Aidan have spent some time over at the warehouse staring at the wall where the pallet rack shelving will go. The wall is currently buried behind piles of boxed books, so we’ll have some heavy lifting to do. But now we have a plan.
This is the current state of the location where we need to install shelving.
The right hand wall is the one where we'll install the pallet rack. In order to install it, we need to have the wall completely unobstructed. I've drawn some helpful arrows so you can see all of the stuff we'll need to shift.
Everything between the red line and the back wall with the roll up door will need to move out of the way. We have to clear at least twenty feet of wall, so we can install 18 feet of shelving. There is room to move the stuff over, but it is going to make a mess and working in the warehouse mid-process is going to be an exercise (ha!) in climbing over and around stacks to get what we need. Step one is to move boxes. Each box is 30-40lbs (13-18kg). We have literal tons of stuff to shift. I'm going to have to hire additional help since two of my regular crew do not have endurance for heavy lifting.
Seventy Maxims Reprint
One of the things I always talk about when people ask about running crowdfunding is the necessity for very careful math about stretch goals. We knew we hoped to do a reprint of the Seventy Maxims (Defaced) book as part of this project, but the last time we printed that book it was 2017 and we were working with a printer in China. I had to get bids from US based printers to see if the project was feasible. The first bid I got was incredibly discouraging. It came in at a price where we’d have to charge $25 per book, almost doubling the cover price. Fortunately a different bid from an actual bindery was one where we can print 3000 copies and keep the cover price at $15. But we really do have to hit that stretchiest stretch goal in order to be able to fund this reprint on top of everything else.
Fingers crossed, because I really want that Maxims Poster and more maxims books to go on the shiny new shelving in my warehouse.
That's our update for now. A lot of our effort over the next two weeks will be thrown into promotional work. We have to focus on that first before we can settle into getting stuff made.
Thank you all for being here and backing our project!
—Howard & Sandra Tayler
If you’re looking for a moderated online community to talk about movies, games, books, Schlock Mercenary, or share fun pet pictures, you’re welcome to join our Discord server. Hypernode Connect Invite Code: https://discord.gg/bjs6sVbu3p
Pins and Maxims and the Hypernode Corps of Volunteers
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Oct 03, 2023 at 10:44:41 AM
Greetings Backers!
We’re almost to the halfway point in the 31-day run of this project, and we’ve rocketed past the 200% point. You’re amazing, and generous, and we can’t thank you enough for your support. We’ve cleared our “Materiel Upgrades” goal, allowing us to upgrade the warehouse and our convention gear, and we now have add-ons for coins, a patch, and a limited edition print.
Take a deep breath, maybe get up and move a bit, because there’s more to do. We’ve got just over two weeks left, and there’s stuff we still want to make for you. Let’s set some more stretch goals…
$150,000 - Pins: We'll create four enamel pins, similar to the pins we've made in the past, featuring four characters from the book. The pins will be available as add-ons, and the NCO & HESH-tier backers will get the full set of four at no extra charge.
Chinook will be on two of these pins; once as the Goddess of Sea, Soil, and Sky (formerly Earth, Wind, and Plumbing), and once as “angry Chinook,” burning with the fury of a thousand long guns. When we get closer to the goal we’ll show off some designs, and announce the other two pins.
$175,000 — reprintSeventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries (Defaced): We only have about 50 copies left right now, and because it’s a hardback with spot-gloss it’s too expensive to reprint it in small batches. So this stretch goal (which is very stretchy indeed) will include that book as an add-on item for this Kickstarter, and will let us do an offset print run of 3,000 or more.
We'll also produce a large-format poster of all 70 Maxims that will be available as an add-on.
2000 Backers — A Seventy Maxims Wallpaper: This may be the stretchiest of the stretch goals, because it represents a 33% increase in the number of backers. Where on Earth will we find another five hundred Schlock Mercenary fans? And how on Wind and Plumbing will Howard fit all seventy maxims onto a single desktop wallpaper? If y’all can answer the first question, Howard will answer the second one…
The best way to reach these three goals is to stretch for that third one by bringing in more backers. We can help you do that!
Over on the Hypernode Connect Discord server we have a channel for the Hypernode Media Corps of Volunteers. It’s what the kids these days would call a “street team.” Sandra and Howard can provide you with some tools to get the word out. We make a lot of noise on our own, but our shouting isn’t half so convincing as you are when you tell your friends how cool this thing is.
Hypernode Connect is free to join via the link below, and there are no strings attached. You don’t have to join the H-Corps. We launched this server a year or so ago as a way to provide our followers, fans, and friends with a safe community. You know, something NOT being run by the brainworms of one or more billionaires. Hypernode Connect has almost a thousand members, and we’ve paid to get it fully boosted for all the bells and whistles. If you’re looking for a robust social media hangout, a place to connect with like-minded folks, it might be just the thing you need.
We’d love to see you there, so we can thank you more personally for all that you’ve done to support us.
Two-Hundred Percent!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 10:48:53 AM
Greetings Backers,
We are one-third of the way through this project's funding period and have reached much further than we expected by this point. We're 200% funded, with lots of stretch goals unlocked, and it's all thanks to you.
Since our last update we’ve unlocked the HESH Coin (exclusively available to HESH backers) and the add-on coin for Clan Gugro.
There are now SIX add-ons available for this project:
Additional print copy of MANDATORY FAILURE (In case you want an extra copy for yourself, a friend, or your local library)
Additional Sketch Edition of MANDATORY FAILURE (if you want to gift something extra special)
Sketch cards (3”x4” full-color art cards suitable for collecting, for hanging, or for gifts)
Soulward Honor Ship Coin
Clan Gugro Coin
Mission Patch
Howard gave our patch designer some artwork early this week, which you can see on the project page, and he and the designer are now iterating that design, a process that nicely epitomizes the compromises found at the intersection of art, medium, and technology. Because you can’t do the same things with thread that you can do with digital paint.
That question mark is doing a LOT of heavy lifting. Don’t worry, the final patch will be awesome.
You can wait until the images are finalized before adding the above items to your order. They’ve already been unlocked. We’re committed to making them. If, however, you increase your pledge to add some of them to your order now you’ll be pushing us closer to the additional stretch goals.
If you want to add “legacy product” (stuff from our store) to your order, you’ll have to wait until after the project closes, when we send out the Backerkit surveys. If you’re feeling flush with cash, though, and already know what you want from the store? Well, you can increase your pledge to cover things you plan to add later, and yes, that pledge increase will go toward helping us reach those stretchiest of stretch goals.
But what are those goals? What’s hiding beyond “Materiel Upgrades?”
Hopefully we’ll find out early next week, because it looks like we might reach the $125k mark on Monday or Tuesday. Once that happens we’ll post the next set. Sandra has been hard at work for months now getting bids from manufacturers and mathing all of the maths to ensure that we set the goals in fiscally responsible places while still getting good deals for all of you.
Because ultimately it’s all of you who make this happen. Your support continues to amaze us. And feed us, and house us, and connect us to the Internet. We literally could not do any of this without you.
