Guess what happened last year that I never got around to talking about?
In 2014, for the first time, Worldbuilders raised $1,000,000.
Last year two things happened that pushed us over the top.
1. We had our best holiday fundraiser ever, raising more than $880,000 (as you can see if you look at the Worldbuilders website.)
2. We tried an experimental mid-season fundraiser on Indigogo that was so successful that I actually lost a bet with the Worldbuilders team and was forced to buy everyone milkshakes. (As I wrote about in a blog over here.)
Despite the fact that this was a pretty big deal for us. We haven’t made much noise about it. Partly because after the holiday fundraiser we were all exhausted. And partly because we were focused on getting everyone’s prizes shipped out to them in a timely fashion.
But the fact remains that we did it. And I wanted to mark the occasion because it’s a milestone that took us 6 years to achieve.
I wanted to make a challenge coin. Because I think they’re kinda cool. I’m a geek for coins, I like the way they feel in my hand, and people have given me a number of challenge coins over the years. Personally, I’d love to do a new one for ever year of Worldbuilders.
The rest of the Worldbuilders team was skeptical. They didn’t know if y’all would be interested in something like that. But eventually I persuaded them to give the idea a trial run.
And here we are:
Because we’re really not sure whether or not people will go for these, we’re only getting 500 of them made.
If people end up buying them, we’ll know y’all are interested and we’ll do more things like this in the future. If not… well… then I guess I’ll use these for poker chips, and the rest of the Worldbuilders team will mock me for coming up with this idea.
(Do not eat coin.)
The flipside of the coin shows our beloved Monkey Puppet drinking a celebratory milkshake in honor of our first-ever million dollar year.
If you’d like to see a better picture of that, or if you’d like to buy one, you can head over to the Tinker’s Packs and order one now.
As always, all proceeds from the Tinker’s Packs go to Worldbuilders.
(Fair warning: these might not ship for a week or two…)
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Since we’re on the subject of the Tinker’s Packs, we might as well celebrate the first day of spring with a Novelties blog.
For those of you who might be new to the blog, Novelties is where we put up some cool pieces of geekery for sale that you might not be able to find in other places.
Things such as….
- Writhing Dark Playing Cards (Limited and Unlimited)
Interesting Fact: One of the very first non-Rothfuss items we ever sold in our store was a deck of Cthulhu cards by Artist Shane Tyree.
I liked the cards so much that later on, I worked with him on a few Pairs decks, as well as the Name of the Wind cards.
What we have here is his newest endeavor. A second Cthulhu-Themed deck…
(That bearded gentleman seems a little familiar.)
If you’d like to see more of the art or buy a deck, click over here.
- Slow Regard Foreign Language Editions:
Now that The Slow Regard of Silent Things has been out a while, we’ve got more and more foreign editions getting translated. When that happens, the publisher sends me a handful of author copies.
When they show up at my house, I dutifully put one one copy on my vanity shelf, set one aside for the library, and give the rest to Worldbuilders.
Right now we’ve got Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Dutch, Brazilian, and Slovak translations of Slow Regard of Silent Things. We even have an audio book version of the German edition.
There’s been a more than a few other versions of my book too. For example, the Latvian edition of Wise Man’s Fear, showed up at my house recently:
Hubba hubba. pic.twitter.com/9Oohfx1nNZ
— Pat Rothfuss (@PatrickRothfuss) April 9, 2015
I’ve been translated into 35 languages so far, and almost all of those editions are up in the store.
Even better, a lot of other authors have donated their author copies, too. So if you’re looking to bone up on your Estonian, or if you have a friend who speaks Portuguese as her first language, you could check out our Foreign Editions section on The Tinker’s Packs.
As always, all of the proceeds will go to Worldbuilders.
- Limited Edition Le Nom du Vent poster
While I love all my foreign editions, and by extension all my foreign covers, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the French covers, which feature the fabulous art of Marc Simonetti.
Proving that he’s an incredibly kind person, Marc has allowed Worldbuilders to print a limited run of posters using the artwork used to produce the cover….
(Click to Embiggen)
The posters are numbered 1 through 200 and signed by me. If you’d like to grab one, you can do so over here.
Edit: Amanda here! The posters went over awesomely and managed to sell out by 2 in the afternoon today. The people who are signed up for the once-a-month The Tinker’s Packs newsletter heard about these things a little earlier, so you should sign up right here.
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That’s all we’ve got for now, folks. Stay tuned for more blogs soon…
pat
36 Comments
I always tell myself that im here for any new information about the book buut i find myself reading your blogs and enjoying them.Keep up the good blog posts!..(you know, i just have to end it with something motivational)
Soooo, I kinda instantly bought that poster… It’s so shiny!
Now I need to find the time for my poor old Draccus to get a frame… *sigh*
You are not kind, Pat, providing us with these..
Pretty excited about this poster! Its a beautiful work of art and inspires memories from the book when Kvothe views the school for the first time.
I also wanted to add that I wrote an essay about Worldbuilders for a college class last semester. I hope some of my classmates clicked on the link I shared and participated in your campaigns. I was glad to get the word out about the great things you guys are doing.
As someone who also collects Challenge Coins, that idea is great! The price point, however, is too high.
It would be if it were not a charitable donation. Think about it that way and it’s acceptable.
We debated the price a bit, and I’m still not sure about it. Ultimately, we need to make money off these if they’re going to benefit Worldbuilders. So we decided to make them a little more expensive.
We’ll see how it goes….
Wow, that poster! So happy I snagged one this morning before they all sell out! Wish I could have justified the coin too, but the conversion to CAD is killer these days :(
Just got myself a coin and a poster! I think it’s a great idea and I’m a sucker for coins. I’ve been intending to get the poster for a while now.
I like coins, but I don’t collect challenge coins. I do, however, collect pins. I have a set of Eolian pipes in pin form (bought during fundraiser season for me last Christmas (it’s like two presents since my present’s profits went to a good cause)). I would love a Worldbuilders pin.
Hmmm…. that’s an interesting thought….
You’ll have to sell stylish sashes to put the pins on (also to denote lordhood).
Also, for letting people know you’re willing to move property discreetly.
If you’re willing to fight that hard to protect my property, I’ll have it in your hold before midnight.
Yesss. New nerdery loot. HOME will now be upgraded by +10 to coolness when that poster goes up.
Ive not seen a comment saying it so..
Congrats on the BIG $1M pat, that’s amazing work 8) and just one of the may reasons we loves ya!
Sigh…I’m off to the bookstore to buy the book again in French. That cover is too pretty. And I do live in France. I wonder if my French is good enough now to actually read it.
And…a million bucks! Holy crap that is amazing! Awesome job, you guys!
Is there a reason there’s a big suare tower in the poster background? It’s clearly not in the book cover version.
I’m pretty sure (though I could be wrong) that’s the Archives…
The tower would have made the art look congested once they added the title, so consider it an airbrush casualty.
That makes sense…
Awww, right when my rents due.. Is it bad that I’m tempted to risk my apartment for this poster? Its so pretty o__o
If the posters sell out and you absolutely must have one, you can head over to Marc’s deviant art page and have one ordered on canvas in a wooden frame ready to be hung. It’s pricey (I think it cost me 200-250 dollars a few years back,) but it is absolutely gorgeous.
Do you have a new Dutch translator or was Lia Belt unavailable for De muziek van de stilte?
Huh, in the Latvian edition they translate your name, too? That’s strange. I mean, I’ve definitely read my share of translated books (although not Latvian), and I’ve never been aware of authors’ names having been changed… (Except for ancient Greek or Roman authors.)
dang. wish i’d checked the blog earlier. already sold out. 200 lucky people with a good lookin’ poster!
CRAP! Ughhh, this has been set as my desktop background since I read the book lol. Still, I’m clearly not fan enough to catch notice when it’s freaking SIGNED by Pat or even available for purchase. Whelp, lesson sadly learned, as I now know there’s a newsletter. Sounds like it had better availability than Amiibo lately, my efforts are in the wrong place!
As a former soldier I love the challenge coin. Instead of a blanket award, they were awarded on the spot for performance. And it helps worldbuilders so that is awesome as someone who lives paycheck to paycheck being able to help out in anyway is great.
Whoa, that Latvian cover is hawt! I would frame and hang a print of that…
Saw the coin, immediate reaction was “TAKE MY MONEY”. Pin’s a good idea, too.
Ok, don’t take this wrong, but I love you guys! I honestly almost teared up when I heard that you had raised over a million dollars through your efforts (and that would be a scarey sight with a face like mine). Three cheers to the Worldbuilder’s team. I am immensely heartened to see what you have accomplished, especially in a world which too often seems full of contention and negativity.
Love is always welcome here.
Indeed!
You can tell Pat is a dad because he adds the disclaimer:
(Do not eat coin.)
Although it does look like it might contain some delicious chocolate inside.
Milkshakes for everyone = (Milkshakes are the liquid form of love) = Love for everyone.
(Chocolate malts if you wanna be all fancy about it.)
Finally, wondering if I’ll get to read a post about the new Avengers :)
dear Pat
seeing your books translated to other languages inspired me to translate it into my own language ,Persian.i’m from Iran and i think there is only a handful of your fans here(me and my 2 friends included!!).
there is a hunger in Iran for Fantasy given its rich epic literature called Shahname(Book of Kings) but because of the publication problems that mostly addresses the issue of length of a fantasy book,there aren’t many fantasy books translated into Persian.there are Gemmell’s books,Darren Shan,Rowling and so on but there is no Jordan or Moorecock or Rothfuss.
and there is no copyright law here,so if a book gets translated into persian and is sold in Iran,the writer doesn’t get paid for it.
do you think i should translate it ? or would it be a violation to you?
Thanks to Pat for making that batch of posters happen, and for whatever Godly intervention made me read the blog before they sold out. Number 101 will have a place on my wall for the foreseeable future.
Kvothe got a simple black frame, after I spent two days tracking down something to fit 12 x 18″.
http://www.geekjosh.com/temp/nomduvent.jpg
Heyya Pat – speaking of a wise mans fear – could you help me out with Denna’s reaction about the Chandrian regarding her song when she was so on board with the idea in Trebon?