Okay folks, we’re a little more than halfway through our summer fundraiser, and I’m pleasantly surprised at how well things have been going.
Last year we raised 25,000 dollars in the first day. This year, we raised that in under six hours.
As I write this, we stand at 112,000 dollars, and I’m hoping we have a strong finish in the next four days. I’d *really* like to beat last year’s total of $206K.
Today I’ve got three things to show you….
- Show off a few new items we’ve added.
- Bring a few things to your attention you might have missed in the excitement.
- Draw your attention to our FAQ.
Let’s start with the last of these, shall we?
If you have questions, please look in the FAQ. Please? Want to know about ordering multiple items? It’s there. International shipping? There. T-shirt Sizing? Yup. You guessed it, it’s in the FAQ.
If you look there and don’t see the answer to your question. Please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments of the blog or over on the IndiGoGo itself. We’re keeping a close eye on both places.
Part The Second: New Items.
People have been asking us to make a hoodie for years, but we’ve been reluctant because hoodies tend to be expensive to produce.
But this seemed like the perfect time to test the waters, so we’re going to make one based on the Eolian Bar design, which has been our best selling t-shirt for years.
These are $55 and that includes shipping. They’re a little pricier than I’d like, but that’s because here at Worldbuilders, we don’t want to sell you something that was made by 8-year old kids in a sweatshop in China. That goes against the better world we’re trying to create. These hoodies are made here in the US, but that means they cost a little more.
Fair warning. If you want a hoodie, you should probably order it before the end of the fundraiser. Like I said, these are a bit of an experiment, they’re expensive to make, and really bulky to store. I don’t know if we’re going to stock them in the Tinker’s Packs after we’re done.
- Signed Karen Hallion Denna Canvas
In last year’s calendar, Karen Hallion did a great job of this Kingkiller mashup that offers a theory about why Kvothe has so much trouble meeting up with Denna.
We liked it so much that we got 150 of them printed up, not as posters, but as canvas stretched over a wooden frame. These aren’t posters, they’re much nicer and sturdier than that.
We gave some to Project for Awesome last year, and they quickly sold out. Rather than horde them, we’re putting the rest up in the IndiGoGo. They’re numbered and signed by both Karen Hallion and Myself.
As I write this, there’s only 87 of them left. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
(Click to Embiggen)
Traditionally, we print our black t-shirts. Aside from being the traditional geek t-shirt color, black is pretty universal.
That said, many of you have made passionate pleas for non-black shirts. So we’re listening. We’ve decided to take another risk and try an experiment.
For three of our shirts (shown above) we’re going to be offering you choices for different colors (also above). When we send out our post-survey fundraiser, you’ll get to pick which styles, sizes, and colors you like best.
We picked these colors because they worked best with the designs, so while they’re still dark, you’ll have some variety this way. And the option to choose.
Fair Warning: After the fundraiser is over, we aren’t going to stock multiple colors in our online store.
Why? Because it means we would effectively have to stock 144 different items (3 shirts x 2 styles x 6 sizes x 4 four colors = 144). It would be pure madness.
When these shirts end up in the Tinker’s Packs after the fundraiser, we’re only going to carry whatever the most-voted-for color is. The odds say that color will be black. So if you want a non-black version of one of these shirts, the fundraiser is probably going to be the only place to get it…
(Also, remember. You have the option to buy a shirt 3-pack as a 60 dollar perk. You save 15 bucks that way.)
- Unfettered, in a few forms…
If you don’t know: This anthology was put together by Shawn Speakman. Shawn asked a bunch of his author friends if they’d be willing to donate a story to help him publish a book to help pay for his cancer treatments. I was happy to help. Because seriously. Fuck cancer.
Unfettered contains my first ever published short story: How Old Holly Came to Be.
Because Shawn published these books through a small press, they’re very rare. There were only 5000 of them printed. But we have 100 of them to put into the fundraiser. We’re just about the only place you can find them.
For you collectors out there: We *also* have numbered editions, signed by *all* the authors. Terry Brooks, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, RA Salvatore, Tad Williams, Jacqueline Carey, Daniel Abraham, Peter V. Brett, Robert VS Redick, Peter Orullian, Todd Lockwood, Carrie Vaughn, Blake Charlton, Kevin Hearne, Mark Lawrence, David Anthony Durham, Jennifer Bosworth, Lev Grossman, Michael J. Sullivan… and me.
(Signed by 22 of the biggest names in fantasy.)
They only made 500 of these. They have a different cover. A color insert, and a slipcase to keep the book safe. They’ve been sold out for ages. But we have a few.
But wait, there’s more.
Shawn is putting together another anthology: Unbound. If you buy this perk, you’ll get both fancy slipcased books, signed by all contributors, with matching numbers.
What’s more, if you order this perk, you get first dibs on the same number when the next anthology after Unbound comes out. (We’ve worked that out with Shawn) So you can have the whole trilogy with a set of matching numbers.
- The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle.
For those of you who don’t know. Yeah. I did a picture book.
It’s been out for a while, but a lot of folks don’t know about it. It’s kinda… dark.
People have been e-mailing us, saying they’d like to buy copies, but they’d *also* want the geeky joy of being a part of the Geeks Doing Good fundraiser. So we’re throwing it in as a perk for those of you who haven’t heard of it. Or for those of you who have been waiting for an excuse to grab a copy.
The book will ship with the promotional gold-foil: “This shit is not for kids” sticker.
Part Two: Things you May have Missed.
- Early Look at a new Jim Butcher Book
I pulled some strings with the folks at Penguin books, and they sent us copies of the promotional sampler for Jim Butcher’s new book. We’re going to be putting one into every book bundle. So you’ll get an early look at the book. (We’re including a few other samplers, too.)
We mentioned these before, but we haven’t done a good job of showing off the art yet.
(You pretty much need to embiggen this)
These Geek-aWeek decks are really cool, and I hope you guys take the time to check them out. Each card has a cool geeky celebrity featured, doing something awesome. Above are some highlights from Season 1, and below are some highlights from Season 5.
(I’m in there, too. As you can see.)
The backs of the cards contain incriminating information about the geeks.
They aren’t just cool collectables. You can also play a game with them (Designed by Mike Selinker.) Even better, I just discovered today, that these cards are *great* when you’re doing tabletop rollplaying. Need an NPC? Pick one out of the deck. Suddenly Amanda Palmer is the Shady Fence you’re selling stolen jewelry to. Or Felicia day is the head of the Bandits that jump you in the forest.
Forshadowing: You might see a video featuring me doing something like this very soon.
Badali did such a good job on these. And since it’s the Year of the Gear, we decided to put them up into the fundraiser where you could buy them. Plus, they come with both a chain and a leather cord, so you can choose for yourself when it arrives.
A lot of people have been asking, so I thought I’d explain a couple of things about the cruise.
First of all, we aren’t covering your travel TO the cruise. You’ll still need to get down there yourself.
That said, the cruise includes everything during your trip. That means:
- All your meals for 7 days. (Including room service.)
- A *very* nice D3 balcony cabin.
- Access to all exclusive JCC2016 entertainment and events.
- Panels, concerts, cocktail hours, special gaming events….
- Access to the 24/7 gaming room sponsored by Steve Jackson games.
- *Guaranteed* seating at all the main performance events.
Still not enough? Jonathan Coulton, Jean Grae, Paul F. Tompkins, and Imogen Heap are featured performers. Plus notable geeks like Wil Wheaton, Molly Lewis, John Scalzi, John Hodgman, and N.K. Jemisin are all there doing panels, hanging out, and just generally being awesome.
I’ll be there too. Along with a few of the Worldbuilders crew. I’ll be doing some panels on writing….
Think about it for a second. Just think about going. Wouldn’t that be an amazing vacation? A great second honeymoon? Best graduation present ever?
The total cash value of the cabin is $3,991. Given that, I don’t see how you can *not* seriously consider buying the $5 perk that gives you a chance. Or you can buy 5 chances for $25.
Still not convinced? I’ll bring along my prototype Tak set and we’ll play a game. A beautiful game.
(I’m, seriously, ridiculously excited about this.)
We got a picture of the first test run of Auri’s perfect soap from Black Phoenix. It looks lovely, and I can’t wait to get my hands on some. I want to smell it.
Keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily what the finished product will look like, but it’s a good start.
Those of you who pay close attention to the fine details of things (which, now that I think of it, is probably most of you) doubtless noticed that in the initial video we talked about doing a candle too.
The problem is, the candle needs to be made from the right ingredients. It needs to have beeswax and bayberry. (Which is what you get from laurel) What’s more, it needs to be a free-standing candle. Not one of those candles-in-a-jar. Because if it wasn’t like that, it wouldn’t be Auri’s candle.
The problem is, very few people make candles like that these days. Because the ingredients are expensive. And candles in jars are easier to make and safer to use. As a result, we’re putting that project on hold for now. I don’t want to make the candle for you unless I can be sure it’s perfect. Auri simply would not approve.
- Two (2) Mayfair Game Bundles
Some of you may remember when the Worldbuilders Team unloaded 18 pallets of Mayfair Games off of a truck last winter (if you don’t, you should really watch the video, because Maria is adorable in it).
Since we had so many games, we’ve put them together into bundles for people. There’s a smaller, slightly cheaper one at $40, with a retail value of over $120. It has a few of the easier to pick up games, though they’re still wonderfully fun.
It was, of course, our duty to play the games, you see. To be sure that they were fun. Quality control, and all of that.
There’s also a larger bundle for $55 that retails for over $220. It’s some of the bigger and more intensive games.
Note: The games in the bundles don’t overlap at all. That means if you buy both of them, you won’t get any duplicate games.
* * *
Lastly: For those of you who are holding out, please be aware that we won’t be adding anything new to the fundraiser after today (Friday).
Fair Warning: Some of the final items we’re adding are limited in number, so keep an eye out for the update that will probably get sent out in the afternoon.
Have a good weekend, folks. Thanks for supporting Worldbuilders. Thanks for spreading the word, and thanks for making the world a better place.
Here’s a final link to the fundraiser if you want it.
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