Eldric the Wizard: A Crowdfunding Status Update
Hello everyone, and thank you so much for your continued support for the Village at the Crossroads project. The inquiries about status, the feedback from our test readers, and the views on our Instagram page all tell us there's real interest in this project. For that, we are very grateful.
It’s been a few months since we introduced Sylvie the Sorcerer, the last of our character-introduction posts. Since then our blog has been relatively quiet. Truthfully, that’s because we’ve been relatively quiet as well.
The summer has been spent travelling, enjoying family, and overall working a bit less on the Village at the Crossroads project than we have for most of the year. One reason is simply that sun is rare in Newfoundland, especially this summer, and so we’ve taken advantage of some warmer weather on the few days it’s been available. The other reason, though, is simply that we needed a break. We’ve been working on the story for the better part of 18 months. Sid especially has worked through a seemingly endless amount of illustrating. The final images were completed in late spring, and we will have a lot of crowdfunding-campaign work ahead of us this fall. So a break was warranted.
Where Were We?
Before summer hit, we celebrated what was probably the most exciting part of this journey so far – the completion of the final illustration, which meant the book itself was finally complete. We had already been through the editing process with a professional editor, and so having the last page illustrated meant that we could compile everything and have a “final” book exist electronically. Sid and I celebrated with a couple of pints at a local brewery.
Two different groups received copies of our finished product. First, we sent an electronic PDF to a number of test readers. To those who have read the story, reviewed the illustrations, and provided us feedback, we are very grateful. Thank you. The second group was a small list of publishers we’d be interested in partnering with. Our plan has always been to crowdfund these books, but if there was a publisher that liked our work it strikes us that there could be a partnership worth pursuing. After all, being able to lean on a group with vast industry knowledge would be helpful. At this time we haven’t heard back from anyone, but, as we understand it, that isn’t uncommon. Sometimes responses can take up to six months.
Forging Ahead
As summer turns to fall, our sights are now set on our crowdfunding campaign. Sid and I are registered on Kickstarter and are in the process of finalizing exactly how we hope to structure a crowdfunding effort. This includes determining what our financial goal should be, at what price point we sell the book, and what added benefits we might offer to folks who want to back the project. We’re in the midst of this now.
Then of course, we need to design the campaign page. Luckily, Sid happens to know a thing or two about marketing, so I’m not worried about that. I’m expecting our page to be dazzling when it does finally go live. We want this to look professional. We want to convey that we’re serious. And we want to ensure that backers know this is just the beginning. We hope that message resonates.