We Cryptids: An Urban Fantasy Anthology

Pre-orders are closed, surveys are ready and books are being sent to layout!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, May 05, 2021 at 09:42:38 PM

Hello backers!

Apologies for the signal silence for so long, but rest assured that the book is still trucking along! It is currently with layout and getting ready to be made into a book! The layout process is pretty involved, as we strive to make it look as nice as possible for you and as professional as possible as well. This involves making sure the page numbers are correct, there aren't any weird spaces or strange formatting, and that it looks as nice as possible.

This will take some time, but rest assured we are still working on it and excited to send it in either ebook or print format to you in October!

Regards,

Vivian

Cover reveal and Backerkit surveys imminent!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 02, 2021 at 05:56:33 PM

Hello Backers!

Here is the front cover/ebook cover for the book! I am delighted with it and I hope you will be as well!

Also, surveys are being sent from Backerkit tonight and tomorrow, so please check for that email (if you don't see it, check your Spam folder, and if you don't get it by Sunday, please message me here for support!

As always, with gratitude,

Vivian

In Which Surveys Are Imminent, a Clarification, and I Reveal the Authors!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 02:11:29 PM

Hello backers!

Thank you so much for your responses to my survey! Due to overwhelming "YES", I will be offering a print book option as an add-on in the Backerkit survey. However, I want to clarify one thing first so folks aren't worried that this will reduce the value of their pledge.

There was a concern that adding print books would interfere with the Loch Ness Monster level, however, rest assured it will not because they are two completely different books :) . The print book that will be an add-on is the main We Cryptids book (the print version of the ebook). The hardcopy book already included in the Loch Ness Monster level (along with the ebook) is a limited edition novella that is written by me and will be a different book entirely from the anthology. The limited edition novella is limited to 25 copies and not be available as an add on. So if you are one of the lovely 18 people who backed at that level, you are still getting something special from yours truly that no one else will have access to. 

That being said, I will be sending Backerkit surveys in the next couple days! Please fill these out as soon as possible since we need some information to put in the books for Sasquatch level and above.

You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information (as appropriate), and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://we-cryptids.backerkit.com.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://we-cryptids.backerkit.com/faq.

Finally, please allow me to introduce.... the authors!!!!!!!

R. R. Virdi

Veronica R. Calisto

L.J. Hachmeister

Kiya Nicoll

E. A. Copen

Curtis Craddock

Olivia Wylie

Linda Kay Hardie

Vista McDowall

Amelia Kibbie

Peter McGuire

Dan Michael Fielding

These stories are simply spectacular and many of them touched my heart and made me feel feels. I simply can't wait to share these stories with you!!

Thank you, as always, for your support! Y'all are amazing!

With gratitude,

Vivian

Submissions are in and a couple questions!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 03:23:38 AM

 Dear backers,

Thank you for your patience as I read submissions and made my selections of which stories we were going to consider for the anthology. Please read all the way to the end of this update for some important questions!

I received a total of 162 submissions and kept over thirty of them for second round consideration. There were quite a few delightful stories, many of which touched me and made me cry (but in a good way). I am really looking forward to making my final selections and sharing the table of contents with you and then sharing the book with you. As a reminder, I have four amazing stories already from Ronnie Virdi, L.J. Hachmeister,  Veronica R. Callisto, and E. A. Copen, so I will be picking eight from the submissions I have received over the past five months. 

For those curious about the second round selection process, I make a spreadsheet first, then put the theme, cryptid, and plot of each story into the spreadsheet. This allows me to get a holistic view of the stories submitted and gives me a way to make sure that each story is unique and representative of my vision for the anthology (e.g. we can't have too many Bigfoot stories or else it'll be a Bigfoot anthology, etc). Then I slowly narrow it down to a final 8 depending on what stories have already been selected from the headliners and how they will all mesh as a whole anthology, with each story building off the last into what I hope will be an enjoyable reading experiences.

As I have been reading the stories, however, I feel that it might be doing a disservice to these amazing stories to release them as ebook only. Not only will that affect author sales later on, but it will also affect the reach of the book.  

However, I want to do right by you as backers as well, so a quick background on why I couldn't make print copies happen. In order to make print copies using Amazon's KDP and send them to backers for Kickstarter, I need enough funding to print the books (usually $5/per book), have them shipped to me from Amazon (usually $1-2 per book), and then ship them to you via USPS (usually $3 per book via media mail). With usually around 50-100 people interested in a print copy, that means that I need an extra $500-$1000 just to make the books happen, not to mention the funds to pay the authors from these sales as well (since selling them at cost would mean the authors wouldn't get paid for their work, which I think we can all agree isn't super). In the past, I would just do a discount code in this situation using Createspace. However, as Amazon took that functionality away, it would cost at least $15 per book to make it happen and I didn't raise enough funds up front to make that work. In addition, I'm a little leery of mailing hundreds of books in the pandemic as well.

That being said, I did raise enough funds to pay for someone to do the print copy layout of the book to allow me to publish it on LightningSource or Amazon KDP and allow you to obtain print copies that way (likely $15 on each platform). So my first question is, would that be acceptable?

Secondly, I realized that this ebook wouldn't be Kickstarter special except for the names in it of backers who backed at the level that allows for that. I wanted to make sure that you all felt like you were getting something special for making this book happen and so I came up with an idea to make this a special edition ebook. It is possible for me to include my original stick figure drawings of each cryptid in the ebook that will only be sent to backers (i.e. the drawings would not be available in the commercial ebook). If that is something you would like, please let me know in the below survey. 

Finally, if you all are ok with print books being on the table, would you like the option to add one on to your order via backerkit or Kickstarter that would be signed and probably stick figured by me?

Answer all of these questions in the survey here and know that I am very appreciative of your time. 

As always, your faithful kickstarter,

Vivian

Huzzaahh! We Made It!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Nov 05, 2020 at 09:13:43 AM

Hello Backers!

Thank you SO MUCH for making this project a reality. I truly appreciate your faith in this project and simply cannot wait to get this book to you.

Now the fun part starts when everyone writes their stories!

I can't wait to read them as they come in and then I can't wait for you to read them. Thank you for taking this journey with me!! 

Ok. On to the nuts and bolts. It will take about two weeks for everything to clear and for the money to be deposited into my account. Please be sure your payment info is up to date to expedite this process.

After that happens, then the fun begins. I'll post the call for submissions here in a minute as well as elsewhere and folks will get started on their stories. Submissions will open when I do that and then will close March 1, 2021.

After that, I will select the final stories and put them together into an ebook to send to you. The ebook will be in epub, or kindle formats and I will also include a pdf copy. 

Thank you again and hoooraaayy!

Crypitdly,

Vivian