Kickstarter 101: My Stariel Special Editions

I know not everyone is familiar with Kickstarter, so I’ve put together this 101 explainer for those of you wondering what this is all about! If you’re already a savvy Kickstarter connoisseur, you can go straight to my campaign here:

What is Kickstarter and why are you using it?

I’ve wanted to offer Stariel special editions for a long time, but the printing technology required to bring fancy hardbacks to life means I ideally need to order a whole lot of books at once. Which means a big upfront cost to pay for a print run.

Enter Kickstarter! Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform for creative projects that allows fans to ‘pledge’ for different ‘rewards’ – essentially you pre-order your shiny books upfront to help reach my campaign’s funding goal. This means I’ll not only be able to pay for the print run but also I’ll know how many books to order.

What are rewards?

‘Rewards’ are what Kickstarter calls the products I’m offering to people who back my campaign.  In this case, the main rewards you can choose are Stariel hardbacks (just one book or the whole set). There is also a digital reward option available for those of you with limited shelf space who still want to support my Kickstarter.

How do I pick the reward I want?

You can find the rewards in their own tab if you scroll to the top of the campaign.

They also show as a sidebar if you’re on a desktop. Scroll through the list to find the reward you want and click the pledge $XX button. You’ll be given the choice to add on additional items if, for example, you want extra copies of books or to add a bookmark. Shipping will be automatically calculated once you select the country you’re shipping to – if your country isn’t listed, contact support@merrick-books.com and they will add it for you.

What are add-ons?

After you choose your pledge level, you will get the option to add ‘add-ons’. This is where you can add extra copies or swag items, but if you’re happy with what’s in the pledge you selected, you don’t need to add anything on.

Shipping to my country isn’t showing up?

Shipping is listed for most locations, but because there are thousands of combinations, your country might not be listed! If your location isn’t showing up, please reach out to Merrick Books, who are managing shipping for me, and they will update the list of countries to include yours. You can reach them here: support@merrick-books.com.

When does the campaign start/end?

The campaign runs for just over three weeks, starting 16 September (17 September in New Zealand) and ending on 9 October (10 October in New Zealand).

What happens if the campaign doesn’t reach its funding goal?

Then nothing! If we don’t make the funding goal by the end of the campaign, no one who pledged towards it will be charged, and I will return to the drawing board.

What are stretch goals?

If the campaign goes super well and we fund much higher than expected, I’ll be able to add more bells and whistles to the shiny editions (like more interior illustrations).

Is A Rake of His Own included?

No, the Stariel spinoff / book 5 A Rake of His Own is NOT part of this kickstarter. This is for two reasons:

1. Doing four books in one campaign is already pushing things, both in terms of behind-the-scenes organisation and in terms of affordability for you guys. Fancy editions aren’t cheap!
2. If I run a separate campaign for A Rake of His Own after this one, I can fully focus on it as the star of the show. It’s such a special book to me, and I felt like including it with the main Stariel quartet would mean it would inevitably be overshadowed.

So we WILL be getting a shiny edition of Rake too, but it WON’T be until later.

Any other questions? Let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!