Post by thegingerbarrister on Jan 26, 2023 16:32:19 GMT -5
Hello, backers. It’s been too long since I provided an update, and for that I apologize. I thought we had big good news on the horizon, and I was waiting to share that when it was definitive. That has turned around in a very disappointing way, so here’s what happened, and what’s next. For background, read on. To skip past “how we got here” and directly to “where we are”, look for the TL;DR below.
The original team - myself, Josef, Natalie, and Tim - had fractured going into this Kickstarter campaign. Josef’s interest was solely in creating Bete Noire, Natalie remained available for content creation but wasn’t involved in operations, and Tim decided he’d transition out after the first campaign (the one we took down). I knew I’d need to build a new team if the second campaign (which I designed and ran) succeeded, and Tim had offered to make the transition easy where possible.
I knew I’d need two additional roles to keep the project going: someone to manage the tech/website, and someone to run the operations/e-commerce side of things. I’d take the lead on driving the creative content, which is where my strengths and experience lie. It took a lot longer than I’d hoped to find those people- I hadn’t realized just how complex our website was, and I discovered that all of the web design folks in my network were unable to work with the site as it existed. It took much of 2022 to find the new team, and all the while I chipped away at the creative content of Bete Noire and GripTeam: working with artists to design puzzles, craft stories, produce artifacts, film content, and so on. You first heard from that new team under the title of “TBL Crowdfunding” - they were able to take control of the logistics, and they’re why the t-shirts, bookplate stickers, and library cards went into production and got in the mail. I had initially thought I’d be able to handle many of those production logistics myself, but I was in way over my head on it so I busied myself with working on the actual content.
Unfortunately, we were racing against time. On top of spending money on the various assets required to create and produce the new content, we were also leaking money on substantial monthly website costs and storage for our existing inventory of A Feather In Dust. Our new web guy was working to understand and revise the site design to reduce the number of tools and services we were paying for. I knew I was creating more copies of both new stories than would be required to fulfill the campaign’s backers, with the idea that sales of that inventory would right the ship (much of the expense of creating this content is in the development, so the cost difference on creating extra inventory should have been survivable). As we shipped the first round of shirts and stickers, we realized that wasn’t going to work- we were nearly out of money.
(As an aside, we received the library cards in November, but we needed to customize them ourselves. My first two plans for that both failed for different reasons: the etching laser I can access can’t safely etch metal, and the finish we used on the cards doesn’t work with acid etching. By mid-December, we had finally sourced a shop that could print on them, and had a successful test print in hand. For backers who got a shirt/stickers and a card, we had held back to send them in one package.)
TL;DR
Both Bete Noire and GripTeam are partially done, but some of the steps required to complete and ship them will cost more money. Our current estimate is that we’re between $25000 and $30000 underfunded to complete this project.
I’ve called in a substantial favour to secure storage for the existing inventory (both complete and in-progress) at no cost, and we made that move last week. The website, as many of you have noticed, is offline- there’s no money left to keep the site operating and funds are better spent elsewhere. My next goal is to get the cards printed and shipped, along with the remaining t-shirts and stickers- I’ll be doing that out of pocket as I can afford it, so it may take a few months. We’ll also be looking for that additional funding to get the stories completed and shipped to backers, for which we’re currently assembling a business plan. With one major piece of content (A Feather In Dust) complete and in inventory, and three more (Bete Noire, GripTeam, and the revised Boring Crimes) in various stages of completion, I believe we have something worth investing in, though I don’t yet have the specifics of how we’ll seek that backing.
To those of you who took the plunge and supported this project: I apologize for the way it’s been handled. I had never taken on a project of this magnitude before, and didn’t know enough to know I was in over my head until it was far too late. I still hope to be able to complete and ship this content eventually, and there will be further updates when there’s news on that front.
The original team - myself, Josef, Natalie, and Tim - had fractured going into this Kickstarter campaign. Josef’s interest was solely in creating Bete Noire, Natalie remained available for content creation but wasn’t involved in operations, and Tim decided he’d transition out after the first campaign (the one we took down). I knew I’d need to build a new team if the second campaign (which I designed and ran) succeeded, and Tim had offered to make the transition easy where possible.
I knew I’d need two additional roles to keep the project going: someone to manage the tech/website, and someone to run the operations/e-commerce side of things. I’d take the lead on driving the creative content, which is where my strengths and experience lie. It took a lot longer than I’d hoped to find those people- I hadn’t realized just how complex our website was, and I discovered that all of the web design folks in my network were unable to work with the site as it existed. It took much of 2022 to find the new team, and all the while I chipped away at the creative content of Bete Noire and GripTeam: working with artists to design puzzles, craft stories, produce artifacts, film content, and so on. You first heard from that new team under the title of “TBL Crowdfunding” - they were able to take control of the logistics, and they’re why the t-shirts, bookplate stickers, and library cards went into production and got in the mail. I had initially thought I’d be able to handle many of those production logistics myself, but I was in way over my head on it so I busied myself with working on the actual content.
Unfortunately, we were racing against time. On top of spending money on the various assets required to create and produce the new content, we were also leaking money on substantial monthly website costs and storage for our existing inventory of A Feather In Dust. Our new web guy was working to understand and revise the site design to reduce the number of tools and services we were paying for. I knew I was creating more copies of both new stories than would be required to fulfill the campaign’s backers, with the idea that sales of that inventory would right the ship (much of the expense of creating this content is in the development, so the cost difference on creating extra inventory should have been survivable). As we shipped the first round of shirts and stickers, we realized that wasn’t going to work- we were nearly out of money.
(As an aside, we received the library cards in November, but we needed to customize them ourselves. My first two plans for that both failed for different reasons: the etching laser I can access can’t safely etch metal, and the finish we used on the cards doesn’t work with acid etching. By mid-December, we had finally sourced a shop that could print on them, and had a successful test print in hand. For backers who got a shirt/stickers and a card, we had held back to send them in one package.)
TL;DR
Both Bete Noire and GripTeam are partially done, but some of the steps required to complete and ship them will cost more money. Our current estimate is that we’re between $25000 and $30000 underfunded to complete this project.
I’ve called in a substantial favour to secure storage for the existing inventory (both complete and in-progress) at no cost, and we made that move last week. The website, as many of you have noticed, is offline- there’s no money left to keep the site operating and funds are better spent elsewhere. My next goal is to get the cards printed and shipped, along with the remaining t-shirts and stickers- I’ll be doing that out of pocket as I can afford it, so it may take a few months. We’ll also be looking for that additional funding to get the stories completed and shipped to backers, for which we’re currently assembling a business plan. With one major piece of content (A Feather In Dust) complete and in inventory, and three more (Bete Noire, GripTeam, and the revised Boring Crimes) in various stages of completion, I believe we have something worth investing in, though I don’t yet have the specifics of how we’ll seek that backing.
To those of you who took the plunge and supported this project: I apologize for the way it’s been handled. I had never taken on a project of this magnitude before, and didn’t know enough to know I was in over my head until it was far too late. I still hope to be able to complete and ship this content eventually, and there will be further updates when there’s news on that front.