COVID killed the Canadian Dollar
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 04:34:23 PM
Some NOT TERRIBLE news, but it's not great news - the Canadian dollar has basically died over the course of the last few days due to COVID-19, plunging from being worth roughly .70 USD down to almost .50 USD, and my budget was not prepared for that to happen.
Everyone is still going to get their books, nobody has to pay anything extra, but unfortunately there are going to be some extra delays that I just can't prevent. The Canadian government announced today that they have approved what appears to be a sort of emergency relief fund to be released to citizens in early April (at least here in Ontario, I'm not sure if it's federal or provincial), but because I am lucky enough to have a reliable source of income that I can count on to make sure my family is provided for, I'm going to use that to make up the difference.
I'll be sending out another wave of tracking numbers shortly, but that's all I can do for now.
Books are arriving!
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Mar 04, 2020 at 03:02:24 AM
As I said on Friday's update, the absolute vast majority of all books are sent! Those that are not will unfortunately have to wait until my next payday (the 18th) for their process to begin, but still - we're just about done, and believe me when I say I'm just as thrilled as you are!
I'm getting confirmation on Twitter and via message that a lot of the books have started arriving over the last few days, but I guess not everyone is getting the text messages or email updates. I don't know if that's a 'This is a service from Canada post and you aren't from Canada' thing, or a permissions thing, or what, but I used the information as provided to me via backerkit and have no idea what happens after that.
Happy reading to those of you whose books have arrived! :D
Pre-weekend update, spoilers: there is some bad news.
about 6 years ago
– Sat, Feb 29, 2020 at 12:44:09 AM
Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the post office before closing today, but I did purchase the third wave of shipping labels, which is still progress! Only a few domestic (see: US) orders remain, and I'm going to try to get those out no later than the 4th... That said, every SINGLE time I make a tight, tidy, and practical deadline for myself, something random manages to come up and derail my plans, so I'm going to say the 4th*, with the * meaning to the best of my ability.
All that to say, overpromising is another learned lesson from this campaign, and again, thank you all for being so graceful on this r o u g h a n d b u m p y ride on baby's first kickstarter.
The bad news is that unfortunately, the remaining international backers who have not yet received shipping/tracking info will FOR SURE have to have to wait until march 18th, which is the date of my first pay from the job I started earlier this month.
The first wave of domestics should be arriving by today/monday/tuesday, I hope? Australians should have theirs literally any day as well?
Very related, If anyone can confirm whether the email and/or text updates about the shipping are working, that would be awesome.
More tracking numbers going out, campaign breakdown, etc!
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 08:49:32 PM
Hey folks!
As usual, I'm going to start off with a great big 'thank you' for continued patience, you're all fantastic. Another round of tracking numbers will be going out shortly, I'm just waiting on my kiddo to wake up from her nap to head to the post office.
I also wanted to take a second and be a little transparent on here, since I am CONSTANTLY neglecting treating this page as a better means of direct contact with you all and just opting to continue to use my social media presence (i.e., Twitter) to do so - something that my interaction with Demogarose taught me as of yesterday just isn't enough. Yet another lesson in the knowledge bank for the future, and another thing to apologize for.
Speaking of which, I tweeted out a little financial breakdown of how this campaign has gone so far earlier today, and wanted to share it with you all:
- Total amount of funds raised via KS in USD: $6070
- Amount taken by KS: $303
- Amount taken by Strike: $303
- Cost to pay artist: $500
- Cost of printing books: $3,010.48
- Projected shipping Cost: $1050
- Actual shipping cost (to date): Nearing $3K as of yesterday.
- Net proceeds from KS (TD): -$1046 USD
I really, really want everyone to understand that this is not an issue of trying to scam anyone, take anyone's money and not deliver, or really ANYTHING that falls under that kind of shady umbrella. Counting on being able to use Media Mail and then not having access to it absolutely devastated any chance this campaign had to turn a profit, and I have been in the red on it for some time - hence sitting at 50% fulfillment for so long.
I've been doing my best to come up the extra funds to get the rest of the books out the door, and while I've essentially hinted and mentioned that shipping miscalculation really sucked, I wanted to be 100% transparent about it as my soul withers and my heart dies more with each person who messages me to ask why they haven't received their copy yet.
The answer is I was already broke going into this campaign (hence needing to do it in the first place rather than just fund it out of pocket), and things only went downhill from there.
Because people keep offering and I am running out of good excuses to turn it down, I am going to go ahead and drop this link for anyone who feels compelled to help out with the shipping costs: paypal.me/JesseNeon
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEND ANYTHING, I AM NOT ASKING YOU TO DO SO. I AM FULLY WILLING AND PREPARED TO RESOLVE THIS ON MY OWN, AND WILL NEVER, EVER MAKE AN ERROR LIKE THIS IN THE FUTURE.
60 more books went out today!
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 08:42:08 PM
Still not all of them, but a fantastic chunk.
Please note that Hardcovers have not shipped yet.
They are quite bit more expensive to ship than the paperbacks, but they are still getting done - I have to pick up another set of pre-paid mastercards tomorrow after work in order to continue moving forward with the shipping, as my visa debt card ended up not processing correctly on the Canada Post website.
Only caused a *mild* panic attack, and this solution seems to be working really well, with only the minor irritant of not being something I can just reload on the fly, haha.
About two dozen of you still had not locked your addresses and information, so I went ahead and did that for you - if you bought a digital copy of the book and haven't received it by now, that is 100% the reason why! You should have access to the downloads page for it on the Backerkit by now, please check it out or DM me if you cannot figure it out!
Shipping continues tomorrow :D
