[Filling your worlds with words] Update 15: expect surveys tomorrow
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 04:44:38 AM
The smoke test went out yesterday, and 12/15 have been completed. The reason one does these is to find out if there are any problems, and apparently Canada made it onto an excluded shipping list, so thank you to the backer who discovered that little bug, because it made me check other countries, and Australia was also on the list. (BackerKit has a learning curve...).
Please fill out your survey when you get it! The survey will allow me to get you the essay collection, which I will likely have ready to go next week. If you are getting a physical item, you will still be able to edit your address later.
More later!
[Filling your worlds with words] Update 14: Smoke test, surveys
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 03:07:51 AM
Good [appropriate greeting for your time zone]!
BackerKit has approved my survey setup, and I'm going to send the smoke test today. That means about 5% of you will receive surveys so I can make sure everything works right, and once those surveys are completed, I can send out the rest. So if you get an email from BackerKit, please fill it out.
BackerKit
You have to create an account on their site, but you can link it to your Kickstarter account. If you already have one from other campaigns, you're good to go. The surveys should be straightforward.
Add-ons: All add-ons are optional. If you are a print-tier backer, you do not have to add the book plate to your order. It's already included. If you're a digital-tier backer and you want a book plate, this add-on is for you.
I've decided to add the short story "On the Origins of Station Worker Speech" as an add-on for a Euro (1 €). It will be available as an epub file only (it doesn't look good in PDF). The file is currently with a friend who's beta testing the epub and making sure the edits I made to the story recently make sense.
The digital rewards will be added on BK, and if I understand their documentation correctly, you will receive an email with a link to download the file when I've added them (if they are not available when you complete the survey). I'm hoping to get the short story up by the end of this week and the essay collection by the end of the next.
Shipping: The nice thing about BackerKit is that you can edit your survey response (e.g. mailing address) until the lock date, so if you move between now and the time I finish the book, you can update your address.
I'm currently planning to mail out the book plates to North America in late June when I'm back in the US for a couple weeks and to everywhere else most likely in early June. (Yes, this means you'll probably have a book plate before you have a book to put it in, but it's more economical vis a vis postage.)
I know I mentioned this project in an earlier update, but they're 3 days from the end (and well over their goal, which is awesome), and I wanted to boost them again. They've got a stretch goal for interior illustrations at $30,000, so maybe with your help, they can reach it. (I've already backed it :) )
Until next time!
[Filling your worlds with words] Update 13
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 03:56:31 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
[Filling your Worlds with Words] Update 12: We made it!
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 03:20:11 AM
We made it!
Thanks to 265 backers, we raised 5,939 € so I can write this book. Thank you all so much!
What's next?
In the next few days, I'll be finalizing the backer surveys, which will come through BackerKit. If you pledged at a critique level, I'll send the critiquer your contact info so they can get in touch with you.
Check your pledges
You should have received an email saying that your pledge was charged to your account. There are 13 pledges with errors, so if you're one of them, please update your payment information as soon as you can.
The essay collection
Since you all unlocked a brand new essay, I need to write it -- which means re-reading the book I'm writing it about and taking notes, then writing it. I also want to go through the existing essays and tidy them up and make sure all the links still work and that sort of thing, and then I'll have to get the epub all nicely formatted and everything. I'm also travelling a lot in the next few weeks for roller derby (I'm on Team Zebra) and translating a short story (on a deadline).
As it currently stands, expect to get your essay collections by the end of October. Possibly the middle, but you know. Deadlines.
The book
Once I've gotten the essay collection out to everyone, I'll switch gears back to the book. It currently has about 15,000 words and most of a draft of the phonetics and morphology section plus a draft chapter on intercultural communication.
I want to take a few weeks to (re-)read research on each of the things I want to write about, one at a time, and take good notes on them. As I've been outlining and figuring out what I want to include, I keep finding more things I want to talk about, and I think that alternating between reading and writing will help me sort my stuff out. (It was invaluable when I wrote my MA thesis! I read a bunch of theory, took a lot of notes, organized them and my thoughts, then started writing at a pace that shocked my advisor.) I'll also probably re-read some of the books I want to take examples from.
The short story
Unfortunately, we didn't hit the 6k stretch goal for the short story :( but I'm working on a solution for anyone who really wants to read it.
Future updates
About once a month I'll send a progress report. For now that will be through the Updates function on Kickstarter, but I might set up a mailing list instead (or in addition). The mailing list might contain cool things I read about and couldn't wait to share. I don't know.
I'll keep you posted!
Thank you so much!
Musya thanks you, too!
[Filling your Worlds with Words] Update 11: In the home stretch!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 01:23:29 AM
We're almost there
How high can we go? We're currently at 4635 €, and I'd love to hit 5000. Obviously I'd be even happier if we make 6000 and I can give you my short story, but that looks really far off.
