Production is Happening!
6 months ago – Mon, Nov 06, 2023 at 12:57:17 PM

So, the push to get everything into production by the end of September went for the most part smashingly -- and in our exhaustion at the end of it, followed by a well-deserved break, we didn't update you on what was happening. My bad!

The books have gone through prepress and now we have in our hands the first physical proofs! Here's what the books look like without their covers.... sort of.

Okay, when I say *sort of*, I mean that these proofs are twice as tall as the books will be when they're done. Rather than printed front-to-back, they're just taped-together pages, so there's twice as much thickness as you'd expect.

Still, the omnibus is going to be HUGE! I'm so excited for it!!!

The paper quality we chose is absolutely gorgeous. Thick but not too thick, soft and strong, very very nice. I love touching the pages, haha. And the color quality? Chef's kiss!

Even the Q&A's look lovely.

Knowing how hard it is to reproduce RGB values in CMYK space (aka, digital art vs printed art (yes it's way way way more complicated than that but bear with me)), I am seriously impressed with their ability to reproduce a lot of the vivid color in the comic:

All this to say: things are moving and they look GOOD. Right now, our task is to comb through the proofs and find any colors or formatting that needs tweaking, any errant mistakes, anything missed in the edits. 

We don't currently have a production schedule or current ETA on the books, but as soon as we do, I'll let you know! 

Get excited y'all!!! It's happening!!

Much love <3,

The TamberTeam

Books Are SUBMITTED!!! (Also, charging cards soon)
8 months ago – Mon, Oct 02, 2023 at 11:29:36 AM

Everyone, it is TIME!

After hours and hours of tireless work, Ari and I (along with a crew of incredibly wonderful, talented, and tireless volunteers without whom we couldn't have pulled this off) have completed the design of ALL FIVE BOOKS, including the Hardcover Omnibus (an absolute behemoth) and all four softbound prints of Books 1 through 4! All of the pages have had a meticulous editing pass (well, more like 100 passes) to deliver the definitive version of Tamberlane, as well as plenty of exciting bonus content (just WAIT until you see the Omnibus Annotations!)

Seriously, thank you to all of you for your patience as we've prepared this for you. We couldn't be more proud of the work we've put into this, and we think the books are going to blow you away.

So, what's next? What's the timeline? We have sent the covers/endpapers/book interiors to our printer, and will be awaiting any (hopefully much smaller) edits we need to make to ensure the books are 100% ready to print! Stuff like ensuring the binder thickness on the cover design is at the exact right measurements, for example. Book printing is an art form!

After that, with updated quotes and finalized documents confirmed by the printer, we'll just be playing the waiting game as the printers prepare all of the books to distribute to all of you, along with all the other goodies you have ordered! As soon as we have the production schedule, we will have ESTIMATED DELIVERY DATES. 

We will of course keep you all updated on each and every update, but we expect a wait-time of at least a few months until the books are in your hands. Again, we couldn't be more thankful for your patience as we've finalized what has become the absolute largest project the Tamberteam has ever put together, and we are just as excited to get our hands on these babies as you are! We can't wait to keep you all up to date and, before *too* long, hear from all of you what you think of THE definitive copies of Tamberlane Books 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as the Arc 1 Omnibus itself!

We are so grateful. We couldn't have accomplished this without you.

BackerKit Sundries

My apologies for not charging the cards for BackerKit earlier: with my nose to the grindstone, I lost the ability to see basically anything else ^^;; I will charge the cards on Friday, October 6th. Hopefully that will give y'all time to arrange finances if you need to. 

Have you gotten a request from BackerKit to fill out your survey, even though you already did? Rest assured, it's because I added an extra question I forgot after you submitted your survey. You did nothing wrong!

Alright friends. I'm off to enjoy a break for the week. 

With excitement for the future and what's to come,

Caytlin and the Tamberteam

BackerKit Answers & IMPORTANT! Name Check!
8 months ago – Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 05:58:25 PM

OKAY! Whew! I've figured out the issue with the Backerkit Surveys for folks who exclusively ordered through the Backerkit.

As it turns out, surveys (as we expect them) are only for folks who pledged to a tier through Kickstarter. So if you did not receive a survey as a Backerkit backer, that is expected. You are all set.

Verify Your Name Below!

Now! For folks who backed through Kickstarter, I have finished exporting the names into the Omnibus book. Please look at the pages below and find your name, and make sure it is correct. If it is not correct, please leave a comment on this post with the name as it's currently listed (say "not listed" if it's not listed) and the name you'd like it changed to. HOPEFULLY I did not make any mistakes.

Please note: any who put "N/A" on their surveys for how they'd like to be thanked in the book were removed from the list. Also, those who backed through Backerkit do not get their names listed. Also also, if you only had an email listed, I removed the email part and left just the username. You don't need strangers emailing you.

Without further ado:

 View the 1st full-size page here! 

 View the 2nd full-size page here! 

Status Update on the Book

You guys... it's the home stretch!!! Knock on wood, cross your fingers, and throw salt over your shoulder because I think we'll be handing the Omnibus over for a round of edits to our buds by the end of the week!! 

After that, I'm giving them a week to return edits, and then probably a week to enact them (fingers crossed they're not HUGE, but at least the comic pages themselves should be in as close to final stage as we can get them for now!), and then it's OFF TO THE PRINTER! 

Converting the Omnibus into the updated softcovers should only take a few days, and then let me tell you, I am taking some time off to breathe. Whew!!!

...Of course, then I have to do all the conversions for the digital PDFs of them but THAT CAN WAIT.

Anyway, all this to say, the light is at the end of the tunnel and I am running screaming towards it at full speed.

Here, have some illustrations from the Q&A section for your patience!

Update Next Week
8 months ago – Fri, Sep 08, 2023 at 11:43:44 AM

Hey all,

For some reason backerkit preorder folks aren't getting surveys and I need to figure out why. Unfortunately, I have been going between pain days and doc appointments all week so I haven't had the energy to hunt down help. I promise I'll have answers (and locked surveys and stuff) next week, assuming I feel better. Sorry for the short update, I gotta go lay down again. <3

Omnibus is like 80% done now. Doing layout on some of the remaining sections when I get moments. Still needs edits, but it's very close.

And when Omnibus is done, most of the work can be ported to the softcovers. So that's nice.

Not all of the softcover bonus content will fit in the omnibus without increasing page number and cost. Annotations took up more space than I expected lol

If you haven't received a survey or can't figure out how to reach yours, please go here: https://tamberlane-a-talking-animal-fantasy-comic-deluxe-omnibu.backerkit.com/ and put in your email.

Thank you for your patience in returning emails and messages; I will get to you as soon as I'm able. Hopefully this email helps answer some of your questions!

Okay, talk to you next week <3 

Survey Deadline & Update!
9 months ago – Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 12:34:34 PM

Hello all!

First off: don't forget to fill out your surveys! They should be delivered to your email from BackerKit, not Kickstarter. Be sure to check your spam folder if you missed them!

However, even if you filled out the survey, your survey is incomplete. I realized too late I had forgotten to ask what name you preferred for the "Thank You" section of the book. Oops!! If this question is left blank, I'll use your Kickstarter name, but do please fill it out or I can't charge your card.

Technically the deadline to fill out your survey before it's locked and cards are charged is today, but between the fact I had to add that question, and the fact that I have not had a moment to update you since the smoke test, I'm going to give it another week. So the deadline to fill out your survey is Friday, 9/8!

Book Progress

The annotations are FINALLY all laid out. I spent pretty much a solid month on them, and they took way more time than I expected. The rest of the book should be easy by comparison, but I'm not about to count my chickens on that, given how much longer everything has taken than I expected!

The edits to the comic are down to the last few little bits, the Q&A section just needs some resizing and reformatting, the Trissol and Growl and Rucchirri sections need to be laid out, and the covers need to be finalized. Despite how that sounds, it will probably not be too much work to do comparatively! The worst part is going to be the non-comic edits and going through fixing things and laying things out that need fixing.

Finally, the printer is sending me samples of their ribbons and h&t bands, so I'll be choosing colors and material for those! I'm pretty excited!!

I'll have more to update you with soon. Thanks for hanging in there -- and fill out your surveys!