Tour Dates + Accessibility
almost 6 years ago – Thu, May 24, 2018 at 11:24:25 PM

Hello, friends!

The 100 Demon Dialogues commercial release (and US book tour) are fast approaching, so first up I'm gonna give you some dates to check out:

The hometown release party is happening June 4th! RSVP here and get ready for a really lovely evening of camaraderie and humor. We'll have books, plushies, prints, friends, and a live conversation and moderated Q&A from 8-9pm.

Oh, I also got those name tags printed!

My wild idea is to get a Log Book for the tour, and have everyone who's willing stick their name tags in at the end of the event. There'll be blank pages, too, where people can draw their own demons. By the end of the tour, we'll have a huge collection of people's hopes and fears from all over the country, which I think will be really cool.

Current Tour Stops

Moving north: I've got TWO stops in the Seattle area. You can find me at Brick and Mortar Books in Redmond on June 8th (RSVP here) and Outsider Comics & Geek Boutique on June 9th (RSVP here). Each event will be slightly different from the others, so if you want to go wild and attend both, there'll be something for everyone.

If you're in the Twin Cities you can find me at Magers & Quinn Booksellers on June 12th (RSVP here). 

We're working on a date in Chicago on June 14th. Stay tuned! (Do you know any cool coffee shops or community spaces with performance capability? Let me know.)

I'll be at A2CAF (The Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival) in Michigan at the Ann Arbor District Library on June 16th & 17th! More info about this charming, free festival can be found here.

We're still hammering out an event page, but you can also mark your calendars for June 20th in Huntington, NY at Escape Pod Comics. (There's a tweet you can share here.)

More dates to come! You'll be the first to know about them here.

The next bit gets a little nerdy. If you like hearing about file formats and building a better web, read on!

Accessibility + Comics

When I started generating files for the eBook edition of 100 Demon Dialogues, things didn't go so well. I was using unfamiliar software to try and translate my image pages into something that would work on a standard iPad, and every time I thought I'd figured things out, I'd get another error message. 

Fortunately, my friend Jason was visiting town and offered to take a look under the hood. With a lot of trial and error, we discovered that all the images in the container file weren't reading because they didn't have any alt text. This is the thing you often see when you mouse over an image on the web. In an ideal world, this text gives a clear description of what's happening in the image.

Why? Because there are some folks who use screen readers to help them browse the web. These text-to-speech engines read copy aloud, and draw from the alt text to describe what's happening in any images on the page. This is great for visually impaired users, and presumably for other folks as well.

Jason offered to write a script that would just enter "image 1, image 2," and so on into the document as a placeholder, but it got me thinking that an accessible version of this book would be a really vital thing to have. I hadn't heard of cartoonists doing anything like this before, so I figured why not try.

One of my fabulous backers, Kate, stepped up to help, and for the last couple weeks she's been in my employ going through and writing up descriptions of all the pages: 

Now the files are with Jason again, and he'll be generating something for the Apple iBooks Store that will offer this functionality. SUPER COOL.

These are the things I love about making work within a community: there's always something more to learn.

See you on the tour! I can't wait.

<3

Lucy

Release Party & Book Tour
almost 6 years ago – Wed, May 09, 2018 at 05:51:12 PM

Hello hello!

It's time for your monthly update on all things Demon Dialogues. It turns out we had a couple minor hiccups with shipping orders to folks who added items in BackerKit, but I believe we caught all the errors and are now good to go. As always: if you're missing an item, package, or shipment notification, get in touch with the fulfillment team at [email protected] and we'll make it right.

Store News: You can now purchase demon plushies, stickers, and postcards in my shop, and the book is available for preorder from booksellers everywhere (there's even a Kindle version)! Tell your friends <3

Now, on to the fun stuff! Here's all that's been happening with the project over the past few weeks:

1. Release Party!

The release party is happening right here in Portland on June 4th at Ford Food + Drink from 7pm-10pm! We're going to do signing and book/plushie sales (courtesy of Books with Pictures) from 7-8, a moderated discussion and Q&A (with my good pal Derek Powazek) from 8-9, and general revelry from 9-10! Bring your Kickstarted copies of the book, bring your friends, bring your brave hearts. I'm having some fun stickers made so we can all wear our hearts on our sleeves:

By the time I write to you again I'll have a proper event page and some fun graphics, but I figured you'd all want to be forewarned. I'm really looking forward to this evening. It's going to be really special.

2. See you at TCAF!

I'm flying out to Toronto in just a few hours to table at the incredible Toronto Comic Arts Festival, one of my very favorite conventions. You can find me on the Ground Floor at Table 107, except for Sunday from 2:45-4pm, when I'll be doing a special workshop on Drawing Boats with Rebecca Mock in the Marriott Yorkville Ballroom. Admission is free, and the whole weekend is packed with amazing artists and activities. Learn more on the TCAF site. 

I'll also be making a special appearance at the Forest Festival of Trees, Canada's largest festival for young readers. Find me in Tents K & H with the TCAF Team on Tuesday and Wednesday! 

• Tuesday: Signing in Tent K from 10am-12pm 
• Tuesday: Sketch-off with Charice Harper in Tent H from 1pm-2pm 
• Wednesday: "How to Start Your Own Comic" in Tent H from 10am-11am 
• Wednesday: Signing in Tent K from 11am-12pm and 1pm-1:30pm

3. The Great American Book Tour is Coming!

So originally I'd planned to do a fairly modest West Coast tour over the summer, but then I started talking with Heather and getting excited about the idea of going literally everywhere and now we're looking at a tour schedule that's more like this:

• Seattle, WA 
• Chicago, IL
• Cedar Rapids, IA 
• Twin Cities, Minnesota 
• Ann Arbor, Michigan 
• New York, NY 
• Long Island, NY 
• Boston, MA 
• Washington, D.C. 
• Charlotte, NC 
• Athens, GA 
• Austin, TX 
• Houston, TX 
• Santa Fe, NM 
• Denver, CO
• San Diego, CA 
• Los Angeles, CA 
• Ojai, CA 
• Berkeley, CA 
• San Francisco, CA
  

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME.

Okay, so for real: it's likely that we won't be able to lock down events in all these places, but if you live in any of them: keep an eye out! CHANCES ARE HIGH. (And if you've got a spare bedroom or might be willing to help an itinerant cartoonist out when she's passing through town, let me know. I'm going to be relying on the kindness of strangers.)

That's it for now! If you'd like to support the book in the world, you can ask your local comic shop or bookstore to carry it, leave a review on Goodreads, or post about it on social media! I've had many people coming over at conventions and signings to tell me they've been seeing the demon plushies all over the web, which is a huge thrill. Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm. It makes an enormous difference!

I'll leave you with this photo of two good boys:

Much love to you all,

Lucy

Shipping is COMPLETE!
about 6 years ago – Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 07:49:34 PM

Splendid news, everyone!

Blackbox has successfully shipped all the completed orders for 100 Demon Dialogues! 

This means all international packages have now left the warehouse, all domestic US orders have been delivered, and it's time to celebrate. 

• If you haven't received a shipping notification, drop me an email at [email protected] and we'll figure out where things went wrong. 
• If you got the wrong item in your shipment, get in touch with the fulfillment team at [email protected] and they'll be sure to send you the correct thing speedy-quick.
• If you've received and read your book, would you leave it a review on Goodreads? It's one of the best things you can do to help the project succeed in the wild.

We're hard at work planning the book tour and arranging details for the official release party here in Portland. Our launch party will likely take place the week of June 4th, if you want to block off some time on your calendars. I'll be sure to keep you all updated on that as things move forward. 

If you want your local comic shop to stock the book, customer order cutoff is April 25th! Walk on in to your favorite store and give them the Diamond Order Code (APR181833) to make sure they have the book on their shelves in June.

I'll leave you with this photo of my parents being extremely cute with their horrible new grandchild:

 Thank you ALL for bringing this thing to life! Let's get it out into the world.

Love and comics,

Lucy

The Second Wave + International Order Update
about 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 11:45:50 PM

Hello again, Demon Friends!

I had a really fun photoshoot today with Dan Hawk for his 52 Portraits series. This is just a goofy shot from my phone, but I can't wait to show you what we came up with—the photos are going to be super cool. (You can also see more on my Instagram Story today.) In the meantime, I've got some good news!

1. All domestic US orders have now shipped!

If you were in the batch of folks who hadn't yet received shipping notifications, that should've all been fixed last week. Boxes have been arriving over the last few days, with most West Coast recipients getting items today and tomorrow. I hope you love your new treats!

One request: if you enjoyed the book, would you leave a review on Goodreads to help it reach more people? It's a huge boost for the project and enables bookstores to see that this collection will resonate with their customers. THANK YOU!

2. All international boxes have now arrived in the UK!

Our long customs nightmare is finally at an end. The last box in our shipment cleared earlier this week, which means orders will be outbound by the start of next week at the very latest. I really appreciate your patience as we've waited for all the paperwork and dillydallying to blow over. This always seems to happen at one stage or another, and I know it's already a drag waiting for international packages, so thank you.

3. Postcards are up for sale!

Not that you all aren't already drowning in 100 Demon Dialogues merch, but I did just make these nifty postcards available in my store:

I love how these little guys came out. They're smooth and luscious and durable for those long postal journeys. Nitroprint is a local company I've been working with for over five years now. They do really quality work for small jobs like this. Postcards are $1.50 each from Buyolympia!

That's it for now—just a short n' sweet update on where we're at. THINGS ARE MOVING ALONG!

As always, thank you for everything <3

Lucy

The First Wave, Review Listings, & More!
about 6 years ago – Tue, Apr 03, 2018 at 10:37:49 PM

Hello Backers!

It's the first day of 2018's 100 Day Project! I'm not participating this year, but if you're starting a project of your own, I wish you all the best. Doing this challenge twice has changed my life, and I hope it does the same for you. (You can buy a copy of my 2016 100 Day Project—the precursor to 100 Demon Dialogues—right here.)

We've got three items of notable news in this update: arrivals, shipments, and reviews. Read on to learn about each!

1. REWARDS ARE ARRIVING

I've been so overjoyed seeing all these images of readers with their new books and plush toys coming in over the past week. Here's a selection of smiling faces:

I'm particularly delighted seeing cats and children interacting with the rewards, and am very impressed with all the creative ways people are posing their little plush jerks. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm. Every comment about how soft the demons are (VERY SOFT) and how nice the covers on the book turned out (VERY NICE) makes me feel like all my obsessive detail-hounding over the past year has been worth it.

(Regretting not getting a demon plushie? They're now up for general sale in my webstore!)

"But wait," I hear you cry. "I DON'T HAVE MY STUFF YET!" If you're still waiting on your shipment notification, DON'T FRET. Here's why you might not have an email notification waiting for you...

2. We lost some books! AND THEN FOUND THEM AGAIN.

You may remember that 200 of our very limited edition hardcover books mysteriously vanished while transiting from the printer to our warehouse. I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure out a) where they went and b) what I could do if those books weren't recovered. The prospects (reprinting at vast expense, issuing a lot of refunds, etc.) weren't fun, so you can imagine why I screamed a string of relieved obscenities at my laptop when I received an email yesterday saying they'd been found! It turns out there was an error getting them logged in the warehouse system, and they'd just been misplaced. PHEW.

So, all's well that ends well, and NOW we get to make sure all the remaining orders that involved hardcover units are shipped out as well. You should be receiving notifications about that tomorrow.

International Backers! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you. We had a customs holdup at the UK border (Kickstarter Pro-Tip: there's always a customs holdup), so two of our three boxes have arrived in the warehouse, but there's still ooooonnnnnneeeeeee mooooooorrrrrrrrre. Blackbox are on the case, badgering the customs folks to clear the box ASAP, but that's where we're at. I'll let you know as soon as the boxes are all accounted for and we can start getting you your stuff.

3. It's time for PROMOTION!

As I mentioned in the last update: 100 Demon Dialogues is getting a proper commercial release in bookstores and comic shops on June 5th! To help this release be a big success, I've got a couple favors to ask:

• Ask your local retailer or library branch to pre-order the book! If you're encouraging your local comic shop to place an order, the Diamond code is APR181833. If you'd like to get a bookstore or library to stock it, let ’em know they can order the book through Ingram (that's the big distributor for bookstores) and give them the ISBN number: 978-0-9882202-4-9
• Leave a brief review! Reviews are an incredibly helpful way to boost visibility for the book. Listings are now semi-live on Powell's, Goodreads, and Amazon (meaning you can leave a review even if you can't place an order quite yet). A quick rating goes a long way to helping new readers discover the collection.
• Suggest a venue! Got a blog, bookstore, podcast, comic shop, or publication that you think would dig the book? Send me your recommendations! I'm standing by to mail treats to any promising outlets, and would love your help pushing the book into new places. No idea is too outlandish—hit me with what'cha got. (And if you want to do an interview for an outlet you work for or bring me to speak at a local venue, let me know!) There's a handy press packet available in Google Drive at bit.ly/100DDPressKit.

Just for kicks (and to say "thank you" for all your help): you can download a printable version of the little demon standee cards I produced at bit.ly/100DDStandee! Print the file on cardstock and you should be able to make a freestanding demon of your very own.

Okay, it's back to the postcard mines for me. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, marvelous humans, for helping to make this project a reality. I'm pinching myself every day.

<3

Lucy

P.S. If you're planning a Kickstarter of your own at any point in the future, I gave a big talk about running successful campaigns while I was teaching in Denmark this month! You can watch the whole thing here.