eBooks are LIVE!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 06:57:43 PM

Backers! It's happening! 

✨THE EBOOKS ARE HERE!✨

(Me, about 20 minutes ago, being VERY EXCITED to have sent the files at long last.)

You should all have emails in your inboxes from me, via BackerKit ([email protected]), with the subject line "New Digital Content for 100 Demon Dialogues: Book & Plushie on BackerKit". Open that up, click the login link to access your download, and you're all set!

The bundle contains a group of EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, and PDF files, which should cover any and all eReader platforms you might be using. 

I'd ask that you keep these files to yourselves for the time being, since we're still making final tweaks and revisions before the public eBooks and the print edition come out. In the meantime, you can always send people to my website (where they can read the comics for free) or to the pre-order store (where they can buy books and plushies of their own). There are also prints of every entry in the series over on Buyolympia.

If you run into any trouble at all with your downloads or anything else, just drop me a line and I'll do my best to make it right. (And if you lose your download email you can just visit this link to access your survey and get the file again.)

Enormous thanks to Ally for the gorgeous book design (and for putting up with my many nitpicky notes), Paulo for conversion and formatting assistance, and Andy for logistical and moral support.

And, of course, YOU! This entire thing absolutely would not be here without your enthusiasm and support. It is so meaningful to me to be able to share this with you in its entirety.

THANK YOU!

P.S. I made clear vinyl demon stickers because I couldn't help myself. They'll be available for purchase in a week or two, but for now I stuck one to a lamppost in Brooklyn because I'm on the road for another six days.

eBooks Downloads Coming Next Week
over 6 years ago – Sat, Oct 14, 2017 at 01:32:19 AM

Hi Backers!

Just a quick note to let you all know that the book design is FINISHED! 

Ally Haller has put in a ton of work making all the tiny details look great, and I'm getting more and more excited about seeing the whole thing in print. I added a bonus gallery at the back with all my previous Demon Dialogue entries from other drawing projects (like Inktober, which I'm participating in again right now). I think it adds a lovely chunk of evolutionary context for how the demon came to be.

Although the PDF is all done, we're also getting EPUB and MOBI files ready for all of you so that there's full support for eReaders, iPads, etc. This means we've just got a few more days to make sure that all the formats are correct before I send out the final download link. I'm aiming to have it in your hands by next Friday at the latest!

Thank you all so much for your eagerness and enthusiasm as we wrap this up. I can't wait to share the book with you.

With gratitude,

Lucy

Letterpress Studio Tour
over 6 years ago – Sun, Oct 01, 2017 at 12:26:29 AM

Hello, you demonic darlings—

First up: there are only FIFTY-FOUR people who still need to fill out their surveys! That's pretty great, all things considered. If you haven't filled out your survey yet, please do so! You can find the survey link here. (And if you need to update your address for any reason you can head over to this page.)

Now on to the good stuff: 

I made you a little video tour of Emily Riley's letterpress studio! Emily got started making plates and printing artwork for the limited edition letterpress prints on Monday, so I got to go in and ogle her process from start to finish this week. I'll share a couple images and then get into the video content.

First up, here's the finalized design for the prints! I'm really happy with it:

I told Emily I hadn't totally decided on what that secondary color should be and asked for her opinion when I turned in the art. She suggested silver, which I was really excited about, but also worried that it wouldn't be high-contrast enough to show off the design. Then we realized that we could just mix blue and silver and have the best of both worlds. BRILLIANT. 

In order to separate the two colors for printing, I sent Emily knocked out files of each shape, like so:

After the plates had been made, Emily gave me a call and I came running down to her magical studio to check out the production work. I did a lot of letterpress printing in college and I miss it a bunch. It was great to live vicariously through her expertise for a couple days. You can watch this little two-minute video to find out what happens next!

 And if you're feeling impatient and want to skip to the end, here's the final print!

It feels so luscious and catches the light so beautifully. I'm really thrilled with how the whole collaboration came out. Emily's wrapping up the full run of 200 prints, which we'll then lovingly number and sign together before sending them off to the warehouse for fulfillment with the rest of the rewards.

If you didn't manage to snag one of these bad boys during the campaign, but want one now (and I wouldn't blame you) you can order your own here! 

In Other Reward News: 

The final production sample for the plush toys arrived, which was honestly pretty weird because there's only supposed to be one demon in my life thank-you-very-much, but he looks great (like, even better than the first one? Is that EVEN POSSIBLE?) so we're OFF TO THE RACES! 2,000 demon plushies will be showing up on our doorstep in mid-November. YIKES.

So that's it for this week. The book design is getting really close, and I also succumbed to temptation and ordered a limited run of something many people requested during the campaign, but which I will reveal IN THE NEXT UPDATE once I have photos.

In the meantime, thank you all so much for being a part of this process. It's my very favorite thing to share this stuff with you.

Onward with love,

Lucy

P.S. Thanks to everyone who came by and got a backer high five at SPX! It made my heart very happy to meet so many of you in person. If you're in Portland, I'll be speaking at Creative Mornings (a free monthly lecture series) this coming Friday, October 6th. You can learn more here if you're interested. Seats open up Monday at 9am!

Cover Art, Money, Progress
over 6 years ago – Sat, Sep 09, 2017 at 01:07:45 AM

Hello, Lovely Backers—

I hope this update finds you all safe, wherever you are. Between raging wildfires and tropical storms it's been a scary time for many of us. Portland has been blanketed in a thick pall of smoke this week (though we have a blissful interlude of clouds this morning), and it can be hard to focus on creative work when so much in the world is in disarray. 

If you're in the DC area and want the support of a friendly face, I'll be tabling at the Small Press Expo next weekend in Bethesda, MD. Come find me at Table K9A, right next to the Cartozia Tales team. (Speaking of Cartozia, I'm selling off some rare original art I did for the series over in my online shop, if you're interested in that sort of thing.)

Survey Status:

It's been a bit of a lull period in production land as we wait for the final surveys to come in and get started on printing in earnest. A whopping 94% of you have filled out your information already, for which I am exceedingly grateful, but I'm still rooting for those last 75 backers! If you haven't yet gotten your survey, or it's buried somewhere in your inbox (it happens) just let me know and I can send you a direct replacement link. You can also add-on additional books or plushies or prints if you didn't get quite the package you wanted during the campaign. (And if you have friends who want some swag as well, there's a public pre-order store up now.)

As far as production goes: 

The plush tags have been submitted and the downpayment is in, so things are moving ahead there! All the design elements for the book are now with Ally, who's hard at work making the text align and the layouts sing. Though she's in charge of putting everything together, I couldn't help going through my own wiggly process toward figuring out the covers. I'm usually more of a maximalist, so it's been interesting to try and make a book that's on this side of refined and elegant. Here's a look at some early drafts and how they progressed toward a closer prototype:

The tricky thing, of course, is that the cover is going to feature both spot gloss over a black background and silver foil, which are hard to mock-up accurately in a digital format. However, through a happy coincidence I've found some nice physical examples of books printed with a similar aesthetic (like Abby Howard's The Last Halloween) and now feel way more confident about the effect I'm going for. Those faint grey demons in the background will by rendered in gloss, so you only see them when they catch the light! The rest of the cover details will be silver. I think it'll look really cool.

Money Matters:

As promised, I've made a public spreadsheet that I'll keep updated with all the money that's come in from the campaign and where it's going. I've learned so much from folks who have been willing to share behind-the-scenes details from their projects, and I want to pay it forward with my own contribution to the field. I hope it's helpful and/or interesting to some of you!

Now, more than ever, I believe it's important to champion art that brings us together and forges ties between our various lives and struggles. I hope this book plays some small part in that process.

Talk to you soon,

Lucy

Surveys are GO
over 6 years ago – Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 10:40:23 PM

Beloved Backers! It's happening! Aaaaaa!

You should all have happy little surveys from BackerKit sitting in your inboxes as of this morning, which means it's time to:

• Add-on any additional plushies, books, or prints that you didn't grab during the campaign,
• Confirm your mailing address (you can update this until the month before goods ship in early 2018),
• And confirm your payment info!

If you don't see a survey email from BackerKit in your inbox, just drop me a line and I can send you a link for a new one. (Be sure to check your Spam and Trash folders just in case before you get in touch.)

The Pre-order Store is also live, so if you have a friend who wanted to get in on the action but missed the deadline, you can send them right over here.

As promised, here's the video Chris Higgins captured of our final campaign moments at the wrap party. At the peak of the festivities we'd filled out this entire half of the patio! It was such a thrill.

I've also included some of my favorite demons from the evening. Everyone contributed such hilarious and touching entires:

[That link is being fiddly, so here it is again just in case: Closing Party Demons.]

The money from the campaign cleared earlier this week, so I've been sending off initial payments to all the excellent folks making this stuff happen. Plush production should be kicking off in earnest in the next couple weeks, and I'm gathering a couple more quotes from printers before I decide who's going to be making the books. (I got the chance to tour a print shop in Reykjavík that was super cool, so if I go with them expect lots of photos.)

Speaking of money: I'm working on a spreadsheet that I'd like to make available for folks who are interested. It'll show all the figures associated with the Kickstarter and how I'm spending the money. I'll send an update when I've got that all put together so you can take a peek under the financial hood.

Okay, back to writing intro and afterword stuff for the book. You're all THE BEST. Can't wait to share more from the design process.

<3

Lucy