Final Physical Proofs, Shipping Costs, and Add-Ons
7 months ago
– Tue, Sep 09, 2025 at 01:16:58 PM
Sweet baby vens,
Sorry for the pause in updates there. Two things happened:
- The pantones and cover foiling both took multiple rounds to get right
- My points of contact at the printer took some vacation time
Full Physical Proofs
No sweat, though, because the first full physical proofs just came in—bound, foiled, and juuuust about ready to print. Behold.
Look at these beauties. I love how ancient, heavy, and raw the paper stock feels. Just wait until you hold it.
Last Corrections
These proofs have two flaws that I want to knock out before greenlighting the run: one trivial and from version-control, and the other a meaningful matter of trim/alignment.
Ordinarily I'd spare you this look at the sausage mid-making, but this project took a Saturnal year to finish, and you've all been unreasonably patient, so I'll show you that second flaw as an example of the wrinkles I've been smoothing ad infinitum:
The actual off-white trim should be roughly half the above trim's height and appear on all three non-seam edges, like so:
Easy fix, the printers say, and I'm on top of it.
Shipping
That shipping email I've been threatening is actually about to fire, for real and for true now.
It'll come from BackerKit and collect the following payments by weight and location:
I dug through many third-party shipping services to get you guys the best rates that I could, so I hope you find these reasonable. I think they're pretty good!
Add-Ons
Many of you have reached out about how you might increase your pledge from the digital to physical version book (thank you for this!).
The forthcoming email from BackerKit is your chance. When paying for shipping, everyone may add up to 2 copies of Shrines (Base Edition) and 3 copies of SANCTUM. These limits help keep the shipping prices under control; if anyone wants to exceed them, they can do so through the EM|NCD e-store after I've listed Shrines for sale.
You may not add copies of Shrines (Hallowed Edition) or either of the t-shirts for three reasons: the split for the book's print run is locked, we already printed the shirts, and I take "Kickstarter exclusive" seriously.
The BackerKit interface will look like this:
Discord
It's been a while, so here's another link to the press' Discord, in case you wanna hang.
A thousand thank-you's, and look out for that email,
James
Fine-Tuning Specs with the Printer
8 months ago
– Tue, Aug 05, 2025 at 09:49:56 AM
Venerators,
Quick update: I'm in a back and forth right now with the printers, especially to get the colors and cover foiling correct.
Colors
The skinny is that uncoated paper stock—which we want here for that raw, natural feel—absorbs more ink than glossier modern stocks, which can turn out kinda dull. The red in the first physical proof was too burgundy, going on brown, so we did the whole Pantone dance and picked 1945 C for the red in print. The digital version's red will differ slightly, but not by as much as it did from that first proof.
Cover Foiling
This step is delicate and depends on vector exporting that I'm doing for the first time and which Affinity seems to handle differently than Adobe, which the printer expects and prefers. We're figuring it out.
Shipping
Please continue to watch for that shipping email. There are some choices on my end here: Kickstarter has a new partnership with a company called EasyShip that offers (AFAIK extremely) reduced rates for shipping, so I'm exploring how that might integrate with BackerKit and our printer's in-house distribution arm. I don't want to do this twice, so please bear with me while I do the admin.
Thanks again, and in touch with a second physical proof soon,
James
First Physical Proofs
9 months ago
– Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 01:27:55 PM
Veneradores,
Tenemos las copias primeras del libro que—*SMACK*, I mean, hello, it is I, the writer and publisher of a book that I am suddenly holding. Behold, which is to say hold it with me in the distant way that you can, knowing first a few things:
- The proof came unbound, just a bunch of loose pages. I tried to hold it together, but please expect no tidiness in these pictures.
- We haven't seen the foiling yet. Your copies will have foiled details on the cover.
- iluvm
I have a few notes for the printer, so we'll do another round of this, but for the most part I'm really happy with how this looks and feels!
To say a little, it looks sharp, it feels heavy, and I'm surprised to be surprised by the scale in these compositions. Art and text alike are big and accessible, as if this were a picture-book for kids, and there's something delightful and fresh about that. I can imagine reading it in bed, sinking into a vignette as the day recedes, and that's exactly the kind of immersion I aimed for.
It's giving Wanderhome, as the kids might say, and my goal now is to earn a fraction of that audacious, aspirational comparison.
Shipping
Again, please be ready to confirm your address and provide payment for shipping. We can calculate package weight now that we have a physical proof, so that email is no more than a week away. In it, assuming nothing unforseen, anyone who wants to upgrade their order—say, from digital to physical—should be able to.
Turnaround might be tight, but August fulfillment is still my goal!
Thank you, as always, and in touch again soon,
James
Digital version 1.0.0 available for download
9 months ago
– Mon, Jul 07, 2025 at 08:00:27 AM
V E N E R A T O R S,
~1.5 years (!!!) after you all entrusted me with funds to finish this book, I release to you, its most patient of backers, digital version 1.0.0.
Digital Downloads
The following links will take you to separate itch.io pages for Shrines and SANCTUM, which contain their respective digital files. Using your email addresses from the Kickstarter campaign, I've generated download keys that access the digital rewards in your backer tier.
How to Download
For security reasons, you'll need an itch.io account to activate your download keys. Most importantly, this account must match the email address you used to back the Kickstarter campaign. Please verify your Kickstarter account's credentials before making your itch account. I'm sorry for this clunky, annoying step, but it keeps things clean and secure.
Contents
A couple notes:
- The Shrines PDF shows spreads, not pages stacked in sequence, because we designed much of the art and layout—especially the shrines vignettes themselves—to splay across two pages. The reasoning should be obvious in context, but it's an unconventional choice, so I felt like calling it out.
- We'll definitely tweak Shrines before moving to print, but we're talking minor formatting adjustments—the book is very much ready for readers—and your download keys should work for all future versions I upload to the page. If that ever proves untrue, please reach out to me, and I'll send you whatever.
- I've included a printer-friendly, full-page version of the Pilgrimage system's worksheet that all backers of the physical book will receive as a full-color A6 card.
- If you spot any errors, please let me know. Jeremiah, the editor, and I have been crawling through the book all week, but that actually blinds you after a while, so random typos are possible.
Thank you a thousand times, and I hope you love what you read.
Physical Printing
This month, assuming no issues on the printer's end, we'll be printing all physical rewards. This includes both editions of Shrines as 70-page paperbacks, SANCTUM as an A6 booklet, and the Pilgrimage worksheet as an A6 card (the t-shirts have been done for a while).
Given the printer's quick turnaround and in-house shipping, fulfillment is on-track for August.
Please watch for incoming emails about shipping to confirm your address and collect payment. You should also be able to upgrade your order to include physical copies of Shrines or Sanctum (but not shirts; the shirts are done).
Again, thank you for backing this project. It's the press' first major release, and I'm doing much of this for the first time, so I know how bumbling it must've looked. You're all as kind and magical as Saint Dolma.
In touch again soon,
James
Writing Complete, Edits Received—Digital Proof Inbound
9 months ago
– Mon, Jun 30, 2025 at 10:16:09 AM
Inches from the end, my friends.
Last week I finished the essay, passed it to cultural consultant James Mendez Hodes, and incorporated his notes. Now that our editor, Jerimiah Goad, has finished his pass, I have one last round of notes to incorporate—and then I'll be sitting on the book's first complete draft.
In the next week or so, you should expect to receive:
- A link to download a full digital proof
- An email seeking your shipping address for fulfillment
It feels wild to finally arrive. Thank you again for your heroic patience, and I hope you love what you read.
In touch again soon,
James
