Hey Backers!
It's Daydreaming Davey this time beaming in from my home planet (which currently has sketchy wifi)! Super nice to meet all of you! A quick warning... I tend to ramble. This update covers two important details for backers: shipping expense breakdown and BackerKit plans for adding more books. We've gotten a fair amount of questions regarding both, so let's have a quick look at the details...
Shipping Costs, Crowdfunding's Greatest Scourge
If you're in the States, hopefully you're happy with our low-cost shipping! It took some work to get it down to that simple $5 cost so we hope that's working for people.
For our international backers, we're well aware of how expensive it is. If you can believe it, these prices are actually discount shipping! So, let me walk you through the costs...
Fulfilling Kickstarter campaigns can be a nightmarish challenge, especially if the backer/order counts get up to the big numbers. Well, here we are in the big numbers. We elected to partner with two fulfillment warehouse companies. One (M-Pack) is based in the US. The other is run by a very good friend of mine (Stephen Robson) and is set up in England. Warehousing in two countries reduces postage cost for backers.
Most KS campaigns will just ship everything from one location. In our case, that would be the USA. When we check the USPS international first class shipping cost for our three-book package, the postage is $48! Then you have to add the packaging and labor cost. Basically, if we shipped everything ourselves through normal means, we'd have to charge way more than we are just to avoid losing money on each international order. By shipping from England, we got the cost down much lower for our European and International backers because it's cheaper to ship via courier service from the UK than from the US. Of course, we have to pay these warehouse partners their fees, but the overall cost is lower.
There's more info here, but I just want to make sure no one thinks we're overcharging for shipping.
I promise, we've done everything we can to get that cost as low as possible for you. I'm sorry it's still very expensive and understand some international backers will be unable to back because of that. It is, unfortunately, out of our control.
BackerKit Bonanza!
Want to add a second book? Want a different combination of titles that what's available in Kickstarter directly? Want just Zelda and Metroid? Good news! All this and more becomes possible after the campaign via BackerKit!
If you're unaware, BackerKit is a system that provides a lot of extra tools for campaign management and reward fulfillment. Basically, it makes it easier for us to get your rewards to you.
In addition, it will allow backers to add extra items to their orders.
After the Kickstarter campaign is finished, your payment methods will be charged. Soon after that, you'll receive a survey link where you can fill out important details like your shipping address, best contact email, etc. In that survey, you'll also be able to add more items from the campaign via the BackerKit Add-on store.
Good news regarding how this affects shipping cost! The Add-on store factors in the shipping you've already paid into your order on Kickstarter. So if you add more books and it raises your shipping cost, you'll only be charged the extra shipping expense.
There'll be more details soon about BackerKit. For now, just rest assured you will be able to add more books. So just pick the tier that has what you want and you can add the extra books in your survey.
Okay, that's all I've got for you today! We'll have a ton of exciting details to share with you going forward, including production photos, manufacturing videos, making-of content... and way, way more. It's gonna be crazy fun and we're thrilled we get to share this process with you!
Talk soon! ;)
~D.M. Cumbo
www.kickstarter.com
