Backstage Blog: February Objectives (Patreon)

Good evening everyone, welcome to the Backstage Blog for February.

First off, a heads up! Vivid has some new projects in the pipeline:

The Wayward Astronomer is gearing up for a crowdfunded print run. If you're unfamiliar with the novel, you can read the early draft here for free, and I highly recommend it: 

http://kafelnikov.deviantart.com/art/The-Wayward-Astronomer-Ch1-199650110 

The campaign is loosely planned for late February or early March.

Also, we recently connected with a plush manufacturing pro at a convention- so we're planning to create a prototype Dreamkeepers plush this spring, and host a Kickstarter for the manufacturing cost sometime this summer.

I wanted to give you the earliest notice available, we're going to host a poll in March with a few options to choose from.

But back to February- we have a lot to do! Book sales this month are allowing us to remain full time, so I want to accomplish as much as possible while that holds true.

We're continuing the weekly Prelude, because it's simply too much fun- and hopefully we can nail a few extras to build a small buffer.

We've finished draft 3 of the Volume 5 Chapter 13 script. The rest of February, I plan to complete scripts for Chapters 14 and 15. (Volume 5 is Chapters 13, 14 and 15.) I want to get them done soon, so there's time for the manuscript to cool for a couple weeks before we close in for the final revisions in March.

I need to knock out a few commissions from our que, and also tackle supplemental art for the Wayward Astronomer novel. I don't want to be the slow gear that stalls a release date there- so I plan to work on some stylized chapter header illustrations soon.

And the most immediate task for February- the #Dreamkeepers Faction Contest!

This is the first chance we've ever had to do a giveaway event of this scale- who knows when it could happen again? So we've got to strike while the iron is hot, and make it count.

The main goal is to have a blast- and if you peek into the hashtag on twitter, you'll see it happening. X D

The other goal, of course, is to spread the series to as many new readers as possible. We don't have the marketing leverage of a huge company, so a supercharged word-of-mouth campaign is our best shot this year to grow. I'm planning to write a journal for those helping boost the contest, and also drop some encouraging art into the mix when I can, and run a small ad campaign. The more new readers we can attract, the more fuel the series gathers to continue onward!

Due to the Faction contest and the other immediate tasks, video game development will likely be on the back burner until next month.

Stay tuned here for stream announcements, and the free weekly song from the official Dreamkeepers score.

Any questions, just drop them below- thank you to everyone for making this work possible!