2024 Kickstarter: Dukes
Fast Jump:
- What is Kickstarter?
- How does Kickstarter work?
- Dukes Kickstarter Info
- Dukes Tiers
- Previews
- Add-Ons
- Spine Spreads
- FAQs
What is Kickstarter?
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that allows creators to raise funds for their projects. We utilize it, basically, as a pre-order platform for special editions of FU books and merch. Custom special edition hardbacks are hella expensive, and two of the biggest worries with purchasing a print run are:
- Can I afford to buy a gazillion books before I’ve even sold them?
- How many will I realistically be able to sell, so as to not get stuck with 2 tons of books lingering away in my garage?
Kickstarter takes both of these barriers out of the equation, which is why we use it. These Kickstarter ‘campaigns’ also allow us to source and invest in special limited time merch.
So how does Kickstarter work?
Phase 1:
Promotion.
We will begin promoting the Kickstarter a bit before it begins to make sure everyone is aware of the timeframe and has a chance to make their pre-order. There’s no limit to how many books we can take pre-orders for, however some of the merch tiers will be limited quantity, so some early birds will be worm-yoinking. If you don’t have one already, you can go ahead make your Kickstarter account before the project even goes live to speed up the process.
Sign up to the Kickstarter section of our Newsletter, or follow our Kickstarter shop and click on the “Notify me on launch” button to get notified when it goes live! If you have the Kickstarter app, you can also get instant notifications, as well as emails.
phase 2:
Campaign.
When the ‘campaign’ goes live, you can choose a ‘tier’ and ‘pledge’. These are Kickstarter terms, and we don’t want them to confuse you, so for all intents and purposes:
- ‘Campaign’ is the stretch of the actual live event in which you can claim a pre-order.
- ‘Tier’ is the type of book box you’re ordering.
- ‘Pledge’ is your actual order, or commitment to ordering. It’s you saying, “why yes, I will buy this.”
Phase 3:
Payment.
You don’t actually pay for your pre-order until the campaign has ended. So if the campaign lasts 2 weeks and you pledge on day one, your card won’t be charged until the 2 weeks is up. Everyone’s cards get charged at the same time.
Phase 4:
Professional Fuckery.
This is where the gravy is made! The printers fire up their doo-dads and thingamajigs and get to cranking out our sweet funky. So this span of time (months) is just us making the orders, handling logistics, and navigating general WTFery, like our paperback printer accidentally sending hundreds of copies of explicit somnophilia porn to my 75-year-old father’s house. Oh, it’s fun!
This is a very long stretch of time in which we’ll give updates on the Kickstarter page and within the Monarchs group and FU Discord server. Don’t panic if things seem silent. The truth is, a lot of this is incredibly boring and just us waiting for something to arrive.
Phase 5:
Answer Survey.
Since we’ll need to collect details, we’ll send you out a survey to complete your order by providing a shipping address and any other important info. This will not be instant. In the time between the end of the campaign and fulfillment, some people may have moved, so we try not to send these out until we’re ready to ship.
Phase 6:
Fulfillment.
We’ll have all the books and merch and special packaging at this point, so we get together for a week of ooh’ing and ahh’ing and whining about how our feet are tired as we package it all up and get it in the mail.
You’ll receive an email with the tracking number, and then the goodies will arrive to you, which will conclude the project and result in many naps for us.
Dukes Campaign / 2024
Begins: January 19th, 2024 at 12pm (noon) EST
Ends: February 2nd, 2024 at 12pm (noon) EST
Funding Goal: $35,000
Fulfillment: July-October 2024
This campaign will last for 2 weeks, which some of you may notice is less than the previous campaign. We’re doing this because the Lords campaign illustrated that the vast majority of orders were made in this timeframe, and we don’t want to hold up 700 individuals’ book orders just so we can collect a few others.
Show us the tiers!
| Item | Tier 1 Duke | Tier 2 Duchess | Tier 3 King | Tier 4 Queen | Tier 5 Monarch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dukes signed hardback trilogy | x | x | x | x | x |
| DKS foil bookmark | x | x | x | x | x |
| Secret Barons invitation | x | x | x | x | x |
| Dukes Portrait Sticker | x | x | x | x | x |
| Duchess of Forsyth foil paperback | x | x | x | x | |
| Victors: DKS Pledge Book | x | x | x | x | |
| Dukes Forsyth Tarot (x5) | x | x | x | ||
| Mug | x | x | x | ||
| Remy’s color wheel | x | x | x | ||
| Archduke pin | x | x | x | ||
| Dukes beaded bracelet | x | x | x | ||
| Friday Night Fury card | x | x | x | ||
| Custom art Overlays (x3) | x | x | x | ||
| Custom art giclée prints (x4) | x | x | |||
| Cutslut makeup bag | x | x | |||
| Rose gold Bruin necklace | x | x | |||
| Leather journal | x | x | |||
| Special mention in hardback Acknowledgements | x | x | |||
| Exclusive Queen FB group access | x | x | |||
| Admittance to Prince and Barons ARC teams | x | x | |||
| Lords KS signed hardback trilogy | x | ||||
| Limit | No limit | No limit | No limit | 75 | ??? |
| Price (in USD) | $130 | $170 | $240 | $750 | $1500 |
Previews
We’ll be adding to this periodically.
Title Pages
Interior Art
Custom Art Progress
Why are there no add-ons?
We aren’t doing add-ons this campaign, as it was a huge source of disruption last time. In an effort to streamline shipping and postage, and decrease the amount of errors we made last time, we’ve decided to shimmy all of our paper, overstock, and small merch goods to their own shop.
This shop will have bookplates, sticker packs, pin packs, art prints, character portrait cards (not tarot), Kickstarter overstock, and more. To be notified about the launch, you can sign up to our newsletter (choose ‘Royal Ink Boutique’), follow our official FU merch insta account, or join Monarchs FB group or the Discord server.
Below, I will put the likelihood of items/overstock being in the boutique later on. If they do appear, it’ll only be after campaign fulfillment has ended.
| Item | Boutique |
|---|---|
| Dukes signed hardback trilogy | Probably Not |
| DKS foil bookmark | Yes |
| Secret Barons invitation | Yes |
| Dukes Portrait Sticker | Yes |
| Duchess of Forsyth foil paperback | Maybe |
| Victors: DKS Pledge Book | Yes |
| Dukes Forsyth Tarot (x5) | No |
| Mug | Maybe |
| Remy’s color wheel | Yes |
| Archduke pin | Maybe |
| Dukes beaded bracelet | Maybe |
| Friday Night Fury card | Yes |
| Custom art Overlays (x3) | Yes |
| Custom art giclée prints (x4) | Maybe |
| Cutslut makeup bag | No |
| Rose gold Bruin necklace | No |
| Leather journal | No |
| Lords KS signed hardback trilogy | Super ultra no |
If I missed previous Kickstarters, then I can never complete the spine spread? This is terrible?
To us, Forsyth is a character just as much as a setting, and we really wanted to show off all the corners of our cozy little psycho world and their distinctive vibes in the spine spread. So if you still want to see something like this on your shelf:
Then there is still a way! We now offer a hardback option on Amazon with this same spine treatment. It will not have the gold foiling, KS cover, sprayed edges, or special interior art, but it’s still a very special book that features all new cover art and snazzy formatting, and will look fantastic next to whichever Kickstarter special editions you manage to catch! These, we will offer in perpetuity. There’s also a paperback option.
V3 Hardbacks:
V3 Paperbacks:
- Lords of Pain (paperback)
- Lords of Wrath (paperback)
- Lords of Mercy (paperback)
FAQs
Basic Logistics
When is the launch date?
The campaign will begin January 19th, 2024 at 12pm EST. Here’s a short list of international time zones which correspond:
- Honolulu – 7am
- Anchorage – 8am
- Los Angeles – 9am
- Denver – 10am
- Chicago – 11am
- New York – 12pm
- Buenos Aires – 2pm
- London – 5pm
- Paris – 6pm
- Ankara – 8pm
- Delhi – 10:30pm
- Hong Kong, Perth – 1am (Jan. 20th)
- Tokyo – 2am (Jan. 20th)
- Brisbane – 3am (Jan. 20th)
For details on your time zone, please visit WorldTimeBuddy.
When is the end date?
The campaign will end on February 2, 2024 at 12pm EST. Please see above for a short list of international time zones which correspond, and for details on your time zone, please visit WorldTimeBuddy.
When is payment due?
Though you will need to provide your payment details upon pledging a tier, you won’t be charged until the campaign ends on February 2, 2024 at 12pm EST. If for any reason your payment is declined, Kickstarter will notify you and give you a chance to update your payment method.
When will the items ship?
This is difficult to pinpoint with precision, as it will depend on when all the items arrive to us. As of now, our plan is to do fulfillment between July and October. Like last time, we’ll keep our backers updated via the Kickstarter notification system, Monarchs facebook group, and our official Discord server.
Will there be international shipping? What are the shipping costs?
We adore our international readers and want to make sure they have the chance to participate. Sadly, however, this shipping will at times come at a steep cost depending on your country. If you’re an international backer looking to budget and save, these have been our postage quotes for the trilogy:
Please note these shipping fees are based on the weight of just the trilogy, and that higher tiers with more items will have slightly higher shipping charges.
Quantities and Limits
Will there be a limit to how many books are sold?
Not during the campaign. As with last time, once the campaign ends, we will no longer take any orders for the books. But we will get as many books as backers pre-order, even if it’s a gazillion-million-trillion! (But hopefully not, please think of our poor backs)
Will there be a limit to how many copies we can buy?
Yes, unfortunately. Much like a gentleman catching an accidental glimpse of a Victorian heroine’s ankle, we politely turned our heads away at the sight of re-selling last time. But frankly, we found out that a lot of resellers, especially ones purchasing multiples, are kind of jerks who cause a lot of problems for us, so we just don’t want to encourage them to do business with us.
Will more be added if the limit is reached?
The only tiers that are limited are the two highest; Queen and Monarch. We literally can’t add more Monarch, and we won’t add any more of the Queen, either. We needed to have solid numbers going into planning the items, so what’s there is what we’ve got. To the victor, eh?
Tier and Cost
Will there be tier levels with limited quantity?
Yes. The Queen and Monarch tiers will be capped.
Will there be more than 10 this time for Queen?
There will 75 spots for Queen.
How many spots are there for each tier?
The only tiers that are limited are the two highest; Queen and Monarch. There will be 75 Queens and an extremely limited amount of Monarchs.
Will merch and art print add-ons be limited quantities?
We will not be offering add-ons this campaign, and aside from the exclusive merch in the Queen tier, no other merch or art will be limited quantity.
What if the tier I want sells out?
You cannot enter the clock tower for three whole nights. Silly West End traditions!
What will the tiers be?
You can see the tier list above.
If we miss the tiers and have to buy individually, will it cost more?
It depends on the item. Generally, we try to keep overstock merch the same cost as you’d pay in the Kickstarter campaign. That will not be the case with the hardback trilogy. We won’t be selling them at all after the campaign ends, unless it’s in a Monarch tier on a future Kickstarter, which yes, will be much more in cost due to the scarcity of the items.
Art and merch questions
Will the covers be revealed before the campaign starts?
Psh. Like Sam can resist a reveal!
Will there be any add-on merch?
We’re not doing add-ons this campaign, sorry! Instead, we’ll be opening a special online boutique, Royal Ink, where we plan to shimmy all our paper goods to. This will include bookplates, stickers, art prints, character portrait cards (not tarot), pins, and Kickstarter overstock, which you can get at anytime (stock, of course, allowing). Follow our newsletter (choose ‘Royal Ink Boutique’), follow our official FU merch insta account, or join Monarchs FB group or the Discord server for updates on when it goes live!
Will there be bookmarks and stickers?
Yes! We will give a DKS bookmark and sticker with every order.
Will there be a Dukes novella?
Yes, there will be a foil paperback of Duchess of Forsyth.
Will there be any NSFW artwork?
That totally depends on your workplace. We’ve commissioned artwork that will definitely have some spice, but it will not be explicit.
Will the covers and sprayed edges match the Lords KS?
Yes!
Will the spine artwork match the Lords like continuous artwork?
Yes, we will be continuing the Forsyth landscape spine spread, example highlighted above under ‘spine spreads‘.
If I can’t afford the extra tiers now, what all merch would later be available in the boutique?
All of the paper items will be available in the boutique. You can see a list here.
Random questions
Can the signed books be ordered through your website or only purchased through
Kickstarter?
The signed trilogies can only be ordered through Kickstarter. If we have significant overstock or damaged copies, we may offer those on our store, but it will depend on the volume we order.
How long after the Kickstarter books are released will an Amazon version be released?
After all the orders have been fulfilled, we will offer a Dukes trilogy V3 discrete just like we did with Lords. You can expect to see this available in late fall or early winter.
Why can’t I buy the previous special edition hardbacks anymore?
The key term being ‘limited time’. Although we may (or may not!) have overstock from the campaigns, we will never order most of these items again. This is true for the hardbacks especially. These aren’t books we can just order a hundred of. The minimum quantity is 500 per book (1500 per trilogy), and the cost is barely worth it at that rate. These printers operate in epic bulk, so they won’t bother with small orders. As a result, it’s in no way realistic for us to offer these editions in perpetuity. We’re not doing this to be mean or to elevate the scarcity of certain editions, it’s just honestly not doable. We’d love to have them! We just can’t.
What is the color of Nick Bruin’s pubic hair?
Baby wouldn’t you love to know