I’ve added something new to the Kickstarter campaign for the new special editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia series of medieval romances, coming in July.
I’ve told you about the special editions and the additional rewards for backers. The plan is for the books to be drop-shipped to backers to save one round of postage charges, and for me to mail signed bookplates separately. This weekend, though, I was thinking about those backers who would like actual signed books.
I’m adding a tier to the campaign with all five hardcovers signed. This means they’ll ship to backers from Canada, which might mean a tariff charge if you’re in the US. It should be fine for everyone else. I’ve made the set of vellum inserts part of this tier, since they’re difficult to mail alone – it’s much easier to tuck them into the books for shipping, which ensures they arrive in good condition.
To sweeten this tier with its extra shipping cost, I’m adding a beaded bookmark (made by me. I ordered the charms this weekend.) and a fabric book cover, sewn by me, to protect whichever of the books you’re reading. I’ll show you both of those once the materials arrive and I’ve made my first ones.
That will be my most expensive tier, and instead of having an early bird special, this tier will be limited in quantity. Once they’re gone, they’ll be gone.
I’ll be adding about a box, too, with one signed hardcover (your choice of the series, but it will default to The Crusader’s Bride) and the print swag from the campaign, as well as more goodies. I’ll work out the details of that by the time the campaign launches.
We need to take care of the people who like signed books!
I’ll also add a local pick-up option for signed books. You’ll be able to pick them up at the Ignited by Books Author Event in September, to save on shipping.
One of the fun things about setting up a Kickstarter campaign is deciding on other goodies to make available to backers. Let’s talk about those today.
Digital Rewards
Digital rewards are available to all backers, regardless of whether they back tiers with physical or digital products.
The map for the Champions of St. Euphemia is something I’ve wanted to have drawn for quite a while, and I’m excited about it. As mentioned yesterday, the map will be included in each of the new special editions, as a black and white double-page spread in the print books and as an image in the ebooks. It will also be offered as a two-page PDF digital reward to backers. That means you’ll be able to print it out on two 8.5″ x 11″ sheets, then tape those together to have a larger reference map. I’ll be able to show this to you by the end of the month.
I’ve also compiled a Readers’ Companion for the series, which will be a digital reward for backers. This ebook includes: • an overview of the series • a character list of the company • a synopsis for each book • a character list for each book • two family trees for each book (ten in total) • a brief history of the Knights Templar • a list of historical figures mentioned in the series with a short bio for each one • a brief history of the crusades. It started out as a character list and kept growing!
The ten family trees will also be available as a digital reward, sized for 8.5 x 11″ paper, so that you can print them out as a larger reference if you choose.
There are also five colouring pages, one of each illustration of the couples, which are a digital reward for all backers. Download them, print them out, and colour away!
Physical Rewards
We talked yesterday about the signed bookplates that will be mailed to backers of print books. There’s a different one for each book.
There is also a bookmark for backers of the sets of five print books. This is a larger format bookmark, showing all five of the new editions, and it has gold foil accents on both sides.
Just for fun, I’ve added a set of round stickers, each featuring one of the couples framed like a jewelled brooch. Backers will get the sticker for the print book they buy – one or all five.
Early Bird Rewards
I always offer an early bird reward, and this time, it’s a set of five vellum inserts along with the set of five hardcovers. Each vellum insert will feature one of the illustrations of the couple. I haven’t decided yet whether to limit this by time or quantity, but it will be for early birds.
Why Buy at Kickstarter
The simple answer is that you’ll be getting something special, unavailable elsewhere.
These special editions aren’t going into retail distribution, which means you can only buy them directly from me, either at Kickstarter or at Hazel & Honeysuckle Press after the campaign is over. They will also be offered in future historical romance Kickstarter campaigns BUT all of the additional rewards – the bookplates, the stickers, the reader companion, the colouring pages, the downloads of the map and family trees, the vellum inserts – will only be available from this Kickstarter campaign. You have this one chance to add all those goodies to your books.
This week, we’re going to talk about the new special editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia series of medieval romances, coming to Kickstarter in July. I’ve wanted to give this series a special print treatment for a while, and now’s the time. 🙂
The new editions will be available in hard cover, trade paperback and ebook. The ebooks don’t have all of the features of the print editions but I’ll pack in as many as possible. (Page backgrounds, for example, aren’t supported in ebooks.)
Let’s take a closer look at the new editions today, and what makes them special.
First off, the books have new covers, designed by Dar Albert. Here’s a digital mock-up of the new hard cover edition of The Crusader’s Bride.
The hardcovers have one image (with type) on the dust jacket and a different image (without type) on the case laminate.
I wanted the case laminate to look like an old book. Each one has a gem on the spine, too.
The trade paperbacks have the same exterior cover with the type. They also have a duplexed cover, which means it’s printed on the inside, as well. These trade paperbacks have the illustrations from the current editions – the images of the couples – on the inside of the cover.
Those illustrations are also included as full page images in the special edition ebooks.
The interior has been updated in the print editions, with beautiful backgrounds and chapter headers, again from Dar. Here’s the double-page spread header background for the special editions of The Crusader’s Bride:
The other books each have their own background, featuring swords and flowers.
All of the books use this sword background on individual pages, like the date pages.
These are digital mock-ups. I’ll take a video of the sample book when it arrives, so you can see exactly what it will look like. 🙂
I’ve also commissioned a map for the series, which will be a double-page spread in the print books. It will also be included in the ebooks. The map is being designed this month by Sarah Waites of The Illustrated Page. She draws the most amazing maps – you can take a peek at some of her completed projects on her website right here. There will be real locations on it as well as the fictional ones named in the stories. I’ll show you the map when it’s done. I’m prettty excited about this, as I love maps and Sarah makes brilliant ones.
The hardcovers and trade paperbacks will be printed and drop-shipped directly to backers, which saves a round of postage (and postage from Canada at that) which would be an added cost if I signed each book. Instead, I’ll mail signed bookplates separately to backers.
Each book has a dedication page in the front, and the bookplate has been designed to match. The bookplates will be full-colour vinyl stickers. Here’s the one for The Crusader’s Bride, along with the dedication page.
Isn’t that pretty? Each book has its own dedication page and a bookplate that coordinates with the new cover.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the other rewards offered through the campaign.
I’ve been thinking about Kickstarter and new editions of my books, and am revising my plans for campaigns to run this year. The current economic situation made me reconsider my plans, but now I have a new strategy.
As much as I love the shiny books with foil, they end up being pretty expensive to produce – and they have to cross borders, which means they’ll likely incur tariffs now. I know I wouldn’t be in a hurry to buy pretty books without being sure whether there would be tariffs or how much they might be. Also, since my books are in series, to collect the whole series in the pretty format, you need to buy multiple books. I don’t think in this economy there will be as many people fired up about spending $80 per book, no matter how pretty they are. Production costs drop with a print run of several hundred books, but hmm, I could end up with 1000 hardcovers in my garage pretty easily. The mister likes to park the car there. And such editions often are printed in Asia, which might mean more tariffs.
On the other hand, I really enjoy the Kickstarter campaigns. I like creating the new editions and though the campaigns are challenging for me to set up, I think they’re a good exercise for me in improving my marketing skills. Plus I love the interactions with readers and backers.
In my January campaign, the new editions of my time travel romances were in trade paperback, and those books were drop-shipped from the printer to backers. Since this printer has facilities in the US, UK, AU and EU, that meant that fewer books had to cross borders to be delivered. It also kept down the shipping costs since the books shipped once (instead of twice, as they must when I sign them). Each book had a page in the front for a bookplate, and I sent signed bookplates to backers to place in their books. So, the books ended up with a signature and for a fraction of the cost of shipping entire books to me and then to backers. So, this will be my model going forward, at least for the short term.
I have two historical romance campaigns in the works at Kickstarter. First up, there will be new print editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia. For the hardcovers, the dust jackets will be new images, type and object based, and there will also be new images on the case laminates. The trade paperbacks will be similar to the new editions for Blood Brothers: the outside of the cover will have the new type and object based image, while the illustration of the couple will be duplexed, i.e. printed on the inside of the trade paperback cover. The books will have new interiors and chapter headers. There will be bookplates that will be signed and mailed separately to backers, and a special page in the book for that bookplate. These books won’t ever be available at retailers, just directly from me.
There will also be new maps for the series included in the print books and available as digital downloads. Backers who buy all five books in either print format will also get a luxe foiled bookmark and a set of stickers featuring the couples from the illustrations. There are more details to work out, but I’m planning to run this campaign in July – the designer is working on the covers now and I’ll show you them as they’re finished up. I should have actual books before the campaign so you can see them.
The second campaign will run closer to the end of the year, though deliveries won’t happen before Christmas. It will be for my Regency romance series, the Ladies’ Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction. Right now, these books are available in mass market paperback, which has become markedly less cost effective now in print-on-demand. (That’s due to increased paper costs that came into effect on April 1.) We’ll do them in trade and hardcover in the campaign with new covers (no people) and some additional character art. There will be signed bookplates and a bookmark for this campaign, too. I may try a different printer for those: I’m liking the idea of a slipcase for the series, so need to learn more about sources for that.
The new book in this campaign will be The Daughter’s Disguise, Ophelia Pearl’s story and book #7 in the series. It will be available first from Kickstarter, in both ebook and print. I’ll put it up for pre-order at the portals after the campaign, and it will ship from there in summer 2026.
These campaigns also give you the opportunity to buy previous Kickstarter editions, so if you’ve missed a campaign, you can still add those books to your keeper shelf. They probably won’t have all the add-ons, though.
Right now, you can follow the campaign for the new editions of The Champions of St Euphemia, right here, and KS will notify you when it launches.
I’ve added a new bookmark for my time travel and magical romances for backers of my Kickstarter campaign!
On the front of the bookmark, the stars and my name will be in silver foil. On the reverse side, the titles of the four books, the stars and the type below the books will be in foil.
Backers of the trade paperback copy of Love Potion #9 will get a bookmark mailed to them along with their signed bookplate. Backers of tiers including all four trade paperbacks will get two bookmarks along with their signed bookplates.
This current Kickstarter campaign features the new edition of Love Potion #9, and you can also order the new ebook or trade paperback of Once Upon a Kiss, The Moonstone and The Last Highlander. The new editions are available for pre-order at retailers for October delivery, but backers of the campaign will get their copies early.
In addition, each book ordered through the campaign has a coordinating tip sheet, which will be added to the front of the book, and a bookplate – the books will ship directly from the printer, and I’ll sign and mail the bookplates separately.
Here’s a digital mock-up of the tipsheet and bookplate for Love Potion #9:
You can only get this addition through the Kickstarter campaign.
There are other rewards exclusive to the campaign, like a limited number of vellum inserts featuring the original cover art for Love Potion #9 by Judy York.
This tier sold out quickly, so I’ve added five more rewards with the vellum insert. This insert will only be available at Kickstarter.
There’s also a downloadable tarot deck to print and color, available to all backers.
Here’s the tarot deck I created from the PDF file:
You can see that I also created a box for the cards, which you can print and assemble.
Youc an also order the Kickstarter editions from previous campaigns in the Add-ons for this campaign, including the Dragonfire Novels omnibus editions, the Blood Brothers special editions and the Bride Quest special editions..
Claire Delacroix 