Brief Update. Also, shipping and PayPal?
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 12:31:28 AM

Hi everyone!

It's been far too long since we've sent out an update! We have been so insanely busy over here, since we made the decision to turn this into a full two-disc album and record the second half with live strings and choir, that we haven't had a moment to break our radio silence! The work of writing, orchestrating, copying, proofing, recording, editing, and mixing has been Herculean (as it is with most big film composing). We're used to the process, but there was enough work we put in some serious time in the studio.

We didn't make enough through the Kickstarter to be able to go to Abbey Road, but we did end up recording strings for the second half of the album in Budapest - and they did a mighty fine job!

We have a lot to tell you, and we'll reserve most of it for the next update - coming very soon (with pictures!) - but I wanted to make sure to address something that one of our backers brought up.

BackerKit, Shipping, and PayPal

So, initially we told everyone that we'd be able to charge exact prices for shipping through BackerKit as we get closer to actually shipping the rewards. That's true, though there's one aspect we didn't know/think about: PayPal. 

With credit cards, BackerKit is able to hold the card on file until we're ready to charge you. At that point, we send out a pre-charge notice, letting you know it's coming. Once everything is in place, and we flip the switch, the credit cards on file get charged. (You'll have the chance to change your card before that happens, if you need to.)

The caveat here is PayPal. It turns out that, for those of you who have paid or are paying by PayPal, you get charged immediately. And that's tricky, because 1) we're not yet ready to ship the physical products (let alone charge for the shipping for those), and 2) we don't have the final prices for shipping yet. (We'll have those prices once we know the weights of the products and can get the most accurate quotes.)

What can we do?

What we can do is offer a refund to any who have paid more than the shipping costs as soon as we know for sure the final shipping pricing. We'll eat the costs for any who have paid less than the final amount.

When will we begin sending rewards and shipping?

Digital albums are coming in mid-December with physical rewards shipping next year - so you'll most likely see those refunds in/by the summer. (Different rewards will be ready sooner, such as the physical albums, which will be ready early spring.) We'll keep you apprised of the schedule.

Some final thoughts

Two and a half months is actually a pretty amazing turnaround for writing an entire CD's worth of orchestral/synth hybrid music (16 songs), orchestrating it, prepping, recording, editing, and mixing. During the last two months, we've had 8 composers, 2 additional orchestrators (besides the composers themselves), 5 dedicated copyists/proofers, 1 orchestra of 32 strings, a choir of 24, 8 (amazing) soloists, and 5 engineers all working on Kaladin! 

The mix for the songs has been coming back, and it's sounding incredible! We can't wait to share it with you. By the way, we put together a Google sheet here so that you can track the progress of each of the songs.

We'll be posting another update this week/end with some videos and pictures and some of the best details from this past month of composing.

... and a release party

Last, but not least, we're planning a release party for mid-December, and all you have to do is show up! It'll be pretty chill, we'll serve some food, music and good times, and we'll unveil (finally!) the THATH glyph! Watch out for the official announcement!

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Please continue to speak your concerns as well as share your excitement with us! We hear you! Your words of encouragement and excitement lift us up! And with regards to your concerns, we will always seek to find a way to make things work and alleviate the concerns! Now that we're coming out of our intense prep and recording, we will pick up again on our constant and consistent communication! Look forward to hearing from us often!

What Is BackerKit
about 7 years ago – Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 10:11:16 PM

I'm Not Familiar With BackerKit. Why Are You Using Them?

We've had a lot of questions and concerns from our backers about entering in their information on a separate site, BackerKit, in addition to Kickstarter.

Mike and I know our limits. We don't want anyone to get lost in the shuffle, or to suffer extra costs or delays simply because we're inexperienced with Kickstarter pledge fulfillments.

So we decided to use a fulfillment center. BackerKit seemed like a natural, legitimate choice for us, as they are currently partnered with Kickstarer and come heavily endorsed by experienced successful Kickstarter campaigns. Let's see if we can break this down and answer your concerns.

Q: WHO IS BACKERKIT?

ANSWER: BackerKit is a fulfillment company that is currently partnered with Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. They are the ones who will help us put together your rewards and ship them to you. We don't want to have to do all that ourselves. We're filmmakers and musicians and artists. Fulfilment is outside our comfort zone. So, we've hired a team that does fulfillment for a living. Here are some things BackerKit does: 

* Keeps track of our backer's pledges. You all want different packages aka Tiers. Add-Ons further customize each individual fulfillment need. There's a LOT to keep track of. 

Somebody needs to keep track of your orders. Our team will be super busy MAKING all the products. We need a team that has experience handling the logistics of fulfillment so we don't have to do it all ourselves. That's where BackerKit comes in. 

BackerKit will create a database of our backers, their contact info, their pledges and add-ons, and payment information. This will help us ensure that every backer's pledge has been fufilled, and will allow us to consolidate your shipping needs into a single package to cut down on costs. 

* Contact and shipping information. We need a way to calculate costs for shipping. BackerKit gives us a safe estimate up front so we can adjust things on our end if need be when putting together the physical packages. 

We won't know the individual shipping costs until we have our actual products completed. So it'll be awhile before any of us --you, The Black Piper, BackerKit --will have that information. But rest assured that once we do, we will then look for the lowest possible shipping methods and companies. 

* Payment information. They need the same info that you entered on Kickstarter so they can fulfill your pledge. They will not charge you anything without your consent, and will give you a survey to complete so you have control over the total costs.

Please note that the variable cost is shipping. You will not be charged for shipping until we are ready to actually ship your items! And, as described in our Shipping update, the shipping cost you are currently seeing is not the actual shipping cost you will be charged. Currently, you will only be charged for the amount that you pledged. 

Much like Kickstarter, you need to enter in your payment information to reserve your pledge. With BackerKit, you need to enter in your payment information so they can fulfill your pledge, and reserve your spot for shipping.

Q: I'VE BEEN HACKED IN THE PAST AND AM NERVOUS ABOUT ENTERING IN MY PERSONAL INFO ON A SITE I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH. HOW DO I KNOW BACKERKIT ISN'T A SCAM?

ANSWER: We've done our homework on which fulfilmment company to go with. Mike and I always look for options and search worldwide for the best possible choices. We've literally looked at companies all over the world and decided to go with BackerKit.

For more information on BackerKit, you can watch a video that explains why they're legit here (click on "See What Customers Say About Us"). You can also look at their FAQ and read their Privacy Policy. 

Also, for some context, try to remember that we are trusting them with our money as well. We've paid their fees, taken a massive amount of time to get this set up --which is what we've been doing literally since the second our campaign closed -- and if they screw up, we're the ones who look bad. In Hollywood, the old adage of "you'll never work in this town again" is built upon massive screwups. We take that sort of thing seriously. 

With BackerKit, our fears are laid to rest. We hope that yours will be too. 

Shipping!!!
about 7 years ago – Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 07:34:35 PM

OK, I can pretty much say I know what's on everyone's mind right now - shipping! It's not straightforward, and there are a lot of kinks to work out, but let me see if I can clear up some of the confusion and help facilitate more understanding of what's going on!

Am I being charged shipping right now?

No. You enter your information now, including address and credit card/PayPal information and you receive an estimate on shipping. Shipping will not be charged until we are almost ready to ship. You will be sent a notification to double check your information, and at that point, shipping will be collected.

Why are the shipping charges so high?!?!

Let me see if I can untangle this for you. First, since we're not sending things out right now, we don't have exact costs for shipping. Additionally, we didn't have everyone's address to be able to go through each carrier and find the best prices. So, we have to estimate.

Now, here's the thing: we don't want to underestimate on this!! We know it's a huge shock to see a greater cost than you're expecting, and we don't want to undershoot here and end up charging you more. What you are seeing on BackerKit is a very conservative estimate. To be perfectly clear: when we finally ship you the rewards, we will find the cheapest shipping prices and charge you that. What you are seeing is not the final price!

There's more...

I added a physical CD and the shipping jumped an extra $9!

Here's an additional difficulty with this whole thing on the back-end: we have to build a shipping table, and we have to do it all manually. There is a lot of complexity in a project like this, and we've done everything possible to simplify it. The way it works with the shipping table is that it adds up estimated weights of the rewards you have in your cart, and then, based on a weights threshold, it looks up the weight in the weight table and gives you the estimated cost.

I can guarantee that adding a physical CD will not cost $9 in shipping in the USA. But it may show it that way for now in your cart, just because of the system on the back-end. To reiterate: when we go to ship the rewards, we will get exact prices, and they will be cheaper than what you are seeing.

I added bookmarks, and the shipping cost went up $9!! This is outrageous - you should be able to bundle these with the other items I'm getting - they don't even weigh that much!

So, back to that complexity issue. What is likely happening here is that it's picking up the price of having to ship anything under one pound. The reason for there being a cost for items under one pound is that there are digital tiers - such as The Artifabrian - where there are no physical rewards. If you go and add on a bookmark to a digital tier, suddenly there's shipping involved. Anything under one pound of shipping has a certain price for the given shipping region, for this reason. 

The issue comes in when you add some rewards on to another package of physical items. There's no facility to say "these really shouldn't weigh anything", so sometimes, their "weight" pushes the estimate into the next bracket on the table.

In reality, adding bookmarks onto a physical tier will not affect final shipping prices!! You can rest assured that adding something small like bookmarks is not going to drive up the cost of shipping by $9! Accurate weight measurements will knock all of these prices down!

Should I just get digital rewards now and worry about shipping when you're closer to sending the items and just change my pledge then when I can see what shipping will be?

There are a few things to consider here:

1. You won't be able to see what your shipping will be until after we have accurate weights - which we won't have until we have the actual product. At that point, it will be too late to change pledges (BackerKit will have locked everything down).

2. The posted cost of shipping is a high-end estimate. We will not charge you more than you are seeing on BackerKit. However, the greatest likelihood is that we will charge you less - especially for added on items that can all be shipped together to combine weights! So, bookmark add-ons that currently show an additional $9 shipping cost will most likely end up being something insignificant, like $0.10 shipping (don't quote me on that, but hopefully you get the idea!)

In the USA, if adding CDs to a package would end up costing an additional $9, we'll send them separately via media mail instead, so that they end up costing $2.38. ($9 is crazy for an additional CD).

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To be completely open, this has been one of the hardest parts about the whole campaign. Getting everything set up on the back end has been a gargantuan task. But rest assured that:

1) We will not rest until we can lower those shipping rates as much as we absolutely can!

2) If we can raise enough funds, we will eat some of the shipping costs ourselves

3) What you are seeing when you add on new items is not what you will be charged

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If you have any questions or frustrations or concerns, please write me! I will do everything I can to allay every single issue! We want you all to be completely happy and to be able to get everything you want without having to change you more than we need to get the awesome rewards to your door and into your home. I am here to help!

Sincerely,

Michael

Can I Still Pledge/Change My Pledge? + Survey Update
about 7 years ago – Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 11:41:02 PM

Hey All!

It's almost been two weeks, and we've been getting all kinds of questions about backing, changing pledges, and when the survey will go out. Here are some answers:

1. Can I Still Pledge?

If you missed the deadline, yes, you can still pledge! Once BackerKit is up and running, you'll have the chance to become a Kaladin backer!!

2. Can I Change My Existing Pledge?

Yes, through BackerKit, you'll be able to add any add-ons you missed, and even to change pledge levels!

3. When Will Surveys Be Sent Out? When Will BackerKit Be Ready?

So, we're basically ready to flip the switch - we're just waiting for the funds from Kickstarter and for BackerKit to finalize the review. If all goes well, BackerKit is saying that everything should be ready by end-of-day Tuesday... or sometime Wednesday. Either way, we'll send out an update letting you know, and you should also get a survey in your email if you're a current backer!

In the meantime, we're hard at work writing music and preparing everything for the release! 

Live Stream Replay
about 7 years ago – Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 01:46:48 AM

A few people noted that Kickstarter was having issues with the live stream. I think I've figured it out - so for those who missed the live stream (or want to relive the moment when Sae Sae decided to give away her stick art), here's a link to the replay:

https://live.kickstarter.com/the-black-piper/live/kaladin-final-giveaway-party-live-composing-session