An art book collecting the works of world-renowned illustrator Todd Lockwood To purchase prints and copies of Found Worlds—the Art of Todd Lockwood—visit toddlockwood.com
Some of you reported an inability to check out at the end of the survey. BackerKit had accidentally set the site to "Paypal Only." That has been repaired. If you still have trouble checking out, let me know! If this solves the problem, ALL the surveys will go out.
Todd
Finally! I've sent out the "Smoke Test," which is a sample of surveys delivered to 38 backers. It's purpose is to smoke out any issues that need addressing. Sure enough, we found a snag that I imagine will be easy to fix (I'm somewhat at the mercy of BackerKit's help desk to know the what and why of things. Their site and this campaign are both complicated!).
Then the surveys will drop!
You'll get your books!
I'll get my life back! And my garage!
When the rest of you receive your surveys, you'll have a chance to update your delivery address, change your payment info, or add to your order. I believe I've fixed an issue with Stripe that prevented me from issuing a refund.
After that, I start shipping. Simplest orders first, moving up the tiers.
But we're almost there!
I turned in the Sketch Books over a month ago; they went on the presses yesterday.
Meanwhile I've been putting my studio back together: new equipment, restoring files and applications (like Photoshop and Illustrator and Word), getting printers months idle back up to running speed. My entire online existence was trashed in a flash by the identity thieves last fall—that has hampered my timing in all things. I believe (hope? Pray?) that is all behind me for good now.
Among my several simultaneous careers you can now add "Apprentice BackerKit Expert." BK is labyrinthine and complicated. It's partly my fault for adding so many tempting extras. BackerKit's weight-based shipping system requires tables ranging from the least heavy set of purchases, pound by pound to the heaviest. Every possible combination of purchases creates a different weight. It's on me to build the shipping tables. I've built and rebuilt them several times, trying to anticipate every possibility.
In the meantime, BK holds onto the addresses until I've finalized everything to their satisfaction, which means that I barely even know which countries I'm shipping to or what you purchased. In other words, I have to build the shipping tables before they'll give me my info on who bought what and where. It's a cart-before-the-horse approach, but it's the way they do it. :oP
The shipping tables are now in the can. American buyers will be okay, but foreign rates have become insane. That's the bad newss. The good news is that they've mostly come down. I've investigated, but there's really nothing I can do about it unless enough of you are close together. Even then finding (and paying) a broker creates another delay for non-US buyers and I don't want to do that. I'll keep looking.
I've also been finalizing my packaging needs (hundreds of boxes to purchase!), getting the metal prints together, and drawing remarques. I expect to send surveys within a week.
Fingers, toes, eyes, all crossed...
I'm currently navigating the BackerKit/Kickstarter rules for fulfillment. BackerKit has built their most efficient system around the money-transfering entity known as Stripe. They're a go-between, moving money from, for example, my website print sales to my bank. But when we were hacked by identity thieves last year, my Stripe account was compromised. The thieves actually managed to use it to steal some money from us. Stripe's customer service was the worst I have ever encountered. They simply didn't care. They're not a bank—more like an armored truck, moving money from place to place. I only regained control by chance, because my former assistant's phone number was still in the system. But before Stripe would reaffirm my ownership of my account, I had to agree to language that implied that I would be on the hook for any money owed to anyone because of the actions of the thieves—that I might be held liable should I ever use the account again. As such, my intention is to never use Stripe for anything ever again. I'd like to let that account die a lonely death.
I can use Paypal, but Paypal has rules about fulfillment timelines that might make it difficult for difficult orders. The layers of detail are sort of daunting, especially since I didn't build it—my assistant did. I'm having to learn as I go.
Meanwhile, I let things slide. I don't really have any excuses; I simply chose to tackle things one at a time. Every one thing took longer than I expected. The delays are as much on me as on covid, China, and adverse circumstances. I admit to being a little overwhelmed. I'm on it—all of it—but nothing's ever simple...
Please continue to bear with me. I'm grateful for your patience.
I'm sure I've said that before. But I had one last task before I was prepared to send out surveys, which was completion of the Sketch Books. I found that the files I had were not up to snuff, so I spent most of July rebuilding them. They're now ready, I've picked a printer (an American printer), and they will be in the pipeline this week. Then the surveys will go out and I'll begin fulfillment with the simplest orders first.
No one ever told me in art school that I would have to learn to juggle chainsaws, but here we are...
Thanks once again for your patience, everybody!