Sword & Sorcery magazine featuring short fiction, non-fiction, and gorgeous art. Made with love for the classics, and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling! Luxurious hardcover, classic softcover, and accessible digital formats.
This campaign funds two issues of New Edge Sword & Sorcery magazine (#3 & #4).
Issues 3&4 Digital & Softcover designs
Hardcover Designs
NESS uses a flexible, classic three column layout. (Pictured: Issue 1 in Hardcover)
Each issue will hold approx. 45,000 words of Sword & Sorcery fiction, as well as interviews, essays, book reviews, and more.
WHAT IS SWORD & SORCERY?
A unique fantasy sub-genre known for short, episodic tales with historical inspiration and horror elements, of outsider protagonists with personal motivations, often facing dark and dangerous magic!
WHAT IS NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY?
A fresh, young magazine "Made with love for the classics, and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling!"
Our double-headed battle-axe logo, looking back to the classics, and forward to an exciting literary future!
Our magazine pages are a spacious 8 1/2 x 11 inches, printed like a book, using quality, cream paper that is firmer and more durable than standard, floppy magazine paper.
Hardcover editions include bookmark ribbons.
When taken care of, our perfect-bound softcovers, and especially our lay-flat, saddle-stitched hardcovers, are beautiful objects which can be enjoyed for years to come!
And you'll want that, because this is an opportunity to....
JIREL OF JOIRY was the first Sword & Sorcery heroine, created by legendary Weird Tales regular, C.L. Moore.
Catherine Lucille Moore
Like Alice in Wonderland with a big f***ing sword, Jirel had compelling adventures in bizarre dream-logic realms, balancing a rich emotional life with terrifying struggles against dark forces!
Alas, Moore only wrote a handful of Jirel tales - which are still collected, published, and read to this day.
BUT WHEN YOU FUND THESE ISSUES
JIREL WILL RETURN
WITH HER FIRST NEW STORY
IN ALMOST 85 YEARS!
Authorized by the estate of C.L. Moore, this story has been written by the magnificent MOLLY TANZER (editor of Swords v. Cthulhu, author of Creatures of Charm and Hunger, and so much more).
Molly Tanzer
It's twice as long as our usual stories, around 12,000 words, and will feature twice as much art - maybe even four times as much art if we hit our first stretch goal!
Top to Bottom: Sample Art by Chuah Shih Shin, Bebeto Daroz, Ursa Doom, Saša Đurđević, Damiano Di Marco, Goran Gligović, Gary McClusky, Trevor Ngwenya, Dan Rempel, Sapro, Saprophial, Matthew Spencer, Remco van Straten, Artyom Trakhanov, H.B. Tyson, Simon Underwood, Daniel Vega, and Jan & Vlad.
Most of the reward tiers are self-explanatory - digital, or print & digital, editions of issues 3 & 4. But maybe you're new to Backerkit?
HOW TO USE BACKERKIT
Don't worry, it's easy to support us! Think of BK as Kickstarter, but BETTER.
1) CREATE AN ACCOUNT If you've ever supported a Kickstarter that used Backerkit for fulfillment, like our own 2023 campaign, then you should already have an account.
2) SELECT A PLEDGE LEVEL Explore the campaign and, if you'd like to support us, pick a tier!
3) INCLUDE ADD-ONS More items become unlocked as stretch goals are reached! You can add Add-ons to your existing pledge through the campaign.
4) CHECK OUT!
5) MANAGE YOUR PLEDGE If the campaign is successfully funded, you'll be prompted to fill in your shipping information. You'll also have another chance to select any Add-ons you might want.
Don't forget to check out our FAQ for any questions you might have.
At a base funding level, this crowdfunding campaign pays for the publication of issues #3 and #4 of New Edge Sword & Sorcery. Additional money raised will be used to pay contributors more, improve the magazine, and make NESS more accessible to international readers!
1. DOUBLE ART ($20,150) - UNLOCKED
Most stories and articles get two original B&W illustrations, while each issue's novelette-length story will get four!
This stretch goal covers reducing shipping costs for all backers outside the United States: $5 USD off for Canadian backers, and $10 USD off for anyone outside of North America.
3. AUTHOR PAY RAISE ($22,830) - UNLOCKED
+1 cent per word for contributing authors.
4. ARTIST PAY RAISE ($23,755) - UNLOCKED
+25% base rate for contributing artists.
5. AUTHOR PAY RAISE ($25,435) - UNLOCKED
+1 cent per word for contributing authors.
6. ARTIST PAY RAISE ($26,360) - UNLOCKED
+25% base rate for contributing artists.
And so forth, with no limit on contributor pay raise stretch goals!
New campaign exclusives and Add-Ons will appear over the course of the campaign, but to start we've got...
A STICKER PAGE
Remember sticker books? They'd have empty, numbered frames on the pages that you'd try to match up with what you'd get in packs of randomly mixed stickers.
GUESS WHAT?
Our "Thank you Page" for our backers this year will be a sticker book page!
A mock-up by our humble editor. The final page will be more polished.
ALL BACKERS will receive a sticker containing an approx. 850 word short story, or "flash" fiction.
RETURNING BACKERS will receive a sticker featuring a B&W illustration of a scene from the flash fiction.
FIRST 48 HOUR BACKERS will receive a sticker featuring a tried & tested cocktail recipe with a Sword & Sorcery theme, paired with a suitable B&W illustration.
NOTE: Digital format backers will receive a digital sticker page in the form of a PDF! Only physical tier backers will get printed stickers to put in their magazines.
UNLOCKABLE REWARDS
Special rewards will be UNLOCKED and added to backers' orders, for free, when we hit different milestones!
25 FACEBOOK SHARES = FREE BONUS STORY, "SOMETHING OATH-LIKE" We can see how many people click through the "Share on Facebook" button in our Community section. If enough backers do this then all backers will receive a free 2,500 word short story called "Something Oath-like", written by Oliver Brackenbury, in digital formats.
25 X/TWITTER SHARES = FREE BONUS STORY, "HUNTER" We can see how many people click through the "Share on Twitter" button in our Community section. If enough backers do this then all backers will receive a free 2,200 word short story called "Hunter", written by Oliver Brackenbury, in digital formats.
666 BACKERS = MAKE ONE OF US GET A REAL TATTOO! Not a joke! Nathaniel Webb, our layout & design person, has vowed that he will get a tattoo with the NESS battle-axe logo if we hit 666 backers.
This won't be paid for from campaign funds, and the tattooing will be documented for a backer-exclusive update.
ADD-ONS
PREVIOUS ISSUES: Get caught up! Issues 1 & 2 of New Edge Sword & Sorcery are available in digital and softcover formats.
Issues 1&2 in Softcover
STICKERS: Not a Returning Backer? Didn't back us in the First 48 Hours? Each of those sticker rewards can be purchased as add-ons.
UNIQUE BACKERS
Over on the community tab...
The First Backer of the campaign will be mailed special print materials related to the production of last year's issues, materials suitable for hanging up or even framing.
The Top Backer, meaning the backer who is most active in our Community tab, will receive softcovers of 3&4 that have each been annotated (using post-its, not writing on the page unless you give him permission) by editor & publisher Oliver Brackenbury, providing special insight into the process of producing the issues.
Please take note of the estimated shipping charges, and understand shipping charges may change between the crowdfund and fulfillment.
During the fulfillment process, BackerKit will calculate any shipping that may be required when you fill out your delivery address.
Shipping costs will not be assessed and billed until then! You are only being charged for your pledge amount at this time. We hope this helps to keep the cost of shipping down due to current fluctuations in domestic and international shipping costs.
To further keep shipping costs down, we will be shipping both issues #3&4 together.
Brackenbury Books, BackerKit, and our fulfillment partners are not responsible for any VAT, duty, or customs charges any packages may incur.
BackerKit surveys will be sent once all books involved in this campaign arrive at our fulfillment partner. Our current estimate for shipping is Summer 2024. Estimates are not guarantees!
Don't forget: If we make our we made our International Shipping Discount stretch goal, then so now all orders from Canada will get $5 USD off their shipping, and all orders outside North America (”International”) will get $10 USD off their shipping!
Thanks to everything we learned publishing issues #1&2 in 2023, we're confident about producing issues #3&4 in a timely manner, and at the high level of quality our readers have come to expect.
Though it's our first crowdfund on Backerkit, we successfully funded and fulfilled our 2023 Kickstarter campaign, and Oliver has successfully crowdfunded a webseries in the past, something which also requires collaboration between a large team of creatives while keeping within budget and on schedule.
To further mitigate risk we’ve brought on a crowdfunding & fulfillment professional, Sara McHenry (https://www.saramchenry.com), who did excellent work for us last year. Since 2013, she’s helped her clients raise over $3.5 million in crowdfunding money for their creative projects. Her specialties include setting budgets and timelines, structuring reward tiers, working with vendors, shipping logistics, and motivating the unmotivated creator.
Should any challenges arise with things we have no control over, such as supply chain issues, our backers will receive timely, detailed updates on the situation.
