Progress report, order updates, and crazy weather!
Good evening! Jody here from Smidgen Press. You're getting this message because you requested updates on the gorgeous classic books that our little team puts SO much love into. (Hi there.)
I’ve got a fiction progress report, a general order update for our Charlotte Mason series, and a crazy-weather picture for you.
We didn’t have a ton of rain last week in Eastern Virginia where our family lives, but the storm-surge flooding from the nor'easter off the coast has been no joke! Thankfully in the picture below, taken just down the road from us, no one was hurt—and I’m praying you’re safe and well wherever you are. 🙏
Historical fiction with Great Lakes adventures (^^this local "lake" was temporary, thank goodness)
The bonus content for our middle grade historical fiction book Empire of Fur is with our editor. We are restoring the images from the original 1950s publication, and we are sorting through dozens of extra historical photographs and artwork to put with the bonus content.
And I found this 20-minute feature from 1964 by the Canadian National Film Board—for a young Gen X'er such as myself, the nostalgia of the grainy square-ish production was really fun. Pictured is a "freight canoe" that would hold eight people, unlike the three-person canoe that's the main vehicle in our upcoming book, but we can't wait to include this short film as an additional resource for readers.
Our Ambassador team of voracious readers will be the next stop for this wilderness adventure, and then it will release to everyone. (Apply here for this early-access ebook squad.) If anyone would like to weigh in on the photos and artwork we’re eyeballing, and tell us what makes YOU curious to know more, please reply to this email and we’ll let you be nosy, too, even before the full book goes to Ambassadors.
Also, noting that we do still have Little Women in our pipeline, and we’ve been exploring some artist connections with the possibility of offering deluxe editions with custom-painted artwork, in addition to our regular book editions. We will likely release Little Women along with Jo’s Boys to complete that trilogy.
Order updates for our Charlotte Mason books
We also have progress to report on our Home Education book series:
- All Charlotte Mason paperback orders have been delivered. (Hoorayyy)
- Most of the “Standard” hardcovers are also delivered – our last US order was out for delivery today, and our Canada orders are still in transit.
If you received ^^ these items, please check your order, to include verifying the hardcover books underneath each dust jacket.
We will email you separately in the next few days to confirm that everything arrived all right, but last year this printer sent a few mismatches of the hardcover under the jacket, so several people got a free book (bonus!) because the printer sent the wrong cover design.
So please check your order and let us know!
- For “Premium” sewn binding books, the print company has confirmed items are ready to ship, so in a little over 30 days they’ll be stateside and ready to make their final journey to you! The printer has taken some extra time confirming things with our two separate hardcover designs, but since the order is for 1,200 books… That’s not a small investment for me (phew!) so I’m happy they’re being careful.
They alos sent a video with a flip through all four books! Pardon the slight glare on the right from their light overhead, but this was really exciting to see.
If you do have issues with printing or delivery, ANY time, email hello@smidgenpress.com or reply to this email. We hope that “no news [from buyers] is good news,” but that isn’t always the case.
We WILL make things right for printing issues, but—we can’t if we aren’t made aware of the problem.
If your delivery was good, we love hearing that too. Thanks to those of you who have let us know already. Connection can be hard to come by these days, so I cherish the opportunities to hear from you.
Mason ebooks coming next
After this we’re sending links where Mason purchasers this summer can access their ebooks. Keep an eye out. :) These will be a direct email and not a general newsletter like this one.
Good night from here.
Thanks for being here with us, and always feel free to email us with any questions or comments.
-Jody :)
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