Last week, I completed fulfillment for my first-ever Kickstarter campaign, which had the goal of making a pretty hardcover edition of my fantasy romance novel The Assassin’s Bride. Now that it’s done, I can finally sit down and share a look at everything I made.

The list of digital swag was much longer – there was a new novella, three bonus scenes, printable stickers, coloring pages, all sorts of stuff! But the physical swag that went with the book was pretty nice, too. And of course, the book itself turned out gorgeous.

The hardcover edition got a new cover, and a slightly different, simpler design underneath the dust jacket. Not only that, but the upgraded edition got improvements. I added luxe satin ribbon bookmarks to the binding by hand, and also hand-airbrushed solid-color sprayed edges that went with the oranges in the cover and really pop on the shelf.

Not everyone would enjoy the process of doing their own sprayed edges, but I had so much fun with it… and the extra swag was pretty fun, too.

From the beginning of the campaign, each book came with a double-sided bookmark that was drawn by me and colored by my sister, Lissie.

The print quality on these turned out fantastic, and I love the double-sided image!

Another extra made available from the beginning was a sticker of chibi versions of Gil and Thea, which was something I also drew and colored on my own.

I had them produced in weatherproof vinyl, so they can go on just about anything. I love how these turned out, and an alternate, magic-less version of the chibis where Gil is just himself and not half disguised was part of the digital swag pack.

Then we unlocked two bookish sticker designs, which I also drew and colored. One book and one leaf, both also made in weatherproof vinyl. Since the campaign happened in the fall and so does the book, it seemed like a perfect choice.

One of the first extras made was a color version of the map as a postcard… which doubles as an art print. It’s a bit smaller than the map in the book, but coloring the map was really fun, and it’s also a functional postcard with a stamp spot on the back and everything!

Then we have the vellum overlay, which I posted about recently, since getting that made was an entire ordeal… Out of everything done for this campaign, this is the one that gives me second thoughts the most. I am super hesitant to do it again. I love how it looks inside the book, though, so I guess it’s sort of worth it.

The last stretch goal was one we actually didn’t hit, but I was so sure we’d reach it that I’d already done a lot of the work to make it happen… so I added them to the digital swag pack, and then at the last minute, a printer came through for me and was able to produce the character portraits as trading cards. Hurrah!

They feature the character’s portrait and name on one side, and the series name and a callback to the book cover design on the other. Thea and Gil both got their own cards.

And while that’s all I made as far as physical goods for the campaign, that was enough to make it a huge ordeal, especially since I was hands-on with the art production. Lissie coloring the vellum overlay and the bookmark for me was a huge help, but the rest was all me, as was the formatting and production management, and in some cases, just… the production in general. But I as a reader love bookish swag, and I’m hoping to make even more exciting things in the future.

I’ll be running a campaign for the second book at the end of January, so I can ensure the hardcover editions match. I know that’s a big deal for readers, so I want to do right by them.

I don’t know how much swag we’ll get done for that one, but we’re working on bookmarks and stickers already… so you can at least count on those!

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