The question everyone wants to ask - Where’s my book?
The journey of a book from idea to reality is a multi-step process—and we’ve been so so happy to have your support each step of the way! We’re beyond excited to write this update to share with you the journey your book has been on—and give you an estimate of when your book(s) will be on your doorstep!
Kickstarter launch (July 28, 2017): After 7+ months of preparation, we launched Every Sacred Sunday on Kickstarter, and we were overwhelmed with gratitude to be funded in less than 12 hours.
Kickstarter concludes (August 31, 2017): It was bittersweet to wrap up the Kickstarter campaign, as it had been such a wonderful whirlwind of meeting and getting to know so many of our wonderful supporters. But we were so excited for the next step - printing!
Pledge processing (Early to mid September): It takes a bit over two weeks for Kickstarter to process the pledges, so we made the most use of that time we could! We reserved printing space on the printer, Christie added finishing touches to the watercolor illustrations, and Kassie learned the ropes to set up the webpage to continue to take online orders. Once Kickstarter transferred funds to Every Sacred Sunday, we were able to place the deposit with the printer—and then we were off to the races!
Pre-print processing (Mid to late September): Shout out to google docs for helping us share the massive PDF files of the interior pages with the printer, who reviewed it to make sure the setting for the margins, text size, etc. would all meet their technical specifications. Once we got the go-ahead, we moved onto...
Hard proofing (Late September — early October): Now it’s getting real! A hard proof is an unbound set of all the pages in the book that must have our signatures before the printer can proceed. Alas—the printer shipped the hard proof to us next day air and it got lost in the mail for 4 days! After lots of prayers and some calls to the post office, the hard proof arrived, we signed off on it, and we were back in business. Whew! God is good!
Printing! (Early to mid October): Over 4,000 copies of Every Sacred Sunday were offset printed onto large scrolls of paper called the parent sheet (maybe you saw one of these on our insta stories?), with pages in multiples of 16. We loved this step—the scrolls feel so Biblical, and Christie was excited to see her artwork printed on the exact type of paper used in the journals.
Book blocking (Mid-October): The large scrolls of paper were then folded so that the pages would be in the correct order. The pages were then cut and a lite binding is used to hold them together until the final, stronger binding — You now have a book block!
Ribbons (Mid to late October): This Kickstarter stretch goal is something we are so excited to have included in all the Every Sacred Sunday books! Last week the book blocks were sent to get their ribbons added at a factory across town from the printer, after which they were re-packed and trucked back to the printer for the final step…
Binding (This week!): This is the stage the books just finished this week! The book blocks, with the attached ribbon, were bound in a hardcover, wrapped with the cover material and then stamped with the gold foil. Eeeeekkkk!! The books were then individually shrink wrapped for protection, organized onto pallets, and are currently in transit from the printer to the two distribution warehouses in Dallas and Chicago. Estimated arrival at the warehouses: mid next week!
Distribution (November 9 onwards): The pallets of books will be unpacked and then repackaged into their individual boxes, and will then ship out to you, with books arriving in mid to late November!
Friends, we never knew we would be teaching, working, and learning the ropes of the publishing world all at the same time. And while we’ve had our learning moments along the way, we feel beyond blessed to have had your support at each step and we appreciate your prayers as we enter these final stages of delivery! Sending big hugs to you all!
In peace,
Kassie and Christie