hakei June 2024 updates

Hello everyone,

Here are some behind-the-scenes updates.

1) Reminder: Acrylic standees pre-order ends this Friday (June 28th).

(Also, Mettatron acrylic charms have arrived. Currently charms are buy 2, get 1 free.) 

I'll have extras so I can take the standees to conventions, but once the standees sell out, I currently don't plan to re-stock them.

Also, if you're ordering from overseas and mix the standees with other items, you may be charged double in shipping.

I always refund shipping overcharges when I buy the shipping labels, but you're always welcome to shoot me an e-mail so I can check the shipping price & send you a refund right away.

Shopify says the reason for the double charging is because I put the regular items in one shipping profile (standard shipping) and the standees in a separate profile (free US shipping). So when an international customer places an order, the two shipping categories get counted at the same time.

Shopify help desk's recommended fix? Don't make a separate free US shipping category lol 💀

2) "Bloom and Zoom" volume one has been sent to the printer.

There's 196 pages, compiling Chapters 1~9 (online episodes #1~#55) and four pages of extras.

I wanted to take BnZ to this year's conventions but unfortunately I made it pretty late, so it probably won't come to me in time.

The print shop told me it'll take at least 30-40 days just to print them, and another 25-40 days for the books to be delivered via sea shipping.

But I think the quality will be worth it!
I like their printing quality, and I was even able to add a cover fold for stability without raising the overall price too much.

3) "a refreshing summer" print version WIP

An oldie GL. I figured with BnZ vol 1 taking a long time, I can print this to take up convention table space haha.

I haven't converted all the episodes yet, but I estimate ~20 pages per episode. So about 100 pages total. I'm not sure how in-demand it'll be, so I'll order a small quantity first.

I have the mock-up in color but I'll most likely change it to black/white, as color printing is too expensive even with the most basic options (more than $9/book, dang).

4) YWAM publisher talks fell through :^(

In the YWAM epilogue, I said I was talking with a publisher about YWAM.

Well, the final pay they offered was really low -- lower than my Patreon monthly payout. Plus I would've had to do all the conversion work myself.

I asked for a higher pay and basically got laughed at. To be honest, it's their loss since the company is notorious for having gone bankrupt/shut down once.

So I'm still searching for a publisher, which is why I haven't printed YWAM. A publisher would want first dibs.

But if there's no progression at all, I'm thinking to print YWAM via self-publishing, a.k.a. Kickstarter.

5) Next series...?

In the YWAM epilogue, I also mentioned I was in talks with editors regarding my next work.

Somehow, the university slice of life series I had concocted before YWAM seems to pique their interest the most. You might've seen me post sketches of them around 2020, on Twitter and Tumblr.

These characters could be considered the OG Luciferen and Shealtiel, haha.

I had it on the back-burner because I got stuck during story development, but I guess it's time to tear my head apart again. Here's to hoping for a good news in the future.

As usual, thank you everyone!

Best,

hakei