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“Aim For The Heart” Creator Spotlight: Aceriee

Happy second weekend of Duck Prints Press’s crowdfunding campaign to launch the publication of Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers, everyone!! We’re still creeping on up toward our goal – 82% funded now! – so if you know folks who might be interested in this campaign we encourage you to share it with them and help us get closer to the 100% funded goalpost!

Today, we’re focusing on a key member of our publication team – and book contributor – Aceriee!

All For One by Aceriee

About the Artist (her statement): Hi! I’m Aceriee and I draw sometimes. I’ve been drawing all my life, but after falling into the Supernatural fandom in 2014 I’ve mostly focused on fanart.

Links: Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter

About the Artist (my gushing): Aceriee has been working with Duck Prints Press since our first anthology, Add Magic to Taste, when she created the designs for the campaign’s two gorgeous enamel pins (here and here, if you’re curious). She contributed an illustration for our first Queer Fanworks Inspired By… anthology, And Seek (Not) to Alter Me, and she designed the enamel pins for the masquerade anthologies we published most recently. And, she designed the awesome enamel pins for the eerie animal enamel pin campaign that we ran last fall!

Heavily involved with Aim For The Heart since it’s inception, Aceriee has provided the art equivalent of editing for our artists, making sure that their works will print beautifully when we got to press and ensuring that every piece meets the necessary technical specifications. She also created the Coat of Arms Enamel Key Chain artwork and made the art for our Patreon-exclusive backer reward extra. And, as if that wasn’t enough, she also made a piece for the interior!

Truly, this anthology wouldn’t be where it was without Aceriee’s contributions.

Coat-of-Arms Enamel Key Chain 

This lovely piece of enamel work will be even more shimmery and gorgeous than this picture makes it look, as the metal work (shown in black on this image) will be gold, and the red heart will be glittery! The final piece will be 3 in x 3 in (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm) and will also include a gold chain and key ring. You can get the key chain as part of the Book + Merch backer level (Level 3), or if you want you can add-on just the key chain to your Book backer level (Level 2).

Patron-Exclusive Musketeer Magnet

People who back our Patreon at the $10/month and $25/month level, and who ALSO support this campaign, will get an extra, backer-exclusive merch item as a big THANK YOU from us to them (and this is in addition to all the other awesome extras and perks we offer our Patreon backers!). This die-cut magnet will be manufactured by Vograce, and will measure 3 in x 3 in (7.5 cm by 7.5 cm). Sure to jazz up any fridge or other magnet-friendly surface!

Love Aceriee’s gorgeous work? Us too! Make sure you back Duck Prints Press’s Kickstarter Campaign, and support us on Patreon, too, to enjoy these lovely pieces to their utmost!

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“Aim For The Heart” Merch Reveal!

The crowdfunding campaign for our next anthology, Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers,” launches TOMORROW, June 15th, 2023! We’ve been thrilled by the excitement we’ve seen from y’all so far – well over 300 reblogs on our cover reveal, and we’ve topped 100 followers on our pre-launch page!

Ready to get MORE excited? Well take a look at the awesome campaign merchandise we’ll be offering!!

Aim For The Heart Bookmark: this gorgeous, high-gloss, two-sided bookmark (which will also have a lovely golden tassel after it’s printed!) is 2 in x 9 in (5 cm x 23 cm), and features art by Jagoda Zirebiec (ArtStation | Tumblr | Twitter), who also contributed two pieces to the book interior! The back has signatures from many of our contributors – we can’t get everyone to sign your book but we can offer the next best thing to people who buy this bookmark!

Coat of Arms Enamel Key Chain: love metal-and-enamel merch? Well have we got a spectacular key chain for you! This 3 in x 3 in (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm) piece features art by Aceriee (Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter), and will be in gold metalwork – and the red heart will have glitter! Aceriee also contributed an interior piece for the book, and did the art for our bonus patron reward magnet. You’re not gonna want to miss this beautiful, sturdy key chain!

Cover Art Magnet: Pallas Perilous made our amazing cover art, and it’s just too pretty to only put on the book. So, we’re putting it on a metal-wrapped high-grade magnet (3 in x 2 in, 7.5 cm x 5 cm), too!

Musketeer Dux Die-Cut Sticker: it wouldn’t be a Duck Prints Press campaign without an all-new Dux created by Alessa Riel! Musketeer Dux will be produced in merch form as a 3 in x 3 in (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm) die-cut sticker, perfect for adding to your existing Dux collection, or for starting with your very first Dux.

BONUS! Aim For The Heart Die-Cut Magnet: people who back this crowdfunding campaign at any level AND who back our Patreon at the $10/month or $25/month level will get this exclusive bonus – a die-cut magnet featuring more of Aceriee’s incredible artwork!

Curious about the cost? Our Book + Merch level will include the print book (A4 size!), the bookmark, the enamel key chain, the front cover magnet, AND the musketeer dux sticker for $55 USD + shipping as a special introductory early-bird rate available to the first 50 backers through June 19th! After that, the price will rise to $65 USD + shipping. Or, if you don’t want all of that, you can back for the book ($35 USD + shipping) and then add on the pieces you want – bookmark ($8 USD), sticker ($4 USD), key chain ($18 USD), or magnet ($10).

The bonus magnet is free to Patreon backers who support the campaign – but being a Patreon backer is the only way to get it, so if that’s what you crave, there’s no time like the present to become a backer!

THERE’S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT TO FOLLOW THE CAMPAIGN! We launch tomorrow, June 15th, 2023, and we couldn’t be more excited – we hope we’ll see you there!

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NOW AVAILABLE: THE E-BOOK OF ADD MAGIC TO TASTE and Extra Kickstarter Merchandise!

Did you miss your chance to back our first Kickstarter? Did you back it, but have a friend who wants a copy? Have you just been itching to get some of the merch you didn’t get as a backer? Have you only just heard of us thanks to our recent call for applicants, and want to learn more about our first Anthology?

Now you can do all these things!

Duck Prints Press’s first anthology, Add Magic to Taste, is now available for sale on our website!

For Add Magic to Taste, 20 authors have come together to produce new, original short stories uniting four of our absolute favorite themes: queer relationships, fluff, magic, and coffee shops! Our diverse writers have created an even more diverse collection of stories guaranteed to sweeten your coffee and warm your tart.

Select extra/leftover merchandise from the Kickstarter is also available, including:

So check it out, and get some of the book that’s averaging over 4 stars on Goodreads and Storygraph, and the merch that our Kickstarter backers described as “absolutely beautiful,” “gorgeous,” “incredible,” and “absolute BEST IN CLASS.”

VISIT OUR SHOP NOW AND GET YOURS!

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“Add Magic to Taste” Kickstarter Update

Things have been a little quiet around our social media as, over the past few weeks, we’ve kicked into high gear to finish fulfillment of the “Add Magic to Taste” Kickstarter. We’re pleased to report that we’re nearly done – all backers who’ve done their backer surveys have had their merchandise shipped, and most have received their things. There have of course been some issues – when aren’t there? – with damaged packaging and address errors, but the rate for such as been very low, and so far we’ve been able to replace everything that people have contacted us about.

With the campaign mostly done, we’re hoping to launch the e-book on our website within the next week or two, so that it’ll be available for sale to people who missed the campaign, and we’ll also have an extras sale featuring much of our merchandise. Make sure to keep an eye on our social media platforms if you’re interested in the extras sale – we’ll have extras of the following items to sell!

The book (seconds/lightly damaged ones only):

Keychains (all are seconds with various degrees of damage/problems, but we have a LOT of them):

Enamel Pins (mostly undamaged, with maybe a handful of seconds at a lower price point):

Bookmarks (all undamaged):

Stickers (small numbers of each, undamaged):

Magnets (both undamaged items and seconds):

Mugs (mostly undamaged, though there’s at least one second):

We may have a few sets of the art prints to sell, but we’re not sure yet.

We do not have any extra of the mini-books or the postcards.

As soon as we’ve set prices and the date the sale will begin, we’ll make another announcement. We expect it’ll be at least two more weeks; we want as many of our international purchasers to have received their backer rewards as possible, both because we feel that campaign backers should have their rewards before new people get a chance, and also because we need to be sure we have enough extras on hand to replace any damaged or missing orders placed by our backers. Sales will be handled through our website store portal. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions or thoughts on this!

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“Add Magic to Taste” Kickstarter: 48 hours Left!

We’re in the home-stretch of the campaign for Add Magic to Taste! There are just over 48 hours until we’re done. If you’ve been on the fence about getting it – this is essentially your only chance to get this wonderful anthology in print! The e-book will be on our website, but we won’t be ordering many print copies above demand – we may have a few extra for an extras sale or that we can offer as add-ons for future campaigns, but once those are sold? There’ll never be more copies in print. So, if you want a copy? Back it now!

For those who have backed and want to know what our latest news is – and for those who haven’t yet backed and want to know what they can get – here’s some updates on our progress toward our stretch goals!

First – our Backers unlocked an option for a third piece of art, and we’ve commissioned @joshua-beeking to do it! He sent a preliminary sketch yesterday and, well – it’s pretty darn amazing.

This image will be included as an inset in all e-books and print books, and backers at levels 3, 4, and 5 will get it as an art print!

Second – our most recent addition to the campaign? A magnet of our mage Dux! We asked our Patreon supporters on Discord which of our Dux they’d like, and this was their choice…

All backers at Levels 2, 3, 4, and 5, will get this adorable dux as a sticker AND as a magnet!

Third – thanks to the level of support the campaign has had, we’ll be able to pay all our authors 6 cents US per word they wrote – up to $300 per author. If we can raise another $1,250 over where we’re at as I write this, authors will get another raise, to 7 cents US per word, and if we can reach $25,000 by the time the campaign ends on Saturday (11 AM Eastern!), all our authors will get paid 8 cents US per word. This has always been our ultimate goal, and we can’t reach it without your help – so, please, please, signal boost this post and help us spread the word about this project – and help us get this amazing book into the hands of as many readers as possible, cause we’re sure ya’ll are gonna love it!

Learn more on Kickstarter right now!

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Kickstarter Stretch Goal Update!

We recently crossed $18,000, which means we’ve hit two more of our stretch goals!

The first, at $17,500, means we can give our authors another raise – they’ll now each be paid 5 cents per word US, up to a maximum of $250 per story.

The second, at $18,000, gets more merchandise for everyone who bought physical merchandise! We’ll be producing a mini-book, sized A6 (4.1 in x 5.8 in/10.5 cm x 14.8 cm). It’s soft cover, roughly 20 pages, with a cover featuring one of Alessa Riel’s lovely edited photographs of model Zadya Cheysuli. We asked for volunteers from our 20 authors to create works, up to 250 words, for this book – drabbles, poems, and ficlets, either related to the stories they wrote for the anthology, or brand new (but still aligned with the Add Magic to Taste themes)!

So far, 12 authors have volunteered to contribute (four are already done!) and we’ve got a couple “maybe’s” as well. This is going to be a fun little addition to the anthology, and everyone at backer levels 2, 3, 4, and 5 will get it, at no additional cost!

(I’m still trying to convince Puck and Shea to let me print the “lik the bred” poems they shared on the Duck Prints Press Discord.)

Also – we haven’t completed the “cover” edit of the graphic, but here’s a sneak peek of the image we’ll be using (it’s also in our postcard set expansion, at the $23,000 stretch goal).

Our next stretch goal, at $20,000, will enable us to give our authors a raise to 6 cents US per word, and if we can reach $20,500, all backers at Level 2, 3, 4, and 5, will get ANOTHER reward – a Dux magnet (we haven’t decided which Dux yet…speak up if you have a preference!) – so help us spread the word about the Kickstarter, and if we can hit that amount before the campaign ends next Saturday at 11 AM eastern time, our backers can get even more Stuff!

(and don’t forget – our ultimate goal is to hit $25,000;  which will enable us to pay our authors the short story market (SFMA qualifying!) rate of 8 cents per word US. You’ve seen our teasers. You know how awesome these stories are. We want to be able to pay everyone every penny they deserve – and we think it’s possible, with a solid push this last week. So, if you, our wonderful backers thus far, know folks you think might like this anthology – please send it their way!)