Fulfillment on this campaign is now complete. We anticipate posting leftover merchandise for sale and print books in January.
About the Book | About the Author | Campaign Progress | What We’re Offering | How the Pre-Order Campaign Works | Purchase Options | Stretch Goals | Campaign Updates | Budget | Production Timeline | About Duck Prints Press
About To Drive the Hundred Miles
Serendipity, WA is filled with Christmas cheer, beautiful mountain views, and trans man Will’s feminist Wiccan family. Home for the holidays, he avoids their clumsy attempts at support by hiding in the local coffee shop and flirting with Bea, a friend from high school.
The beautiful landscapes can’t make up for the the realities of being queer in a small town, and Bea wants out. Will grabs for a prosperity spell, and finds a new way to connect to the magic he’s become estranged from. New romance and optimism get them through the holidays, ready to face their next problems.
Author Alec J. Marsh describes his novel To Drive the Hundred Miles as a Hallmark movie made queer. With a trans male protagonist and an immersive first-person point of view, this novella will draw you in and hold your attention from start to finish. Join Will as he struggles with his family’s acceptance of him, and as he struggles with his own acceptance of the potentially bright future offered to him by the cute barista Bea. Ringing in the season with lows and highs, a whole lot of coffee and pancakes, and a modest dollop of spicy f/m content, you won’t want to miss your chance to get this touching book—now available as a gorgeous trade paperback for the first time ever!
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About Alec J. Marsh
Alec lives in the Pacific Northwest, where they write romantic adult fantasy and self-indulgent fanfiction. They make candles inspired by their favorite characters.
Links: Etsy | Instagram | Twitter
The editor for To Drive the Hundred Miles is the Duck Prints Press Owner, Claire Houck, under the pen name Nina Waters.
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Campaign Progress
We’re aiming to raise $2,000 during this pre-order campaign, which closes on October 20th.
If we do not hit this amount during the pre-order period, we will not be able to afford to produce the described merchandise or print To Drive the Hundred Miles, so we will refund the existing pre-orders and relaunch at a later date with more modest offerings. We’ve hit our funding goal! Want to see how we’re progressing toward our goal? We will update this page daily with how we’re doing, so check back!
🎉🎉 GOAL: $2,000 🎉🎉 We’ve hit our initial funding goal! 🎉🎉
Current Amount Pledged: $2,097.95
Percent Funded: 104.9%
Backers: 63
Last updated: 10/21/23 8:05 a.m. EDT 🎉🎉 THIS CAMPAIGN IS NOW OVER! 🎉🎉
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What We’re Offering
- To Drive the Hundred Miles e-book (ePub and PDF formats)
- To Drive the Hundred Miles trade paperback book (5.5 in x 8.5 in/14 cm x 21.5 cm, digest sized). Every print book purchased through this pre-order campaign will come with a campaign-exclusive bookplate bearing Alec J. Marsh’s signature. (Printed by BookLogix.)
- a spell jar recipe two-sided postcard (4 in x 6 in/10.25 cm x 15.25 cm). The front features tarot-inspired artwork by Aceriee (Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter). The back features the recipe for a prosperity spell jar—just like the one Will makes for Bea, to such good effect, during the book! (Printed by PrintKeg.)
- a circular sticker (3 in/7.5 cm diameter) with a beautiful skyscape mimicking the shades of the trans pride flag and a mountain skyline reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest. Artwork by Jagoda Zirebiec (ArtStation | Tumblr | Twitter). (Printed by Vograce.)
- a deer antler pendant (1.5 in/3.75 cm diameter). This oval pendant features the cover’s deer antler motif cut out of a disc of lovely walnut wood, evoking the horned god and the wildness of the forest. (Made by the Press’s own E. Conway). It comes with a 19 in (48.25 cm) brown suede lobster-clasp necklace.
- Patron-exclusive extra: a hand-made snowflake ornament created by Nina Waters. (We’ll be picking a kit, so if you’re a patron and have a favorite, do let us know—we’re thinking something like this.)
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How the Pre-Order Campaign Works
It’s simple: order what you want through our webstore and pay for it! If we haven’t hit the $2,000 minimum by October 20th, we’ll refund your money. We’ve hit our minimum, so we’ll proceed with fulfillment in late October: we print the book and order the merchandise and send your purchases out once they’ve been manufactured. (See below for our projected timeline, and, depending how much we exceed our funding goal by, backers may get More Stuff—see our stretch goals.)
Purchase Options
Pre-Order Packages: For your purchasing convenience, we’re offering three bundles! All prices are in USD. US shipping ranges from approximately $5 to $12, depending which package you select. International shipping will start at $15.
Pre-Order Individual Items: All the To Drive the Hundred Miles rewards are also offered as single-item purchases. You can buy the ones you want, mix-and-match, get multiples, and otherwise customize your backing to your preferences! All prices are in USD. US shipping ranges from approximately $5 to $12, depending which items you select. International shipping will start at $15.
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Stretch Goals
If we raise $3,000: we’ll produce a bookmark based on the cover art for all backers who bought a pre-order package (e-book + merch, e-book + print book, or e-book + print book + merch).
If we raise $4,000: all backers who bought the book (e-book only, print book only, e-book + merch, e-book + print book, or e-book + print book + merch) will receive Alec J. Marsh’s three e-book short stories from Duck Prints Press (Heart’s Scaffold, Study Hall, and A Mutual Interest) for free.
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If DPP’s main promotion post on any one platform gets 100 reblogs/reskeets/retoots/shares/etc.: all backers will receive a deer antler emoji!
Help us spread the word and reach this goal by sharing our posts on social media!
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Campaign Updates
- Recent Campaigns: Project Updates! (12/4/23)
- Progress on Fulfillment for Duck Prints Press Crowdfunding Campaigns (11/14/23)
- Final 48 Hours (10/19/23)
- Meet the Merch (10/17/23)
- Teaser 5: Storm Break and Sunlight (10/16/23)
- “Ask Me Anything” session with Alec J. Marsh TODAY (10/15/23)
- Teaser 4: A Spell for Prosperity (10/14//23)
- Teaser 3: (Self-)Marketing? (10/12/23)
- Get to Know: Alec J. Marsh (10/10/23)
- Teaser 2: Meeting a Stag God (10/8/23)
- Pre-Orders Open! (10/5/23)
- Teaser 1: Merry Christmas (10/4/23)
- Announcing: This Campaign! (10/2/23)
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Budget
Our projected production costs, in USD, are based on estimated sales of 50 print books and associated merchandise.
Payment to the Author: $200
Book Production: $485
Merchandise Production: $470
Shipping Materials: $113
Estimated Cost to Ship Purchases to Backers: $608
Processing Fees and Taxes: $96
TOTAL: $1,972
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Production Timeline
The e-book of To Drive the Hundred Miles was originally published by Duck Prints Press last December—which is to say, this book is already completely done and has been previously released. We’ve done a new edit for this pre-order campaign and are currently working on typesetting the book and preparing for print. As is clear from this campaign listing, the artwork for the merchandise has already been commissioned and prepared as well; as such, we are already more-or-less ready to produce everything described here: we just need the money to afford to actually make it! The below timeline represents our best-case scenario for satisfying your pre-order. We will be doing absolutely everything in our power to have your book in your hands before December 21st, 2023.
- October 20th: This campaign ends!
- Late October: All funds clear our bank account.
- Late October: We finalized edits, finish typesetting the manuscript, and order the book.
- Late October: We order all merchandise.
- Early November: We review the book proof and make any corrections needed.
- Late November: All books and merchandise received.
- December: We fulfill your order! All physical packages are assembled and mailed, and e-books are distributed.
If there are production delays, if we receive substandard items that need to be re-manufactured, or if other issues arise, fulfillment could take longer. Our worst-case scenario has fulfillment by April 2024. We will communicate about our progress in fulfilling this campaign on the Duck Prints Press WordPress blog under the tag for To Drive the Hundred Miles.
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About Duck Prints Press (and Why You Should Trust Us to Fulfill Your Pre-Order!)
Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York, USA. We work with people who create fanworks—especially fanfiction authors and fanart artists—to publish their original work. We are particularly dedicated to publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. You can read more about us here. This is the sixth crowdfunding campaign that our owner, Claire Houck, has run; all have been successful, and all but the most recent have been completely fulfilled (we’re hard at work on fulfillment for the last and expect to be done around when this campaign finishes up!). If you’d like more information about our track record, we encourage you to look at our past campaigns on Kickstarter and elsewhere.