That’s right, we’ll be crowdfunding our first set of merchandise! Find out more about what, how and why below!

Or just click this link to go straight to the kickstarter campaign.

Starting out on a personal note: These past months have been tough for me. Lots of unexpected circumstances made it difficult to plan for the future of Pixelite Novels among other things. One of my goals for 2025 was to produce some merchandise for our series to be sold at Manga-Comic-Con in Leipzig end of March. This would have been a shot in the dark, because I have never tried producing or selling merchandise for our books, save for a handful of booklets, postcards and bookmarks to give away for free. With my financial situation suddenly changing, it became even harder to commit to any expense that isn’t directly tied to releasing new books for you.

That’s why I need your help!

I want to produce three acrylic standees feat. Silva, Kuro and Elsa from Brandon Varnell’s Catgirl Doctor, which we have been releasing in German since 2023. The goal is to produce 33 of each standee, and depending on if we hit our stretch goals, I’m hoping to produce even more goodies, such as art cards, a poster and stickers.

I would appreciate your support in this. The kickstarter campaign is due to launch by the end of the week, so if you could click this link and follow the campaign to be notified when it launches would be amazing!

Should we succeed the merch will be sold at MCC and of course also become available through or store, so don’t worry, if you can’t decide yet.

That’s it from me for now. Let’s make this happen!

– Dave

I already talked about what our next steps might be in case the campaign fails, but now I’ve made more concrete plans regarding that. I’ve already made my intent to publish these books more than clear, but since I’m missing some funds, I’ll have to prioritize production in some places.

For now, I’ll be focusing on getting both the English and the German regular editions published.

Almost everything is set for the English release, except conversion into ePub format, which is barely a day’s work. The English regular edition will be widely made available through IngramSpark in paperback format as planned. We are hoping to have this version published by the end of July.

The German edition has finally entered its final edits, which we are expecting to be finished early to mid-July, so it should also be available by the end of July.

Both regular editions are available for pre-order through our shop. Every pre-order gets their copy signed if they wish so. The regular editions will definitely be released as planned.

As for both Collector’s Editions: Preorders in the shop are also open until July 16^th! We will only print as many copies as funding through preorders will allow us to do. The Collector’s editions will be limited as planned and remaining copies will be sold exclusively through our shop thereafter.

So, for those of you who backed our campaign and still want to get their hands on a book: For now, our shop is the best way to go!

Thank you for your support.

Dave

Due to popular demand we‘ve added a handful of tiers through which you can receive the German version! More details below!

As a German company we were expecting to receive a handful of requests as to whether this Kickstarter would also give potential backers the opportunity to receive a German version of this book. Originally, we decided against a German version because we figured not enough people would back the German version, but also because we didn’t want to bloat our campaign with over a dozen reward options! However, there were a lot more requests than expected so we decided to give everyone the option to also get the German version of the book.

What are the new tiers?

We added three new tiers, the Digital German, the Physical German, the German Collector’s Edition, and the German All-in-One. These all cost the same and contain the same benefits as their English counterparts, only in German! For both the Early Bird tiers we decided against doubling these, as we want to maintain their exclusivity status, by not adding double the opportunity for backers to get them. However, you’ll still be able to get the German version with those tiers. After the campaign ends successfully, we will send out mails to all the backers for these tiers, asking them which version they prefer. Should we not get an answer in time we will default to the English version, however. Please be mindful, that completion of the German rewards may take longer than the English ones, as the English version is just a handful steps ahead in production, which I will also get into later.

What if I already backed the English version, but want to switch to the German version?

Then you can do just that! Sadly, I don’t have a way of definitively verifying it for you (and give you a handsome tutorial with screenshots and all) but according to the Kickstarter help page you can change your tier, as long as the campaign has not ended!

Well then, hopefully I have not forgotten about any of the important stuff, so let’s move on to some more status updates.

Our book proofs

Sadly, our book proofs for both the English and the German version have not arrived yet, and I am afraid they won’t until the campaign ends. For the book proofs we took advantage of the German Print on Demand service called Books On Demand, whom I’ve had some experience with before. Unfortunately, it seems they’ve had some trouble integrating a new printing and logistics center into their workflow which leads to many, many delays. So far, the entire process of ordering a book on demand has taken around 10 days for me usually, which is why I don’t expect my order to be completed in time. I don’t want to let you go without another tidbit however, so here I present to you the tentative full cover wraps for the English and German version:

These are basically complete, except for the thickness of the spine, but if you have any feedback that would be appreciated of course

About the German Version:

Lastly, I though I should let you know about the current status of the German version. A week or two ago it left the copy-editing process, which means it is now due for proof-reading, which we’ll be tackling next month. After that comes the layout, which means the book should be ready for print in early July.

That was all for today, I hope we read each other next week with some more pleasant news!

– Dave

The first fourth of our Kickstarter is already over and we also have our first fourth funded! It’s going a bit slower, than I anticipated but (trying to be positive here) we could also call it steady progress. The Kickstarter is set to end on June 14th, and I’m expecting a handful of generous donations around the end of this month (when everyone received their paychecks) as well as hopefully towards the end of the campaign. 500€ still seems to be a rather low goal to me. Speaking of which …

I miscalculated

What I didn’t know, setting up this campaign, was that shipping costs will be counted towards the donation goal! This means, it’ll be easier to reach the goal for this campaign, however if we just barely hit the goal the funds might not be sufficient to cover the full printing and shipping costs, as well as the Kickstarter fees. Of course, this screw-up is entirely on my part and there will be no repercussions on the side of the backers. However, all of that begs the question:

What if the Kickstarter fails?

Of course, that’s something I consider every day, as I receive static project updates via email, and check the progress myself. Though I’m trying to stay positive I have to prepare for the possibility, which also is in the interest of everyone who backs this campaign.

Let it be said, that in the event this campaign fails, I still plan to pull through and realize this project albeit in a limited capacity. As you can see from the main campaign page, The Heroes’ Storyis but the first of many books to be published by Pixelite Novels. As such, it was planned from the beginning to have the book sold through our store. Regardless of this campaign’s success the book will be available for purchase afterwards. So, should the project not come to fruition you can still buy the book through our store. However additional goodies, such as the bookmarks and postcards will like not be realized, and the initial printing of The Heroes’ Storymight be lower than originally planned. Also, a second volume of The Heroes’ Story might take longer to be published due to lack of financial success.

Pixelite Shop

What can you do?

Promote, promote, promote!

Of course, promoting the book falls under the responsibility of the publisher, however as the whole Bigolas Dickolas affair on Twitter showed us: Word of mouth is much more effective.

You’d be surprised how many people who don’t read books have bought mine after I told them about it! So, please, check out our social media accounts, give us boosts in whatever forms these platforms allow and let’s hope we will see this project through together.

Twitter – Instagram

Now on to some more pleasant matters:

Project status

As my plan is to release the book no matter what, I’ve been steadily working towards having it completed ASAP. Really, the only thing missing is your support, as well as having the book printing when the time has come. In fact, I have ordered some book proofs for both the German and the English version which should hopefully arrive within the next week. Of course, I’ll be showing them off here and elsewhere, as soon as I can get my hands on them.

About the German Version

Speaking of which, in case you missed it: The Heroes’ Storywill receive a release in two languages. However, you won’t be able to get the German version of this book through this campaign, instead please see our online store for both the regular and the Collector’s Edition.

That’s it for the first update, and hopefully we’ll see each other next week with some progress to report, as well as hopefully some book proofs to show off!