Target Achieved

We met our Kickstarter target a few days ago (after just three days of it being online).

This means New Escapologist will definitely be returning as a printed magazine. Joy!

Issue 14 (Vol. 2, No. 1) will be shipping in early August. It’s practically ready to go.

You can order the all-new Issue 14 (or subscribe for multiple new issues) by backing the project here. And I’d encourage you to do so!

The Kickstarter people, incidentally, selected us as a “project we love.” I’m not sure what that really means but it sounds complementary, doesn’t it?

Anyway, here’s what we wrote to the first 67 people to back project:

Thank you all so much. We did it. 67 backers raised the £3,000 necessary to bring New Escapologist back as a print periodical.

With 16 days left on the campaign clock, what on Earth shall we do next? “Stretch goals” feel like moving the goal posts in a way that will annoy everyone (so we probably won’t do that), but extra funding would still help.

For example, backers’ shipping fees were counted towards the target and, since we can’t spend that money more directly on the project, it would be nice to make up for it by attracting another £300 or so. Also, we just bought a £30 address label printer we didn’t budget for. D’oh.

Most importantly: our aim is not to “get money” but to reach readers. The hope is to build a culture around the magazine and for that it would be nice to reach perhaps 150 readers for the first issue. 67 readers are already on board (no small number) but 162 said [via the reader survey] they wanted the mag to come back, so hopefully some of those other 95 potential readers will join us.

So please, if you have any more juice to give to this project, tell you friends (by email or tweet or smoke signal) about the Kickstarter. Or, since you’ve really already done your duty, put your feet up and wait for the new issue of New Escapologist to plop onto your doormat next month.

Yours gratefully,

Team NE