What We're Up To: March 2023

Hey y’all! We’re here with our March update!

Since February is so short it doesn’t feel like that much time has passed since I was last writing to you, but so much has been happening behind-the-scenes at the Press.

Like I said last month, we’re just so grateful to y’all for supporting us. It feels like we’re hitting new milestones every month and it’s encouraging to see folks sharing our work with the world.

WASD

WASD is this month! Come hang out with us in London later this month. It’s guaranteed to be a good time and we’re excited to meet some of y’all (except for me, as I’m stateside).

Filmmakers Without Cameras 3/The Trilogy

Last month, we said we would have copies in March. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case as we’ve run into some delays, which Eryk wrote about in more detail. In short, most of the Issue 1 and 2 articles will need to be re-designed in InDesign to be in accordance with offset printing guidelines (we previously have used digital printers).

Just know that we’re working hard to get these fixes mitigated as fast as we can (without causing burnout) and we’re so excited to get you your copies of Filmmakers Without Cameras: The Trilogy.

In the meantime, you can purchase a digital download through Itch.io (which will be available instantly) and if you haven’t ordered your copy, preorders for the physical edition are still open in our shop.

Peregrine Pocketbooks

Last you heard we had 70+ submissions to review and I’m happy to announce that we did it! It did take us longer than we anticipated, so we appreciate everyone’s patience with us getting back to them.

I’ve repeated this time and time again, but all of the proposals were wonderful and the selection was difficult. I love working as an editor, but the hardest part is coming to these tough decisions and having to send rejection letters. As a writer myself (who has received many, many rejections), I know how it feels to get that email saying your work wasn’t accepted.

It’s important for us to be transparent, so we’re offering feedback to anyone who requests it (and I will get it to you as soon as I can). Additionally, I’m working on a newsletter-blog about the submission period: how we operated it, what went well, what we struggled with, and what we learned.

All that said, I am so excited to announce what we’ve accepted! Working on this project is a dream of mine and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Peregrine Post

The last of our Horror Icons postcard set will be sent out very soon (thank you for your patience!) and we’re ready for our next set!

In March, April, and May, we’re all about Video Game Adaptations. Each postcard will be illustrated by Matt Miles with words from our very own Harry Stainer!

As was announced last month, we’re moving from a 4-postcard collection to 3 postcards + an old-school newsletter. Stay tuned!

Mastodon

Did you know we have our own Mastodon server? Come hang out with us and other lovely folks over there! Our server is now open to the public, so you can sign up.

Newsletter-Blog

Creator Features

This month we talked to Emiel, creator of The Electrum Archive. He talks about DURF, how he developed The Electrum Archive, and advice he has for new creators.

In March, we’ll hear from Iko of The Lost Bay and for April’s Creator Feature, we’re talking to Frey and Logan from Fistful of Ink!

Tech Article

Last week, we released an article on our tech stack! If you ever wanted to know how we keep everything afloat, Eryk’s behind-the-scenes look will walk you through it.

Small Bits

March Splash Sale

We’re running a sale! We have limited space to store everything in, so we’re running a bit of a clearout. I won’t bore you with details of things like sell-through rates and stock volumes, but it’s important for us to have a steady stream of new stock to grow the Press and prove to retailers that independent publishing is worth dedicating shelfspace to. Check it out and take advantage of some cracking deals!

Two neat tidbits of data: we’ve spent over £1,500 on stock in the last 2 months. We also hit an all-time high of £1,000 in sales in the middle of February, and then went on to smash it even more by hitting £1,500 by the 28th. We were absolutely blown away, so thank you for everything :) Everything we do as the Press, right now, is not profit-making. Everything goes back towards growing the Press until we can get it to a point where it’s sustainable part-time.

Shop rejiggle

Running the sale and having lots of new folks visiting our shop was a good kick up the butt to update our shopfront. We’ve added some filters to make sorting through our stock much easier (you can now filter by creator, price, and availability!).

We’ve also changed up the top navigation bar to draw attention to Peregrine Post (which will be available to buy in sets soon) and the main three categories of stock we have: TTRPGs, Books, and Periodicals. These changes combined should make the shop much easier to browse.

Also, we’ve added a small floating form in the bottom right corner asking folks to sign up to our mailing list in exchange for a small discount on their first purchase. This offer has been up on the shop since October and it’s been used twice so far. After the form went up, someone used it almost immediately. Obtrusive popups are something I tend to dislike on shopfronts, so I hope this is a good middle ground that benefits both us and folks visiting the shop. Capitalism, baby!

Projects From Your Friends at the Press

Leeds Small Press Fest

This is still in the early stages, but Eryk and his partner Rose have begun planning a small arts fair in Leeds towards the end of September. Keep an eye on this space if you’re a UK-based self-publisher, artist, zinester, or craftsperson: the aim is to give folks a space to share and sell their work somewhere in central Leeds.

Death Wish

I recently launched a Kickstarter for my zine: Death Wish. It features poetry and prose about death (but it’s not that morbid, I promise) written by me.

The Kickstarter has already crossed the halfway point and there’s still plenty of time to back the project and get a copy of the zine 🙂 If we make it to $1000, I’ll hand bind all the zines myself with colorful hemp cord!

Harry’s Next Adventure?

Our wonderful marketer and community manager Harry is currently looking for a new job! We can sing his praises all day long, but just know that he’s the reason why we’ve cultivated such a vibrant, welcoming community.

His background is in marketing, PR, and communications for video games, but also has experience in publishing and TTRPGs.

If you know of an opportunity that would be a good fit, reach out to Harry (harry@peregrinecoast.press)!

And with that, you’ve read all of our project updates — the ones I can share, anyway. Once our top secret projects are no longer top secret I’ll tell you about those, too.

Until next time,
Sydney