Kickstarter

We just received our first prepress proof from the printer today! You can see below what a printer proof looks like. It's printed on the exact same paper that your books will be printed on. This proof lets us judge whether the color is rendering correctly, whether everything will visually line up once it is bound into a hardcover, and if we're getting the best shadow/highlight detail for the imagery.

The great news is that the paper and print quality are phenomenal. We can already tell that this will look so good when it is in your hands. What we need to do now is make some small tweaks to any files that aren't rendering as intended. Then we'll do one more proof to make sure the changes are correct. And hopefully after that, we'll have an approved proof at which point we'll be able to tell you when you'll receive your books (usually 4-6 weeks after approved proof).

So, thank you again for taking this journey with us, for being so patient, and helping us to make the best book ever for you!

xo,

Winnie, Cindy, and Alice

Dear backers, friends, and family -

When we started this project, we imagined it was something fun and silly we could do on the side and kick out in a few months. None of us has ever published a book before, and what was supposed to take 6 months has ended up taking over 2 years to complete. We want to say thank you for your unending patience, your support, and your belief in us.

We have been busy doing many versions of many proofs at home to make sure the images are all color matched and retouched properly, that the text printed out (vs on screen) looks good in relation to the photos, that all of the stories are copyedited, and that the digital file is prepped for prepress. It has been a lot of checking and rechecking to make sure every detail and adjustment is made before we start printing.

We're super excited to announce that we are finally sending our book off to the printer for the prepress proof. A prepress proof basically shows us what the final book will look like when printed on the printer's paper and with their ink. When we receive our prepress proof we can judge if the colors of the photos are rendering correctly and make any necessary adjustments from there. Once we approve that proof, the books will be printed and shipped to us in about 4 weeks. The final books will be hardcover, 92 pages, and will be printed in the USA.

We are putting in our final order with the printer this week, and it will be a very limited edition print run. As of now, this will be the only time you can order this limited first edition through us. 

We don't plan to print too many extra copies to keep in stock so if you want any extra copies of the book other than your reward copy, please put in a pre-order through our pre-order site by Friday, May 3, 2013, at this link:

http://www.caninechroniclesbook.com/pre-order

Since it has been such a long time since our project started, we will message and confirm with you your current mailing address before sending you your rewards.

Thank you again for your patience and support - can't wait for you to have your books!
In other news, Cindy is now the proud owner of her own corgi Appa! Please welcome Appa to our family! (In the photo with 2 corgis, Appa is on the right, and Winnie's corgi Tartine is on the left.)

xo
Winnie, Cindy, and Alice

Dear backers,

It's been a while and we know you've been patiently waiting for your books to arrive! So sorry we've been silent on the radar - we've been hard at work making this book the best it possibly can be. And we've learned that book publishing takes a bit longer than we originally anticipated.

So what in the world have we been up to?

We've been retouching images, color correcting, working on layouts, redesigning layouts when they weren't good enough, and editing stories. We printed an early proof of the book in May on our own printer at home (photo below!), to start to get an idea of how everything was looking. At this point the stories were not completely finished, so there were still some holes in the layout, but for the first time, we got to get a feel for what the final product will look like. We were on a family trip in May so we had the chance to all sit down together and go over what was working and not working in this draft of the book.

Using that proof as a jumping off point, we figured out what changes needed to be made, both with imagery and layout. We recently sent the final stories off to a copy editor. Now the stories are completely copy edited, which means we can finalize every tiny part of the layout (spacing, how the words look on the pages, etc). We're going to do one last round of color correcting/matching on the imagery, and then we'll be handing off a pdf of the book to our printer to create the first proof from the printers from Berkeley. We also recently finished making limited edition c-prints of Arthur (photo below!), These prints will be part of the rewards for some of you, depending on which reward tier you backed.

So we again thank you for being so so patient and promise that the wait will be worth it! We want to show you another one of our layouts/stories so you get an idea of the fun and cuteness that awaits you. This one is about two little dogs named Willy and Leo...

Hope you are all doing well,

xoxo,

Winnie, Cindy, and Alice

We're excited to announce that our official site caninechroniclesbook.com is now live! On it, you can see some cute animated portraits of our 10 dogs, see our behind the scenes videos in one spot, join our mailing list, or pre-order a book if you aren't already receiving one as a reward.

There's also a nice story up on abcnews.com today that features our book and some behind the scenes shots. Check out the full story here.

We are getting closer and closer to our book launch and want to thank you for being awesome and patient backers!

xo,

Winnie, Cindy, and Alice

I (Winnie) recently went to San Francisco, where Alice lives, and we had the opportunity to visit our printers for Canine Chronicles together. We crossed the beautiful Bay Bridge and descended on to Berkeley, where our printer is located. They specialize in small run, fine art publications. It was really exciting to touch and feel the various cover materials, see samples of other books in print, and discuss all the possibilities for our book. We're close now to sending in our final proof, and we're really excited about being so close to the finish line! So we want to give you a taste of how the book is coming along by showing you one of our layouts (not in its final form but will give you the idea). We'd like you to meet Sydney, the canine companion of Charlie Chaplin. Thank you again for your support and your patience!

Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

xo,

Winnie, Cindy, and Alice