Wayward Children Vol. 1 - Illustrated Deluxe Omnibus

LAST CALL for Foil Signature Refunds! Printing Nearly Complete! And... a Campaign Check In!
4 days ago – Tue, Sep 15, 2026 at 07:47:15 AM

Hey there folks!

We hope you're having a great week so far! As the last couple updates have been important for backers to see, we'll be reiterating them one last time before the refund deadline regarding the Wayward Children signatures passes.

Due to the repetitive nature of signing heavy-stock paper like our illustrated custom tip-ins, Seanan is not able to safely sign them at this time. Well over half of our staff here at Wraithmarked are authors/artists, and we all take our health very seriously. Bryce practicing Physio prior to creating the company has set this precedent, and these two facts in combo mean that we take the health of our creators and partners very seriously, in particular when it comes to injury.

So when Seanan expressed concern about a potential injury, we made a pretty quick decision:

Due to the above, Wraithmarked will be moving to a pressed gold foil signature instead of a hand signature for this omnibus edition of Wayward Children.

PRESSED FOIL SIGNATURE

First, let me acknowledge that everyone (you, Seanan, and Wraithmarked) would absolutely prefer to have hand-signed books, given that's what we promised you. However, because that is no longer possible, we are moving to the next best thing.

To clarify: A pressed foil signature is not a digital signature. It is a gold foil pressed onto the page with heat treatment, similar to how printers apply foil to covers. It looks amazing, and we've successfully produced on a multitude of projects, like Andrew Rowe's Arcane Ascension and Jay Kristoff's foreword in Dracula.

That said, you were promised hand-signed books. Given that it was Wraithmarked's decision to move to gold foil, we will be providing the opportunity to request a refund. Until end of day today, Tuesday September 15th (60 days from our original update + 1 for not getting this update out yesterday), we will be allowing Backers who would like a refund on Wayward Children to request one.

For instructions on how to request a refund if you'd like one, please check it out our last update HERE.

All of this being said, we've received word from the printer that the final copies are nearly complete! Once they have finished printing, the books will be packed securely and freighted to their respective warehouses. Our Non-US fulfillment partner will be getting the books first, followed by the US. We still have a bit of time to go, but we're one step closer! 

Advanced Copies Sent!

Some exciting news! Since we've changed printers earlier in the year, we've received the proofs for this campaign (as well as a few others). They looked absolutely stunning, and in case you missed them, you can check those pictures out HERE!

One additional positive change from swapping printers - we will now receive advanced copies! As printing nears its end, a small batch of these advanced copies will be sent to us for approval before the books are freighted. This is to ensure we have one final look over before sending the books to you lovely folks! We're so excited to get these in and we'll absolutely share pictures when we do!

And now... for a campaign check in!

We hope you're all well! Since it's been a bit, we wanted to take a moment to remind everyone how you can access your pledge. Even though we're still a ways off from fulfillment, it's never a bad idea to hop in to make sure your shipping information is up-to-date! Using the following link, enter the email address that's attached to your Kickstarter account and you should be able to pull your pledge right up!

If you have questions at any point in this process, check out the campaign FAQs and if you need additional help, please send an email to [email protected]. Even though it is rare, it may take us up to 3-5 business days to respond and we do not work on holidays or weekends!

Printing Resumes!
about 1 month ago – Fri, Aug 14, 2026 at 08:54:03 AM

Hey there folks!

As our last update was an important one, we're going to reiterate a bit of it here with you today.

Due to the repetitive nature of signing heavy-stock paper like our illustrated custom tip-ins, Seanan is not able to safely sign them at this time. Well over half of our staff here at Wraithmarked are authors/artists, and we all take our health very seriously. Bryce practicing Physio prior to creating the company has set this precedent, and these two facts in combo mean that we take the health of our creators and partners very seriously, in particular when it comes to injury.

So when Seanan expressed concern about a potential injury, we made a pretty quick decision:

Due to the above, Wraithmarked will be moving to a pressed gold foil signature instead of a hand signature for this omnibus edition of Wayward Children.

PRESSED FOIL SIGNATURE

First, let me acknowledge that everyone (you, Seanan, and Wraithmarked) would absolutely prefer to have hand-signed books, given that's what we promised you. However, because that is no longer possible, we are moving to the next best thing.

To clarify: A pressed foil signature is not a digital signature. It is a gold foil pressed onto the page with heat treatment, similar to how printers apply foil to covers. It looks amazing, and we've successfully produced on a multitude of projects, like Andrew Rowe's Arcane Ascension and Jay Kristoff's foreword in Dracula.

That said, you were promised hand-signed books. Given that it was Wraithmarked's decision to move to gold foil, we will be providing the opportunity to request a refund. Until Monday September 14th (60 days from our original update), we will be allowing Backers who would like a refund on Wayward Children to request one.

For instructions on how to request a refund if you'd like one, please check it out our last update HERE.

All of this being said, printing has resumed and new tip-ins are being printed with a foil signature! From here on out, we're just waiting on our hands!

Thanks for tuning in! Have a great weekend!

A very important Update regarding Seanan's ability to sign the books.
2 months ago – Thu, Jul 16, 2026 at 01:04:39 PM

Hi everyone, Bryce here with an important update.

For those of you not aware, before I was a writer, I worked as a doctor of physical therapy (aka a physio, for many of you). In addition to that, well over half of our staff here at Wraithmarked are authors/artists. These two facts in combo mean that I (and we) take the health of our creators and partners very seriously, in particular when it comes to injury.

Very unfortunately, due to the repetitive nature of signing heavy-stock paper like our illustrated custom tip-ins, Seanan is not able to safely sign them at this time. 

ON THE DANGER OF RSIs

I know this may be frustrating or upsetting to some of you, which I can certainly understand, but let me assure you that RSIs (Repetitive Stress Injuries) are a massive problem inside the writing community. Some of our other authors are prone to them and, as a result, don't do any kind of signing outside of conventions in order to very reasonably protect their ability to do what they really need to be able to do: write.

Having both suffered them and treated them, I can say that if an author tells us they have concerns about a mounting issue or injury, we take that very seriously, and for good reason. It is absolutely possible for a back, neck, shoulder, elbow, or wrist injury to set a writer back weeks or even months, and sometimes much more. So when Seanan expressed concern about a potential injury, we made a pretty quick decision:

Due to the above, Wraithmarked will be moving to a pressed gold foil signature instead of a hand signature for this omnibus edition of Wayward Children.

PRESSED FOIL SIGNATURE

First, let me acknowledge that everyone (you, Seanan, and Wraithmarked) would absolutely prefer to have hand-signed books, given that's what we promised you. However, because that is no longer possible, we are moving to the next best thing.

To clarify: A pressed foil signature is not a digital signature. It is a gold foil pressed onto the page with heat treatment, similar to how printers apply foil to covers. It looks amazing, and we've successfully produced on a multitude of projects, like Andrew Rowe's Arcane Ascension and Jay Kristoff's foreword in Dracula.

That said, you were promised hand-signed books. Given that it was Wraithmarked's decision to move to gold foil, we will be providing the opportunity to request a refund.

HOW TO REQUEST A REFUND IF YOU'D LIKE ONE

For the next 60 days, we will be allowing Backers who would like a refund on Wayward Children to request one. Instruction on how to do so are below:

1 - From your Kickstarter email attached to the account you backed from, send an email to [email protected] with the EXACT subject line: "WAYWARD CHILDREN REFUND REQUEST". 

2 - In the contents, please let us know 1) the email attached to your Kickstarter account (yes, even if you're emailing from said email), 2) your name, 3) your Backer number.

3 - Give us 5-10 business days to process the request.

4 - Please keep an eye on your email for a response from us in the event we can't process the refund through Kickstarter (if your credit card is no longer active, for example). We'll need to coordinate another solution to get your refund.

NOTE: Please make sure to use that exact subject line "WAYWARD CHILDREN REFUND REQUEST" as we will be using filters to make sure we get to them all. If you don't, we may miss your refund request.

THANK YOU TO THOSE STICKING WITH US

We completely understand those who want a refund given the finished product will not be exactly what you backed, but we also very much appreciate those willing to stick with us through this change. We're loath to lose supporters to something like this, but as we said we also take the health of our authors and partners very seriously.

Regardless, thank you all for your support and patience!

• Bryce

The Proofs Have Arrived!!
3 months ago – Mon, Jun 22, 2026 at 09:01:13 AM

Hi there folks!

Real quick before we jump into the (more) exciting news, we just wanted to point folks in the direction of our last update HERE. Long story short, we'll be changing printers! This title will be one of the first printed at a new facility and we're so excited to have more done!

That being said... the proofs have arrived - take a look!

We are absolutely FLOORED with how well these turned out! We have a couple changes needing to be made, but nothing too-major!

Firstly, we want the foiling elements to be in red instead of gold. Simple color change and we've let the printer know already. Secondly, there's a little bit of a discrepancy between the embossing and the foiling elements on certain parts of the dust jacket. This is a simple file tweak, and we're working on that now!

Otherwise, these beauties look perfect. We hope you like them, too!

We're Changing Printers. Here's Why.
4 months ago – Mon, May 18, 2026 at 12:07:16 PM

Hi all, Bryce here. Going to keep this as brief as possible. For those of you who are Wraithmarked regulars, I don't think any of this will be surprising to you.

WE ARE CHANGING PRINTERS TO ENSURE THE BOOKS MEET THE QUALITY WE HAVE PROMISED YOU.

In the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, our regular printing partner went from someone we could count on to a steady source of not only subpar/damaged product, but a source of enormous stress and frustration both for us here at Wraithmarked and our Backers.

While there were a number of smaller issues we didn't even bother filling you guys in on, that printer:

• First, provided us with a full print run of Shades of Magic that was so subpar we don't understand how they passed through QC, resulting in having to not only reprint the entire run, but ask the author to resigned over 6000 tip ins on their own time.
• Second, they took significantly longer getting us the above reprint than we thought appropriate, resulting in even more delays.
• Third, they provided us with a full print run of special editions of Iron Prince and Fire and Song with missing headbands and tailbands, despite us having highlighted the missing headbands and tailbands as a concern on some previous copies we'd received and being assured it would be fixed.

These are only the three most problematic issues of... a lot. Others include things like frequently telling us dates for something only to move it later, assure us that we would receive top care and quality attention after the issues only to send proof copies with the complete wrong elements embossed and glossed, and letting us know AFTER a print run was complete that they actually weren't able to produce a significant chunk of said print run and will need to reprint, requiring the author to scramble to figure out how to coordinate signatures, fulfillment, etc.

So... We are regrettably moving this and other projects to other printers who we have more faith will be able to produce our books in a timely manner and the to the level of quality (and quality control) we expect from them.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR FULFILLMENT?

If you are reading this, it means that this campaign is going to suffer a delay in fulfillment because of this shift. Likely we were at the tail end of development and ready to go to product production, only to be forced to decide that we need to find another printer to produce the books. 

We don't know how long that delay could be as of this moment, but we're hoping not more than a month or two. So far every printer we have spoken to has had excellent communication, and it's just a matter of testing product to make sure they can produce at the level we want before we give the greenlight.

I cannot express how sorry I am that these delays continue to crop up subsequent to the domino effect caused by the issues over the last 12 months. It has been an incredibly frustrating ride, and we're hoping we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with it. The only thing I can say is that we can assure you we have not made these decisions lightly, and believe that these delays are the price we have to pay to ensure the books arrive at the actual level of quality you deserve and have paid for.

If you have any questions, let us know, and we'll answer as best we can in the comments.

• Bryce