MARCH NEWSLETTER: Kickstarter live!

This month:

• KICKSTARTER IS LIVE IN 5 MINUTES!

• Campaign T-shirt voting results

• Great Commission Card Game Update

• + more

KICKSTARTER IS LIVE

It’s happening now. Please use this button, so it will connect your pledge with the newsletter:

If you’re not sure how the Epsitles will work as a comic, head over to the Kickstarter page and view the video…

Have your say: T-shirt

Over the last few days, our social media followers have been voting on the Kickstarter Campaign t-shirt with a quote from The Epistle of James. This one was the winner with 34 votes (against the others with 13-19 votes). I’m really pleased with it. Also, this will be the first time we’ve gone for a two-sided print thanks to the engagement and encouragement of our followers.

The Great Commission Game: Update

Right now we are awaiting our first complete prototype from the printers with the box, player guides, rules sheet and everything. Keep an eye on the social for our unboxing in about 1 week’s time! When we receive it, if it’s approved we’ll be telling them to start the manufacturing process asap.

Below is a little preview of the prototype box design. It will have 6 stacks of cards arranged in 2 rows of 3, making a square box that’s about 2.5cm tall.

Note: You’ll see the Great Commission as an add-on in the new Kickstarter, and while the two campaigns will be fulfilled at a similar time we will be sure to send all the original Great Commission Kickstarter fulfilment out before the Galatians/James Kickstarter add-ons for the game sent out.

Prayer Requests

Kickstarter: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain.” Psalm 127:1. Please pray with us that the Lord makes this Kickstarter a big success.

Influencing Influencers: We are planning an influencer campaign in March, please continue to pray those whom we’ve contacted will be keen to help.

Audiobible Idea: We’ve submitted an official proposal to the licence holders of the NIV audiobibles and are still awaiting their official reply, so it’s a great time to pray!

February: Big Kickstarter news, Esther prerelease, Cards and more

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

This month:

• Big Kickstarter news!

• Get a pre-release Book of Esther NIV Now

• Great Commission Card Game Update

• + more

Not just Galatians but James as well!

In mid-March, we will be launching a new Kickstarter but, SURPRISE, it’s not just going to be for Galatians but James as well! These will be two separate books but we’ll be funding them together. You’ll be able to combine the postage and you will receive them before they are released (up to 6 months in advance!)

The next time you get this email it will be to inform you that this Kickstarter is live.

Our planned launch date is:

Tuesday March 18th 2pm UK/9am EST

Have your say: Covers

On Monday, I’ll be posting about the cover design for Galatians and asking for your feedback and opinions. To be part of the conversation be sure to follow here:

• Facebook Group- https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/

• Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wforwbiblecomic.bsky.social

“Notify Me” of the Launch

Head to the link and hit the “Notify me” button on the prelaunch page and not only will you be notified but the project will show the number of followers which makes an exciting stat and social proof for people browsing Kickstarter. There are 112 on there already!

Order Pre-release Esther NIV now!

Be among the first to get your hands on the new Esther NIV comic! In March this new version of The Book of Esther will hit the shops worldwide but our loyal subscribers can receive it first!

The books will be available to ship out next week and should be with you shortly after. Now you can combine Esther with your other USA and Canada orders.

This edition features the NIV translation and is the same size and colour as the other NIV editions in the series (in case you have a WEB version).

Great Commission Game: Update

We’ve recently decided to step up the timetable for the game and we’ve been working flat out to iron out any little issues we found in playtesting, embracing the suggestions of the playtesters and generally improving the design. All the cards have Bible verses and are tightened up with consistent language on each.

NEW TTS VERSION: The new digital version is now available for all our backers to access on Tabletop Simulator. You’ll find the link on our exclusive discord and your backer updates.

We really think we are getting closer to the end of development now, and we’d love as many backers as possible to test it out on TTS and provide us with feedback, please.

More real-life playtesting with the cards (which have been over-written in pen)…

Skies of Belief TTRPG

Here’s a brief reminder that if you like Roleplaying Games we’ve got a project on the boil. We’ve just had the Kickstarter page approved as “Coming soon”, so you can read more about it and the system mechanics here:

In the image are the people of the regions dubbed the Ravines, a caste-based warrior culture that inhabits deep narrow canyons to protect them from the blazing sun. They perceive the Goddess to live high above and hold birds as sacred. Feathers dropped to the ground bless those who discover them but to kill a bird brings a great malediction. Confined by cliffs into tight living spaces, family and community are important elements of this culture, while individualism is anathema to society's values. People acting without honour will bring shame to themselves and their family.

We are not doing the Kickstarter for this until Autumn, but I’d like to build up the following now in anticipation! So, please follow the project here:

• https://bsky.app/profile/skiesofbelief.bsky.social

• https://www.facebook.com/skiesofbelief

• https://www.instagram.com/skiesofbelief/

• https://x.com/skiesofbelief

• https://www.threads.net/@skiesofbelief

Prayer Requests

Distribution: Getting the books and games stored and sent out is a big part of the business. We have potential global partners considering working with us, so please pray that God can help us improve how we are doing things worldwide.

Influencing Influencers: We are planning an influencer campaign in March, please pray those that we’ve contacted will be keen to help.

Other Languages: The London Books Fair is in March. Please pray we seal the deal on some alternative language rights!

Audiobible Idea: We’ve submitted an official proposal to the licence holders of the NIV audiobibles and are awaiting their reply, so it’s a great time to pray!

JANUARY NEWSLETTER: New Year, new book, new kickstarters, new projects

This month:

• New book in development

• Exciting side project

• Great Commission Card Game Update

• Next book release

• + more

Happy New Year! I’ve been waiting for the new year to announce the next books that’ll be part of the Word of Word Bible Comic and an exciting side project I hope you’ll be excited about too!

In March we will be launching a new Kickstarter for the Epistle to the Galatians. This will be a great chance to showcase how the comic will work for those scriptures which are not purely narrative. I’ve added the Kickstarter page to their “Coming Soon” previews, so please head there and hit “Notify me”. Not only will you be notified but the project will show the number of followers which makes an exciting stat and social proof for people browsing Kickstarter.

If you can’t wait until then, become a patron today and see the pages as they are released exclusively on Patreon. Plus you can get access to videos explaining the illustrations and scriptures on the pages, and add your comments while the book is still in development!

Skies of Belief TTRPG

In other news, I’ve been working in my free time on another game, this time a Tabletop Roleplaying Game. Its foundational elements will be akin to Narnia and Lord of the Rings, but will be an all-human low fantasy setting. I’ve joined forces with Chris Lowry and Beyond Cataclysm (a UK indie RPG and book publisher) to create this project which I believe many of you will find exciting.

In this world, there are ten human nations, each moulded by their distinct environments and remnant supernatural talents. The players explore unique cultures, strange lands, as well as diverse philosophies and religions. 

They play Heralds of the Republic who need to understand what various people groups believe and their priorities to try and create diplomatic solutions. The philosophies and theologies integral to the setting reflect complex real-world ones so they are not just flimsy fantasy constructs. The setting has some supernatural elements but is more like an alternative historical setting than a high fantasy.

Read more about it and the system mechanics here:
beyondcataclysm.co.uk/skiesofbelief/

We are not doing the Kickstarter for this until Autumn, but I’d like to build up the following now in anticipation! So, please follow the project here:

• https://bsky.app/profile/skiesofbelief.bsky.social

• https://www.facebook.com/skiesofbelief

• https://www.instagram.com/skiesofbelief/

• https://x.com/skiesofbelief

• https://www.threads.net/@skiesofbelief

Great Commission Game: Update

Over the holidays during Twixmas, we got two 4-player playtesting games going. It was a great chance to see what problems might arise from having most of the cards in play at once. We caught a few little glitches and now the rules are smoother than ever, with revisions and a few fiddly rules exceptions sanded off.

NEW TTS VERSION: These revisions are being added to the digital version of the game by Paul as we speak and the new Tabletop Simulator edition is just around the corner. It includes automatic deck creation and setup up buttons too. Fancy!

So if you were a Kickstarter backer keep an eye on your KS updates or the exclusive Discord for access to that in the next week.

Lastly, thanks so much to everyone who has already played the game on TTS and given their feedback, you are making the game better!

Next Release: Esther NIV

In March the new version of The Book of Esther will hit the shops worldwide. This edition features the NIV translation and is the same size and colour as the other NIV editions in the series (in case you have a WEB version). Yesterday I received the delivery, and we’ll being giving you early access to buy the book early next month so stay tuned!

Esther is possibly my favourite book we’ve done so far, with the colourful palace and clothing, the connections to “300” and it’s just a great self-contained story.

Prayer Requests

Gospels into Prisons: This month we’ll be offering more books to the Prison Chaplains. Please pray they read the email and access the offer allowing us to get more Gospels and bible books into the UK Prisons.

Other Languages: We’ve had slow progress selling the rights to other languages so far, please continue to pray with me that the Portuguese version and Spanish Kindles will be successful and be the first dominos in releasing many other languages around the world!

Audiobible Idea: We’ve got some ideas to create content involving the use of an audiobible alongside the comic. Your prayers are already starting to make the situation more positive. Please continue to pray so we can get these ideas off the ground.

December: Online Advent Calendar and Christmas

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

This month:

• Exciting Online Advent Calendar

• Christmas Shop

• Christmas Sweaters

• All Kindles Available

• Great Commission Card Game Update

• + more

Exciting Online Advent Calendar

We set up an advent calendar for you on our website. Each day you go to it and open the window to see an image from the Christmas Nativity, but you also get some extra bonuses too!

Need a cool Christmas Sweater?

No need for an ugly Christmas sweater you can order one of our printed Christmas hoodies. On our Christmas shop today!

The Bible Comics make an ideal gift at Christmas. We even have bundle deals on our Christmas books so you can get multiples for less this year!

Christmas Nativity Hoodie

from £31.50

The Christmas Nativity : Word for Word Bible Comic: NIV Translation

from £8.99

The Christmas Coloring Factbook

from £3.99

All Kindles Available

This week I’ve uploaded all the books that we had waiting onto Kindle. Now all the NIV titles and all the Spanish NVI titles are available to buy on Kindle. With Portuguese Kindles included we’ve got 26 books available on Kindle now. :o

As ever, if you could go and add your review that would be a massive boost!

To celebrate the Spanish titles being available we are making El Evangelio de Lucas: Verso a Verso Bíblica-Cómic free on Kindle for 5 days from Dec 1st-5th. Please forward the email to your Spanish friends to take advantage of this limited offer!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DP54FD94

Great Commission Game: Update

We recently printed out the first draft of the card game for use in playtesting face-to-face. You can see a video of the unboxing here:

We’ve also just released the full game to our backers digitally via Tabletop Simulator. If you’re a backer, head to your campaign updates for a link to download and play the game now!

Prayer Requests

Gospels into Prisons: Thousands of inmates will be receiving our Christmas colouring books and pencils this year. Please pray that the books are helpful in moving the inmates closer to the Lord. We plan to send more to some US prisons too, so let’s pray this opens some doors there for the Bible Comics!

Spanish Kindle Versions: Please pray the Spanish Kindles spark interest in the books within the Spanish communities in the USA and around the world so we can see the Bible Comic bless more Spanish speakers!

Other Languages: We’ve had slow progress selling the rights to other languages so far, please pray with me that the Portuguese version and Spanish Kindles will be successful and be the first dominos in releasing many other languages around the world!

Audiobible Idea: We’ve got some ideas to create content involving the use of audiobible alongside the comic. There have been rocks in the rock in regard to obtaining the rights to do this. Please pray that, if it is the Lord’s will, we will get access to the audiobible and can use them to make a real impact!

NOVEMBER: Christmas Gifts, Portugese Comics, Faith Channel and more

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

This month:

• Christmas Shopping

• Portuguese Bible Comics

• Great Commission Card Game Update

• The Coloring Book and Acts needs your review

• Patreon Hangout

• + more

Christmas Shopping!

The Word for Word Bible Comics make a great Christmas gift. And this year we’ve even got two titles all about Christmas!

Head to our Christmas Shop to see cards, t-shirts and hoodies.

Don’t forget you can save 25% on orders over £50 with discount code FIFTYQUIDPLUS

The Christmas Coloring Factbook

from £3.99

The Christmas Coloring Factbook

This coloring book features illustrations from the nativity of Jesus alongside historical and biblical facts about Christmas.

£3.99 for one or Just £15.99 for 5

The Christmas Nativity : Word for Word Bible Comic: NIV Translation

from £8.99

The Christmas Nativity : Word for Word Bible Comic: NIV Translation

The Christmas Nativity has been told and retold probably more than any other story in existence, but many are unbiblical. Here we are presenting the story of Jesus' birth and childhood from the gospels of Luke (1:1-2:52 and 3:23-38), Matthew (1:1-2:23) and John (1:1-14) as one intertwined chronological narrative.

£8.99 FOR ONE, or Just £29.99 for 5

Verso a Verso A Bíblia em Quadrinhos

In 2021 we licenced the rights for BV Books in Brazil to create the Word for Word Bible Comic in Portuguese. I just discovered that they recently launched and are now available and called: Verso a Verso A Bíblia em Quadrinhos

https://www.bibliaversoaverso.com.br/

Great Commission Game: Update

We’ve sent out all the books to backers who have filled in their surveys now, and we’ve been working hard on the game to get it ready for playtesting.

About two weeks ago we went through every card ensuring the abilities were balanced and reflected what they represented well. As a result, we are even more confident that the game will be really fun and get you thinking about real church life.

As an example, the Trouble card “Gossip” used to “Return the member with the lowest Recover Cost to the World”. Now it increases the amount of health damage you take from facedown/hidden Troubles within the church. This makes it more thematic but also interesting as you can get rid of it like normal or you can afford to bear it for a while as long as you don’t have any hidden trouble (sin, conflict etc) in your church, giving you options and strategies on how and when to deal with the issue.

We are printing out a test draft of the cards as we speak and hope to have the full game available for backers to access on Tabletop Simulator in the next week or two. We playtested all the new cards last night and it’s working really nicely. Keep an eye out on your KS update and the Discord channel which will spring to life at that time.

FaithChannel Advert

There’s a relatively new website called FaithChannel, which is like a Christian Netflix that’s growing in popularity. I recently had a meeting with the owners and plan to run adverts on there in the next couple of months to see if we can reach more people with news about the Word for Word Bible Comic.

Acts and The Christmas Coloring Factbook need your Review

The Christmas Coloring Factbook launched in the shops yesterday but has no reviews or even star ratings online yet. If you liked this book and the Book of Acts, please head to Amazon and Goodreads and add your star rating.

https://www.amazon.com/Acts-Apostles-Bible-Comic-Translation/dp/1914299140
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205656466-acts-of-the-apostles

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Coloring-Factbook-Amadeus-Pillario/dp/1914299159
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212187699-christmas-coloring-factbook

Patreon Hangout

Soon we will be having a video call with our patrons. It’s a chance to hang out, ask questions and discuss what books are coming on the horizon. If you’d like to be there and you’re not a patron, start supporting today and you can be at our Patron exclusive online meetups.

Other offers

Follow our Social media outlets for updates on offers and unique sale items as we get close to Christmas

• Facebook Page- https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

• X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic

• Pinterest - https://uk.pinterest.com/wforwbiblecomic/

• YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/c/wordforwordbiblecomic

• Tiktik: https://www.tiktok.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/

• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wforwbiblecomic.bsky.social

• Masadon: https://mastodon.social/@WordforWordBibleComic

• Reddit- https://www.reddit.com/user/Word4WordBibleComic

• Tumblr - http://wordforwordbiblecomic.tumblr.com/

Prayer Requests

Gospels into Prisons: We are partnering again with the OPTIM charity to get many Bible Comics and gospels into UK prisons. This is being augmented by our Kickstarter backers too. Please pray this goes smoothly and God’s Word is life-changing for these inmates!

FaithChannel Advert: Please pray this venture is successful and that the video I create for the ad works well with the audience.

Portuguese Versions: Please pray the Portuguese title takes off in a big way. The Action Bible has been having a resurgence in popularity recently and it would be great to get on that wave!

Other Languages: We’ve had slow progress selling the rights to other languages so far, please pray with me that this Portuguese version will be successful and be the first domino in releasing many other languages around the world!

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER: Award Nomination, Late Pledges and Christmas Cards

This month:

• Song of Songs Nominated for Bible of the Year

• Kickstarter Results and Late Pledges

• Interview with Christian Board Games Podcast

• The Book of Acts needs your review

• Christmas Cards, T-shirt and Colouring Books

• + more

Nominated for Bible of the Year

This year at the Christian Resources Together event, Song of Songs: Word for Word Bible Comic was nominated as Bible of the Year. In the end, we didn’t win but let’s see what happens next year with The Book of Acts!

I was encouraged to hear that there were 22 entrants for this award, so the top 3 is pretty good. Here are a few comments submitted by the judges:

• these have never been my style but I had not grasped the attention to detail before handling a copy. 

• the appendix pages are fantastic.

• very good all round with a good introduction to the book and extra features and background at the end.

• excellent quality and great thought and expertise put into this idea.

Our most successful Kickstarter! You can still late pledge

On September 15th the Kickstarter officially finished and it reached £35,477 just shy of Acts which ended on £36,097. However, we took advantage of the new “Late Pledge”* feature on Kickstarter and it has now exceeded Acts at £37,170 and rising. Thank you so much to everyone who has backed the project and supported us on this crazy card game.

SURVEYS: We’ve also just sent out the Backer Survey so don’t forget to fill yours in so we can send you your books now and your games later.

*Late Pledge: This is only available on a limited number of items and they do not include the campaign time discounts, but they do allow latecomers to climb aboard while we keep working on the game. Very soon the late pledges will close, however, so if you are one of those who forgot to back the project this is your last chance!

 LATE PLEDGE (ENDS SOON) 

Interview with Christian Board Gamers Podcast from LTN

See our latest interview about the game and us on Christian Board Gamers Podcast

Acts needs your Review ★★★★★

The Book of Acts launched in the shops last month but it’s still got no reviews or even star ratings. If you liked the book, please head to Amazon and Goodreads and add your star rating.

https://www.amazon.com/Acts-Apostles-Bible-Comic-Translation/dp/1914299140
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205656466-acts-of-the-apostles

In our new Christmas Shop, we’ve got the Christmas Nativity graphic novel, the Colouring Factbook, Christmas Cards and even a T-shirt in various colours!

The number of card sets we have is limited and we are shipped from the UK so if you're outside the UK you’ll need to order them soon to get them in time!

(Ps. I adjusted all the t-shirt prices to make them all more affordable at £15-£19)

 GO TO CHRISTMAS SHOP 

Prayer Requests

Gospels into Prisons: We are partnering again with the OPTIM charity to get many Bible Comics and gospels into UK prisons. This is being augmented by our Kickstarter backers too. Please pray this goes smoothly and God’s Word is life-changing for these inmates!

New Opportunities: Over the last few months I’ve been talking to various people about different opportunities to utilise the bible comic to

SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER: Kickstarter Ending soon and more

This month:

• Support the Kickstarter before it ends!

• The Book of Acts launches today, see a new review!

• Share the Kickstarter FB post to give all backers a bonus

• Add your reviews to the Book of Acts listing

• See an Interview with Simon and Paul

• + more

The Kickstarter is going strong!

What an amazing start we had! Funded in just 11 hours. Faster than any of our previous KSs. While we are past the initial spike, the total is still rising steadily. We’ve pushed through two stretch goals already, the third is on the cusp and that is a great achievement. There’s only a little time but we are very keen to attain those next two stretch goals which will unlock a 4-player upgrade to the game and a rigid box for all game backers!

 GO TO KICKSTARTER PAGE 

Kickstarter Facebook Stretch Goal

We are trying out a new kind of Stretch Goal; it’s a Social Stretch Goal! I’ve created a new post on Facebook ready to be shared. (You can like and comment while you’re there too :P )

• You can share it multiple times: You can share into different relevant groups you are part of (your church, Christian groups, gaming groups) as well as your feed, all will help toward the goal.

• Effective: You might think you don’t know many relevant people of if all our backers add just one person we’ll double the numbers.

• Cooperative: Doing it all together at the same time will make the post “popular” and get promoted more. 

I’m excited to see how well it goes!

Your face on a card?

If you missed the opportunity to have your face featuring on a card in the first day of the campaign I have now added a few more slot. Do you want to really be part of this game!

Interview with the creators

Watch this interview from the Christian Nerd Unite Podcast!

The Book of Acts OUT NOW

The Book of Acts is officially launched today.

Buy your copy here:

https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/shop/actsoftheapostles

If you’d like to acquire a digital version, you can get it here:

https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/shop/actsdigital

Review of Acts of the Apostles

Watch this official review video of the book from RevReads!

Extract: “I can only imagine how helpful this would be for the new Christian who is learning about these places for the first time [...] to see them spread out within this graphic novel is soooo helpful. […] I gotta say it, I give another very very strong recommendation for the Word for Word Bible Comics and this time it’s for the Acts of the Apostles”

Please add your review ★★★★★

Please help us out by adding your review to the Amazon listing, Goodbooks and anywhere else you find reviews. This is so important to get seen and trusted by new readers browsing these platforms (thank you)

https://www.amazon.com/Acts-Apostles-Bible-Comic-Translation/dp/1914299140

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205656466-acts-of-the-apostles

Prayer Requests

Kickstarter: Please hold us in your prayers for the ongoing success of the Kickstarter and for the Kingdom benefit it will bring! It’s a new venture for us but already we’ve seen God’s hand powerfully moving behind the scenes!

Gospels into Prisons: We are partnering again with the OPTIM charity to get many Bible Comics and gospels into UK prisons. This is being augmented by our Kickstarter backers too. Please pray this goes smoothly and God’s Word is life-changing for these inmates!