A Darker Shade of Magic - Illustrated Deluxe Edition
Created by Wraithmarked Creative
Book one of V. E. Schwab's New York Times Bestselling 'Shades of Magic' series, brought to you as an illustrated deluxe hardcover!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
A Special THANK YOU! And... Campaign Check In!
4 months ago
– Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at 10:18:47 AM
Hi there folks!
Firstly, apologies for the copy/paste nature to this part of the update as we have lots of campaigns to touch on! We just wanted to update everyone and say...
THANK YOU FOR COMING BY OUR BOOTH AND SAYING HELLO. <3
Dragonsteel Nexus was a wonderful experience for all of us - this was our first time vending at this convention and we had no idea what to expect. I think I speak for the whole Wraithmarked crew when I say we were all blown away by the support and love y'all shared with us. We had so many of you come by, tell us where you heard of us from, what campaigns you backed, what you were looking forward to, and lots of folks who had no idea we were gonna be there! We saw some new faces (hello if you late pledged to this campaign!) and chatted with any and everyone. The whole trip was a blast!
Thank you again for making our first Dragonsteel Nexus the best convention we've ever been to!
The Wraithmarked booth! Still setting up, but lookin good!
Bryce signing 'Iron Prince' for a fan and me, dissociating. Some of you got a chance to check out 'A Darker Shade of Magic' in person! They exist, and they're going to be beautiful!
Now for a campaign check-in...
We'd like to link folks to a few of our most recent updates for ease - updates regarding the issue with the batch of books we were given, what we're doing to rectify the situation, a little gift, all the good stuff. Take a look below!
Since posting these updates, Victoria has officially finished the second round of tip-in signing. Because all of the books had to be destroyed, this means that yes, unfortunately (and thankfully) Victoria had to complete another full batch of signature pages. We're knocking on all the wood in the office that this will be the last time we make her do this for 'A Darker Shade of Magic'.
These signature pages have been received safely by the printer, which is great news! Printing is also underway (began last month) and the cloth for the cases was also delivered last month. The PPCs (Printed Case Sides) have been printed and will stand for about a week or two; this is so they can dry completely. During this time, the interior book blocks will be sewn and sent to be gilded with that beautiful red foil you've been seeing. Then, the cases will be assembled and the book blocks cased in and bound.
Once again, thank you all for your patience. And thank you to everyone who came by our booth to offer support and understanding. We really want these to be perfect for you guys so you all understand the level of quality we pride ourselves in - for new and repeat backers alike.
See you in the next one! <3
Special Apology "V" Pins Are Here!
4 months ago
– Fri, Nov 28, 2025 at 11:28:04 AM
Hey there folks!
Wanted to give you guys a quick update here letting you know the V pins have made their way to Wraithmarked! These are the prototypes and pending approval, this will be the final design. We've already packed some up for Victoria so she can have a look also, and we'll proceed from there!
If no design elements need to be changed, everything here will remain the same sans 'PROTO' on the back. Instead, it will have sequential numbering! This pin is about 1.5" tall and made of two-color enamel featuring a black "V" on a red cutout of London over gold. If we have any extras you might see them in a rare giveaway, but the goal is going to be to have as few left as possible after this campaign fulfills. These will not be for sale, but will be included in every tier with a book (for example, if you ordered the two-book tier, you'd get two pins)!
Also, we're sorry, but we cannot meet any requests for specific numbers. It would take hours and hours and dig through and get all the pins ordered correctly, and we don't have the capacity at this time, our apologies.
HOW TO GET YOURS (LATER):
The easy way: Do absolutely nothing! If you are getting one or more books, this pin will be included in your package when we finally get them out!
HOW TO GET YOURS (SOONER):
If you want them sooner, we ARE offering to ship them out (still on us) as soon as we have them in hand! Just fill out the Google Form below with your information, and we'll get your pin out to you within a couple weeks of getting them in hand!
PLEASE NOTE: This form will close in 2 days, on Sunday Nov. 30 at 11:59pm. If you don't get your submission in before then, not to worry! You WILL get your pin, it'll just be added to your package when we get them out in a few months!
Thanks for stoppin' by everyone!
Sorry for the delay! Part 2 of our reprint update!
5 months ago
– Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 12:05:05 PM
Hey all! Bryce here! Firstly, I'm so so sorry I promised this update several weeks ago, and am only just able to get to it now. We had an unexpected speed bump in the shape of our printer (very reasonably) asking us to return a small portion of the books so they could inpect the issues we were reporting for themselves. A "trust, but verify" situation.
I don't know why I didn't think that would be part of the process, but it was and rightly so, and it took a couple weeks to get those books back and inspected by the printer.
NOW... on to the update. Video version for your viewing here, with the write up, instructions, and important Google form under that!
FIRST... OFF TO THE PRINTERS!
We are officially officially in the clear for reprints. The printer recieved the books they wanted to exam themselves, and agreed that our concerns were both present and valid, meaning we're already off to the races for reprinting.
New signatures sheets should be in Victoria's hands very soon if not already, and the printer is already working on reprinting the book blocks, cases, and jackets in the meantime!
SECOND... REFUND INSTRUCTIONS!
As promised, we are offering full refunds to those who want them. While this massive printing issue was not something Wraithmarked could control, we are officially looking at over 10 months of delay by the time these book hit your stoops to when we wanted them to be. That's enough reason for us to feel you guys have been patient enough.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS IF YOU WOULD LIKE A REFUND. We need requests to be accurate and streamlined in order to track things properly, so we will not be accepting and refund requests if they do not follow these instructions!
INSTRUCTIONS:
Send an email to [email protected] (that's "support at wraithmarked dot com") with the Subject: SHADES OF MAGIC REFUND
IN THE EMAIL, PLEASE INCLUDE:
Your full current address, including your name, address, country, and postal code.
If you have a PayPal: Your PayPal email in case we can't refund through Kickstarter (which will happen if the credit card you used on the campaign is no longer valid).
If you don't have a PayPal: Just let us know you don't have one and if we need to, we'll coordinate a different way to get you refunded.
Please be aware that it may take a few weeks for us to get to your refund ticket, so if you don't hear from us within a few business days, please don't worry. We will be getting to everyone in the order in which your tickets come in!
THIRD... AN APOLOGY PIN!
If you opt out of no refund, we have something very cool for you. For every backer to backed for one or more books, will be including this Special Apology "V" Pin, custom designed by Victoria and our own Heather Shields!
This pin is about 1.5" tall and made of two-color enamel featuring a black "V" on a red cutout of London over gold! They will be serialized, and will never be on sale ever again! If we have any extras you might see them in a rare giveaway, but the goal is going to be to have as few left as possible after this campaign fulfills.
HOW TO GET YOURS:
The easy way: Do absolutely nothing! If you are getting one or more books, this pin will be included in your package when we finally get them out!
If you want them sooner, however, we ARE offering to ship them out (still on us) as soon as we have them in hand! Just fill out the Google Form below with your information, and we'll get your pin out to you within a couple weeks of getting them in hand!
PLEASE NOTE: This form will close in 30 days, on Nov. 30 at 11:59pm. If you don't get your submission in before then, not to worry! You WILL get your pin, it'll just be added to your package when we get them out in a few months!
THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN
Whether you are requesting a refund or sticking with us, thank you all so much for your patience and understanding so far. I am so so sorry that all of these delays kept piling up, and I'm so appreciative of everyone who has and is sticking with us!
You are all awesome, thank you again, and I and/or the team will be in the comments below for the next few days making sure we answer any questions you have as best we can.
Cheers all, and talk soon,
Bryce
We got the books. We are rejecting them and getting everything reprinted. Here's why.
6 months ago
– Mon, Oct 06, 2025 at 01:58:21 PM
Hey all. Bryce here. This is the first of two updates related to this, with the second probably coming late this week or next.
We wanted to get you everything at once, but there are some small delays happening on non-critical developments, so I'm opting to get you guys the important stuff now so you know what's going on.
For everyone who doesn't want to read, here is the video version for your review. Write-up below that.
FIRST, KNOW THAT THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN RESOLVED. HENCE THE DELAY.
I didn't want to put this all out there until we knew where we were headed with the printer. It's also very important for me to say this very clearly: Our printer has been very receptive to these issues, and after some back and forth (and a lot of images and videos) have agreed that the books need to be reprinted at a much higher level of quality.
While this will obviously delay the project several more months, the ball is already rolling. We have agreements in place, improved tip-ins being sent out, a new casing partner to make sure it's done right, etc.
So while I cannot apologize enough for the further delay, I can also assure you we are already rolling on getting this resolved ASAP.
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
In September we received our portion of the books here at Wraithmarked, and pretty much immediately realized something was off. The books just... didn't feel right, and didn't quite look right.
So we did some digging, and found the following issues:
First, a consistent chip on the outside bottom corner of the red page edge gilding. This was on 95% of the books, and an investigation by the printer identified that it was due to the "knife" used by the printing machine to automatically insert the folded ribbon bookmarks.
Second, the signature sheets, which are "tipped in" after the books are finished printing, was incorrectly inserted. While they are supposed to be glued in on both the front and back, they were not glued on the front, resulting in an ugly reveal of the block binding, as well an awkward line formed by the folded edge of the signatures sheet.
Below you can see what a tipped-in sheet should look like on the front side. Under that you will see what the ADSoM tip in looks like.
The signature sheet for R.A. Salvatore's THE DEMON AWAKENS are properly glued in, hiding the binding.
What ADSoM looks like. The unglued front of the signature sheet reveals the binding underneath and an awkward space in all the books.
Third, the signature sheets are miscut. This results in 1-2 millimeters of awkward spacing on the top and bottom of the sheets, and sometimes along the front.
You can see the space created by the miscut paper.
Fourth, the book blocks (the actual block of printed paper) were misaligned in the spine when casing, resulting in many of the spines looking crushed and wonky.
Fifth, this misaligned block also resulted in the largest issue in the book in my opinion: Parts of the book block were borderline falling out of the book when it was open.
A sewn book block like ours (Smyth-sewn) is separated in bundles of 8 to 16 pages called "signatures" which are then literally sewn together. When they are properly cased, you can barely tell, and the book holds together as one block (hence the name "book block") even as you open the book wide. You can check this on any sewn book you own.
On ADSoM, the poor casing resulted in so much excess space between the block and the case (see above labeled as "Excess Space") that there was very little holding the book signature in place other than the sewing string. As a result, the first signature of almost every book sort of... hinges out on the string as you open it, making the books look like they are falling apart.
Highly recommend viewing the video portion for this one:
What it SHOULD look like (R.A. Salvatore's THE DEMON AWAKENS)
What ADSoM looks like 1
What ADSoM looks like 2
IS THIS REALLY THAT BIG A DEAL?
Yes. All together. Yes.
Any one of these issues (especially like the miscut tip ins or the like), we could maybe give a pass on. It would suck, but we we can't reprint 6000+ books over one of these.
But all of these issues? Absolutely a problem. You paid for a $100+ USD book because we promised you a top-end product with quality control fitting US and UK printing standards.
This is not it.
SO WHAT NOW?
It's already being taken care of. Again, the printer has graciously taken responsibility and is already moving to get these books reprinted to the level of quality we expect from our printing partners. We've also met with Victoria in person to run through these, and start the coordination of getting the signature sheets resigned.
The ball is already moving, and I will personally be keeping an eye on every single aspect of this new printing to make sure it meets my standards of what I think you guys deserve for a $100+ USD book. We need a couple more months, but this books WILL be amazing, and they WILL get in your hands as soon as possible.
STILL... I'M SO SORRY
Of course, that does not mean I can apologize enough for what has happened. After all the delays this is the one project I would have given my left arm to make sure it didn't have any printing issues. Instead... this happened.
I'm so sorry, and we have already implemented a number of new standardizations and checks to minimize the likelihood of something like this ever happening again.
REFUNDS... AND SOMETHING ELSE.
This will all be in the next Update. At this point we will be offering refunds to anyone who wants them, but we will also be providing anyone who cares to bear with us with a solid reason to hang tight a couple more months.
Please hold off on refund questions/requests until the next update. Other than that, let me know what questions/concerns you have. I'll be in the comments for the rest of today and tomorrow answering as best I can.
Thank you all for your patience and support, and again: I'm so sorry.
Bryce, CEO
A very quick update.
6 months ago
– Sat, Sep 27, 2025 at 10:50:56 AM
Hi all, Bryce here.
This is going to be the first Update on this project that's going to come off largely opaque, and I apologize for that. We will be going into much more detail very soon (including pictures and video), but the short version right now is that the books arrived with some significant issues, and we are working very fast to come up with as quick a resolution as possible.
Like I said, many more details to come as soon as I can provide them. I need to deal with getting the books fixed first before risking coming off like I'm throwing our production partners under the bus.
Thank you for your patience. I know you're all tired of hearing it (and I'm tired of saying it), but I'm so sorry for the massive amount of delays this project in particular has had. Look forward to a thorough explanation very soon, as well as something shiny and new being added to the project with VE's special permission.
