Dear Mister Ward: A Year In

Checking in after a year of Dear Mister Ward

Well, somehow it’s been a year since I launched the Dear Mister Ward Kickstarter campaign. It seems like a good time for a little recap and a brief announcement.

It all started with the first Kickstarter campaign I had ever run. 134 people, most of them complete strangers helped raise over $5,000 for the first printing.

That printing sold out when Boyd Huppert from KARE in St Paul shared the story behind the book with his audience. The great people of the Twin Cities and Minnesota in general really connected with the book. My grandma and my dad would have been thrilled to see the response from their home town.

I’m now halfway through my third printing and coming up on 800 copies sold and shipped to 40 out of 50 states.

Dear Mister Ward also made its stage debut at the Shea Theater in my little town of Turners Falls, Mass. Over 100 people showed up and had a great time watching some local talent bring the letters to life. I hope to be able to announce another performance soon.

And now I’ve started contacting relatives of the letter writers whom I have been able to identify. So far the responses have been very positive and I’ve already made some really exciting discoveries about the people behind the letters.

That leads me to the announcement. If you have been a subscriber to the mailing list for awhile you may notice this one looks a little different.

That’s because I moved the list over to Substack from mailchimp. This way I can share more about the people and places behind the letters without overwhelming folks who just want an occasional email.

To keep receiving the occasional email you don’t need to do anything. However if you want to follow more closely you can subscribe to biweekly posts about what I’ve found in my research. I have also added a couple paid options. While book sales have been steady I could really use some help keeping this project going.

The paid tiers include exclusive content such as access to posts with two letters that weren’t in the book and audio clips from the interview with my grandma heard in the book trailer. As a “Founding Member” you also receive a signed copy of the book, as well as a discount on books and merch on the Dear Mister Ward website and to future events. I’m sure I’ll come up with some other fun stuff over time.

As always thanks for your continued interest in Dear Mister Ward.

Evan H Gregg