News
Happy third anniversary, "Rescue Sirens"! Let's shell-ebrate with a pin sale! July 1, 2018 00:00
From Jess:Wow! It's July, which means it's been three years since we first introduced the world to "Rescue Sirens"! The series has been around in development for considerably longer than that, but July 1st, 2015 is when Chris and I made it public with an announcement that we'd be selling our hardcover first editions of "Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist" at San Diego Comic-Con later that month.
In 2015, Chris and I debuted the hardcover first edition; in 2016, we released the paperback second edition; in 2017, we published our first (water-resistant!) children's book, "Rescue Sirens and the Great Fish Round-Up"; and, while we won't be selling a new book in 2018, we do have some cool new merchandise that we're dying to share with you in the next couple of weeks leading up to SDCC.
But first! How can we shell-ebrate our third anniversary? By FINALLY making our hard enamel pins available online! Check them out here! (Announcer voice: link operational while supplies last.)
There are so many things that I want to get done when it comes to "Rescue Sirens," and, in general, I feel like I do an okay job of checking items off my prodigious to-do list. Sometimes, though, I'm forced to transfer tasks to the back burner, and selling our pins online has taken a lot longer than I would've liked. I can't thank you enough for your patience while I've gotten everything sorted and made the time to process and fulfill orders!
The pins will be up for sale in our Etsy shop in limited batches, stocked on the basis of when I can package and mail them to you. Each hard enamel pin costs $12 individually, or you can purchase all six together at a special discounted price of $65 (not including shipping and handling).
And some great news for our fans outside the US: these will ship internationally! Yay! Etsy calculates the shipping for me, based on package size and weight; if the actual cost of shipping is off by more than a dollar, I'll happily refund you the difference, so rest assured that even though US shipping prices are ridiculously high, I'm giving you the lowest price I possibly can. We don't profit on shipping.
What's next for our "Rescue Sirens" summer merchandise? You'll have to stay tuna'd! (Sorry, it'd been a second since I made a terrible ocean pun.) If you'd like to see a sneak peek, though, be sure to follow us on Instagram and check out our Stories feature.
Beach towels, ahoy! June 6, 2018 19:00
From Jess:Now that all five of our "Rescue Sirens" Summer Splash 2018 prize packages have been successfully delivered to their recipients, we've made our new beach towels available to purchase in both our online store and our Etsy shop!
We're really pleased with them; beach towels are simply the perfect product for our lifeguard mermaids, and these turned out great. We already sell "Rescue Sirens" totes, but one of my next projects will be creating a proper beach bag to complement the towels!
Chris and I love seeing our "Rescue Sirens" gear out in the wild, and we wanted to share these adorable photos that we've received from our giveaway winners:
Do you want to show off your own "Rescue Sirens" accessories or apparel? Just tag our Instagram account and/or use the #rescuesirens hashtag to get our attention!
"Rescue Sirens" beach towels and Mer-May 2018! April 27, 2018 14:00
From Jess:Spring is in full swing, and with it comes the most fin-tastic month of the year: Mer-May! This year, we're going to debut the collection of "Rescue Sirens" beach towels that we teased last year. These are a particular favorite of mine when it comes to our merchandise!
A sneak peek? Why, I thought you'd never ask!
Not only will we be making the towels available for purchase on our website, but we'll also be offering a few of them as freebies as part of our yearly Mer-May giveaway. I'll have more details for you in next week's blog post, but the gist of it is this: by sharing an image of your favorite Rescue Siren on Instagram, you'll be entered to win that character's sample beach towel (along with a few siren-y summer surprises). There will be five winners in all!
In addition to the beach towels, we'll be adding a few new shirt designs to our online store, launching our corresponding Etsy page (which is where we'll also be selling our apparel as well as our enamel pins, vinyl stickers, and other tiny treasures), and stocking more copies of our young adult novel "Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist" on Amazon.
As I type this, a big boxful of our water-resistant children's book, "Rescue Sirens and the Great Fish Round-Up," is making its way to an Amazon fulfillment center, too! Once this shipment is delivered and processed (which can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks), you'll finally be able to get your hands on this gorgeously-illustrated picture book for younger "Rescue Sirens" fans (or for older fans who, like us, love artist Dylan Bonner's work). Watch this space to find out when you can order yours!
This is always an exciting time of year; I'm usually burning the midnight oil coming up with merchandise for San Diego Comic-Con in July, and, as I send out design files and receive products in return, it feels like Christmas! We have some goodies in the works that Chris and I really hope you'll like as much as we do. Keep your fins crossed that we can get everything done on time!
2018 MERchandise ideas February 28, 2018 23:42
From Jess:
Holy mackerel! Another month has gone by in a flash -- to be fair, of course, February is the shortest month. Still, it seems like I was just writing last month's blog post!
A fellow San Diego Comic-Con exhibitor once remarked to us, "Comic-Con is either a year away or a month away." Truer words were never spoken! You break down your booth at SDCC, relieved that you can get a full night's sleep and start eating a real lunch again but simultaneously sad that it'll be another twelve months before you can see all your con friends again... and then you turn around and it's already time to start getting ready for the next one. While we won't have a new "Rescue Sirens" book with us for SDCC 2018, we do have several merchandise ideas in mind, and we'd love to hear what you'd like to see!
Possible SDCC 2018 merch ideas include:
- More enamel pins. If we don't manage to create new pins, we're thinking about releasing a second edition of 2017's pins, which would be different from last year's.
- New stickers. You guys really liked our high-quality vinyl stickers, and they're fun and easy to produce.
- Acrylic charms. I'm a little addicted to acrylic charms: the sort you can use as a keychain, hang from your Nintendo 3DS or the zipper on your backpack, or even turn into a pendant if you string them on a necklace. I'd love to make an acrylic charm for each of the Rescue Sirens!
- Water bottles. We've sold full-color water bottles in the past and got such a kick out of it! Making "Rescue Sirens" water bottles would be awesome.
- Lanyards. There are so many cute lanyards out there -- is a lanyard covered in "Rescue Sirens" artwork something that you would want to buy?
- Art prints. This isn't something that we've really offered at SDCC (not for "Rescue Sirens," at least), but vivid art prints or even postcards are a possibility if there's enough interest.
We might also bring some of our rad online merchandise, like our tote bags or hats (items that are one-size-fits-all). Maybe even some of our beach towels that I designed last year! Our plan at the moment is to get the beach towels up on the website when spring rolls around so people can purchase them in anticipation of summer and warmer weather; SDCC is in July, so it'd still be the perfect time to buy them.
Here are a few other new products that I've been kicking around as possibilities for online sales:
- Women's and kids' leggings (of course!)
- Women's one-piece swimsuits
- Women's dresses
- Backpacks
- Drawstring bags
Sometimes (okay, frequently) I bite off more than I can chew when it comes to my projects, but I figure that if I try to create a bunch of different things at one time, at least some of them will get finished!
If there's something that you really want to see made available, though, definitely let us know at contact@rescuesirens.com! That way, I can focus my time and effort on merchandise that the largest number of people are interested in.
"Dive into Fall" Giveaway September 21, 2017 00:00
From Jess:Tomorrow is the first day of autumn! I'm always so torn when it comes to the changing of seasons from summer to fall. I love summer -- the soaring temperatures, the long days, the trips to the beach -- and I grew up in Florida, where summer is practically endless. I even chose to set the "Rescue Sirens" series in Miami, where you know it's fall by the changing menu at Starbucks more than anything else.
But there's something intoxicating about that first crisp snap in the air that happens in autumn, the cozy nights snuggled up by a fire (or at least a seasonally-appropriate scented candle), the spooky decorations that precede my favorite holiday: Halloween. I performed as a "scareactor" for seven magical years at a well-known Halloween event in Orlando, Florida, and I have such fond memories of Octobers spent scaring the bejeezus out of happily shrieking park guests, then giggling and stuffing my face with bite-sized candy bars alongside my fellow cast members backstage. The scents of sawdust, airbrush makeup, and fog juice always bring a smile to my face, and I can't help but fall in love with autumn even as I mourn the passing of another summer.
This year, I thought we'd mark the occasion with another Instagram giveaway: "Dive into Fall"! I really wanted to have the enamel pins and stickers that we debuted at SDCC for sale online before the end of the summer, but life got in the way (as it does), and I figured it would be neat to offer up a free set of pins on Instagram -- along with a signed copy of both our first novel, "Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist," and our brand-new water-resistant children's book, "Rescue Sirens and the Great Fish Round-Up." Plus, we're including a "Rescue Sirens" beanie to keep your noggin warm, and a gorgeous, full-color tote bag to carry it all!
Here are the rules to enter:
- Follow our @rescuesirens Instagram account.
- Repost the above image to your PUBLIC Instagram account (so we can see it).
- Include the hashtag #rescuesirensdiveintofall in your caption.
- Mention @rescuesirens in your post.
You have until 11:59 PM PST on Saturday, September 30th to post your entry! We'll announce a randomly-chosen winner on Sunday, October 1st.
(Obligatory disclaimer: this contest is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram.)
In the meantime, we're working on getting "Rescue Sirens and the Great Fish Round-Up," the pins, and the stickers up for sale; we greatly appreciate your patience, and we'll let you know the moment you can purchase them!
UPDATE: and the winner is... Instagram user @mermaidsyphira! Congratulations!
We love holding contests and giveaways, so we're already thinking about what our next one should be! Maybe one of our cozy "Rescue Sirens" hoodies?