Kickstarter Take Two: Publishing this Christian Children's Book Worldwide
/Back in September we launched our first ever Kickstarter campaign. It was to help with printing costs associated with printing I Know You Love Me Mommy and Daddy in hardcover, bulk ISBN fees, and other costs associated with the project. The book is already complete and just needs a little final editing touches.
Kickstarter requires projects to be funded 100% in order to receive any funds. We had put in many hours of research and marketing. We contacted bloggers, family, friends, media and even ran a few giveaways to spread awareness.
Many of you helped us immensely by sharing it online, telling others, and donating money at different levels. Thank you all for your help! We appreciate everyone's help!
Despite all these efforts, our project did not reach it’s goal.
A failure that was hard to bear
I’ve faced a lot of failure in my life and have learned to get up again and press on. But this failure was hard to bear.
For years, we had been praying for these book projects and felt that they were the Lord's work for us. Whenever we would pray that the Lord would help us earn some extra income while at the same time blessing others with the talents he’s given our family, numerous times the Lord pointed us towards the books we are and have been working on — both non-fiction and children’s books.
A lot of our personal savings has been invested to pay for the professional illustrations for this children's book because we wanted to make it very special. I cried out to the Lord asking Him to show us what He wanted us to do after the campaign was over.
God is good — all the time
We thanked the Lord for doing what was best for us in not having the campaign reach it’s goal. We tried to think of all the ways that the Lord was blessing us through this situation. We thought perhaps that the Lord could see that it would be a lot of work to create and mail out all the different rewards of items that were not necessarily book-related. Those rewards were there so that we could offer more incentives for people wanting to donate more money.
The Lord has comforted us by letting us know that others just want to help for the sake of helping and not necessarily because they’ll get so many different things in the mail. So we altered a lot of the prize tiers as well as significantly lowered our funding goal to what was reached in the last campaign (around $2500). Also, instead of 30 days we are running the campaign for 16 days to end on March 2nd at 9pm CST.
No regrets
We don’t have any regrets working on these projects and are thankful that the Lord uses our family to bring Him glory in any way. Also we knew that there was a great risk in making this children’s book --- that we may not make any profit for a long time or ever, but that is okay. Tim and I felt very strongly that these books are what the Lord wanted us to produce and are being faithful to trust Him. We are excited about getting this hardcover children’s book into the hands of families who the Lord intended them for!
So without further ado, here's our Kickstarter campaign Take Two!
I Know You Love Me Mommy and Daddy cover
Invitation
We're inviting you to be involved in a project that helps parents talk about their love for their children and encourage an attitude of gratefulness in children for their parents.
As a backer at $25 or more, you will be the first to receive hard copies of this wonderful children's book which is beautifully illustrated by Debra Hostetler. So, before the books are sold to the public, backers will not only have access to the physical book but also extra sneak-peek information.
All or nothing
This is all or nothing. As with all Kickstarter campaigns, your pledge will not be finalized until we meet our goal. Should we come up short of our goal, your pledge will not be processed and your payment method will not be charged.
Kickstarter-exclusive book
Just for helping us fund this project, donors at the $25 level and above will receive a special Kickstarter-exclusive book with text inside the book thanking our Kickstarter supporters for helping fund the publication of this book.
Endorsements
I Know You Love Me Mommy & Daddy is a delightful children’s book that reinforces God’s unconditional love that parents are to share with their children. -Michelle Duggar (2 Cor. 12:9), Mother of TLC’s 19 Kids & Counting
Why this book?
Our family loves good, wholesome children’s books especially ones that give glory to God! These can be difficult to find. While some books can be fun and enjoyable, I, Franicia, wanted to write one that had words worth repeating and taught good things (Titus 2).
Instead of grumbling and complaining about parents, children are instead fed words and thoughts of thankfulness. This book helps children to see and appreciate the rich investment their parents give on their behalf.
In an age when digital images and illustrations seem to be the norm, this book celebrates the time-honored techniques of long hours and skill with a paintbrush and palette.
I Know You Love Me Mommy and Daddy will not only be an enjoyable children’s book to read with your little ones, but it will also bring back special memories of your own loving, hard-working parents.
Make a worldwide difference!
Spread the message of love and appreciation that not only will teach children but encourage adults too! Impact cities and communities by donating some books! If you choose to support at a level that includes donated books, we will mail a book (or books) to the location of your choice (depending on your reward level) and will include a sticker inside each book that will say who donated the book as well as a letter. We’ll handle all of that so you don’t have to!
How will funds be used?
We’ve already paid for the watercolor illustrations and book layout. The funds from this campaign will be used for the following:
- Most of the funds will be used towards paying the printing company for the printing and shipping costs and fees associated with printing a this hardcover colored children's book.
- Around $500 will be used towards getting ISBNs, barcodes, and electronic distribution. Electronic distribution will make the book available in numerous digital formats.
- Some of the funds will be used to pay for the music we used in our promotional video composed by Jurgen Beck, an award-winning Christian composer; incentive prints; shipping fees and materials; and the Kickstarter fees.
What will this book look like?
Many hours were spent writing, creating, and illustrating this book so we wanted to turn it into a high-quality hardcover! We have worked very hard to ensure that reading this book will be both edifying and enjoyable. All the illustrations were beautifully painted with watercolor and the book will be printed in portrait.
I Know You Love Me Mommy and Daddy has relatively simple language and will be about 26 pages total (with 25 illustrations) so it will be simple enough for children to read. During the book's creation, however, we envisioned that loving adults would enjoy reading it to the special children in their lives.
A sample spread from the book
Autographed copies
For specific reward tiers, the author will be signing those copies. While Debbie was happy to sign copies of the book, she would be in a foreign country by the time of the printing. Also shipping costs to and from all parties would significantly increase the cost for each Kickstarter donor. We hope to offer some special books both signed by the author and illustrator in the future on our website.
Why would I be interested in the electronic copy (ebook) of the book?
By getting this reward tier, you will get early access to the book so that you don’t have to wait for the printed copy to come out after everything is finalized!
Also, this is another great option if you have many young children who love to read and go through books. The PDF can be printed over and over for home-use (not to be resold or given to others) so that you don’t have to keep purchasing books unless you really want to. :-)
I don’t know who you are. Is this book for me?
If you enjoy tender moments shared between parents and children, you'll love this book. If you want a children’s book that teaches gratefulness to God, then this book is for you too.
I don't have young children. Why would I want this book?
That’s a great question! Do you have grandchildren or little ones in your life whom you love? These books make great gifts and they give more than a physical book to read — they share wonderful life lessons! Make a difference in a family’s life by giving this to them or better yet donate one to your local library or church!
How can I help?
- Share the news about our campaign on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc.)
- Share about our campaign via email
- Write the link to our campaign and hand it out. The shortened link is http://tinyurl.com/mdbook-k2
- Our Instagram account is @timandfranicia. We have an easy-to-share photo with a link there. Feel free to copy and share that photo.
We are very thankful for the following people and for their help during our book project:
- Debbie Hostetler for illustrating my book.
- Matthew Sample II for his advice and personal efforts in promoting this Kickstarter Campaign: Matthew Sample's Blog
- Jurgen Beck for generously allowing us to use his beautiful music on the promotional video: JurgenBeck.com
Question: How do you think a book like this would benefit families around the world? Share your answer below or on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.