Crowdfunding Schnauzers
Posted: 05 Mar 2016, 21:06
Well, not quite, but kind of.
I'm in the last stages of getting the new children's book off to a publisher. A book on puppy farming (surprise, surprise, I'm a one-trick-obsessive-pony) and rescue dogs, aimed at readers 8+. It's fictional, based on 2 schnauzers we know well, Renae and Twinkle (with shades of Susie-Belle and Cerise, and every other ex-breeding schnauzer we know). I've done the words, and Annabel Wilson has done the drawings (Annabel is not only a great illustrator, she's a teacher and mother, skills I needed onboard as I'm not overly familiar with the target audience )
For several reasons we decided a while back to self-publish, for example we want to control the timetable and content and these go out the window in the hands of a traditional publisher as I know from experience, and we want to be able to donate to animal rescues of our choosing if the book is ever profitable, again, much harder and more complex with a traditional publishing deal. (Books are not the money-spinners people assume, most full-time writers make very little money from books and to negotiate donations to charity for book sales is soul destroying). So, we decided a while back to self-publish and decided to give crowdfunding a go.
WOW!!
Neither of us have any experience of this at all, but we have been astonished at how generous and committed the section of the dog community who have backed our idea have proven to be. Our budget and crowdfunding target to get the book printed - no money was budgeted for our time spent producing it, or marketing - just to get it printed and produced was £2500. We didn't expect it to be easy to raise such a sum. We launched the Kickstarter on Wednesday afternoon and by Friday morning, less than 48 hours after launch, we were fully funded
It really has been an incredible whirlwind that is exciting, heartening and a little bit overwhelming! So much needs to be done in the next 3 weeks now, the Kickstarter runs until the end of March and pledges are still coming in. We're now aiming to get a bigger print-run with the additional funding coming in, and hope people will donate copies to their local library and schools by pledging on the Kickstarter for dedicated copies for them. How amazing it will be to know copies of the book may be read in years to come and affect how those young readers source their dogs. Education of the next generation is key to stopping the abuses of puppy farms etc.
If you want to read more, you can follow the Kickstarter here on this link, or on my blog.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sa ... her-sister
I'm in the last stages of getting the new children's book off to a publisher. A book on puppy farming (surprise, surprise, I'm a one-trick-obsessive-pony) and rescue dogs, aimed at readers 8+. It's fictional, based on 2 schnauzers we know well, Renae and Twinkle (with shades of Susie-Belle and Cerise, and every other ex-breeding schnauzer we know). I've done the words, and Annabel Wilson has done the drawings (Annabel is not only a great illustrator, she's a teacher and mother, skills I needed onboard as I'm not overly familiar with the target audience )
For several reasons we decided a while back to self-publish, for example we want to control the timetable and content and these go out the window in the hands of a traditional publisher as I know from experience, and we want to be able to donate to animal rescues of our choosing if the book is ever profitable, again, much harder and more complex with a traditional publishing deal. (Books are not the money-spinners people assume, most full-time writers make very little money from books and to negotiate donations to charity for book sales is soul destroying). So, we decided a while back to self-publish and decided to give crowdfunding a go.
WOW!!
Neither of us have any experience of this at all, but we have been astonished at how generous and committed the section of the dog community who have backed our idea have proven to be. Our budget and crowdfunding target to get the book printed - no money was budgeted for our time spent producing it, or marketing - just to get it printed and produced was £2500. We didn't expect it to be easy to raise such a sum. We launched the Kickstarter on Wednesday afternoon and by Friday morning, less than 48 hours after launch, we were fully funded
It really has been an incredible whirlwind that is exciting, heartening and a little bit overwhelming! So much needs to be done in the next 3 weeks now, the Kickstarter runs until the end of March and pledges are still coming in. We're now aiming to get a bigger print-run with the additional funding coming in, and hope people will donate copies to their local library and schools by pledging on the Kickstarter for dedicated copies for them. How amazing it will be to know copies of the book may be read in years to come and affect how those young readers source their dogs. Education of the next generation is key to stopping the abuses of puppy farms etc.
If you want to read more, you can follow the Kickstarter here on this link, or on my blog.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sa ... her-sister