To Kickstart or not to Kickstart

Pamela Fraley

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Robyn Hepburn

@Pamela-Fraley I can be of no help...
But I do want to say that the fun and ridiculousness of this book makes it something I would have snapped up for my children when they were smaller, and they would have loved it!
Plus, it's adorable fruit and veggies with faces and it's not trying to tell children to eat healthier. That gives it extra points in my opinion.

Pamela Fraley

@Robyn-Hepburn Yea, theres no overt message here. I’m am not good at writing those kinds of stories anyway. This is just the product of having lunch with my dad… things get silly very quickly.

Melissa_Bailey

@Pamela-Fraley really cute book idea!

There are some pros and cons of Kickstarter. (I haven't done a Kickstarter campaign yet, but am in the midst of researching about it, which I highly recommend doing.)

Pros:

Gives you some cash to help fund your project
Helps build your platform/readership.
Helps test out to see the interest in the project and determine how much to print/produce

Cons:

It takes A LOT of work!
It might not be as straightforward as it originally seems

However, just so you know, there are other options than just Print Ninja or Kickstarter.

For an overseas printer, Print Ninja is actually quite expensive. If you're going to print in bulk, there are other printers that are much more affordable.

Have you considered print-on-demand (POD)? If this isn't a project that you want to throw a lot of time, energy, and resources into, or if you don't have a huge budget to put towards publishing a book and don't want to run a crowdfunding campaign, POD might be the way to go. The two major POD companies are KDP (Amazon) and IngramSpark (run by Ingram, the largest book distributor in the US). The print quality isn't as high as a book printed on a traditional offset printer, but it's adequate and, more importantly, AFFORDABLE. If you're looking to print a paperback, I recommend KDP. If you want to print hardcover, IngramSpark is better for that. You can do both as well.

If you have more questions about POD or self-publishing in general, feel free to ask, or shoot me a DM. There are others on the forum who also have experience self-publishing and/or running Kickstarter campaigns. They might also be able to weigh in with some pointers as well.

Pamela Fraley

@Melissa_Bailey Thank you! I will consider all of this. I think the thing that makes my project tricky is that it’s a board book. Print Ninja was one of the only printers I could find that do that. I have thought about expanding it to a full 32 page children’s book, but thats a whole other thing. I will look into those other companies though. I would love some better options!

Miriam

@Pamela-Fraley Your salad characters are so adorable!

Question: Are the labels descriptions, or names of the characters?
If it's their names, what happens when their emotion changes? (Also, I wouldn't like the message it would send: that people ARE their emotions.) But if it's just a description of how they are feeling at the moment, I think it's great.

It looks like a cute & fun story.

Pamela Fraley

@Miriam Haha. Thanks. No, not their names. Just what kind of sad they are at the moment. I really didn’t think too deeply about it. Just went for alliteration at the beginning when they are feeling all the sad things. I drop it when they become happy.

Melissa_Bailey

@Pamela-Fraley you're welcome!

Another thing to think about as you're cogitating: a picture book doesn't have to be 32 pages. KDP has a minimum page count of 24 pages for their paperbacks. IngramSpark's minimum page count for both paperback and hardcover is 18 pages. Traditional offset printers (printing in bulk) may have even lower minimum page counts -- it varies with every printer, depending on the capability of their machines.

Pamela Fraley

@Melissa_Bailey Oh wow! I did not know that! I should really look into it then. I was getting quotes from a few places and kept running into minimums of 32 or even 48 pages. I’m going to look on the KDP site now.
I also emailed this whole question to Will the other day and he actually said they answered it on the podcast they recorded. Really interested to hear what they have to say about the whole thing when it comes out. It’s a weird situation.

jvartandillustration

@Pamela-Fraley I’ve done a Kickstarter, and it barely made its goal, but not without the help of some family who took pity on me at the last minute
It takes a lot of work, and you’ll have to spend some money on ads and really putting yourself out there to get the attention it needs to be successful.
I think the guys talked about this on their podcast, but there will be a lot of people who say they want to buy the book just to be nice, but ultimately never follow through on their word. I experienced this as well.

I guess you have to decide if you’re willing to put in the work that it takes to get attention for the project to be successful. If I’m being honest, I don’t know if Kickstarter is the right place to crowd find a board book, because I don’t know that there are a ton of moms with young kids on there (who would most likely be your target audience). Sorry, I don’t want to sound like I’m discouraging you. I would just consider all the options out there before going that route.

Good luck, and I hope it works out whatever you decide.

Pamela Fraley

@jvartandillustration I actually really appreciate that, because I was thinking the same thing. What percentage of people will actually put out money when you start the campaign? I was getting pretty stressed about it not funding and telling my husband he might have to swoop in at the last minute. I think I’m leaning toward making a physical copy of the book for my dad. (That’s all it was going to be in the first place anyway. ) And then doing a soft or hard cover “print on demand” through Ingram Spark. It’s lower risk for me, but still makes it available if people actually want to buy it. I could tell my local book store too. I’ve been friends with them forever and they have some of my art in the store anyway. They might want a couple copies on their local authors table.