newracer
August 2nd, 2019, 01:51 PM
I found this on pirate4x4
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71pHmdSR%2BsL.jpg
From Pirate:
I have two kids. A toddler boy and an infant girl. All their books are dreadful to read on repeat, with the exception of "Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus"; I love that one. I really wanted to start shoe-horning my love of wheeling onto them as quickly as I can. I love playing with hot wheels again, but it's the books that I felt I had my best shot. How hard could it be to make one? Some of these books I have aren't very well done in my opinion, and all my searches for baby car books came up empty. So I made one. I wanted the book to be fun for parents to read, as we are the ones actually reading it at this age. So I tried to put tongue in cheek humor in where I can, along with culture reference.
I started with a napkin sketch of the storyboard. Then I created the rhyme pattern I wanted. You see, with kids, there's an important balance. Too fast, and the book gets done too quickly and you need another one. Too slow, and buckaroo is over it. The right rhyme tempo was important, and I think I got it down well enough. We hired a guy to help with the art. The first go wasn't great, but it got us going. I had to siphon part money for this project, so a lot of it had to be done by my own hands. So I took the base art, and went to town. Painstakingly, through Microsoft Paint 3D at max zoom, and a surface pen, I made the art my own. Often times it was pixel by pixel to get it right.
We (needed help funding, so a co-worker went halfsies) searched for publishers. I'm not sure how anyone else gets started in this industry, because no one accepts solicitations. And I mean no one. So we self published through print-ninja.com. Again, formatting this thing to acceptable DPI and keeping the pixel count to scale was challenging... with Microsoft paint 3D. But we did it, and after 6 submissions, we finally got the final version correct! Off to print!
Now, we couldn't afford marketing. At this point we're out $2500 to get this off the ground. So we reached out and got help with some friends in the business, and with some (not-so) subtle product placement, we received social media advertising to help spread the word. As it turns out... it's not doing half bad with sales! We're almost even! I'm learning a lot about starting a business. It's neat to see how social media marketing works, and watching the trends of views to sales, and so on. I'm in law enforcement by day, so business is entirely new to me. On that... I've noticed this book has helped me personally. I have a 10 minute commute. So I leave my office, which is filled with stories of pain and misery, and 10 minutes later I'm with my wife and kids. Some days it's hard to mentally change gears. Having this as a side hobby is a welcome distraction from work, and it makes me happy to work on this and share it.
The reason for the post here-- I'm not a heavy poster, but wanted to share the end product. I'm in a bit of a vulnerable spot, as I hope people like what I've done, but I wanted to share. As an aside, a proceed of the sales will be donated to CORVA for land use lobbying and litigation. We won't be getting rich of this by any means, so I wanted to share my journey and hope it'll spread some fun to your kids too.
Buy here
https://www.amazon.com/Oliver-goes-ROAD-Garrett-Behrens/dp/0578495422
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71pHmdSR%2BsL.jpg
From Pirate:
I have two kids. A toddler boy and an infant girl. All their books are dreadful to read on repeat, with the exception of "Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus"; I love that one. I really wanted to start shoe-horning my love of wheeling onto them as quickly as I can. I love playing with hot wheels again, but it's the books that I felt I had my best shot. How hard could it be to make one? Some of these books I have aren't very well done in my opinion, and all my searches for baby car books came up empty. So I made one. I wanted the book to be fun for parents to read, as we are the ones actually reading it at this age. So I tried to put tongue in cheek humor in where I can, along with culture reference.
I started with a napkin sketch of the storyboard. Then I created the rhyme pattern I wanted. You see, with kids, there's an important balance. Too fast, and the book gets done too quickly and you need another one. Too slow, and buckaroo is over it. The right rhyme tempo was important, and I think I got it down well enough. We hired a guy to help with the art. The first go wasn't great, but it got us going. I had to siphon part money for this project, so a lot of it had to be done by my own hands. So I took the base art, and went to town. Painstakingly, through Microsoft Paint 3D at max zoom, and a surface pen, I made the art my own. Often times it was pixel by pixel to get it right.
We (needed help funding, so a co-worker went halfsies) searched for publishers. I'm not sure how anyone else gets started in this industry, because no one accepts solicitations. And I mean no one. So we self published through print-ninja.com. Again, formatting this thing to acceptable DPI and keeping the pixel count to scale was challenging... with Microsoft paint 3D. But we did it, and after 6 submissions, we finally got the final version correct! Off to print!
Now, we couldn't afford marketing. At this point we're out $2500 to get this off the ground. So we reached out and got help with some friends in the business, and with some (not-so) subtle product placement, we received social media advertising to help spread the word. As it turns out... it's not doing half bad with sales! We're almost even! I'm learning a lot about starting a business. It's neat to see how social media marketing works, and watching the trends of views to sales, and so on. I'm in law enforcement by day, so business is entirely new to me. On that... I've noticed this book has helped me personally. I have a 10 minute commute. So I leave my office, which is filled with stories of pain and misery, and 10 minutes later I'm with my wife and kids. Some days it's hard to mentally change gears. Having this as a side hobby is a welcome distraction from work, and it makes me happy to work on this and share it.
The reason for the post here-- I'm not a heavy poster, but wanted to share the end product. I'm in a bit of a vulnerable spot, as I hope people like what I've done, but I wanted to share. As an aside, a proceed of the sales will be donated to CORVA for land use lobbying and litigation. We won't be getting rich of this by any means, so I wanted to share my journey and hope it'll spread some fun to your kids too.
Buy here
https://www.amazon.com/Oliver-goes-ROAD-Garrett-Behrens/dp/0578495422