Finally published A is for Aborginal in early December 2013. A tad late for the Christmas market but it was great to actually have it in hand and in the world.
I have decided to blog my experience as a self-published children’s author because already it has led me down some paths that are quite unexpected and I want to use the blog to share the developing story.
When the book arrived I showed it to the principal of an elementary school on Vancouver’s Eastside. When I suggested that the book would make a great ‘fundraiser’ for the school the principal gave me a sideways glance and said, “Our parents can’t afford to purchase a book like that.” So much for that idea – the poorer schools that really need the funding don’t have the money to purchase a book that way.
One of my favourite sayings is ‘Every stick has two ends.’ and I got to thinking – what if I changed the approach and so I created a ‘Buy One – Donate One’ program – where for every book I sold I would donate one to a child or family through a school or community organization.
Pretty quickly I had requests for over 500 copies. As I only started this in mid-December I didn’t get a whole lot of traction but I did sell about 100 books by Christmas – 65 of which were under the Buy One – Donate One program.
That was encouraging and so I am going to be expanding on the program this year. Please stay tuned for more on how this is all working out.