KickstarterForum.org

Hi guys,

I'm pretty new to kickstarter. I've always wanted to write a children's book and I believe I have a good story to tell. I'm not an artist so I can't illustrate it myself. When it is made, I hope to release it online as an ebook. As this is not really my field, I doubt I could get backed by a publisher. I was wondering if people think people would back my campaign even though the book will only be available digitally? If raised enough money to get it illustrated, I would be very pleased.

Also keep in mind, you can have someone on Fiverr illustrate for $5 a page.

I'm currently running a campaign for a children's eBook. I advertised for an illustrator on freelancer and got loads of offers from some very talented artists

Interesting, thanks, could you link me to your campaign plz?

Of course...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58 ... nd-giraffe

Your campaign pages looks really clean and direct for what you are offering, Lee.

Headed in the right direction!

You could also consider partnering up with an illustrator (split sales) who might be willing to do it for a discounted rate or free?

It looks like a cool project!

One thought: The illustrations are so important in a children's book. As you've selected your illustrator, showing some of her stuff on the page might not be bad, or some information about her.

For our project our artist is having to create 95 watercolour paintings, so we're making sure to have an interview with her, some information on why her artistic style is perfectly suited to our project, etc. If the art for a project isn't done, this lets prospective backers get a feel for (and a chance to get excited about) what the art will be like.

Best of luck with your project.
We're current running a Kickstarter campaign for a series of children's stories, so thought this input would help:

* Ours is a chooseable path story with the child's name in the story that was originally set-up as an app and then we added options for an ebook and printed book. We saw other projects giving away ebooks at lower prices points, but thought there would be some added value in putting the child's name in the story.

* It's been interesting seeing who selected which options. Originally, we did not have a reward level for the full version of the app and just had our rewards for hardback book, paperback book & ebook. Most selected the hardback or ebook options. Then, we added the reward option for the full version of the app and since then, most all the support has been for the these rewards.

* I would echo the comments of the others. Get a designer and have great looking artwork. They can be found on odesk, elance or sites like that. Either paying them up front or doing a revenue share could work.

* Finally, and this is the biggest advice. We've had some pretty good marketing campaigns in the past for other projects or businesses. For our Kickstarter, we thought we'd put time into setting up the Kickstarter page, coming up with creative rewards and reaching out to media... but we missed building a critical mass of supports before our project started and we should have done much more before we launched. Our project has gotten rave reviews, but few have found it. At this point, over 99% of our support has come from our own efforts - meaning friends and family, or those regular Kickstarter backers who have found the project through our own social efforts and not via the KS search, so the main point would be start early and gain supporters in advance via a lead capture page, keep them informed via email and then have the list of potential backers ready to email when you launch. We thought much more support would come from the community, but we've found from getting in touch with others in this category is that most support comes from friends and family.

Hope this helps & best of luck in your efforts!