Hilda and Richie 64 hours left!
Hilda & Richie's Sandwich has only 64 hours remaining to fund!
We sit $600 away from the goal so please be sure to pledge now! You get all kinds of rewards just for backing the campaign, including exclusive art AND an extra book!
Go back the Kickstarter now!
7 days remain with Hilda & Richie's Sandwich...and we hit 50% funding late last night!
This means that later today, a sneak preview of Hilda & Richie's fourth book (Hilda & Richie Go Swimming) will drop; this one will include a partial script and some sketches!
It is imperative with this short amount of time remaining that we fund 100% as the campaign ends next Friday night on Feb. 9 at about 11:58PM Central.
Back Hilda & Richie now on Kickstarter to get 3 extra rewards!
A sense of wonder is what I want
I miss when children's books bestowed a sense of wonder on young readers like they did with me. While I haven't stayed current with the present state of children's literature, I've been hearing some industry insiders criticize contemporary children's books as "straw fires" - these titles will burn brightly for a short time and then die out to be forgotten.
One of the books I grew up with were the Little Golden Books series. Created in 1942, these marked the first children's books that were mass-produced and affordable. To put things in perspective, these books cost 25 cents when introduced when children's books normally cost 2 to 3 dollars - in those days, a loaf of bread cost about 10 cents so books for young readers cost A LOT OF MONEY!! These were also sold in many places besides bookstores like train stations, gift shops, corner stores, dime stores and many more.
As a little boy in the 1980s, I had a number of these books. While some were more original material like fairy tales, a number of the Little Golden Books I had were licensed characters from popular media such as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester & Tweety, Mrs. Brisby (from the 1982 movie "the Secret of NIMH") and more. Even today, licensed characters find their way into Little Golden Books such as the Mario Brothers, Star Wars, Star Trek and even Grumpy Cat!
In the Hilda & Richie books, it is my intention to make reading fun for children and also fill them with a sense of wonder just like Little Golden Books did for me years ago.
Go back Hilda & Richie's Sandwich now on Kickstarter!
Hilda and Richie's Sandwich Halfway Done
Hilda and Richie's Sandwich, my third children's book, is halfway through its Kickstarter.
At the time of this writing, the Kickstarter sits at US$927 which is about 37% funding. It's currently $73 away from $1000, which is 40% funding.
Upon hitting 40% and then 50% funding (big milestones), a special reward will drop but only for anyone backing the Kickstarter. That will be a preview of the fourth Hilda & Richie book planned for next year. It's titled "Hilda & Richie Go Swimming".
Plenty of rewards are still available! A pledge of just $5 gets you a digital copy of the book! Pledging $19 gets you a print copy of the book!
If you are a retailer of any kind, pledging $49 gets you 10 copies of the book to resell, give away, etc. Plus you have an option for signed copies AND a promotional mini-print with your retailer logo!
If you want original art from Hilda & Richie's Sandwich, just pledge $109 and you get one!
If you want to appear as a cameo in the fourth Hilda & Richie book, then pledge $399! Only 3 out of 4 slots still remain for that!
Go back Hilda & Richie's Sandwich now!!
How I came back from failure
So far this Kickstarter is doing well. I've had a number of successes so far on the Kickstarter platform, both comics and books. But I've also had a number of failures. In the first few attempts at crowdfunding comics, I failed miserably, mainly because I did not fully understand crowdfunding. I believed that all that was just "free money" for the taking or "if I build it, they will come".
What I really want to tell you about today is Dominic & Claire Return, which I considered to be a heartbreaking failure. After having small successes on Kickstarter in the $200-300 range, I aimed to fund something higher. Confidence was high that I could fund that comic book since I had past successes. Sadly, that failed as I could not pass 35% funding on Kickstarter. This was back in May 2019. I was feeling dejected and demoralized. If I could not crowdfund that amount of money, then what chance did I have of crowdfunding higher totals for picture books and other comics?
How bad was my failure? It was really bad...I nearly gave up making comics altogether! I was mulling how to announce that I was going to publicly announcement my "retirement" from any sort of comics making.
That sounds depressing, doesn't it? You are probably wondering what happened. How did I ever come back from that? Why did I choose to keep going?
Tyler James threw me a lifeline. This man is a guru of sorts and the founder of Comixlaunch, a service that helps train creators how to crowdfund comics and other works on Kickstarter. At first, I ignored him as I was upset over my failure and I even thought he was some sort of hustler. It was one day that I started watching a video of his on YouTube about Kickstarter mistakes. I listened halfheartedly while lying on my couch, still devastated over my failure. But then he pointed out a mistake during the video...which was one that I had made! It was at that moment, my attitude changed. I snapped out of my funk, sat up on my couch and listened to Tyler's words in the video. Then I rewatched it again.
From that point on, my whole attitude changed. This defeat was not the end. I learned from Tyler, carefully reviewed my mistakes and prepared a new campaign. And that one funded!
My light almost went out forever. I nearly quit making comics and planned to abandon making children's books...but I came back and I won! There is a lesson here for you: failure is not the end of the world.
Never confuse a defeat with being a final defeat!