Category: Creativity

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A Behind-the-Scenes look at OpenAI DALL-E 2 AI Art Generator

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I clicked the “Get Started” button on my invitation email from OpenAI DALL-E 2.

Months ago, I joined their waitlist to beta test their powerful AI platform. For the past year, I’ve been experimenting with NightCafe Studio (NC), another AI art generator, with exciting but varied results.

Both AI art generators use text or keyword prompts to create visuals.

So, entering something like, “A wise owl wearing glasses, digital illustration” will result in a wide array of illustrations.

The more specific you are with the text prompts, the more control you can exert over the AI tool, provided you’ve trained the tool using multiple iterations.

After a few attempts, DALL-E 2 created a wide array of beautiful characters — something I couldn’t do with nearly as much ease in NightCafe Studio.

I entered the same prompt in DALL-E 2 and NC to see what both tools provided.

DALLE-2

NightCafe Studio

 

WOW! Right?

The DALL-E 2 illustration was one of 9 illustrations generated by the tool. 

I spent 6 (!!) credits on NightCafe to get an illustration of bizarre-looking vegetables. 

In order to get the NC version to look anything like the DALL-E 2 version, I would need to spend a lot more time and credits experimenting with various start images and prompts.

DALL-E 2 is incredibly, incredibly powerful. 

More results from DALL-E 2

DALL-E 2 In the News

As I was experimenting with DALL-E 2, Cosmopolitan Magazine published its first cover using a DALL-E 2 generated image.

Source: Cosmopolitan.com

 

I tried the same prompt myself and the results were not as striking — proving that AI-generated artwork is revolutionary, but still inconsistent.

The inability to duplicate the same image from the same prompt proves 2 things:

1 – Nobody can really “copy” someone else, even if using the same text prompts

2 – Creating consistent images or visuals is extremely hard

The best combination, in my opinion, is leveraging all of the tools in your toolbox.

Use AI to generate a start image and then manipulate further in another editing tool like Photoshop.

Combining DALL-E 2 and NightCafe Studio

My favorite combination is to use DALL-E 2-created images as starter images for my NightCafe Studio prompts where I have greater control over the style and output.

Perhaps it is because I’m more familiar with NightCafe Studio, but I really love how I can control the finished result using my tested prompts.

Here are a few examples:

DALL-E 2

 

Post NightCafe Studio Edits

 

DALL-E 2

Post NightCafe Studio Edits

DALL-E 2

Post NightCafe Studio Edits

Ethical Considerations of AI Artwork

A lot of people are seeing the power of DALL-E 2 and freaking out saying that this software will replace artists.

AI can be used to improve our lives, but we are really uncomfortable when it starts replacing artistic creativity.

Employment, privacy, and AI becoming self-aware, are usually always cited as the top concerns for artificial intelligence (and rightly so!).

Sure, we are ok with AI in our cars braking for us in case a child runs into the street.

We are even ok with AI in healthcare to improve health outcomes.

But using AI to generate art?? Now we are in murky waters.

As someone who has been in the AI Artwork space for the past year and interacted with artists using Midjourney, NightCafe Studio,  I can say with confidence that it does take a lot of experimentation, time, and effort to figure out how to use text prompts correctly.

A lot of artists say they use AI as their digital paintbrush.

Despite that, innovation and new technology should be approached with caution.

DALL-E 2 has strict limitations on creating artwork that resembles real people like celebrities and political figures. 

Currently, DALL-E 2-generated art is for personal use only and cannot be commercialized.

AI can be a visual tool similar to how Billie Eilish and Kanye West experiment with autotune.

Remove the tool from the talented artists and they are still amazing.

Remove the tool from the amateur and they can’t produce the art.

Current limitations of AI Artwork

Currently, one major limitation of DALL-E 2, is that the AI generates completely different images every time.

One may struggle to create a cohesive narrative story with a main character using DALL-E 2 as it is not possible to replicate similar characters or scenes.

At the moment, the tool can be used for one-off visuals, inspiration, designing mood boards, or brainstorming ideas.

While DALL-E 2 is incredibly powerful, the novice user will have a hard time getting repeated results.

If one uses CLIP-guided diffusion tools and has sets of prompts that produce a similar style of artwork, it is very possible to create a book using only AI-generated artwork.

The Future of AI Artwork

DALL-E 2 is the most powerful AI-generator currently available and the results are stunning.

AI-artwork platforms are just finding their footing and they are becoming more powerful every day as users train the AI.

I don’t think AI-artwork will disappear and if anything, we will see more and more AI-generated artwork in our illustrated books, cookbooks, fairytales, magazines, and media.

What I love most about AI artwork is that it allows us all to play in the visual world.

If you want to sign up for DALL-E 2 beta access, you can do that here.

Since the technology is open to everyone, there are other interfaces that you can use to generate start images like DALLE-Mini.

Alternatively, you can always experiment with NightCafe Studio, Midjourney, StarryAI, WomboAI and others.

What do you think of AI-generated artwork? 

Follow me on Insta!

If you love fae, elves, trolls, and more, be sure to follow me on Instagram @AIArtwork_Fantasy

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We highlight web3lit projects and creative pioneers every Friday and send a friendly email to our Gutenb3rg Readers.

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The Secret to Marketing Your Book Without Annoying People

Marketing is cited as the #1 pain in the rump for most writers, which is funny because…

1) marketing and then selling our books is the only way we can continue to write and do what we love,

2) marketing is a great way to creatively express your ideas, and

3) you’re a writer so you are already skilled in the best marketing tool there is—more writing.

But, I totally get it because I often feel the same way. We are selling books, literature, art! We aren’t marketing gadgets or gizmos.

Our stories came from our hearts and it feels wrong to “push” them onto people. We want people to love them just like we do.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. 

If people don’t see your books, they won’t know they are available for purchase.

As writers, writing should be easy, non?

Facebook ads and Amazon ads, etc., are all great but you gain external credibility when another website publishes your personal essays or articles that are tangentially related to your book(s).

Is it slower and more work to market in this way? 

Perhaps, but it should be part of your marketing toolkit and you’d be remiss in not trying it.

Non-annoying strategy #1 – write and publish personal essays

Here’s an example of how to market your book in a personal essay

This personal essay in Conde Naste Traveler “How My Mother’s Travels Shaped My World View” focused on a the writer’s relationship with her mother.

At the end of the personal essay, the author mentions,

“She wanted to travel the globe, and she did. Because of my mom, I decided to work in food media after college, even though I had zero connections in that world and all my peers were going into finance. I wrote a cookbook while working as a full-time journalist.”

The author bio at the bottom linked to the woman’s cookbook and voilá! This author is effectively marketing her book to a very warm audience. 

In fact, she is providing entertainment value and making herself relatable to the audience before inviting them to buy her book.

That’s how you market your book without being annoying.

Do you think readers are more or less likely to share an article about a moving emotional essay about interpersonal relationships than they are an Instagram graphic that says, “Buy my cookbook!”?

Readers are more likely to share writing that speaks to them on an emotional level than they will a clear advertisement. 

You have to wine and dine your readers before you ask them to buy. It’s how it works.

Write essays and publish them everywhere

Once you write a killer personal essay with your audience in mind, start pitching it to external outlets.

The bigger the outlet, the tougher it’ll be, but the sweeter the credibility and ultimate reward (more readers).

Research the tone of the articles featured by the publication and match your personal essay to their audience.

This approach gets your book in front of a lot of people all at once without annoying anyone.

You can (and should) feel proud pushing the article on all of your platforms because it’s not screaming, “BUY MY BOOK!”

The downside is that it’s not easy to (successfully) pitch third-party websites your essays and it requires a lot of lead time.

There is a ton of rejection involved in freelance writing and if you’re not experienced, you’re going to become quickly frustrated.

Alternatives to publishing on third-party websites

Don’t have time to pitch and get rejected over and over again?

Here are some alternatives to third-party exposure:

—Publish your essays on Medium
—Publish your writing on LinkedIn
—Publish your writing on your own website (you should have an author platform, hello!)

—Publish your personal essays directly on Facebook itself. Facebook loves long reads because it keeps readers scrolling and scrolling. End with a strong call to action and link to buy.
—Coordinate with other bloggers who might have smaller-than-Conde-Naste-size audiences and see if they take guest posts

Follow the example above—offer authentic, genuine writing that is attractive to your intended audience and weave in the fact that you’ve written a book toward the end of your essay with a link in your bio.

Non-annoying strategy #2 – Optimize your homepage

If the website doesn’t allow links to books/products, then definitely ask for a link to your homepage and make sure your homepage is optimized to send people to your book.

For my current children’s book Kickstarter campaign, I optimized my homepage to be a landing page. 

My homepage sent people directly to my Kickstarter campaign that way if any third-party website articles take off and link to my homepage, readers will be clearly directed to my book’s campaign.

So, in conclusion, forget the ‘Buy my book!” messaging and write another story. Write a behind-the-scenes story. Write something emotional or transformative.

Write your best work and when readers love your essay, they’ll rush out to buy your book when given the opportunity.

Keep your homepage simple and clean, and when in doubt, add a big button to direct people to your crowdfunding campaign.

Don’t lose that traffic that you worked so hard for!

An optimized homepage is the LEAST annoying thing you can do.

Non-annoying strategy #3 – Automated email sequences

Are you neglecting your email newsletter list?

You remember – the group of people who agreed to give you their contact information, but you never send them emails because you’re afraid of annoying them?

Here’s how to send emails to your newsletter list without fear of annoying anyone at all:

1 – Send an automated welcome email that is human, casual, and simple.

This lets your readers know that A) you received their information, B) they can learn more about you, and C) they can respond to the email and feel reassured that a real human being is behind the computer.

2 – Test out different headlines. 

If someone doesn’t open your email, it means that they didn’t see your message/content OR call-to-action (like ‘Check out my campaign on Kickstarter!”). 

Monitoring your email open rates is really important and super informative on what email headlines are grabbing people’s attention and which ones are being ignored.

When you retarget people with a new headline, send the new email ONLY to those people who never opened your first email.

You’re NOT sending them too many emails because they already aren’t reading them and you KNOW IT.


So many authors have this hang up about unsubscribe rates or “bothering people” — I mean, you don’t want people on your newsletter list to just sit there and collect dust, right?

Isn’t the entire point to generate a conversation? Add value to their lives? Get feedback from beta readers?

How can you do any of that if you aren’t regularly engaging with them?

Let’s look at it this way — if you have ZERO issues putting out content on Instagram and responding to comments there, then you should have ZERO issues sending emails to your subscribers.

It’s the same exact concept. They gave you permission to email them, so be sure to email them! 

If they don’t like your content, they’ll unsubscribe and be on their merry way — no stress, no drama.

So, test out those headlines and stop worrying about emailing “too often” – there’s no such thing as long as you’re sending them quality content that is engaging, educational, or inspirational.

 

Want 25 Creative Ideas to get your book in front of readers? 

Whether you are launching your book on Amazon, your website, or on Kickstarter, you need to put your book in front of readers 7 different times before they’ll take action.

Here are 25 ways to do it!

Click here for instant access (no email required).

I send out helpful marketing emails every Friday. Be sure to join my newsletter list to get these tips and tools!

Click here to sign up for my Friday newsletter

Do you want to launch your book’s Kickstarter campaign without annoying anyone?

If you’re interested in learning HOW to create a marketing strategy for your book’s Kickstarter campaign that doesn’t annoy your readers, then you are invited to book a 60-minute discovery call.

Serious inquiries only — you must have big goals ($10k or more) and be ready to work hard and invest in your own success.

Let’s dig deeper!

 

Click here to book your call
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Should I Run a Kickstarter Campaign During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

should i crowdfund my book coronavirus

Last week, we heard from children’s book author Nikki Filippone about why she canceled her book’s Kickstarter campaign after reaching 50% funding in 13 days.

This week, we’ll learn from children’s book author and wildlife photographer, Dennis Glennon, about why he’s continuing with his all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign for his book, Buddy’s Magic Window.

Below, you’ll find Dennis’ reasoning for why it’s important for writers to not give up on their dreams even in times of economic uncertainty.

Reasons to Continue Marketing Your Books During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Well, there are a lot of reasons. The most important being is that I believe my book is worth fighting for.

I believe it will bring smiles and inspiration to both children and adults. I know it will inspire children to read and want to help animals and the environment.

Despite the current circumstances, I believe that positivity, inspiration, and smiles are needed now more than ever. This book has all of that.

I also believe that when you put enough force and drive behind something that is good, and you work extremely hard to make it happen, it will find the right people to support it.

I also know this will be tough work, and it might fail to reach its funding goal. This is a calculated risk, but I still believe it will get funded.

“Despite the current circumstances, I believe that positivity, inspiration, and smiles are needed now more than ever. This book has all of that.”

Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs Need to Fight Extra Hard

Another reason I kept the campaign going is that I want more than anything to be a full-time children’s book author. It has been a dream of mine for a long time.

This book has been just about ready for over six years. I had health setbacks, which forced me to put the whole project on the back burner.

Whatever the next few weeks or months forces me to deal with will pale in comparison to what I went through to get healthy.

I also believe that when you own a small business, you must be creative, fight, and be persistent to succeed.

Owning a small business and running it full time is no easy task. By continuing a Kickstarter campaign at this time, I will need to fight and scrape for every dollar.

See it as a Learning Opportunity

I am learning new things every day. This campaign is forcing me way out of my comfort zone. The things I am learning will be invaluable as I go forward on my goal to be a full-time author.

The biggest take away is that you will always need to be thinking creatively to sell and market yourself. There are endless opportunities to market, even under the worst circumstances.

Just imagine, if I succeed in bad times, how much better it will be when the economy gets back to normal.

No certainty when that will be, but I will have books and be ready to go.

In the meantime, I will be building an online store and start branding my book. I am going to offer a whole merchandising line.

I will start offering puzzles later on today because they are in high demand since everyone is stuck at home.

With Amazon currently only delivering necessities, it is the perfect time to drive sales to your website where the profit margins are higher.

buddy dog coffee dennis glennon
Photo credit: Dennis Glennon Photography

The World Needs Artists to Continue Working

On a more philosophical note, we are artists, authors, and creatives. We take the time to pour our lifetime of thoughts into a book.

To me, it is a higher calling that we must get our stories, which we are so passionate about out into the world.

Keep in mind that this is a business, and you need an excellent book, a solid following, and a great plan to make this happen.

Competition is more fierce than ever.

To that end, we must work even harder and smarter to get people to buy our books and fund our creative projects, no easy task at the moment.

Advice if You Plan to Crowdfund Right Now

Here’s my advice if you are going to launch a campaign soon: Get professional help!!!

This is no time to play around and try to figure this out on your own. You need a solid plan and following to make this happen.

I hired Lisa Ferland to help me. Her expertise is priceless.

She will put you in the best position to succeed. She has a ton of knowledge and is super generous in helping her clients succeed.

I could not have done this on my own. An added bonus to having Lisa on your team is that she alleviates a large amount of stress. You’ll know you have proper direction or will be re-directed if things start slipping.

I also talked with and follow children’s book author, Jay Miletsky. His business advice is sound and will put you on a path to profit. His groups are awesome, and there are a lot of resources there to help in your book publishing endeavor.

Keep in mind that running a Kickstarter campaign will be a ton of work and more complicated than you think.

At this point, you might want to consider lowering your original goal (before you launch) a little and aim to go over.

I had no way of knowing this Corona scare would happen, but, in hindsight, I wish I would have gone with my original goal of $6,500 and then gone over to the $9,500 that I really need for the 2,500 copies.

I chose 2,500 copies because there is enough profit margin to be able to get a second print run paid for and sustain an adequate profit margin.

buddys magic window dennis glennon

Keep Asking for the Sale

So then there is another question “How do you ask people for money in this time of economic uncertainty? “

Ultimately, it is a personal decision, and there are no wrong answers. However, my response is, “How do you not?”

Keep in mind that this is an unusual period, and we should be diplomatic, sympathetic, empathetic, and know our audience, as we do not want to alienate anyone.

The economic uncertainty is brutal, and people are understandably stressed and holding onto their money.

Imagine that this is your full-time business. What would you do? Would you just fold up? Or would you fight for survival?

I think we are safe if we politely ask for the sale and support. People either can and will support, or they cannot at this time, and they will not, and either way, it is OK.

But without asking, we will fail.

Artists Can Help Others Heal in Times of Crisis

I will give you an example of what happened to me post 9/11 when I had an Art Show shortly afterward that may shed some light on the current situation.

I live in NJ. When 9/11 happened, I had an art show scheduled in Montclair NJ not far from Manhattan. I knew people who died in this tragedy, including the priest who baptized me, Father Mychal Judge, who was the Fire Chaplin and a family friend.

I struggled with a lot of things, and one of them is, “Do I go do this art show? How can I possibly ask people for money at this time of tragedy? I struggled with it. Not an easy decision, but I went. That is what artists do. We show up and support.

My reasoning ended up being I will set up my booth and just be there for anyone who needs the support. I will provide a pleasant distraction for anyone that was there, figuring if they were out, that is what they needed.

I did not push for any sales for those two days but talked about my work and certainly accepted the sales that came my way. I learned that people really appreciated the artists that showed up.

We help heal in a time of crisis.

Yes..sales were probably horrible, but I did make some money and provided some much-needed relief. So with that in mind, I could not give up on my current campaign.

Crowdfunding is Tough No Matter When You Launch

I truly believe I can be there for people in need of something positive, a welcomed distraction, and my book has value and that people will feel good about the purchase.

Then when July rolls around and the books are delivered, they will be thankful they helped support the campaign.

Will it be tough? Absolutely!! I was funded 50% of my $9,500 goal the first week.

The second week, when the pandemic started to become more of a reality, and people started getting sent home from work, I only gained 7%. SCARY.

I will have to gently push harder and be even more creative to get to the finish line. I realize that not all people will agree with me on this, and I respect that.

But if you gained just one bit of wisdom or insight in this article, then I have provided value, and I wish us all success in our book publishing journeys.

It is a tough journey, better traveled with the support of good friends and fellow authors who understand the difficulty.

Would I recommend launching a campaign right now??? I would consult with Lisa and Jay’s group to get a better pulse.

Ask me in 2 weeks.

Best wishes to all. Keep up the fight. Most of all, be safe.

Stay healthy and be kind to yourself and others. These are tough times. We need to come together and support one another.

Keeping it positive!

dennis glennon photography

Dennis Glennon is a professional dog, wildlife, and nature photographer. He has photographed some of the most beautiful places in North America including most of the U.S. National Parks. His focus has been on photographing landscapes and wildlife, but once he started photographing dogs it took on a life of its own.

Click here to visit and support Buddy’s Magic Window on Kickstarter
Click here to follow Dennis Glennon’s Photography on Facebook

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Crowdfunding Lessons 101: Is Crowdfunding Your Book a Good Idea?

Enroll in Lisa’s free mini-course on Crowdfunding for Authors to find out if it’s right for you

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Batching Writing Tasks to Boost Your Efficiency

batching-your-writing-lisa-ferland

The Power of Batching

If your morning work routine looks something like this:
—check your email, scroll through Facebook/Instagram, like a few posts, open your email, hop on a conference call, and back to checking email again, etc., then you’re not batching your workday.

Batching relieves the pressure of an overwhelming to-do list.

By breaking down your workflow into discrete tasks and dedicate time to them in your calendar.

Bit by organized bit, you can eat that elephant one scheduled bite at a time.

Way back when I felt overwhelmed in graduate school, I would tighten up my schedule and batch my work into one and two-hour blocks.

Every single hour of my day was assigned to a task, project, or activity from 8 am until 10 pm including time for exercise, breaks, and eating.

If you feel you are battling Shiny Object Syndrome, then consider batching your work for a month and see how it feels.

The Strain of Multitasking

Did you know that it takes your brain 15 minutes to refocus after every interruption?

Saying we are “masters of multitasking” is a lie we tell ourselves to excuse our very distracting work environments.

Constantly switching between tasks is mentally exhausting and ineffective. Neuroscientists say that this constant switching is what causes us to feel more tired than if we stayed focused on one task over a long period of time.

If you want to be more effective in your writing habits, marketing, and build rapport with your readers, you might want to test out the power of batching to help you achieve your goals.

What Does Batching Look Like?

Batching your writing tasks will look different for everyone depending on our maximum workflow and weekly needs.

For me, after years of figuring out my who, what, why, and how for my business, my batching looks something like this:

Annual batching

  • January—plan out six months of themed content that will be helpful for my clients; strategize my book publications; plan out my books’ marketing strategies and overall budget allocation based on projected annual revenue by project
  • June—plan out the next six months of content and marketing strategies for my consulting, courses, and books based on the last year’s baseline sales revenue
  • Review these plans on a quarterly basis or adjust as needed

Monthly Batching

  • On the first day of each month, I do the following:
  • Mondays: plan out my website’s content for the month and write out every blog article
  • Tuesdays—design social media graphics for each article
  • Wednesdays—upload, and schedule; keyword research, optimize SEO
  • Thursdays—plan out email newsletter content
  • Fridays—open

Weekly Batching

  • Block out my time for my clients for the week—every one hour-session takes me three hours in total—one to prepare, one for the session, and one for the wrap-up and deliverables
  • Schedule one hour/day for writing
  • Write down my priorities for the week

I also try to squeeze as much juice from every activity as possible and leverage it across platforms.

For example, If I am feeling in a creative video mood, I will write do the following:

  • write the script, create, edit, and upload the video
  • use the same script to create a blog post and embed the video into my blog
  • share across platforms, my newsletter, etc.,

By focusing on one project at a time, I’m really creating multiple forms of content to be optimized on each platform.

Batching Creates Consistency

When asked why McDonald’s is so popular, it’s not the taste or quality of the food, but the consistency of the restaurant.

Travelers worldwide know what to expect when they walk into a McDonald’s anywhere in the world. The restaurants all look the same, the uniforms are similar, and the entire experience is consistent.

We all need consistency in our writing, social media presence, and performance if we want to be effective in our writing careers.

Consistency is tough without a system in place to keep things running if we fall ill or want to head off to an island retreat.

To keep things consistent, create a schedule that you can commit to.

Batching Leaves Space for Creativity

“Lisa, that schedule looks very Type A. Where’s the freewheeling space for creativity?”

We all have our most productive times during our days, but sometimes, we get a surge of creativity at odd hours and simply must write.

Surprisingly, batching your work can lead to more time for creativity.

Your brain isn’t constantly overworked with task switching and interruptions are minimized.

When you can cross off those pesky tasks that you’ve been avoiding, you create more space for writing.

Batching Improves Action

When we take consistent action in our work, we will make progress toward our goals. The more goals we achieve, the more goals we can set.

It’s really easy to get stuck in Research/Learn Mode where we feel we must learn all about this new tool or software before we can begin to write.

By batching your work and protecting time on your calendar for your creative writing, you will end up taking more action.

It can become addicting to take course after course and listen to webinars on loop in an effort to continue learning and mastering your craft without ever putting it into practice.

Yes, learning is essential to growing as a writer and not wasting your money on Amazon ads, but you’ll learn just as much, if not more, when you start doing the work.

If you keep finding yourself in Research/Learn Mode, turn it into a reward after you’ve finished the thing you’ve been putting off.

“I can only watch this really cool TedX talk after I’ve written 2500 words.”

Win, win.

Hierarchy of Tasks

It’s important to remember that not all tasks are created equal—there is a hierarchy of tasks not all tasks deserve your immediate attention.

While it’s fun to tackle the low-hanging fruit like checking our email, we should always focus on the most important and most urgent tasks first. I know one freelancer who only checks her email once a week!

In conclusion, batching can help you organize your tasks, identify priorities, and help you focus on achieving your goals.

How do you organize your tasks?

Over to you: what systems do you have in place to keep yourself focused?

Do you have dedicated writing time? Dedicated creation time for blogging or podcasting? How do you schedule your work?

Sound off in the comments below.

You Might Also Enjoy

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Batching Writing Tasks to Boost your Efficiency and Productivty | LisaFerland.com
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2019 Advent Calendar for Kids—Children’s Book Recommendations

2019 advent calendar for kids lisaferland

Create your 2019 Advent Calendar for kids with a new book every day.

Give the gift of books  to your favorite young readers this holiday season.

You’ve already read The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, so add these  independently published children’s book to your bookshelves this year.

Below are my recommendations to create an Advent Calendar for kids of children’s books for your kids to open every day of December. 

All of the links below are Amazon affiliate links to which I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

2019 advent calendar books for kids lisa ferland

Budget-friendly options for book Advent calendars 

I know that not everyone has the budget to purchase 24 books in a month, which is why I propose the following budget-friendly options:

  • Create an ebook Advent Calendar for Kids

    • Sign up for Kindle Unlimited on Amazon US here
    • Or purchase the Kindle version of each book at a discounted price from the physical books
    • Kindle Unlimited is $9.99/mth and there is even a 30-day free trial if you’ve never tried it before
    • Nearly all of the books below are also available on Kindle Unlimited
    • To create an ebook Advent calendar for kids:
      • download all of the ebooks beforehand to your Kindle-reading device and place the title of the book on a slip of paper in an envelope so your kids have something to open.
    • Reading the ebooks are also a great way to see if your kids love the books before you invest in buying  physical copies.
    • The authors will still get a small royalty for your Kindle Unlimited read.
    • Be sure to leave a review!

  • Blend old and new books into your Advent calendar for kids 

    • Select some of the books on the list below that interest you the most and wrap some existing books from your children’s bookshelves into your Advent calendar collection.

  • Borrow books from the library to supplement your Advent calendar

    • If you can’t find the books below in your local library, then supplement them with another Christmas title. Your librarians will be happy to help you find a favorite.

Children’s book recommendations the 2019 Advent Calendar for kids 3-8 years

1—A Silly Milly Christmas by Sheri Wall

Is Milly naughty or nice? Does she get a glimpse of Santa Claus?

Available here: https://amzn.to/2Kvd5iS

2—The Mouse in the Hammock: a Christmas Tale by Bethany Brevard

A book that teaches children how Small Acts of Kindness can make a big impact.

Available here: https://amzn.to/33YOx9Q

3—Tomten Saves Christmas by Linda Liebrand


With just two more days till Christmas, will an invite for Christmas coffee be enough to melt Farm Tomten’s grumpy heart so Farm and Yule Tomte can save Christmas together?

Available here: https://amzn.to/2qmZHXa

4—When the Clock Strikes on Christmas Eve by Lisa Ferland

  It’s the most wonderful time of the year and kids can’t wait for the fun of Christmas morning! 

Available here: https://amzn.to/2OmUUwT

Shameless plug, I know 😉

5—Where Would Santa Go? by Julia Inserro

If you could travel the world, where would you go?

Available here: https://amzn.to/2rVTzWr

6—Humphrey’s First Christmas by Carol Heyer

We’ve all heard the story of the three wise men who brought their gifts to Baby Jesus. But what about the camels who carried them? 

Available here: https://amzn.to/2CYX3d8

7—My Teacher is an Elf by Joey and Melanie Acker

 

It’s that time of year again and Ms. Holly’s class thinks she might be an elf!

Available here: https://amzn.to/2Ok3cWq

8—Never Let a Unicorn Meet a Reindeer! by Diane Alber

A story about a little girl that wants a reindeer for her birthday!

Available here: https://amzn.to/2NWR3aO

9—Santa’s Story by Will Hillenbrand

Santa is ready to leave on Christmas Eve, but he can’t find the reindeer anywhere.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2KzoEWd

10—Zetta the Poinsettia by Alma Hammond

Zetta is excited about the holidays but before she knows it, its over.  What will Zetta’s purpose be then?

Available here: https://amzn.to/2NZGTq5

11—Secret Santas and the Twelves Days of Christmas Giving by Courtney Petruzzelli

 

This heartfelt story has inspired a movement of anonymous giving across the nation.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2OpIvIC

12—Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

Bear’s friends are determined to keep Bear awake for Christmas!  Bear stays up—by discovering that giving is one of the best Christmas presents of all!

Available here: https://amzn.to/2XqYdr6

13—Little Squirrel Squish Gets his Christmas Wish

Little Squirrel Squish wished all his life to be part of Santa’s flying crew but only reindeer were allowed.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2rXSY6G

14—The Elf Who Couldn’t Read by Sonica Ellis

Santa wants Jingles to help read the Christmas list, but Jingles doesn’t know how to read yet.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2rZXhOZ

15—Lulu and Lainey: 12 Days of Christmas

While baking holiday cookies, Lulu and Grand-mère amuse themselves by singing a clever rendition of the beloved Christmas carol using knitted items as the gifts.

Available here: https://amzn.to/343fiKm

16—The Magic Friendship of Snow by Andi Cann

Jojo looks around and everyone seems to have friends but her. She feels sad and lonely. How do you make a friend?

Available here: https://amzn.to/35biCD2

17—The Christmas Crocodile by Bonny Becker

When Alice Jayne finds a crocodile under the tree on Christmas Eve, her family goes into an uproar!

Available here: https://amzn.to/32WKQA1

18—Mission Fat Hearts by Rebecca Yee

Are your kids ready to be secret agents? If they are, here is a Christmas mission the whole family will love!

Available here: https://amzn.to/2KDfh8e

19—Christmas Farm by Mary Lyn Ray

Year after year, Wilma and Parker nurture their trees, keeping careful count of how many they plant, how many perish, and how many grow to become fine, full Christmas trees.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2puQnjC

20—The Animals’ Christmas Eve by Gale Wiersum

A sweet rhyming story in which a group of animals recounts the events surrounding Jesus’ birth in the manger, and the parts some of their ancestors played in it.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2XppF8I

21—The Amazing Snowman Duel by Yossi Lapid

There is a new snowman in town! Or is he a bully? This charming story will teach your little ones that bullies do not always win and force is not the only way to settle disputes.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2XrORvf

22—The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola

This Mexican legend tells how the poinsettia came to be, through a little girl’s unselfish gift to the Christ Child. 

Available here: https://amzn.to/2OrDpvn

23—Dasher by Matt Tavares

Dasher is an adventurous young reindeer with a wish in her heart.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2r8GCbe

24—The Night Baafore Christmas by Dawn Young

Bo just wants to fall asleep before Santa comes, but when the sheep he’s counting rebel and wreak havoc around the house, Christmas Eve starts to go baa-dly wrong.

Available here: https://amzn.to/2KAdn82

I hope you enjoy these new Christmas stories and discover some new favorites.

As always, authors always appreciate your reviews! 

2019 advent calendar books for kids lisa ferland
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We Love Communities: How one author dominated the #1 spot before her book’s release date

we love communities

Maartje Blijleven knows how to organize communities and is an expert at helping businesses maximize their social reach.

It should come as no surprise that she was able to organize her community around her book, We Love Communities,  and rocket to the #1 spot for a month on the bestseller charts in the Netherlands by organizing her community.

Over the past 20 years, Maartje has developed thriving communities and has built an incredibly strong network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and corporate professionals.

Her book, We Love Communities, contains not only her wisdom and experience but the interviews of other experts in the field who share their tips on strengthening communities in business.

Becoming a Chart Topper

Maartje knew how many books it would take for her book to compete with the current bestsellers in her genre.

In order to maximize the number of pre-orders of her book at full retail price, Maartje had to get creative and offer incentives that would appeal to her ideal reader—businesses, entrepreneurs,  and conference leaders looking for keynote speakers. 

Because Maartje was focused on getting a large quantity of pre-orders prior to her book’s release, her pre-order campaign looked something like this:

—Pre-order 10 books and get the ebook one week before it’s official release (savings of 30.50)

—Pre-order 25 books and get access to her 10-week online training program on building communities (savings of 888.25)

—Pre-order 50 books and get 1:1 VIP strategy coaching from Maartje herself at an incredible discount (savings of 1920)

—Pre-order 100 books and get a remarkable 75% discount on her keynote speaker fees (savings of 3490)

You can see that with each reward level, the savings get greater and greater and appeal directly to her ideal reader.

How did Maartje learn this pre-selling incentivized-rewards selling technique?

She took the self-paced online course, Crowdfunding for Authors, and got tons of feedback on her landing page. 

Click here to learn more about the course so you can rock your book’s pre-sale campaign.

Lessons Learned

Maartje worked with a traditional Dutch publisher and experienced all of the same writing anxiety and self-doubt every writer faces.

“I felt very vulnerable. Creating something out of nothing feels like you’re asking everyone to take a look inside your head. You cannot hide.”

“At first, I felt insecure to show people my work at an early stage. If I could do it over again, I would’ve involved people sooner in the process so I could have more time to process all of the feedback. The book is so much better with people’s input.”

Tips for your Pre-order Landing Page

1. Know your goals

Do you want a high number of pre-orders like Maartje had or are you trying to raise extra funds to cover the cost of production?

2. Keep it simple

Maartje directed people to pre-order their books on the Dutch equivalent of Amazon.

People who pre-ordered their books then filled out a simple form indicating which reward they ordered.  

Maartje offered four (4) reward tiers. Too many options will spoil the soup.

3. Offer rewards your IDEAL READER wants

Maartje was releasing a book around community development so all of her rewards were specifically targeting what people in the community development space needed and wanted.

4. Build your community FIRST

Maartje had 20 years of experience working with businesses, entrepreneurs, and developing a strong network of people who would not only support her book launch campaign but also wanted to employ her services and speaking opportunities.

Without a community of people to whom you launch your book, you’re launching to crickets.

5. Promote your pre-order campaign

Every campaign needs a deadline for people to take action. For Maartje, she started promoting her pre-order campaign on August 3 with a September 24 deadline—so nearly 60 days of promotion.

 

Would Maartje do it again?

When asked if she’d do it again, Maartje said she would definitely run a pre-order campaign like this again.

With over 1,000 books pre-ordered, future keynote speeches confirmed, and a slew of new clients, the results speak for themselves.

Bio

Maartje Blijleven is a digital community expert and has been building successful online communities since 2000.

As a co-founder of the communities IncludeNow. & WomenTalkTech knows how to start and grow a community. 

 

With We love Communities she helps entrepreneurial professionals and entrepreneurs to be successful with their own online community: for different companies, people and purposes.

Connect with Maartje at her website: https://welovecommunities.com

On Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Keep Reading

Get More Book Sales with Disappearing Rewards

Learn more about the Crowdfunding for Authors online course

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Learn to Hook Your Audience from Disney/Pixar Films

first words starting story lisa ferland

At the 2019 Stockholm Writers Festival,  Julie Cohen presented on how to learn story structure from Pixar films and it got me analyzing everything in a new light.

Now, I’m much more mindful of the hook of a story and I notice when there is none.

What is it about a movie or book that sucks me in within the first minute of watching/reading? 

During her wonderful presentation, Julie went into great detail about story structure and how to create inciting events, climaxes, and resolutions but for this article, I’m going to focus only on the beginning of a story since so many of us (myself included) get it wrong.

Opening scenes should plunge you into the action right away

The scene in Cars starts in all black and you hear the main character giving himself a pep talk before his big race. There are bright lights, the cheers from the crowd, engines revving, and rubber flying.

via GIPHY

There’s nothing but action in the first two minutes of the film.

That’s how your book should start—jump straight into the action—hook your reader and get them flipping the pages.

Almost every writers festival has a “first pages competition” where writers submit their first 2-4 pages of the book they are writing for critique. 

Make your first lines count

Why are those first pages so crucial?

Those first few pages are what hook your reader and get them to keep reading.

The judges from the Stockholm Writers Festival said that the first line of the story was the most important. They could tell if a story would deliver or not after reading the first line alone.

Since then, I’ve analyzed a lot of first lines of all books in all genres.

Here are a few first lines worth mentioning:

“The two would-be jade thieves sweated in the kitchen of the Twice Lucky restaurant.”

—Jade City by Fonda Lee

“Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.”

—Charlotte’s Webb by E.B. White

“All children, except one, grow up.”

—Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

“If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it.”

—The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck

“Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn.”

—Into the Wild by John Krakauer

“When the clock strikes one…mummies come undone.”

—When the Clock Strikes on Halloween by Lisa Ferland

(Hah! I couldn’t resist!)

Get to the point

Disney/Pixar movies are pared down, fast-paced, and simplified—that’s why they are so enjoyable.

All authors are competing for our readers’ attention. There is no time to waste because a whole digital world of “whatever I want to explore” is sitting right next to them or is resting in their front pocket.

Jumpstart the beginning of your book—children’s book, nonfiction, or fiction novel—with something magnificent.

The authors of the First Pages competition at the Stockholm Writers Festival said that they spent hours rewriting their opening lines.

Make your opening scene hook your reader and move quickly into motion.

 

Short stories should start fast

Like in a drag race, you don’t have much time to get your story going if you’re writing a short story.

Practicing flash fiction is a great way to exercise your short writing/sprinting muscles.

I subscribe to the Flash Fiction magazine newsletter to see what people are writing.

Testing out your flash fiction chops on Reddit is also a great way to get reader feedback and hone your writing for free. 

I recommend reading: How to Write Short by Roy Peter Clark

This book has great tips for writing better emails to your readers, Twitter posts, and Kickstarter campaign pages.

It also has exercises at the end of each chapter so you can practice, practice, practice.

What is the first line of your book? Share it below! 

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Why We Need More Kids’ Books About Farts

Ask any kid if they think farts are funny and 99% of them will giggle and say yes. 

Despite a clear flashing green light from our target audience (KIDS), many children’s book writers respond with strong negative emotions when confronted with farts in kid lit.

“I will never buy a book like that for my kids. Not ever.” 

“We don’t discuss those things in our house. It’s not proper.”

“Literature doesn’t need to stoop to such levels to entertain. We need better kid lit than this.”

Clearly, even talking about books about farts makes people uncomfortable.

If you’re a parent or a writer (or both) who thinks that fart books are gross and inappropriate, please hang in there with me and read until the end.

In this essay, I’m going to present 5 reasons why we need more fart books in our kids’ lives. 

1—Laughing about taboo topics opens a dialogue between adult and child

Having frequent conversations about small issues (like farts) paves the way for parents to have future discussions about much more important topics.

Life changing topics like sex, pregnancy, rape, homosexuality, abuse, and other things that are much weightier topics than stinky airy flatulence.

If a parent struggles with talking about natural bodily functions, how do you think future conversations about the darker topics like sex and rape are going to go?

I volunteer with my local women’s shelter and believe me, we need to be having lots of conversations about sex, rape and abuse with our daughters and sons. 

Reading books that make your kids laugh about a silly taboo topic (like farts) shows them that you’re open and willing to have these conversations with them.

You become and remain their safe space for these types of things.

By reading to them about all topics, you’re telling your kids that they can come to you about any problem they may be facing.

Reading a book about farts at age 5 can lead to a conversation about teenage pregnancy later one, which might prevent one and wouldn’t that be great?

See? Books about farts may prevent teenage pregnancy albeit, in a very indirect but important way. 

Conversation starters about farts may lead to other interesting conversations you didn’t know you needed to discuss.

As a parent, it’s our job to have these difficult conversations with our kids regardless of how uncomfortable we feel.

2—Silly books improve literacy

Stinky things are funny.

Kids like to laugh. Kids like to watch movies and read books that make them laugh.

Do we need poetic books with elegant prose? Of course. But we also need books that kids like to read.

My mother has been an elementary teacher for over 35 years and as soon as I became pregnant, we instantly acquired an extensive children’s library in our house.

Her most consistent advice about developing literacy in children is to first develop a love for reading.

When it comes to books, parents should take the fun job—make reading as fun as possible for your kids and they’ll learn to love to read.

Make the teachers force the boring literature onto our kids.

If your kid will devour books about underpants or farts then stock the library up and watch them read. In my opinion, it’s better that the kids read something, anything than nothing at all.

There will be plenty of time for the classics but without a foundational love of reading, they’re never going to want to read the classics.

3—We need more books that normalize our body images and self-worth

Fart books are really good for girls to read. Why? Because girls aren’t supposed to fart.

Uh huh, riiiight.

The sooner girls accept their bodies as they are, the sooner they stop hating their bodies for how they are made.

We’re not supposed to acknowledge that everybody farts because it’s taboo.

As a result, we have girls thinking it’s wrong and boys thinking girls who fart are gross.

Proud mama moment: My 8 year old son had his friend over to play and they were sitting together when she let an audible toot slip out.

“Oh! I farted. I’m sorry!” she said, embarrassed.

“No problem. Everyone does it.”

And they went back to playing as if nothing happened at all.

There was no body shaming, no guilting, and no weirdness at all. Total acceptance of something totally natural.

We need more books that normalize the human body for kids. 

4—There’s a huge gap in the market for funny books

From a writer/business perspective, this should get your attention. There is a huge hole in the market for smart humor that is well done in this genre.

Traditional publishers are looking for high quality work that makes kids laugh.

We’ve already established that kids laugh at fart books and pee jokes are always crowd pleasers.

If you have a smart idea and execute it well, your book on farts should perform really well.

Just look at I Need a New Bum which has 450 5-star reviews on Amazon at the time of this writing. 

Walter the Farting Dog has 600 5-star reviews.

Every writer knows how difficult it is to get reader reviews on Amazon and there’s no denying that these books are a hit with tons of readers.

While some writers may turn up their noses at fart books, they are overlooking a very viable marketplace that could pay their bills.

Pay the bills with fart books and write your less lucrative high brow literature on the side. 

The market is telling you what it wants.

5—There is power in having fun with your kids

The time you have with your child in your lap is limited and precious. Reading a funny book that makes your kid giggle can relieve tensions and stress at the end of a long day.

The time before bed is some of the best parent-child bonding time we have during the day. It’s nice to fill it with books that are fun.

Books represent safe fun—nobody can get hurt reading a book and they’ll learn something new about themselves or others.

Making space in your child’s life for fun at the end of their day is a great way to heal some of the stresses or worries they may have experienced at school or while you were at work.

Don’t underestimate the healing power of laughter.

Takeaway message:

Don’t take farts or books about farts so seriously. They will help you bond and connect with your kids which will help you have rich conversations about important matters later on in life.

Some books to consider


(Amazon affiliate links below)

Poop on the Shoe: A potty training whodunit

Farty Marty and Other Stories

Fairy Farts: Everything you needed to know about flatulence in fairy kingdom

Almost Everybody Farts

The Fart Fairy

Truth Farts

… and if those books weren’t enough, Humor Heals Us has 30 books in the Farting Adventure Series that you can check out here

What do you think?

Sound off in the comments below.

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The Secret to Writing Great Dialogue: Three layers

Confession: I am horrible at writing dialogue. 

At the 2019 Stockholm Writers Festival, I took Cassie Gonzales’ dialogue workshop and within minutes, I understood what made good dialogue and why I struggled so much with it.

My characters were communicating clearly.

Clear communication between characters = bad dialogue.

Quick clarification—every piece of dialogue advice in this article came from what I learned in Cassie’s workshop at the Stockholm Writers Festival.

I highly encourage every writer to continue to learn about the craft of writing and push themselves to be better.

couple having a dialogue

What makes bad dialogue?

  • Too much exposition
  • Doesn’t sound real/sounds forced
  • Not plot driven
  • Too many tags, “As you know, Bob…”
  • Repetitive
  • Mundane—”You don’t look well. How are you feeling?” (BOOOORING)

What makes good dialogue? 

  • Contains drama
  • Evokes emotion
  • Descriptive of the personality of a character
  • Creates curiosity for the reader
  • Raises a question

The secret to writing good dialogue:

Every piece of dialogue contains three layers: the said, the unsaid, and the unsayable.

1) Said: “Would you like some coffee?”
2) Unsaid: “…I hate you”
3) Unsayable: “but I’m afraid of being alone”

The unsaid and unsayable can never be in the dialogue. Characters cannot say exactly what they mean.

What is great for your marriage is horrible for your fiction.

If you need to clarify something for the reader, do it in the narrative, not the dialogue.

Every piece of dialogue should have the three layers—said, unsaid, and unsayable.

Start with strong characters in an interesting setting. 

The setting is where the dialogue will play out and the said, unsaid, and unsayable layers will be revealed.

Cassie Gonzales, Creative Writing Fellow at Emory University and overall creative fiction badass, introduced a simple rubric for evaluating all dialogue in literature, film, and your everyday interactions with friends and family.

Writing Exercise 

For example, imagine a story in which two characters are on the brink of divorce.

They can never say they hate each other and are on the brink of divorce, that must be revealed to the reader through their interactions and what they are not saying to one another (the unsaid).

The setting in which this plays out can be something with low stakes—picking out a birthday cake for their child’s fifth birthday party.

Put them in a bakery looking at cakes together.

What they say to one another (the said) is about the cake—but must convey the reader that their marriage is falling apart (the unsaid) and they are terrified about how they are going to co-parent this child together (the unsayable).

The unsayable is the engine for your fiction.

Trust your reader

Trust that your reader is intelligent—more intelligent than you are—and doesn’t need everything spelled out.

Build a puzzle for them to solve if you want to keep their interest. Your reader will be able to read between the lines and feel like the smartest person in the room (because they are).

Dialogue in children’s literature

While reading a bedtime story to my daughter, she chose Fancy Nancy and the Dazzling Jewels (aff link), I realized that the dialogue in Fancy Nancy, a book intended for kids 4-8 years, had these three layers—said, unsaid, and unsayable.

I knew that good dialogue is required for literary fiction but it often goes unnoticed in children’s literature.

We take good dialogue for granted.

In Fancy Nancy, the two characters, Nancy and Bree, have too much jewelry.

Their boxes are overflowing and they come up with the idea to swap out pieces with one another to refresh their collections.

Everything is going well until Bree selects a piece that has emotional value to Nancy and vice versa.

The characters are torn between wanting to be a good friend and needing to be honest about how they feel about the jewelry swap.

Without ever saying the words, author Jane O’Connor effectively tells the reader that both girls are feeling guilt and regret—two tough emotions for kids to understand at this age—about the swap.

The unsayable in this story is that both girls are afraid that if they are honest with one another they’ll damage their friendship.

Pretty deep for what initially looks on the surface like a silly story about jewelry.

It’s that type of complex storytelling and dialogue done in a simple way that keeps parents happy and kids wanting more.

Dialogue in everyday life

After taking Cassie’s dialogue workshop, I began to notice all of the dialogue around me and evaluate what was being said, what was unsaid, and what was unsayable.

I must admit that some people are horrible at communication (they’d make great fictional characters except they are REAL).

There is a lot unsaid in everything they say.

The unsaid is where the power lies.

One character can have physical or emotional power over other characters and this never needs to be said.

Start paying attention to the conversations you have with your friends and family about various topics. 

You’ll probably notice that the more difficult the conversation or topic, more is left unsaid.

Give your characters an interesting setting

People often suggest having conversations about difficult topics while doing something else—the third place setting. This enables the characters to focus on something other than what they really want to say.

Talking while going on a walk or while fishing is a great way to have difficult conversations.

Remember, characters can’t ever say what they really want to say or it becomes boring. Keep them at odds with themselves and one another.

The more insane the “third place” where the “said” things are happening, the more layers you can build into the scene.

If your characters are making funeral arrangements for their father at the county fair, there are tons of smells, sounds, and action happening all around them while they grapple with grief and loss. 

Read, write, write, read

The only way to get better at writing dialogue is to read more of it.

Flash fiction is a great genre for learning how to communicate a lot of information in a very short word count.

Here’s a free course about writing interesting and engaging flash fiction: https://learn.flashfictionmagazine.com/p/free-course

Flash Fiction Magazine has some great pieces and you can have them delivered to  your inbox for inspiration: https://flashfictionmagazine.com/

“If it bores you, it’s not working.” —Cassie Gonzales

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The Adventures of Lily Huckleberry Raises Nearly $40K on Kickstarter

It’s not every day that a children’s book raises nearly $40k on Kickstarter, but that’s exactly what Audrey Smit and Jackie Knapp did with their first book, The Adventures of Lily Huckleberry in Scandinavia.

As we all know, or should by now, fundraising is a full-time effort and the end result of months or years of audience building and engagement.

I spoke with Audrey about all of the preparation and work she and Jackie did to garner such stunning success.

Note: Whenever somebody makes something look easy and effortless, understand that a TON of effort and work went into it on the front end even if you can’t see it. There are no shortcuts to success.

Let’s go under the hood of their Kickstarter campaign and find out what worked and what didn’t.

You raised ~50% in the first 24 hours—can you describe a bit of the pre-launch work you did to make that happen? We all know it’s not easy to generate that much energy on launch day.

Yes, the first days are everything!

Before the launch we reached out to influencers that we thought would be interested in the concept of Lily Huckleberry – travel influencers, book influencers etc.

I contacted people I already had a connection with (that’s always the easiest) but also reached out to tons I didn’t know at all that I thought would be interested in our idea.

We got maybe 7% positive responses back when we reached out. It was a lot of work but every person we could find to help spread the work made a difference.

You have to be shameless, talk about what you are doing with pride + passion— it’s contagious. And keep knocking on doors, you’ll get a LOT of no’s but keep reaching out to new people.

Another thing did as we launched: Jackie (my co-author) and I had made a bet with my husband (which we included at the end of our Kickstarter video) that if we funded under one week, he would have to let his Viking beard grow to be a foot long so we could braid it for the book release party.

For some reason that got a lot of people fired up to pledge early, haha! I guess lots of people (including many of our friends) wanted to see him do something a little ridiculous. I think it really helped people connect with our campaign from the beginning in a genuine way.

It’s all about thinking outside of the box. In the end you never know what is going to stick so you have to try a lot of different approaches.

“In the end, you never know what’s going to stick so you have to try a lot of different approaches.”                – Audrey Smit

It looks like you have a very large audience already established from your design business. What types of outreach would you recommend to authors who may not have a large audience already established?

Yes, a bigger pre-established audience definitely helped,  but you can definitely make it with a smaller audience.

Use what you’ve got and again, think creatively!

Start with friends and family, of course, but don’t stop there.

Promote to whatever audience you have on social media and try to reach out to the press ahead of time about your project/idea.

Very often local newspapers are happy to run an article/interview about you and or your book—you will just have to do a little research on how to best approach them and how you can make them look good with your amazing story.

Other ideas:

    • set up a booth at local events during your Kickstarter
    • team up for giveaways with other influencers on social media to increase your reach,
    • and if you have a little bit of marketing money to play with, consider things like Facebook/Pinterest ads.

What would you say surprised you the most about running your Kickstarter campaign?

It takes SO MUCH time and energy! Ha!

Setting up the campaign is only the tip of the iceberg, you have to put a lot of effort into promoting it along the way, getting back to people, etc.

BUT it is so amazing to see people gather around your idea and put their weight behind it, and the work is completely worth it. It’s truly amazing.

Are you planning additional campaigns for future books in the series?

Absolutely!

We are in the process of writing our second Lily Huckleberry book and we’ll be doing a Kickstarter campaign for it.

Having the ability to raise money for editing, printing, marketing is game changing.

We would not be able to self-publish without Kickstarter. 

I also find that Kickstarter campaigns to be an incredible marketing tool —people love getting behind ideas they love and it helps build a community around your book. 

What unexpected opportunities have resulted from running your Kickstarter campaign? 

We were stunned that we raised well over our initial goal—nearly $40K!

That allowed us to invest more in the book, to make a stunning products that people are raving about. That also allowed us to invest in marketing a little more, have a book trailer made etc.

Also unexpected: my husband was quite stunned he lost his bet with Jackie and me.

Being a sales manager in the corporate world, he couldn’t believe he had to let his beard grow for months on end.

Quite a few of his clients asked him about it, and he had to boast about his wife beating her funding goal on Kickstarter. 

Anything else you’d like to mention? Future book plans?

Well, as I mentioned, our second Lily Huckleberry book will be coming out later this year!

After wandering in Scandinavia with her Viking friends, Lily will be going somewhere in Asia to solve another big mystery…but I can’t tell which country yet, it’s still a secret.

We LOVE self-publishing—it is so much work, but also gives us  so much creative + business control.

We are really excited to do another Kickstarter campaign and see if can turn our dream of a series into reality! Our goal is to release one new Lily Huckleberry book every year, and have her travel to all the continents so our readers can dream far and wide with our brave Lily.

Bio

Audrey Smit is the founder of This Little Street, a design company whose colorful and happy aesthetic has built a following of nearly 20K. She has worked as a pattern designer since 2015, recently launching several successful product lines of her own. 

Originally from France, Audrey lives in Berkeley, CA with her Danish husband and their four adventurous little girls, who are constant sources of inspiration for her work. 

Follow her on Instagram: @thislittlestreet  

Click here to buy the book on Amazon

Click here to check out her Kickstarter campaign for The Adventures of Lily Huckleberry in Scandinavia

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