Now for the production!

The money was in now came the actual work!

So, the money was in. Although I had to give Fund:It 12% of the ten thousand and I can honestly say they didn't deserve a cent for how little they helped me and my funders. However a rant for another day. Also several of the cards that pledged were declined. I didn't therefore end up with the amount I had raised. Such is the nature of these campaigns. I could make do.

I gave it a week and then organised a meeting with the artists. Now was the time to set finish dates.

“The whole time the fundraising was going on, I was writing the books in the background and organising the social media aspect. ”

So now all the books were finished and ready to be sent to each artist. We agreed on a fair deadline for their art work which allowed us also to send the books to a graphic designer, an editor and then the printers. The artists were all working pro bono and used their own materials. It was a matter of whenever they could find time during their own, primary jobs.

Whilst the artists went about their illustrating, I updated some of the charities and started work on the prizes from the Fund:It campaign. Shane began work organising the digital package update to send off as a thank you.

The deadline came for the artwork and as is usually the case, several of the books illustrations weren't going to make it in on time. This is very normal in the industry. It's incredibly difficult to stick to a deadline when real life work, family and circumstances are out of your control. It worked better for the graphic designer to get only one or two books at a time then all ten at once.

I had several meetings over August with the designer over the intricacies of grammar in blurbs, of the placement of pages and the importance of simplicity in children's books.

The final book arrived at the end of September after being lost in the post for a few weeks. Although a month behind printing we are still a few weeks ahead of launch. All books are in now and nearly signed off to print.

Next stage is printing, launching and marketing.

There are a few months left to make some decisions on just how to sell these books for greatest affects but i'm positive now that the end of the tunnel is in sight. A Change Can Happen.