Hello Day 15!    There is a ton going on in Pomodoro Penguin land – and a lot of decisions to make about the direction that I am heading.

Hmmmm

First of all, I am thrilled with the release of the new book.   I have even heard from a couple of fans that they are really excited about the 5th book thanks to the special teaser at the end of Penguins, Penguins All Around.

Today marked the third of our weekly worksheets over at PomodoroPenguin.com.  Today was a special word scramble using vocabulary from the new book.   I have a few touch-ups to do to the coloring page and it will be ready for Friday.   It is a special image from the book, but you have to wait until Friday to find out which one.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours in the afternoon playing around with four different pieces of software, some of the book, and a fun script as I made a 54 second video trailer.  Enjoy:

So, all of that sounds good, right?!?  I bet you are wondering what is up with the title of the blog.   To be honest, it has everything to do with print.

I decided months ago that I needed to get a book or books into physical formats sooner rather than later.   The question was how best to go about that.   I think I have finally come to the conclusion that I need to run some sort of Kickstarter project to get the funding I need to get the books into print.

For those of you who don’t know.  I funded the recording of this CD with a Kickstarter project a couple of years ago.

So, the questions are starting to mount and the begin and end with a budget.   Here are my considerations:

Hardcover, paperback or both (and how much this will add to the cost of the project)
One book, two books, or all four.
Whether to try to do the layout design myself or get some help.
What should the timeline for the fundraiser and the finished project be?

To be honest, I am leaning toward doing all four – in paperback.  I am thinking of running the funding campaign before the holidays and then having the books available in print by March (the first anniversary of the digital release of book 1).

Obviously if I do the layout/design work myself there is the cost of the software and the learning curve to getting the layout right.  If I find a way to outsource the layout, how much will this push up the production cost of getting the book(s) into print?

Should I just do books 1 or 1 and 4 first then add the others later?

What should the donation tiers look like?  What is fair to ask people to pay to get a first-edition signed book and to be a part of the official Pomodoro Penguin launch?

There have been plenty of people who have asked in passing whether or not the book will be in print soon.    I think this may be the best way to make this actually happen in a decent time frame… while still churning out the next books in the series digitally and building a core audience.

So, there are a lot of questions to be answered.  I would love to hear your thoughts either here on the blog or over on Facebook.  Let me know what you think about all of this.

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