{"id":250,"date":"2016-03-15T13:52:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T13:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/?p=250"},"modified":"2016-03-16T12:15:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T12:15:15","slug":"ever-wondered-how-a-book-gets-written-and-published","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/2016\/03\/15\/ever-wondered-how-a-book-gets-written-and-published\/","title":{"rendered":"Ever wondered how a book gets written and published?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sibo<\/a><\/p>\n

In the case of the Sibo Series there are different scenarios. Several of the titles in the Sibo Series were straight up published by Lets Look Publishers. Okay \u2013 that sounds confusing \u2013 all of the books have been published by Lets Look \u00a0\u2013 but six of them were published without knowing that we had already sold x amount of copies up front. <\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, it was guaranteed that the school system would snap up any worthwhile books that were published but since CAPS came in, things are not quite the same. A publisher can publish books (usually 3000 is the minimum print run) and they can sit in a store room and trickle out very very slowly.\u00a0 As you can imagine, this is not good for business.<\/p>\n

Some of our books have been commissioned. This means that x amount of books are ordered before we even write it on a particular topic. \u00a0Sibo Fights Malaria was one of those \u2013 The Centre for Sustainable Malaria Control and the Department of Health wanted a different way of telling people about what a nasty disease malaria is and how to avoid it. (Ginny knows about this first hand because she had malaria when she was a kid.) \u00a0So we wrote the book in conjunction with both of them and they are using it in schools in some areas in Limpopo. The good thing about this book is that students from the Education Department at the University of Pretoria are using this book in some of their projects \u2013 so we will get feedback as to whether it has any effect or not.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also written books to celebrate International Years \u2013 like Chemistry (funded by BASF<\/a>, the chemical company). \u00a0Astronomy and Biodiversity were funded by SAASTA<\/a>, who also commissioned a book about nanotechnology. That was interesting. We knew nothing about the topic when we started and had to do a lot of research. Strangely enough \u2013 it\u2019s one of the most popular books in the series.<\/p>\n

Then we get books that are sponsored \u2013 or partially sponsored\u2026<\/p>\n

Ginny feels strongly about animals being abused and hates the way kids get pets and then only love them when they are small and cute. Once they get bigger and more demanding they tend to be ignored. Pets are for life \u2013 not just for the two minutes they are adorable and tiny. Luckily she found a like-minded person who was willing to help sponsor Sibo Saves a Stray.\u00a0 It was very hard to find funding for this book because most people would rather spend their money on the animals themselves, instead of educating kids (and their parents).\u00a0 If you would like more information about the Sibo Series please visit the website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our latest title \u2013 Sibo Looks Right is all about road safety. This is a topic that is very important to both Peter Sanderson (Lets Look) and Ginny. The first draft of the book was written years ago and at various stages different people showed some interest in sponsoring the book. Sadly none of these prospects paid off and the story mouldered in Ginny\u2019s laptop for way too long. Every time there was a road, taxi or bus accident or incident Ginny would hiss and spit and say that we have to get this knowledge out to the kids (and their parents) somehow. She\u2019d fire off another round of frantic emails to try and drum up some support for the book.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of last year, Chris (Ginny\u2019s lovely husband) asked her if she had considered crowdfunding to get the book on road safety published.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t know much about crowdfunding and so got stuck in and did some research.\u00a0 She also sent out a plea on Facebook and Thandi suggested that she try Thundafund<\/a> as a South African crowdfunding platform.<\/p>\n

Ginny is not one of those nice cautious people who likes to sit and brood and stew about things for any length of time. Once she\u2019s got an idea it needs to get out of head immediately and get going. She bounced the idea of crowdfunding off Uncle Pete from Let\u2019s Look and got the go ahead.<\/p>\n

Thundafund were great \u2013 they replied immediately and sent a form to complete so they could see if the project was going to be worthwhile or not. Typically they would reply within a few days with the answer. Indeed they did reply positively within the allotted time.<\/p>\n

There followed another learning curve. Part of a Thundafund campaign includes having a short video on the project. In our case it was not something that you could just go out and film. Ginny had to get cosy with some software she had not used much before and make a little video from scratch.<\/p>\n

After all \u2013 the whole point of crowdfunding is for potential funders to think the project is worthwhile and not just a little whim of some bankrupt person who fancies doing something with other people\u2019s money!\"crowdfunding\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ginny showed Chris her first attempt at being a filmmaker. No no no! He screeched before he\u2019d even seen half of it. He ranted and raved for a few minutes about what he expected to see. She considered sulking and pouting \u2013 she hates it when he pulls his \u201cProfessor\u201d tone on her and treats her like one of his students \u2013 but she grudgingly acknowledged that he had a point.<\/p>\n

A new and vastly improved video clip was made that passed muster on its first showing.<\/p>\n

The campaign<\/a> went live. We had to reach the tipping point in 90 days otherwise all the money that had been donated would be returned to the backers. Pete, Sharon, Chris and Ginny all promptly plugged cash into the campaign to start it off.<\/p>\n

The tipping point was just enough to pay the layout artist and the illustrator. If we got enough money to do this we\u2019d be able to have an e-book at least.\u00a0 Of course first prize was R140,000 so that we could print 3000 books and distribute them freely to kids and schools around the country.<\/p>\n

There were various \u201crewards\u201d that could be purchased. For R500 you could have your child\u2019s name written into the story line. R300 and your logo would be displayed on the inside cover. R100 got your name mentioned. Everybody who donated would obviously receive an e-book as well.<\/p>\n

A few days into the campaign \u2013 Mike Ward from Nash Nissan<\/a> in Alberton catapulted the campaign from a \u201cwannabe-book\u201d to a \u201cthis-is-now-happening-book\u201d with his very generous donation of R33600!\u00a0 This meant we had passed the tipping point and could sleep again.<\/p>\n

\"Nash<\/a><\/p>\n

The Department of Arts and Culture also decided it was a worthwhile project to back and donated several thousand rand to the campaign as well.<\/p>\n

There were lots of lovely friends and acquaintances, not to mention family members who all backed our project. These donations came in from all over the world too! \u00a0Ginny contacted as many of the car companies as possible \u2013 for a measly R300 they could have their logo included in the book. To no avail \u2013 they all had some sappy excuse or other. Even Peugeot \u2013 and Chris had just bought a brand new car from them.<\/p>\n

We also tried repeatedly to get the attention of the major radio stations. This might have made a great difference as far as funding was concerned. It\u2019s not like we were trying to make money out of the project \u2013 we wanted to be able to distribute as many books to the children as possible. Road safety is an issue.<\/p>\n

Pippa Hudson at Cape Talk interviewed Ginny but by that stage there were only a few hours left to the campaign.<\/p>\n

After 90 days we had a grand total of R54,550.\u00a0 Whilst not as much as we hoped for, it was enough to publish an e-book as well as printing 800 copies.<\/p>\n

Ginny realised that she had not exactly done her homework prior to starting the Thundafund campaign. Whilst she\u2019s quite good at bombing people on email and Facebook, her tweeting habits left a lot to be desired. This is an integral part of crowdfunding and we sucked at it. It\u2019s something that she is working on to promote the book.<\/p>\n

After much haggling and to-ing and fro-ing between, Ginny, Uncle Pete, the layout artist and illustrator \u2013 we finally have a product that we are very proud of and are excited to share it with the world.<\/p>\n

The files went to the printers this morning and the e-book will be ready in the next few days.<\/p>\n

Lets Look Publishers and Ginny are very grateful to all those who helped make this book happen. We hope and trust that it might save some of our precious children\u2019s lives (and those of their parents).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS \u2013 If there is anybody out there who missed this campaign and would like to contribute now \u2013 it\u2019s never too late \u2013 we can print more books and get them out there – contact Ginny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the case of the Sibo Series there are different scenarios. Several of the titles in the Sibo Series were straight up published by Lets Look Publishers. Okay \u2013 that sounds confusing \u2013 all of the books have been published by Lets Look \u00a0\u2013 but six of them were published without knowing that we had … Continue reading “Ever wondered how a book gets written and published?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,16,2,30],"tags":[19,40,29,3,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}