Educating people about responsible care of companion animals is one thing we’re big on around here at Rumpydog.
So when our “anonymous friend” told us about how so many of the families she works with have pets that aren’t spayed or neutered, we put our thinking caps on. How can we spread that message?
The first thing we did is contact Olivia Melikhow at the ASPCA to ask about children’s books that are available.
And not only did she tell us about books the ASPCA has for sale, she sent a few for our friend to share.
Now our friend has a copy in her office, and she left the other copies in other places where children she works with have to wait (doctor’s office, interviewers, etc.).
We would like to do more to educate young people about responsible animal care. And we think we’re on to something by targeting children who may have been abused or neglected.
We all know that there is a direct correlation between abuse of vulnerable humans and abuse of animals. We also know that the best way to prevent animal over-population tomorrow is to educate the children of today.
Jen has talked with Bernadette Kazmarski about working together on a book for young people. The idea is to write a book that talks to kids on their level about pets, and making it available where children will read it.
It would take a great deal of work. The writing is easy, and Bernadette is a fantastic illustrator. But fundraising to print the book and then getting it out there is a challenge.
That’s where you come in. We need your ideas on how to make this happen.
Jen has NO experience in this area. But she does have a strong desire to educate children. So please help us by sharing your thoughts on what we can do to move this project forward!
Thanks!
Dogpaddling Through Life 
Kickstarter might be an option. I’d definitely support a project like that on kickstarter.
Agreed, Kickstarter has helped so many people, seems like a great idea!
Jen, I got goosebumps reading this – I think you’ve found your calling. It draws on your passions and the things you’re so good at. Have you heard about crowd funding? Here’s a link to the one we used recently. Long story but we needed some money to get a friend home from somewhere else in the world. And we set a timeframe and met it, even though the odds were stacked against us – his circumstances meant that we weren’t sure we’d get any support. But we did. And I’m SO sure you would. Between all of the people in your blog world and them sharing it with their contacts, even if people can only share $20 it’s something. I’m sure there’s someone out there who works in publishing too. If you do an eBook as well as a physical book, your reach will be even wider. What you’re thinking about doing is such an important, vital thing – for animals and for young people. I think it’s really exciting. Not everyone is lucky like my Bubba and will grow up with rescue pets and a strong respect and love for animals. Yay for you! xox
Jen. This is it.
I was going to suggest crowd funding/small private loan funding, too.
I’ll try to remember some sources.
Simply ditto to Bumpyraodtobubba’s comments
Ha ha, got so excited forgot to add the link: http://www.pozible.com/
I love the sound of this! I hope you can get it funded.
Reblogged this on delia1979.
I’m working on a book project and I’m planning to use gogetfunding.com. Hope it helps. Good Luck, excellent project! /Maria
Reblogged this on Discovering Ranch Life ~ Photography and commented:
Such a great idea! Education is the only way to change. Something I truly believe in. The teacher and animal lover in me had to share this. If I would try to get funding for the project myself I would use gogetfunding.com. Good Luck!
Such a great idea. There are lots of self-publishing sites like lulu.com which are really good if you want to go down that route
And if you need help with funding, I’m sure we could all chip in a few dollars each 🙂
Reblogged this on Carinas space.
Wow! What a brilliant idea to write a book to educate children about animals! I think that this is one of the most important things between humans and animals for living together!
Well…yes …for that, you need fundraising….what about asking donation through your blog, facebook and twitter? I think that there are many people who want to help animals, so a little help might be a big one!!! 🙂
Good idea. E-pub? No costs. Market thru’ your blog.
I probably can’t help with funding but I’ve self published a book before so I’d love to help with writing and volunteer my little brothers to read it over and give you a kiddy opinion when it gets to that stage.
It might be worth looking at the RSPCA website (UK animal charity) and their young people club. It has some information there.
A really great idea though, and very worthwhile cause
~Amy
Jen and Rumpy, my Mama and sistah Zoe published their books so far through CreateSpace, and it was practically free! They did it for about $40 to get extra exposure. Mama researched a lot, and this was the best option since we do not have money. Check them out, they are an Amazon self-publishing site, and I may use them for my book too.
Good Luck and wooooowooooooooo, Ku
Sounds like a great idea! My parents were not keen on spaying and neutering and still don’t seem to understand the importance of it today. Our family pet was spayed after she became pregnant by a stray dog. I don’t recall many of our cats ever being spayed either. We had quite a few kittens growing up. Maybe if people learn at a young age, it will stick with them through adulthood.
Excellent! All of our pets have been spayed or neutered. It saddens me to see so many unwanted animals – feral, in shelters, abandoned. As a teen, living in the country, my folks told me that a cat (or kitten) that someone dropped off to survive on its own – or to be taken in by someone – was found frozen to death.
Perhaps a good way to appeal to children – and their families – is to create public service ads and stories with photos of animals or illustrations/cartoons of animals. An appealing presentation is more likely to find the audience you want.
Great idea. At BlogPaws there were sessions on e-publishing. The cost was minimal and the people made a lot of money.
Book publishing is very tough these days. And, it takes money to reproduce the book to send to agents. E-publishing is easier and there’s a lot of info on the web.
CreateSpace.com makes it easy to self-publish a book. You can have several books printed at once in advance or set it up so that books are not printed until someone buys one. I’ve published novels through CreateSpace.com, but not illustrated books. My understanding is that illustrated books are a little more difficult to set up, but still doable.
OMC, nothing much to add to all the others. Mom Linda will send Miss Jen an email today.
Yet another note. Great idea – it may not make you rich, but a start in the direction you want to go – and would make such a difference…if the books/booklets were inexpensive enough, maybe sell them in bulk to vets/clinics or SPCA or shelters might include them with their “new pet” packages (Pet smart? Petco?) or their outreaches into the schools? (Rumpy…hmmmm one about kitties, bunnies…)
Have you checked out these blogs – they might have things to help you?
ROXIE has a lot about publishing – insights, advice, wander around the blog
http://roxieh.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/effective-editing/
Jen. Here’s some info on publishing – a new small press. IF you click the “what’s new” button, you’ll see a call for illustrators – maybe pass that along?
http://sunscribe.net/2013/05/09/many-thanks/#comment-244
Just thought it might be of interest