Funding a new book is always tricky for the self-publisher. One needs to spend enough money to reduce the per-piece cost (in hopes of making a profit on sales) while understanding that, as the per-piece cost is reduced, the volume of books, and thus the grand total, goes up. This creates quite a dilemma of economics, as the bank continues to insist I make a mortgage payment each month as well.

Kickstarter is a crowd funding site that has helped many independent authors publish their books by essentially offering books and other rewards in return for financial support toward a set dollar goal. It can also be viewed as pre-sales with bonuses.

We have initiated a project for The Whisper Stone on Kickstarter at: http://kck.st/16uZQ5l

Click the link to view the book tr

One illustrator came in on time, and Chasing Watermelons is currently being produced for release October 20, 2012.  Thanks Rex.  I am as excited this time as I was for the first book.
The second illustrator doesn't seem to have the same passion for  the projects that I have.  He wasn't close to meeting the deadline, and I'm not sure he will be reliable in the future when it comes to meeting deadlines.  He is an extremely gifted artist, but not focused in a professional, business-like manner.
Things I have recently learned:
A. It is difficult to get people invested in your dreams. They will ooh and aah over it, they will congratulate you, they will even tell you how amazing you and your project are, but very few will choose to invest in it in any way. If the dream is not a part of them, they hesitate to join the chase.
B. Inviting others to participate in the dream is not enough to create action, even if they agree to it.  There must be a way for our excitement to be so contagious that they can't help be be involved to a "want it now" degree. How do we create some passion for the dream?
C. That I don't know what to do about A and B...I'm open to suggestions.

On the plus side, one book will be easier to finance than two, and it will be done in time for the PA Reading Convention in October.
Sometimes the best you can do is simply keep faith in the dream yourself.

Onward!

It seems that funding a good picture book on Kickstarter is more difficult than I thought. It appears that we will fall far short of our goal, and thus get none of the money pledged. I have been studying elements of successful projects though, and will launch another attempt a week or two after this one ends.
Note to emerging authors: The writing is the easy part. Gaining personal and brand recognition is hard! Not impossible, just hard. The market is flooded with material, and gaining a following takes creative thinking and perseverance.
One thing is for certain, self-publishing is not for the faint of heart or those afraid to learn. It's like getting another Masters degree without the credits... and no one tells you what you courses to take; you have to discover them.
So here's to perseverance and discovery!

We have ventured into the wonderful world of crowd-funding.
Basically, people contribute to your project (in our case it's book printing) and in return they get great rewards when the project is finished. It is a lot like per-ordering, but there are extra's offered too.
We have posted at two of the largest sites: Kickstarter, and Indiegogo.
Some very poor projects have been fully funded, and some very good projects have missed by a mile. I don't know the determining factor, but will post regular updates regarding the progress of our project.
Printing cost and distribution are two of the biggest obstacles for independent presses with 3-8 books in a two year span. This has definite potential to solve the printing cost difficulty.
For now, check out our projects at:  
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1590909946/chasing-watermelons-chimeric-press
or
http://www.indiegogo.com/chasingwatermelons?a=844926

Even if you can't contribute yourself, please share this with your friends and change the face of publishing today.