Adam Glendon Sidwell's Blog, page 3

Merry Christmas and FETCH artwork updates!

I’ve been trotting back and forth to Colorado, California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona in the last few weeks, and I’m headed out to Gilbert and Mesa this weekend to sign again at Costco.

I started a monthly giveaway for subscribers to this email list, just to add to the fun. Here are the winners for October, November and December:

Jenny Rae

Grace Song

Krisalee Ridley

They’ve won autographed copies of The Buttersmiths’ Gold. We’ll keep having giveaways each month of different prizes, so stay tuned. If you’d like to be entered to win, sign up to get book updates here: http://eepurl.com/l8xGL


I wanted to show you a sneak peak of some of the latest art from  FETCH . Here’s one of the two page spreads by Edwin Rhemrev. This is the reason I love making picture books for kids:



I think they truly are worth thousands of words! It’s so satisfying to see your words turn into pictures! It looks like  FETCH  should be done some time this spring (probably April). I’m also in the final revision stages of a book called CHUM that is due to release in the next couple months. I’ll keep you posted about that one too.

There are also now Evertaster and Fetch T-Shirts available for order on my site (left over from the Kickstarter campaign). We have only limited quantities, but if you order today, and we have your size, we can get it to you by Christmas.

Thanks for reading my books. I’ll keep writing them. I hope to see you again sometime soon! Merry Christmas!

-Adam

What I’m Thankful For: Teachers

I spend a lot of time with kids now that I write children’s books. I see a lot of schools both high and low income; I meet a lot of principals, both weary and enthusiastic; I get to see education with a very broad view. There are so many tireless teachers who give their all for the kids, and you can tell when you meet those professionals that they care. The one I’m most thankful for, though, who had more impact on me than any other is my mom.

My mom was a reading teacher at my school for years before she started teaching kindergarten. Every week during the summer she’d take us to the Stanislaus County Library to check out books. It was there I discovered Encyclopedia Brown, Lloyd Alexander’s Book of Three and Jack London’s adventure stories.

Mom passed on her love of reading to her five kids. Those books became my friends. I still go into that library sometimes, just to see if they still keep my old go-to books on the same shelves where they’ve always been. I wouldn’t want to write if it weren’t for you Mom. Thanks.

Is Kickstarter the New Way to Publish Books?

I’m riding high right now. Just a few hours ago, my Kickstarter campaign for a book I’ve been working on called FETCH funded 101%. The goal was $22,000, and we got it! Thanks to so many backers (you guys are so great!) who believed in my project, FETCH is going to come to life! Here’s why this is a very good thing: printing books and illustrating books is expensive, and basically Kickstarter gives you a platform for people to pre-order your book before you ever make it.

In many ways, this is a publisher’s dream. Publishers fret and agonize and cast perfectly awesome books out the window for a single (yet very important) reason: they think it won’t sell. That’s why they’re so wary to take on debut authors. They have no numbers to show how that author’s work will perform.

So what if you had a bunch of pre-orders all ready to go before you even made the book? It would give you the confidence to move forward with the project. Not to mention the capital. Fetch will actually cost more than $22,000 to make. But that seemed like a reasonable goal to hit, and, since Kickstarter is all-or-nothing, setting it higher would increase the risk of coming up with $0.

You have to have written the book though. That you can do for free, and it gives your backers confidence in you when you have things to show them. With Kickstarter you’re making a promise. “Hey, if you pre-order this book, I will make it awesome and give you a copy,” is essentially what you’re saying.

So, for the next 60 hours or so, the campaign is still live. You can still get in on the action and order a copy of FETCH if you like. Come on by, check it out, because sometimes, dreams really do come true.

PRE-ORDER FETCH ON KICKSTARTER

Comic Con Appearance Schedule

Well guys, I’ve got some good news. I get to appear on a few Salt Lake City Comic Con panels this week. Get to be on writing panels with James Dashner (Maze Runner), Brandon Mull (Fablehaven) and Aaron Johnston (Earth Unaware, Ender Series, writing w Orson Scott Card). Don’t worry, Chewbacca, Batman and Captain Kirk are all going to be there (the real ones!). Oh, and Darth Vader, Superman, and probably some scientists and Pullitzer Prize Winners.

Here’s my schedule. I’d love to see you there:

Thursday, September 5

5:00 – 5:50 p.m.

The Art of Creating Visual Effects in Motion Pictures (Adam Sidwell, Clark Schaffer, Rob Au, Tom Durham, Curtis Hickman, Vincent J. Roth)

Friday, September 6

2:00 – 2:50 pm

Writing Effective Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction: A Conversation on the Craft (Adam Sidwell, David Farland, Heather Ostler, Chad Morris, James Dashner, Brandon Mull, Robison Wells, Jenni  James)

6:00 – 6:50 pm

Young Adult & Middle Grade Fantasy: Keeping it Real (Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, James Dashner, Adam Sidwell, Frank Cole, Lisa Mangum, Rebecca Moesta)

Saturday, September 7

4:00 – 4:50 pm

Self-Publishing vs. Small Press vs. Big Publishers: Which is Best? (Tracy Hickman, Howard Tayler, Adam Sidwell, Michaelbrent Collings, Nathan Shumate, Rhiannon Paille)

6:00 – 6:50 pm

Plot-Driven vs. Character-Driven to Writing What You Know vs. Research to Outlining vs. Discovery Writing to Keeping a Writing Schedule vs. Tapping into Creative Energy: What’s an Aspiring Author to do? (Adam Sidwell, Frank Cole, Brad Torgerson, Chad Morris, Lisa Mangum, Aaron Johnston, Jenni James)

http://saltlakecomiccon.com/

 

A FETCH Update

So, thanks to all of you awesome supporters, we’ve come a very long way since last week. It hasn’t even been a week yet, but here’s where we are at (this cool widget keeps us updated on the progress):

The first week or so, it was mostly people I knew who backed the project, now, slowly, names of all sorts of people are showing up on the backer list. This I think is the key: moving out beyond my circle of friends and Evertaster fans into something larger. That’s when momentum gets rolling and the Kickstarter community starts to take more notice — when they see their friends backing projects, it makes someone say “Oh, what’s this?”

So I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has backed so far. If you’d like to share the project, you can go here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adamsidwell/fetch-an-illustrated-book

And below the video you can click “<>Embed” to put the widget on your blog, or click the facebook or twitter icon. Thanks everyone for all your support! We’re going to make this happen!

FETCH on Kickstarter — How Kickstarter works.

I love being able to use Kickstarter to create Fetch. Making this illustrated book has been a dream project of mine for some time now. I’ve been scheming at it, building it in my head and turning the story this way and that. I was blown away by Edwin’s first finished pages. Now it’s finally happening. When you release a book, there’s kind of a scary feeling like… “What if nobody reads it?” Well, with Kickstarter, we’re able to find out who wants to read the book before we put down the considerable work, time and expense of getting the illustrations finished and the print run done. It’s basically like if we were all in the same room and I asked for a show of hands “Who wants to a copy of the book?” and then when we get enough hands going up, we print it.

The cool thing though is that Kickstarter is not so much asking for donations as it is taking pre-orders. Basically, if you sign up for the $19 reward, you get the book! $25 gets you an autographed copy. And then there are even cooler rewards like getting a big 18 X 24 print of one of the pages of the book, signed by the artist Edwin Rhemrev. That way it’s a fair exchange instead of me just asking for help.

With the way Kickstarter works, the earlier everyone backs the project, the more momentum it gains, and so the better it will do. We’re quite a ways off $-wise, but we can do this. So far, we’re doing pretty good for only being 3 days out:

To back FETCH choose from the rewards, go here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adamsidwell/fetch-an-illustrated-book

THANKS to everyone who has supported so far! I am just so happy and flattered that so many people have backed this project and believe in it!

FETCH – Good Rewards. How You Can Help Make My Next Book Happen

I’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign for my first picture book, FETCH. It’s the story of where dogs come from.

If you aren’t familiar with Kickstarter, here’s how it works: you “back” a project for a certain $ amount, and in return, you get some really cool rewards. If we get the full funding amount, we go through with the project and make the book. If we don’t, then the book doesn’t get made and nobody gets charged for their pledge. So the key is that everyone works together to share the project with their friends on Facebook, Twitter, email, etc so that we can hit the goal. Think of it more like this – if we get enough book pre-orders, we’ll make the book.

What’s cool about Kickstarter is the rewards. It’s less like a donation and more like you get the chance to pre-order the book or other items. I’ve listed some really valuable rewards on the page, like this:

For $10 you can get a digital pdf of the book.
For $19 you can get the book (that’s the retail price of the book + shipping).
For $63 a print from one of the pages signed by the artist, Edwin Rhemrev.

Some of the higher end rewards are:

We do a google chat session together
Your name printed in the book
Your dog painted into the book.
I fly you to Los Angeles and for a helicopter ride and we hang out.

Come see what this book and the rewards are all about!

Come check out the rewards section to see how you can get a copy of Fetch!

 

My Next Secret Project… and YOU.

I’m getting really excited about this picture book project. I’ve mentioned it on Facebook or Twitter in vague tones in the last few weeks. I’ve even leaked some pics. If we get enough interest, we’ll make it happen. But I’ll need your help. Anyone who’s interested in checking out the Kickstarter project before it goes live and seeing a sneak peak of the book message me here:

http://www.evertaster.com/contact/

 

Your feedback is appreciated! Especially when it comes to the rewards.

Basically, if we get as few as 1000 people to pre-order the book, we’ll print it. I’ll post here once the project is ready on Kickstarter to accept donations. There are going to be some really cool rewards for taking part!

 

Author Signings in June

Author Signings in June:

I know many readers like to get personalized copies. Here are the places that you can come shoot the breeze with me and get signed books in June:

Friday, June 7, Costco Alhambra, CA 12-3pm
Saturday, June 8, Costco Tustin (2700 Park Ave), CA 12-3pm
Wednesday, June 12, Costco Lehi, UT 11am-2pm
Wednesday, June 12, Costco Spanish Fork, UT 3-6pm
Thursday, June 13, Costco Salt Lake City, UT 11am-2pm
Thursday, June 13, Costco Bountiful, UT 3-6pm
Tuesday, June 18th, Batesville Intermediate School virtual visit, 2pm, Batesville, Indiana
Thursday, June 20, Costco Rancho Cucomunga, CA 12-3pm
Friday, June 21, Costco Gilbert, AZ 11-2pm
Saturday, June 22, Costco Mesa, AZ 12-3pm
Tuesday, June 25, Costco Hawthorne, CA 11-2pm

If you want to keep updated on signings go like the facebook page. I hope to see you there!

School or Library Visits for the Fall:

If you’d like me to make a school visit to your child’s school (they are a walloping good time, with videos, costumes and fun) please email publicity@evertaster.com with the contact information for your school principal or librarian. I’m booking next year fast!

Enjoy your summer!

The Buttersmiths’ Gold Launch Was a Good Day

First I’d like to say THANKS to everyone who bought the Buttersmiths’ Gold and helped spread the word on Launch Day, May 2nd. It was a smashing success! Buttersmiths’ Gold got as high as #555 on the Overall Amazon Bestseller List, #25 in Children’s Literature, and #3 in Hot New Releases!

 

If you haven’t had a chance to get your copy, you can pick it up at your local Indy Bookstore, Costco, Barnes and Noble, or right here:
Get The Buttersmiths’ Gold on Amazon

Thanks to everyone who tweeted, posted on Facebook, and recommended the book on Goodreads. Thanks to those especially who emailed your friends!

This summer, I’ll be busy writing Evertaster: The Delicious City, so watch for it in the next 6 months or so.

Adam