Hey everybody! Today I wanted to talk to you about something that I’ve been working on over the past 31 days. (Wow. Time flies.) Probably many of you have heard already, but for those who haven’t I have undertaken the task of Kickstarting Jonah.
The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) is live for the next 9 days as a funding project on the website Kickstarter. Basically, this means that the finalized, complete book for Jonah will be coming much sooner than later once funding is complete, as this will hopefully help me free up the time to finish writing it.
So what is Kickstarter, and how does it work? Kickstarter is kind of like Amazon.com for ideas. People go there with an idea for a project, and then people pledge toward that project to make it happen. If a project doesn’t reach its funding goal, then the creator gets nothing and the project is canceled. If the goal is met, however, then the creator receives the funds and gets busy making his or her project a reality. Having backed a number of projects on Kickstarter myself, I can assure you: Kickstarter is awesome.
But why this change in direction for Jonah, rather than releasing it for free chapter-by-chapter like I’d been doing? Well, there are a number of reasons I could give you. But the main one is, I felt like God was telling me to do it. It was not a good time, it was not a well-planned project, in some ways it was not something that even seemed wise. But there was a deadline I was looking at and I felt like God was urging me to jump. So I did.
I wanted to share some of the stuff I’ve been posting on the Kickstarter with you, so here are several videos I’ve made of the first few chapters of the book, as well as one introducing the project. (If they don’t show up, no worries: you can check them out on the Kickstarter page right here. You can also find the chapters to read for yourself here.)
(No videos? Click here.)
During this Kickstarter I am offering 100 limited edition Kickstarter-exclusive hardcovers of Fish in Jonah’s Puddle with tons of extra content that will never be available again. So if you’re interested, be sure and check it out. I’m also offering an eBook and a paperback, and I’m hoping to do an audiobook if I get enough funding. (We’re currently about $400 away from that. It takes a lot of time to make an audiobook.) Here’s the graphic for the hardcover, which also shows you a possible (really rough) idea for the cover illustration:
So how do you pledge to this project? You go to the Kickstarter page and click the Back This Project button, as shown in the picture. It will then ask you what reward you want, and get your credit or debit card info. Your card will not be charged until the campaign is complete.
Alternatively, you can scroll down the page and click the reward you want on the right. This lets you get a better look at what all of the rewards contain. (The Hardcover reward, for example, includes the hardcover, the eBook, and a PDF of the first seven chapters.) I’ve heard that some people have had a hard time backing the book on a mobile device. If this happens to you, try to get to the project on a computer, or you could also try downloading the Kickstarter app where you shouldn’t have any issues.
There’s more I could say about this book and this project, but I don’t want to get very long-winded today. I just wanted to let you know what was going on, show you how to back the book (if you’re interested), and tell you how much I appreciate you and your support. My goal is to get freed up more and more to create the things God’s given me to create and to help the people God’s given me to help. This book is a step in that direction. I believe God’s giving us the opportunity to touch the world and make an impact. And I’m so glad you’re on this journey with me.
God bless you, and I’ll talk to you again soon. If you know someone who might be interested in this book, please share it with them (or share it on your social media platform of choice! =) Once again, I’d like to thank Doug, Mary, Chris, Becky, Dick, Jon, Robert, Peter, Andrew and Kenny (as well as anyone else I’m forgetting – if that’s you, I’m sorry) for jumping on board already, and for helping to make both this book and this dream a reality. I’ll talk to you again soon, and here’s to making a difference.
You can back The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle by clicking right here. Also, if you have any thoughts on this book or something else, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment, send me a note, and let’s chat!