Blog / 2019 / Why I Need $9000 to Create an Animal Alphabet Book

You choose the animals; I do the painting. That’s the basic shape of our animal alphabet book Kickstarter collaboration, but, since you are co-authors on this project with me, it’s only right that I tell you more about the numbers.

Let’s break it down.

Each painting will take at least 25 hours to create. With 26 letters, that’s a minimum of 650 hours of work.

And then there are the other expenses:

• 80 hours of book design
• 80 hours of managing the campaign and rewards
• taxes I owe on this income
• printing costs
• shipping expenses
• bank and processing fees (approximately 10%)

When we add all this up, a $9000 goal actually nets me more like $6000 for 800+ hours work.

Which is why my dream goal is $15000...

I will happily make the book for 9k, but at 15k the project becomes way more manageable.

Plus, if I make my dream goal, I will buy panels to paint on instead of the canvas I already have—the advantage being that it’s easier to see details when paintings are done on panel. In other words, the embedded first names will really pop on panel!

If you know a grandparent, auntie, unclie, or anyone who loves literacy and believes in the power of art, please tell them about this collaboration!

Make sure that they know they can choose which animal stands for a particular letter or have me include first names in the images so that the little minds they love can start to recognize letters. And send them here to get in on the magic!

T could be for tiger, but it could also be for turtle, toucan, toad, tarantula, turkey, Tasmanian devil, trumpeter swan, two-toed tree sloth, or even teacup poodle. This is just a digital mock-up using a painting I made in 2014 to inspire your imagination!