About
Promised Land: An illustrated LGBT children's book
NZ$ 43,362
796
A fantastical story about friendship, adventure, responsibility and love.
PROMISED LAND is an LGBT themed children's book written by Adam Reynolds & Chaz Harris with illustrations by Christine Luiten.
The first edition of PROMISED LAND will be a full colour illustrated storybook aimed at 5-10 year olds and up with a target release date of 11 October 2016 (recognised internationally as 'National Coming Out Day').
We are offering copies of the book through Kickstarter to help cover the upfront cost of illustration, design and the printing of a limited 1st Edition.
STRETCH GOALS
If we can raise over our initial goal of $25,000 (NZD) then here is what backers will receive:
If we reach $35,000 (NZD) or more we will produce a high-quality audio book of Promised Land. All people who have pre-ordered a printed or E-book copy of Promised Land will get the audio book for FREE! This additional funding will allow us to pay for the recording session, and to approach some high profile talent with a financial offer for narrating the audio book.
If we reach $45,000 (NZD) then we’ll produce an interactive app version of Promised Land. All people who have pre-ordered a printed or E-book copy of Promised Land will get the audio book AND the app for FREE!
THE STORY
In PROMISED LAND, a young Prince and a Farmboy meet by chance in the forest and their newfound friendship soon blossoms into love. However, things get complicated when the Queen's sinister new husband seeks control over the enchanted forest that the farm boy's family are responsible for protecting.
AUTHOR'S STATEMENT
Growing up with very little in the way of LGBT stories in print or on screen, we decided to write the story that our eight year old selves needed. During our childhoods and teen years, we had no role models or stories that represented the notion that "happily ever after" could even exist if you're gay. As such, we felt there should be more stories like that, and so we wrote one together.
PROMISED LAND is not just a story for gay youth. The sexuality of our main characters is never questioned - they merely happen to be two young men who meet and fall in love.
Our goal has always been to create a story that provides understanding and acceptance by showing young people that, regardless of what gender they are attracted to, love is love.
COSTS
In order to bring this story to life we need your help. This is where your money will be going (in NZ dollars):
- Illustration Costs: $16,000 for 32 full colour illustrations ($500 per page)
- Design/Layout: $2,000
- Printing/Reward Costs: $5,000
- Kickstarter & Payment Processing Fees: $3,000
Total Target: $25,000 (NZD)
REWARDS
Here are a few of the awesome rewards we have to offer:
AS FEATURED ON
Risks and challenges
We’re driven by a strong passion for creating something we wished we'd had as children. We also believe in fostering acceptance in the next generation of young people so that others may not experience the same feelings of otherness that we did to reinforce one message: it's okay to be gay.
A book like this involves countless hours of collaboration between the authors, the illustrator, the designer, proofreader and printer.
We’ve spent the last eight months collaborating directly with illustrator Christine Luiten to bring our vision to life and we're very excited about doing the same with the rest of the storybook. We have confirmed that our timeline is realistic for completing all of the illustration/design work on the book. We’ll be keeping our backers informed throughout the process with updates in case of any delays to printed copies arriving.
With a background predominantly as filmmakers, we see a book project like this as more of a challenge than a risk. We have already tested the story for PROMISED LAND with parents and their children with feedback being overwhelmingly positive (except about the sad parts of the story) and we plan on testing it further before release.
We are now at a stage where we need to seek funding to move forward with the illustrations in order to deliver a beautiful, high quality printed 1st edition later in the year.
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Funding period
- (36 days)