How to publish an African ABC picture book to use as a fundraiser for Ugandan street children?

The little boy in the picture inspired me to write an African ABC with crayon illustrations in an exercise book, using words and scenes from a Ugandan context to teach street children to read.

I would love to publish the book to sell to help raise funds to care for Ugandan street children, but don't know whether this project would be attractive to a children's publisher.

Can anyone advise me on agents who might be interested in such a project?

I'm not an artist and my crayon drawings are fairly crude / conceptual only. Should I find an artist to illustrate the book or is that something that a publisher or agent can help me with?

Another option would be for me to get some of the street children here in Uganda to contribute their drawings - would that be any help in increasing the commercial attractiveness of the book?

Most of my writing is women's commercial fiction, so this is a new venture, and I would appreciate any advice that more seasoned children's authors have to offer.

Tags: ABC, Alphabet, Learn, Uganda, africa, book, children, fundraising, read, to

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Todd Edward Dillard on August 15, 2012 at 9:21am

To answer your questions:

1. I don't know of any agents that'd pick up a non-profit book for a niche market like this. These are the kind of projects that you do parallel to a non-profit, so I'd look into Ugandan non-profits focused on literacy, education, etc.

2. Always, always expect to work with an artist if you're not one. Publishers will provide an artist.

3. Drawings by kids for kids... I'm not a fan. You want to create a professional, quality product, and while pictures drawn by Ugandan children would be sentimental, I don't think sentimentality always sells. Maybe you could include some, but not for the entire book.

I would partner with an Ugandan non-profit that focuses on education for children, then launch a kickstarter.com campaign where the book or segments of the book are "rewards" for donating. Use a segment of the funds to polish the picture book (working with printers, designers, etc.) and to create a website so the book has a location where people can purchase it.

Best of luck!

Permalink Reply by Janet White on August 16, 2012 at 3:54am