I am on the final edits of my first novel Following After Trek and it will be released in November. It has been an awesome process and I am proud to release it to the world. The book is a fusion of Trek’s true-life story and a fictional story based on a dream I had a few days before he passed. It has been a huge part of our grieving process and it is important to Chelsea and I that we get Trek’s story out to as many people as possible. We have been racking our brains to figure out how we could create and publish a paperback copy of the book and last week Chelsea found the answer. It is an awesome idea and something we would like each one of you to help with!

It’s called Kickstarter.com and it’s a website that helps “Kick Start” projects by allowing someone with a business project to partner with financial backers to help the idea become a reality. It is not a donation or a charity, they actually do not allow charities or non-profits or fund your life projects. KickStarter is only for people with creative projects with a clear definition and end point. We worked over one week on our project and even made a movie explaining the process! The project had to be approved by KickStarter to make sure we aligned with their goals and guidelines and it did! Some projects on their website have gone above and beyond their goals and have been launched into the media. We would love that for Trek’s book!

How does it work?

When a project is created a dollar amount goal is set along with a specified time to reach that goal. Different projects require different amounts of money, but all of them are required to run for a specific number of days.  This process is done by people “backing” your project in exchange for rewards. Stated another way it is a site that provides people an opportunity to invest in a project and receive something immediately in return.  The rewards range from small to huge based on the amount of the investment made. If the dollar amount goal is reached then the project is “backed” and the money is given to fund the project. If the project does NOT receive every penny of its goal, no credit cards will be charged; it is all or nothing.

What is our project about?

Our project is under publishing and books and is specifically to raise enough money to have Following After Trek printed into paperback editions. While many of our friends and family have electronic readers, plenty of folks out there still read or even prefer old-fashioned books. It is important for us to be able allow those without e-readers to have access to Trek’s story.

Through our project on Kickstarter our hopes can be made a reality. We are trying to raise $3000.00 to publish Following After Trek into a paper back novel. There are different rewards for different amounts of backing. These rewards range from a thank you email from me to, a copy of the book, or some of Trek’s cool stuff! (For a full list of rewards click here)  Our project has a length of 15 days.  That means that we only have 15 days to generate the financial backing for our project or we don’t get a dime!

Want to know more?

Our project is live and if this is something you are interested in being apart of check out the link below. It is our Kickstarter Project Page. There you can watch the video we made for our project, see the available rewards, and pledge support. Even if you don’t have money to pledge you could help in other ways like sharing the site on your facebook page, your blog, or simply telling your friends about it. This is a chance to invest in my book and help continue to get Trek’s story out there while also getting something cool for yourself. I am really proud of the book and I can’t wait for everyone to read it. This is something that extremely important to Chelsea and I and if it’s something you would be interested in backing please click the link below to find out about the rewards available to you and how you can help our project come to fruition.

Until next time,

Jarrett