Read-Out-Loud Reading Sessions, Libraries & Bookstores

One of the aspects we are pursuing is Read-Out-Loud Storytelling Sessions. Since The Gnomes of New Hope was designed as a read-out-loud book series, that only makes sense. From a production standpoint, the design of a session is such that optimally, it should include using some of the puppets we are planning on using for a number of our presentations. I am trying to focus (as much as possible with all else that is happening) on constructing the first three puppets: Constable Warren, Zach & Zebby. Now that I write this I think maybe that, since we are doing Garden Gnomes and releasing one garden Gnome with the release of each book in the series, it sounds like a good idea to make certain that we finish one puppet in the same time frame. The only flaw in that idea is that we need the three puppets mentioned to make a reasonable read-out-loud session interesting. We could maybe get away with one puppet, but that doesn't sound too good. Unless... Constable Warren was the storyteller! Then one puppet might work.

Well the point of this post is to address another aspect of the storytelling sessions. As you may already know- we are releasing the first book in a series of seven books. The first book is "An Introduction to The Gnomes of New Hope". The remaining six books tell the story of "Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure".

The books are being released in two editions The Gnome-sized and The Big People Books. You can see the other posts for information about all that, but...

Sponsorship Proposal
 ... It was suggested that we might find a sponsor for the Storytelling sessions. What exactly that sponsor might pay for is not yet clear. But the main idea is that the sponsor would provide the funding to produce a run of Gnome-sized Books that would be given away to the kids who attended the Story-telling sessions.

I think that is a great idea.

I would be able to, as that was part of the plan anyway, take the second page in of the books and craft a customs page giving the sponsor credit for supporting the reading program, which would make that edition of the books even more special and collectible.

 Here is the first page in the book.

This is the last page in the book

(from the first prototype)

The pages show above represent the design of the pages. The first one has the twine border which was added to the final design. You can see that the second image does not have that twine, but it does in the final edition. So, the back of the first page would look like this second example, only with the twine. The text of the page would be crafted to reflect the information, and graphic desired by the sponsor. It would be crafted so that it is in keeping with the design of the book. If desired, we could have Jency create an Illustration, or if you like, we could use this graphic and replace the text for Gnome Gnog with the sponsor's information. The same goes for the Image of the Mind information, which could be replaced with the sponsor's. Or I might create some variation of this page using other artwork we have.

As I write this and think on the subject, I do think that if a sponsor was willing to provide funding for the books, then maybe we should add the cost of paying someone to supervise and/or conduct the reading sessions, which should include touring that read-out-loud storytelling sessions around. I guess I will craft a budget and an outline for doing that  using Bucks County as a test. If that works, then we can apply that budget on a per-county basis.

There are two options for sponsorship, as I see it now. One is to fund a budget for the Reading Tour. The other is to sell a License for distributing any one of the Ancillary Markets and use that money to fund the Reading Tour. Funding the Reading Tour would essentially be a License for all the reading sessions which may arise. In some circumstances, there may be an income opportunity for the sponsor, selling product at an event, but for the initial Library tour, there would not be any selling. The Gnome-sized Book would be given away and people would be directed to a bookstore if they want to acquire the Big People Book.. In that instance, the Big People Book would be sold by the bookstores, but in the instance where, say there is a museum exhibition of the artwork, etc. combined with a Storytelling session, if the sponsor provides publishing funds for a Gnome-sized Give-away, the sponsor could partake in the profits from selling Big People books on-site. The same could be said of outdoor festivals, given that the sponsor is partaking in the expenses of presentation. All these details need to firmed up in a Production Approach Summary crafted specifically for these venues.

In the mean while, I suppose I need to hop to on getting the puppets finished up.

Puppets
I have not finished the work on the puppets, primarily because of work on publishing the books, but also, I am trying to come up with the best method of operating the puppets. Marionettes or stick puppets? There are numerous applications for the puppets. Reading Sessions, Concert Presentations, Stage Presentations, the Parade Float, Cinema and Television Production. So I have bee trying to determine what is the most universal design that I can come up with. The size of the puppets is another issue. A Storytelling session, in an intimate setting doesn't need puppets that are as big as the ones needed for the stage and parade presentations, but sculpting numerous sized puppets will be time consuming and costly. So I am looking into 3D printing, which ultimately links to the 3D animation programs we anticipate using. So there's another level of complexity and cost. If I can acquire the scanning technology required to scan our sculpted puppets, then we will be able to size the 3D renderings in the computer for printout, depending on the application. Puppets and figurines of different sizes would be much simpler to make.

Zach has been laid out in the shop waiting for me to work on him.

I'm sure he's bored staring at the ceiling.

So that's a bit of an update. That's all for now. If you would like to become a sponsor, let me know. I will be pursuing that, because I definitely think it is part of our game plan for introducing the product line into the marketplace.

AG