I wanted to find this kind of a book for a school teacher friend of mine. She was looking for a fundraiser for the afternoon art club she sponsors at her school. The money was needeed for new art supplies. She works with over 100 elementary age children two afternoons a week. Her students have participated in many city wide art events over the years and have won numerous prizes. However, there was no seed money for a fundraising  project, no matter how worthy the objectives. In frustration she asked me if I would help her with a web page (I'm a web designer and content converter). The web site was to sell hard copies through the mail of some of the children's creative efforts they were willing to share with the world.

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I suggested instead, that she buy a book or two on the technical aspects of creating and marketing e-books and then do one titled,  "How To Create Prize Winning Art by Elementary Kids" and sell it on the net.  She thought that was a great idea. No stamps, mailing, reprodution costs or a lot of her time. Wow, we had no idea what a haystack of obstacles and opportunities we were diving into.
 

While there are several decent books on e-marketing for MLM and mail order products, none was geared for schools. In addition, most of the books on how to technically create e-books were just that, technical, way too technical for people who did not want to have HTML code take over their lives, (too late for this writer). None was designed to solve the problems relating  to needing volunteers, needing expertise in a number of "soft skill" areas, problems of organization or really how to make money with the finished product for the school. Our solution had to meet 4 basic criteria as an option to a full blown professional, no-holds-barred, advertising agency, commercial production.

• It had to be free, or almost, to produce. 
• It had to have the ability of being done easily and quickly from a technical/computer standpoint. 
• It had to have relatively high income producing potential and good overall ROI.
• It had to allow the children a high degree of creative opportunity

It would also be very nice to have a general, one step at a time, plan that everyone could see and understand. Also it shouldn't matter what type of computer was used to create or download the product. Another caveat was that the creation period  not be all consuming to whomever was in charge. There should be a way the project could be divided up reasonably, allowing  talented volunteers to take part in it along with the children. It had to have order but also be flexible in all its parts!

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I really enjoyed trying to meet this little set of challenge thoughout the entire book writing process. But, like all things written, the objective ideas are colored by the writer's subjective experiences and preferences. Mine are stated plainly. That does not mean that there are not many more ways of doing all of the things I've included for your success in the final product. And, while it appears that the book as a whole works, I'm open to your suggestions, wisdom and new ideas to improve upon it for future editions. I will try to update it as often as is reasonable!

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I've put all of the necessary parts together for you in one place with the  hope that you will enjoy exploring the book and exploring your own as well as your students multiple abilities and interests.  You will be surpised at how easy it is to create something profitable, as well as wonderful, to share with your community and perhaps the World Wide Web.

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