To reference that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail I can confirm, ‘I’m not dead!’ though I know I’ve been quiet for a while. Truth be told, I’ve been incredibly busy with work, university and more for the last four months (in particular) and, frustratingly, this has eaten into my crowdfunding time.
But I’m back, baby!
The good news is that I now have 125 of you very special people backing Rory Hobble and the Voyage to Haligogen, which is a tidy little milestone, and I send a BIG thank you to all the latest backers – welcome aboard. I think the biggest difficulty with crowdfunding is that I have to ask for support in the form of financial backing, and can offer no ‘up-front’ reward. You guys support my book and then all you do is wait for it to fully fund and be published. I think this makes me appreciate your commitment all the more, because you are accepting that there is no immediate reward. It’s sort of the same for me, as I dedicate literally hundreds of hours to the crowdfunding process often for little reward and, truth be told, that has a knock-on effect on my own mental health. I am only (moderately) human, after all.
There are serious reasons why I think it is important that this book achieves publication. Those reasons are as follows:
- Representation and Challenge: There is a paucity of children’s literature that tackles, in any meaningful way, the admittedly difficult subjects of mental illness and social care involvement in families. As a child with a diagnosis of OCD, I read nothing in fiction that represented my experience of the condition. And now, as a social care professional, I struggle to find anything in children’s fiction that showcases the good work a social worker can do with a family – what a crying shame that is. The media does a fantastic job of attacking social work and so we have children growing up with a skewed impression of what social services is. This book can go some way to redress that imbalance.
- School Talk Tour: With the publication of this book, I will be able to go into far more schools to talk to children about OCD and social work. I have bookings already, but it would be great to take an actual book in and run some creative workshops that explore challenging issues.
- 100 UK Schools: The wonderful OCD Action continue to support me and their promise to include my book in support packs to be sent out to an initial 100 UK schools is staggering. I can’t let them down.
- 15%: And, finally, once published, I will be donating 15% of all royalties from the book – in perpetuity – to OCD Action to help them continue their good work.
Above: The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, talking about why we must ‘Get Rory Done’.
So, those are some key reasons that I simply must hit 100% funding and achieve publication. I do want to update you on the work I am doing to get the remaining funding, and it is as follows:
- Palace for Life Foundation/Crystal Palace FC: Those of you who know me in real life will be aware that I am a Crystal Palace fan, as the club is Croydon’s pride and joy (I’m trying to say that without my tongue in my cheek). It is praiseworthy that the club commit to a lot of community work and the Palace for Life Foundation is at the heart of that. I have therefore approached them to see if they would be interested in becoming a financial sponsor for the book.
- Croydon BID: As the book is very much set in Croydon and features a local school and social services, I have approached Croydon BID to see whether they’d also be interested in financial sponsorship. My argument is that they do a lot of work to project a positive image of Croydon (and yes, they have their work cut out at times), so perhaps they’d be up for helping me out as Rory Hobble and the Voyage to Haligogen would perhaps be the only book in fiction to feature Croydon so heavily. And I’m actually quite positive about the borough!
- Greenwich University: The book has featured in a newsletter at Greenwich University (where I study for my MA Social Work) and I am currently getting agreement for it to feature heavily in the university’s media output. I am also trying to get a stall to showcase the book in the flagship building at the university’s main campus, so we’ll see if I can attract some more interest that way.
- ???: I have also approached another organisation for financial support but I won’t name them at the moment for some very particular reasons!
- Twitter: I have recently managed to get some retweets from literary legends Neil Gaiman and Matt Haig, and will continue to use the social media platform as a means for reaching out to new contacts.
- More, more and more: I am doing other things as well – some small, some big and some at conception level. And that includes returning to the Arts Council England (ACE). Let’s hope something pays off.
If any of you have some suggestions for getting additional funding then please do email me at maximilianhawker@gmail.com to let me know. Other than that, spread the word where you can like disciples of an unrewarding religion. Think about it: if each of you successfully recommended the book to just one person, we could double the support overnight.
Ta.