So in the overcrowded world of crowd funding what is going to convince you to back me? Well every time I have helped another party I have always done so not for the rewards but because their story struck a chord - so here is mine. I have spent the vast majority of my adult life serving in the Army. I have had the pleasure of visiting many exotic and enchanting countries and witnessing first hand the kindness and compassion of my fellow man. On leaving the Army I trained to become a Teacher and in that role I have had the honour and privilege of helping to shape many young minds and getting them to truly believe in themselves. Now having recently been made redundant I have decided to take that next step. To discover if the stories I am always writing in my spare time are worthy of an audience. So I set up Shoe Box Books and having published four children's books electronically, which are all illustrated uniquely in house as it were (search Amazon - Sean Beech in books - available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited) I then turned to a series of five children's books that would need illustrated conventionally.

I sent the stories off to a few artists around the globe and was thrilled to secure the services of Richard Olson (https://m.youtube.com/user/farfetch125) who fell in love with the stories. The image you can see as my page holder is his work and the man himself is held in very high regard in the U.S. with contracts for Hollywood and Sony as well as publishing his own unique brand of educational books. To have someone as esteemed believe in my work is very exciting and I am looking forward to seeing the wonderful illustrations he will create to bring my stories to life. I also know that children are going to love them as both he and I are very big fans of Dr Seuss. So with the illustrations in place or being produced I now find myself at a crossroads. Do I wait till they are finished and then submit this work to an established publishing house - or do I follow my own dream and see it through to the end? Well I know what I have been telling the children I have taught for the last ten years - so it's now my time to walk the walk.

Which is where you fine people hopefully come in. In order to get the book from the artist's easel to the bookshelves I need the help of some freelance editors and book designers with the appropriate software to layout the finished work and then get the first print run done. My redundancy money will not cover this so my choices are a loan from the bank or this. I am hoping that having read this, looked at the picture and the web links, that you will have enough faith in me to back me. If not thank you for your time anyway.

For those that can and would like something back I can offer:

for every £10 donation - a postcard that can be exchanged at a later date for a signed copy of any future Shoe Box Books publication (hard copies)

for a £50 donation - a limited edition signed by the artist and author print of the first draft's of the lead character (see above picture) (actual numbers produced will be restricted to actual number of £50 donations and numbered in sequence according to seniority of donations i.e. 1st donator gets number 1 of ....) plus three postcards that can be exchanged as per above.

for a £500 donation - I will offer a foot massage, a limited edition print of at least 4 draft pages from the book plus ten postcards.

If you truly want to donate £5000 - I will kiss you (probably more than once) and bestow upon you a dedication in the book; the first copy signed, dated and further dedicated; plus 1% of the author's royalties for this book for as long as it remains in print.

Sean