If you’ve been following us through our blog, twitter, facebook, instagram, google+, or have just been checking out our website’s Media page now and then, you’ve probably noticed something – that Sophie Votes Republican has been taken our team on one heck of an adventure!
To recap: We raised over $15,000 through a successful Kickstarter campaign, we’ve spoken in front of over a dozen Republican organizations, been guests on five conservative talk radio shows, been featured on half a dozen blogs, and have sold more than 500 books. And all that in just five short months! We ‘re proud of ourselves, honored to have been so graciously invited into the Republican community with open arms, privileged to have made such good friends along the way, and so incredibly excited to see where Sophie takes us next.
Like all big adventures, it’s the surprises, the little bumps in the road, detours, highs, lows, and all the small stuff in between that you truly remember. It’s what makes the big adventure seem like lots of little smaller adventures. It’s what makes things fun.
If I sat here and wrote down every memorable moment of this fundraising, printing, publishing, and promoting journey that is jostling around in Laura’s and my memory bank, I’d be here all day. Not that I’m opposed to that! But at some point today I have to get on the phone and hop on my email to see where Sophie and Laura can make their next appearance. Who knows, maybe it’ll be Fox News, your favorite morning talk radio show, or even your next Republican club meeting? We’re juking and jiving all over the Republican scene. You never know where we’ll end up next!
So to make things short and sweet, to pack a literary punch so to speak, this is a burst of the memorable, the unexpected, surprising, comical, nerve-racking, unforgettable moments. An ESPN highlight reel mixed with a behind-the-scenes tour broken down into easily digestible chunks.
--
We’ve driven over 1,000 miles across southern California promoting Sophie Votes Republican. On one of those long stretches of freeway we got rear ended, which led to a trunk that nearly didn’t open. The problem? We were on our way to sell books at a big Republican group meeting, and all of the books were in the trunk. But with a little elbow grease and a desperate prayer to the trunk-latch gods (I’m not sure which one that was in Greek mythology), we finally got the trunk open, and our books lay inside like gold coins in long-lost treasure chest.
We once said the pledge of allegiance to a purse. The backstory? We were guest speakers at a Republican club meeting. Like every Republican club meeting we had gone to previously (and every one we’ve been to since), the reciting of the pledge of allegiance was the first thing on the agenda. However the group had forgotten a key element of this patriotic act: the flag. But we were in a room filled with Republicans, and most were women. It was only a matter of time before one of the members was standing at the front of the room, holding her American flag-themed purse out in front of her like Rafiki holding Simba in the Lion King. And we all paid our respects.
If you ever sell anything, anywhere, at anytime, and you accept cash, know this: for heavens sake, take dollar bills, and lots of them. We were once scheduled to speak and sell books at a Republican club meeting, and before we walked into the meeting room we realized that we (but really I) had forgotten to bring dollar bills to use as change for anyone who would decide to buy a book with cash. It was too late to do much of anything – we were on in 10. Wouldn’t you know it, that night we sold over a dozen books, and not one single person needed change. Talk about luck!
When our project was just a seedling, I got a call from the Orange County Federation of Republican Women – one of the largest and respected Republicans organizations in California. They invited Laura and I to speak at their Board of Directors meeting – a coming-together of the most influential and powerful people within that organization. I was ecstatic. This would be Laura’s and my first presentation, our project being just a young tike at the time. We still had yet to flesh out our presentation speeches, our table displays, and everything else that came along with professionally marketing a book. But we were driven, motivated, passionate, eager. And besides, with our young, caffeinated spirits, we could probably crank all that out in a few days anyways. When is the presentation? I asked. Tomorrow. They said. Oh.
--
Writing, illustrating, printing, self-publishing, and promoting a book is hard work, but at the end of the day, all of these unforgettable little moments add up to make one heck of a memorable experience. Now, this is just a taste of the action, mind you. Want more behind-the-scenes looks? Well you'll just have to stay hot on our trail and see where we end up next!
To recap: We raised over $15,000 through a successful Kickstarter campaign, we’ve spoken in front of over a dozen Republican organizations, been guests on five conservative talk radio shows, been featured on half a dozen blogs, and have sold more than 500 books. And all that in just five short months! We ‘re proud of ourselves, honored to have been so graciously invited into the Republican community with open arms, privileged to have made such good friends along the way, and so incredibly excited to see where Sophie takes us next.
Like all big adventures, it’s the surprises, the little bumps in the road, detours, highs, lows, and all the small stuff in between that you truly remember. It’s what makes the big adventure seem like lots of little smaller adventures. It’s what makes things fun.
If I sat here and wrote down every memorable moment of this fundraising, printing, publishing, and promoting journey that is jostling around in Laura’s and my memory bank, I’d be here all day. Not that I’m opposed to that! But at some point today I have to get on the phone and hop on my email to see where Sophie and Laura can make their next appearance. Who knows, maybe it’ll be Fox News, your favorite morning talk radio show, or even your next Republican club meeting? We’re juking and jiving all over the Republican scene. You never know where we’ll end up next!
So to make things short and sweet, to pack a literary punch so to speak, this is a burst of the memorable, the unexpected, surprising, comical, nerve-racking, unforgettable moments. An ESPN highlight reel mixed with a behind-the-scenes tour broken down into easily digestible chunks.
--
We’ve driven over 1,000 miles across southern California promoting Sophie Votes Republican. On one of those long stretches of freeway we got rear ended, which led to a trunk that nearly didn’t open. The problem? We were on our way to sell books at a big Republican group meeting, and all of the books were in the trunk. But with a little elbow grease and a desperate prayer to the trunk-latch gods (I’m not sure which one that was in Greek mythology), we finally got the trunk open, and our books lay inside like gold coins in long-lost treasure chest.
We once said the pledge of allegiance to a purse. The backstory? We were guest speakers at a Republican club meeting. Like every Republican club meeting we had gone to previously (and every one we’ve been to since), the reciting of the pledge of allegiance was the first thing on the agenda. However the group had forgotten a key element of this patriotic act: the flag. But we were in a room filled with Republicans, and most were women. It was only a matter of time before one of the members was standing at the front of the room, holding her American flag-themed purse out in front of her like Rafiki holding Simba in the Lion King. And we all paid our respects.
If you ever sell anything, anywhere, at anytime, and you accept cash, know this: for heavens sake, take dollar bills, and lots of them. We were once scheduled to speak and sell books at a Republican club meeting, and before we walked into the meeting room we realized that we (but really I) had forgotten to bring dollar bills to use as change for anyone who would decide to buy a book with cash. It was too late to do much of anything – we were on in 10. Wouldn’t you know it, that night we sold over a dozen books, and not one single person needed change. Talk about luck!
When our project was just a seedling, I got a call from the Orange County Federation of Republican Women – one of the largest and respected Republicans organizations in California. They invited Laura and I to speak at their Board of Directors meeting – a coming-together of the most influential and powerful people within that organization. I was ecstatic. This would be Laura’s and my first presentation, our project being just a young tike at the time. We still had yet to flesh out our presentation speeches, our table displays, and everything else that came along with professionally marketing a book. But we were driven, motivated, passionate, eager. And besides, with our young, caffeinated spirits, we could probably crank all that out in a few days anyways. When is the presentation? I asked. Tomorrow. They said. Oh.
--
Writing, illustrating, printing, self-publishing, and promoting a book is hard work, but at the end of the day, all of these unforgettable little moments add up to make one heck of a memorable experience. Now, this is just a taste of the action, mind you. Want more behind-the-scenes looks? Well you'll just have to stay hot on our trail and see where we end up next!
