Free Children’s Books Hardcopies – I’ve always harboured the idea in the back of my mind that we might be able to give away hard copies at some point. We did, in fact, have a printing company which printed about 10,000 books once, and gave them to communities, and we also sponsored a book drive in the US, and we have given away quite a few of one of my commercially published books. But that was it.
While I know that sadly the blog is not anywhere near as well read compared to our main page, here’s hoping a highly valuable cause might help spread this post….
If you want to skip the hard part and help FKB get to of goal of “Free Children’s Books Hardcopies”
All you need to do is share this post!…(Sharing’s caring…Obviously only if you think the resource is cool, that is, and sharing with people you also think would like it 🙂
So, no, I’m not asking for donations or anything – if we get shared, we’ll reach the target quicker, if we don’t we will reach it anyhow, but a little slower….If you want to help kids get books – simply take a look around, and share this post, or share the site, or any of the books here you enjoy, with people you think will also enjoy it!
A bit about our Children’s Book Content Model…
How it works? Readers, teachers, and parents, come to our site because we post a ton of great free content for children and ESL learners to read (we currently have about 500 books available, all of which are personally quality checked before approval and upload). Visitors occasionally click on the advertising, if it’s something that they’re looking for (thanks to google matched content :-), and we get a few cents….over time we’ve come to have a fairly loyal following, and attracted a few hundred thousand visitors every month, and this means a few cents grows into a few dollars, or pounds in my case…, and yes – now I want to put some of this aside to give back, and what better way than for book donations.
The more people, kids, parents, teachers, kids book authors, find out about our site, the more we’ll have great free content to provide to readers, ( since more people also means more kids book authors looking for places to promote their work 🙂 …again all totally free, with thanks to Larry and Sergey (aka GOOGLE) my heros!
So to sum it up, if you share with people you think will enjoy these books, then more people find our site and enjoy the great totally free resources, and the quicker we get to the goal of Free Children’s Books Hardcopies.
(I feel like my little girl cringing whenever she says “click the like button”…lol, she’s now dreaming of a youtube channel, and she’s actually pretty natural at talking on the camera, totally unlike me…I’ll put a link up when she works a bit harder on the editing and not chasing shiny objects like overdone posts, or when she simply asks me lol, but it so sucks asking for help – selling, but that’s what websites are all about…SSP, argh, cringe!)
Okay, final small request before I get onto the FREE HARD COPIES project itself, please if you know any authors who might want to post a free book they have to help promote their paid work, this is also greatly appreciate, since we love content! One of my favourite authors on the site, Kanika G, tells me she gets read here way more than at Smashwords – they might be bigger, sure, but we’re far more targeted (by the way, Kanika’s book The New Kid, an awesome book about differences and diversity, currently has around 60 comments, and 57 excellent votes 4.26 overall, wow, and well done Kanika!).
Again – more content = more happy kids reading; which all get’s us closer to FREE HARD COPIES!!!
Free Kids Books – Free Children’s Books Hardcopies – The Project!
What I am really looking for right now in terms of the project, (since right now google themselves are doing a great job of sending us traffic, again thanks guys!), is to generate some ideas to help FKB get to our aim of providing free hard copies, ideally of books on the site, for kids in need.
The questions I need to find answers to are
- Finding printing partners to come on board and assist with wholesale printing – printing picture books is quite expensive on short runs and we could reach far more children if we find printing partners for this venture, willing to print at cost, in various worldwide locations to reduce shipping costs.
- Reach out to influencers and NGOs in the blogosphere to help us share the vision on their blogs and newsletters.
- Find cost-effective means of distributing the books.
- Find children who really need the books.
- Identify a selection of books and their corresponding age or grade range for distribution.
- Find partner NGOs for distribution.
- What authors think? Do they wish to donate or be compensated?…I’m pretty sure I know this answer, from any of you who have more than one book on this site, you are like a family to me, and thanks to all of you so much, for getting us to this point!
I’d really welcome feedback in terms of suggestions, offers, help sharing this aim, and requests for the free books.
Hard Copy Free Books Eligibility
To begin with I’d appreciate requests and motivations from underfunded schools and impoverished communities or NGO organisations assisting underprivileged communities and schools, where books can be delivered to one point to reach many children. Requests should come with details of the need, numbers of children, types of books they need.
If you know of someone in need – please refer them to us!
Become a Literacy Superhero
Helping with projects like this is a huge, if not superhero like feat for a small amount of effort. Teachers, why not help share with your classes, and let students come up with some ideas? Or create some books to share?
Homeschoolers, how about a research project for the kids into where books might be needed? Or create some books to share?
Printers – your work would be totally paid, there would just be no profit, so a little effort, in exchange for some really great goodwill.
Authors, Illustrators, submit a book – help build our library so more kids can get access to more great quality books! More readers = more donations.
More about how to submit a book, see https://www.freekidsbooks.org/about
Free Children’s Books Hardcopies Post Update!
I’ve just got in touch with an NGO, Books for Africa, and they’re excited to help us reach our aims! And they are in a position to know how :-). So I think partnering with the right NGOs is our first step (point 6), and this will lead us in the right direction to find physical homes for all the good books here.
I’ve now reached a contact via Books for Africa in my own country via the really helpful people at Books for Africa, and this will be our first point of call! Looking forward to meeting up with him this weekend or early next week!!!
Just found an amazing story of Maria Keller, who worked out how to do this all when she was just 8! Her non-profit, http://www.readindeed.org, has now given away 2.6 million books (over 4 million US in donations) and counting! I’m going to reach out to Read Indeed, Maria’s non-profit, I am sure they will have some ideas.
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Post Update II
Just received a really encouraging email from Julia at BookDash. In case you did not notice a large amount of our early reader books (“toddler” category) come from BookDash. Two things stand out, first I cannot believe they run the whole NGO with just two staff!!! Staggering. Second she has apparently near perfected the distribution of hard copies and given away close to half a million to boot. I’m totally stoked to know Julia is interested in helping us get this initiative off the ground, and I also found a friend here who might do the hard work while I’m off flying or something less hard work like. Next phase trying to allocate and raise funds….So pleased to report so much support, stand by for pictures from BookDash on their initiatives.
Post Update III
We’re starting our first print run with BookDash. It seems fitting, firstly they have worked out an amazing cost of 10ZAR per book – distributed! I’m staggered at how Julia does this – perhaps some of the magic from her amazing books has rubbed off. Second, they have been an amazing contributor over the years. Third, I know the books reach the people that need them and the donation is amazingly cost-effective. BookDash has an efficient donation page set up on their site for anyone who wants to donate directly.
Links to Books in this post:
Supercow Version 1 – https://freekidsbooks.org/the-adventures-of-supercow/ (The inspiration behind the beginnings of FKB)
Supercow Volume 2 – https://freekidsbooks.org/supercow-volume-ii-bully/
Supercow Volume 3 – https://freekidsbooks.org/supercow-volume-iii-the-reader-a-picture-book-for-literacy-awareness/
How to Draw Supercow – https://freekidsbooks.org/how-to-draw-supercow/
You, Yes You – An Interactive Monster Hunt – https://freekidsbooks.org/yes-interactive-monster-hunt/
Hi Danielle,
I am currently starting a recreatory reading program as a personal passion project called “Heart Work 23” in some underprivileged communities within the Philippines. I am looking for free storybooks that we can also print for free as additional resources for our mini-library session where children are free to read any storybooks that they like for 30 minutes every week.
I’d like to ask for permission if we can download and print the storybooks that you provide in your website? Rest assured that this will not be sold or redistributed, we will just really use it for educational purposes. I hope you can allow us, this will be a huge blessing as we start the next cycle this August 18.
Looking forward to your positive response. Thank you and God bless!
Best regards,
Hannah
Hi Hannah, I think it would fall under fair personal use.
Hi, I am working with a mentoring program for students in Ghana, Africa. They are currently working on building libraries and need help filling them up with books!
Village Book Builders
(909) 717-0903
Until the libraries are built, the school has four computers. Are the children at this school allowed the access to books on your site? On my computer the site has a lot of ads, which makes it slightly more difficult to use. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for these children in Africa? Thanks so much!
Hi Suzanna, sadly there are quite a few adverts – this is Google’s new “auto-placement” system, it frustrates me too. Your students may use the books – education is considered fair use, I would suggest downloading the books so they can use them off line? You can create your own offline library – this also enables you to sort them in a way that makes sense for your specific syllabus.
I am sorry to report our hard copy project was sidelined somewhat due to health reasons.
Regional Health Clinic is a non-profit, community health clinic that is accredited by Joint Commission as a primary care medical home and ambulatory health care provider. We offer affordable, quality and coordinated medical and dental care. We would like to have hard copies of books in our waiting areas for our pediatric patients to take with them following their appointment. If your office can support us in this endeavor, please email me as soon as possible. Thank you!
Hi Reginna, I will email you, Danielle
I work for a nonprofit agency, that serves underprivileged children ages 3-5, and I am very interested ion this project..