Acorn Cottage Press

12/08/2024

I don’t do a ton of vendor events but love and so happy to be apart of their annual events. My favorite moment today was when a little girl with diabetes grabbed hold of a Katie doll and My Body Beeps so hard and I don’t think she will ever let go. It definitely warmed my heart right up!

11/08/2024

It’s been a rough week.

Art is medicinal, it’s meditative, restorative, connecting. Focusing on the task in front of you where there is no right or wrong is a place of peace. Find your path to peace.

10/22/2024

So excited to be a guest blogger for The Splendid Path. If you have a 504/IEP meeting coming up, I hope you find this helpful!

As a mom with experience on both sides of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) table, the new school year can bring confusion and frustration to both new families and those experienced with the special education process.

10/21/2024

Project Update: Last Chance (24 hours) to Order A CUSTOM doll for $99! Don't forget to complete your survey!!!
I've been messaging back and forth with the doll designer and we are ordering the following:

35 Katie Dolls with both CGM + Pump (14 of these are accounted for already)
10 Josh Dolls with a CGM (1 of these is accounted for already)
1 custom doll for Lila our raffle winner (I sent pictures of her to the artist and Lila got to choose an outfit from a selection - she choose such fun PJs for her custom doll)

If you would like to have a Katie or Josh doll for your family - NOW is the time to order/add it on during your survey. I cannot promise that I will order these again as there are minimums and it is expensive to have custom dolls created. Each doll is created by hand in linen and are amazing quality with such attention to detail.

https://my-body-beeps.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

10/16/2024

Congratulations on Winning the raffle for a custom doll!

10/15/2024

Less than 24 hours left to win a custom doll!

I was able to connect with the artist who is creating the Katie + Josh dolls and will be creating the custom doll for the winner of the raffle. If you want to be entered into the raffle, you need to indicate that on your survey by tomorrow by noon EST. The artist told me that due to how long it takes her to handcraft her dolls, I need to get her the information asap. We currently have 61% of the surveys filled out - I would like everyone who is interested to have a chance to win. If you haven't yet preordered your copy of My Body Beeps! but would like to: https://my-body-beeps.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders and if you order by tomorrow by noon you will have a chance to win a custom doll to look like your loved one with diabetes.

Acorn Cottage Press provides authentic and empowering disability representation in picture books and toys. My Body Beeps! Growing Up With Diabetes is a picture book geared towards children ages 4-8 with a paired handcrafted linen doll of the main character Katie with matching sensor and insulin pump...

10/14/2024

My survey for my EforAll entrepreneurial class is going well but I need to get some more responses so that I have enough data points to discuss in my project pitch on Oct 22. To help with this, I have opened up my survey to parents as well as those in education and tweaked a couple of the questions to match. If you are a parent who reads picture books - please consider filling out my quick survey!

I am asking the following questions to better understand the resources you currently use in your work supporting children.

09/27/2024

Hoot Hoot! Beep Beep! We Did It!

How Much Does My Body Beeps! Cost To Create?!?

The total cost of creation with me working 24/7 for free is $6250 including illustration, editing, book design and a small custom order of "Katie" + "Josh" Linen Dolls. To do an offset print run the total goes up to $12,482 which would give me the ability to DONATE 1000 books to families with diabetes either directly or through the nonprofits that serve them. We aren't to that point yet but if you are connected to people/organizations that could help make that happen, please let them know about this project. I will be working on creating a pre-order store in case anyone who missed the campaign wants to preorder and on the survey for all of my wonderful backers so I know where to send your rewards. I will be in touch soon with updates and expect to be able to send you the completed ebook in the next couple of weeks.

Thank you ALL for giving A HOOT about diabetes and disability representation for children!

Love,
Katie

09/26/2024

It's the last 2 HOURS for My Body Beeps!

Hoping to get to 100 Backers - we only need TWO more people to support the project to get there! Will you be the person to bring us to 100 supporters?!?

Follow Katie in MY BODY BEEPS! as she navigates hide and seek while managing diabetes, teaching lessons of self-care, empathy, and embracing differences.

09/26/2024

Only 6 hours left - can we get to 100 backers?!? Support children with diabetes and their families and get My Body Beeps! And the linen doll special collection ONLY for a few more hours! See link in bio!

09/23/2024

Thank you all so much for your support in making My Body Beeps come to life. I have a meeting with Arlene Soto, the fabulous Book Designer this morning to discuss the design and will be able to set up the files shortly after a proofreading edit by two wonderful editors Val and Stacey Gittens to make sure everything looks just right.

I am so excited to be able to soon get My Body Beeps into all of your hands as well as to be able to donate copies to families with diabetes. There are only three days left if you would like to support this project. https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/acorn-cottage-press/my-body-beeps?ref=bk-social-project

Thank you!
Katie Lockwood and Family

09/20/2024

Reaching reaching reaching - what is it about what comes next. There is always something ahead, something to look forward to, something to reach for. That reminds me of probably one of my favorite homework assignments to my Ind and couple clients - put something on the calendar to look forward for.

What are you reaching for?

09/16/2024

Getting towards the end of my efforts to create My Body Beeps! A picture book about the diabetes experience. The crowdfunding campaign has only 10 days left!

Diabetes is a big diagnosis for children, many of whom are 4-8 years old when they get this life altering new thing to deal with, and for their families to worry about.

My theory in life is that everyone has something, sometimes you see it and sometimes you don't. Whatever your "something" is, did you feel supported? What would have helped? All of the books I work on tackle big things. Disabilities that are rare, invisible, and visible. Diabetes isn't rare, and yet the traditional publishing marketplace still doesn't care about it. 300,000+ children have to give themselves multiple shots daily or have multiple pieces of medical equipment attached to their bodies and yet, they don't have a picture book to see their experience mirrored on the page.

09/15/2024

We only have 11 days left in the My Body Beeps! campaign and I'm nervous that I may not reach the goal. With such a short campaign and with BackerKit being an all or nothing funding model - it is so important that if people would like to support the project that they do so soon. Please support if this project speaks to you - every amount pledged really helps and please share out to your family, friends, and larger diabetes community. Excited to bring this story for all children with diabetes to life.
Thank you all for your support! Love, Katie

Follow Katie in MY BODY BEEPS! as she navigates hide and seek while managing diabetes, teaching lessons of self-care, empathy, and embracing differences.

09/12/2024

My Body Beeps is coming along so nicely. I have been meeting with my wonderful editor putting the finishing touches on the backmatter + educational pages and fine tuning some of the text and in a couple of days we will be officially passing the files off to the fabulous book designer to work her magic in putting it all together. I've been struggling on the text for the last page of the story - when Katie reconnects with mom after moms been worried and looking all over for her but Im starting to feel more confident about how its coming together.

We only have 14 days left in the campaign and I'm starting to get a bit nervous about getting to our goal. With such a short campaign and with BackerKit being an all or nothing funding model - it is so important that if people would like to support the project that they do so soon. Please support if this project speaks to you - every amount pledged really helps and please share out to your family, friends, and communities.

Thank you all for your support!
Katie

Follow Katie in MY BODY BEEPS! as she navigates hide and seek while managing diabetes, teaching lessons of self-care, empathy, and embracing differences.

09/09/2024

I'm hoping to get to 50% funded by the end of today so i'm offering a super special discount of $25 off to the first 25 backers ONLY. With this tier you can get either the Katie or Josh linen doll (I will ask which one you prefer after the campaign) plus two signed copies of My Body Beeps! and all the extra goodies. This is a perfect gift for the little one in your life!

***Backerkit is new for many people and have had some questions around when cards will be charged etc so wanted to explain how it works:

I want the doll and book set for $25 off! https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/acorn-cottage-press/my-body-beeps?ref=bk-social-project

Thank you so much for your support!

Katie Lockwood

09/08/2024

Our Finn the froggie in Why Me, Mama? Just had major heart surgery and while his heart is beating strong, he experienced a stroke and then seizures following the surgery. Finn's family is up at Boston Children's while he recovers and they hope to be able to move him to a rehabilitation center soon. It is hard to know how to support in these types of situations when all you want to do is be able to do something. They are trying to take care of Finn, navigating his medical complications etc while also trying to take care of their other two little ones.

Want to do something to help? Send a DoorDash/GrubHub/GiftCard to someplace to eat in the Downton Boston Area. This is Finns Dada's Info.

Dave Munsell - [email protected]

09/07/2024

I've struggled with how to continue to write books for families with disabilities and cover the many expenses involved. In the traditional publishing model - the publishing house covers all the costs and takes on the risks of production. They also have the ability to distribute and market the books, expanding access geographically. With that model, you do give up ALOT of control over the process and the content.

I tried to query My Body Beeps! Growing Up With Diabetes for over six months. Querying is a process where you send your manuscript to agents that are open to new projects. I did not receive ANY interest. Agents only make money when projects sell to publishing houses. Taking on a "niche" book is a risk to them. They know that taking on projects with "broader appeal" are more likely to sell and help them feed their own families which makes sense.

While diabetes affects over 300,000 children and requires a ton of care, multiple daily injections, and so much stress for families - I have not been able to find even ONE book about diabetes that was traditionally published. How is this ok? So I decided to move forward with independently publishing My Body Beeps!

So far the expenses have been:

Illustrations - $3,000

Editing - $1000

Book Design - $834

ISBNs/PCIP data/Copyright - approx $500

So about $5500 before any books have been printed. An offset print run similar to what I was able to do for Why Me, Mama? will cost about $6500 printing internationally but that would give me a greater ability to donate books to hospitals and nonprofits that support families with diabetes.

If you are able to support creating My Body Beeps and providing children with diabetes this needed resource, I am running a crowdfunding campaign on Backer Kit (I know, another password to remember) and would greatly appreciate your support. The campaign is only for the next two weeks so if you are able to help, you can check it out here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/acorn-cottage-press/my-body-beeps?ref=bk-social-project

Thank you all for your support!

Katie Lockwood