The Renfrow Story

Getting the funding I needed is such huge blessing (thank you contributors!) so now my attention has turned to figuring out all the details to make this actually work. After looking into a variety of options, I found a company called Print Ninja that I think is going to work well to print a high quality book at a price that will work. They offer some nice features and their staff has been great to work with so far. The next thing will be to figure out how many to print in the first run. I’ve chatted with the manager of the Grinnell College Pioneer Bookstore, Cassie, as my plan is to do the bulk of the sales through her if I can. I’m excited she has agreed to create a pre-order option and can get that up and running as soon as I get her some info. You won’t pay until the book comes in but this will help gauge demand (if you have already contributed $25 or more you are already on the list to get a copy). I also need to figure out the business end of things like what I do about sales tax and maybe getting one of those Square things so I can run credit card sales. All of that is not my strong point, so I need to study up. I’ve been looking into how to register copyright and how to get ISBN numbers (hardback and ebook will have their own). There are just lots of details to think through.

Erica and I have been chatting about ideas. I used a couple of the images she created and made up some notecards that I plan to use for project related communications. I’m going to take some to give to Edith and her daughter, Alice when we see them in a few days. Would something like this sell? We’re toying with some other ideas of things we might do. I’m doing a sneak preview read of the story at the Grinnell College Reunion weekend in June, as well as a talk about Edith, so it might be nice to have a few things in place for that event. We’re also just doing lots of chatting back and forth about illustrations as we try to hone in on the style and layout and such.

I’m excited to get to see Edith and Alice again this week. The college is doing a special event with her and special guests to celebrate the Renfrow Hall announcement. It will be at her retirement community in Chicago so that she doesn’t have to travel. Tamara and I are making the drive so we can be a part of it. It will be a quick mid-week trip but it is totally worth it to be able to celebrate with them.

It is such an incredible blessing to be a part of her life at this point. Someone asked me today if I ever imagined something like this would happen when I first met her in 2015, when she was a spry 101 year old. How could anyone imagine such a thing as this?! But I can say there has been a sense of wonder and awe – and perhaps a bit of magic – over these last months. It seems like pieces just fall in place, connections happen, questions get answered, what is needed appears – sometimes before we know we need it.

That’s Edith magic.