Short Summary

eLectio Publishing is the brain child of two life-long friends and their families:  Jesse Greever and Christopher Dixon.  Both grew up in one of the Midwest's most terrific "big little cities", (Chillicothe, MO), they became fast friends when they were three years old, and have remained best friends for the last 33 years.

Using Jesse's writing skills and connections within the digital publishing world and Christopher's marketing and public relations expertise, they have put together eLectio Publishing (don't be fooled...it's actually pronounced /ee-LEK-see-oh/), a digital publisher for the independent Christian author.  Together with their wives' graphic design skills and discerning eye for great literature, their venture is about to hit full velocity, having already signed its first author of a full-length humorous memoir (think David Sedaris with a unique Christian perspective on life).

We are not a vanity publisher.  We put our blood, sweat and tears into formatting, distributing and marketing our authors' works, and don't charge them for our services.  There is a strict seleciton process, and when we sign an author, we effectively become partners.  We split the net royalties 50/50 with our authors, and for that, we expect our authors to be just as ferocious and aggressive in marketing their works through their own personal means.

And while eLectio Publishing has a distribution agreement with one of the world's foremost independent digital publishers (granting us worldwide distribution channels), there are still a few things that we need in order to be a force within the ePublishing world.

By contributing to this campaign, you will allow us to be as effective as we need to be in order to get our first releases into as many hands as possible, while building the brand.  Once we have our initial releases, it is our goal to make the venture self-sustaining within the first year and profitable in the second year.  With the low overhead of digital publishing, this is more than realistic.

What We Need & What You Get

Here is what the money will be used for:

• Block of 1000 ISBNs ($1,000):  believe it or not, those long numbers on the copyright pages of books are pretty expensive ($125 for a single one) unless you buy them as a publisher in large blocks.  A block of $1000 comes out to $1 per ISBN, and will be essential for tracking our sales around the world.
• SSL Certificate ($70):  In order for us to do online transactions and sell the eBooks directly from our website (which increases our profits, due to no middle-man), we really need an SSL certificate to assure people that all their informatoin is encrypted and secure.
• Additional domain name registrations and hosting ($650):  While we own the domain name www.electiopublishing.com, we also would like to make sure that we secure all the other Top-Level Domain variants (such as .net, .biz, .info, .co, .us) and re-direct them to our main page.  That way, no cyber-squatters can sit on these domains and capture traffic from us when people accidentally don't enter the ".com" top-level domain.
• Advertising/Marketing via FaceBook & Google (up to $2000):  We will use this money to purchase certain "AdWords" and other ad-space on FaceBook and Google.  While we realize that we would love to have people just "stumble" over our website, we must be realistic in terms of using common search engine and social media advertising to help drive traffic to the site initially.  If we do not reach our full goal, we will pro-rate this amount based on the amount of money we raise.
• Additional Legal Services ($800):  It's really not exciting, but we must pay for some legal services up front to make sure that our company is legally solid, our contracts are protective of both US and the authors and our distribution agreement is fully satisfactory for both parties.

Laurel Wreath Level Donor ($10-$24):  Laurel Wreath Level Donors will receive a special mention on the "Thank You" page of the website.  This page will be put together as soon as we have our first Laurel Wreath Level Donor.

Silver Level Donor ($25-$49):  Silver Level Donors will recieve a mention on our "Thank You" page, and their choice of up to 3 free eBooks from our catalog.

Gold Level Donor ($50-$99):  Gold Level Donors will receive a mention on our "Thank You page, their choice of up to 3 free eBooks from our catalog, and special recognition as a Gold Level Donor on the front page of our website in a banner.

Platinum Level Donor ($100-$499):  Platinum Level Donors will receive a mention on our "Thank You page, their choice of up to 5 free eBooks from our catalog, and special recognition as a Platinum Level Donor on the front page of our website in a banner.

Diamond Level Donor ($500-$999):  Diamond Level Donors will receive a mention on our "Thank You page, a free copy of every eBook that we publish, and special recognition as a Diamond Level Donor on the front page of our website in a banner.  In addition, Diamond Level Donors will receive a special acknowledgement on the acknowledgment page of every eBook we release.

Executive Circle ($1,000 and above):  Executive Circle Donors will receivea mention on our "Thank You page, a free copy of every eBook that we publish, and special recognition as a Executive Circle Level Donor on the front page of our website in a banner.  In addition, Executive Circle Level Donors will receive a special acknowledgement on the acknowledgment page of every eBook we release.  Executive Circle Level Donors will also receive a personal phone call from CEO Jesse S. Greever and COO Christopher C. Dixon following the fund-raising to thank them personally for their support and will receive a quarterly phone call to update them on the progress of the business venture.

The Impact

Let's face it.  We can probably make this venture go with our own resources, but we would have to move at a glacial pace.  With your support, we can get far more worthy, wholesome, God-honoring manuscripts into the marketplace as possible.  Our mission is to honor God through all of our releases, and we believe that the LORD is already in this venture.  We know that He has already chosen those who will give to us, and we pray that you will carefully and prayerfully consider donating to eLectio Publishing.

If We are NOT Fully Funded:

Here are the prioirities and contingencies in case we do not receive the full amount:

1.  SSL certificate.  We simply need to have this in order to give people a sense of security when shopping on our site.

2.  Block of ISBNs. although if we get less than $1000, we will probably have to purchase a smaller block, which will come at a higher per-number price.  If we get significantly less, we can purchase single ISBNs from Untreed Reads (our distributor) at a reduced per-unit cost.

3.  Legal services.  We need to make sure that we are fully protected on top of our very simple constructs that are in place now.

4.  Domain name registrations.  We can reduce the overall cost by choosing the more common Top-Level Domains.  We can also continue to pay for hosting on a monthly basis, rather than paying for a large chunk up front at a highly reduced cost-per-unit-time rate.

5.  Marketing & Advertising:  This can be pro-rated based on the amount of funding we receive.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you don't have money to donate, but still think this is a worthy cause, please post a link to this site on FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, and any other social media outlet.  Also, tell everyone you know!