04/7/2016: Storytime Pup - Putting It All Together

     We finally had all the pieces we needed to make what hoped to be a great children's channel.  We had: a character and a suit, books and authors, videos, music, pictures, imagination ideas and all the equipment to capture it all.  Now it was a matter of coming up with a plan to put all the pieces together and make something great.
     We had to start reviewing the children's books that had begun to show up in the mail and email.  We knew we had to read and review each book.  We had to rate them on their story and illustrations.  Just have one or the other wouldn't cut it.  We need great stories that kids will enjoy and the illustrations have to be captivating.
     We decided that we wanted to have 10 to 20 videos ready for the launch.  We estimated all the tasks we had to do and figured in extra time to get acquainted with the whole process, trial and error etc.  We came up with a launch date of May 1st.  We needed to get started right away to meet that date.  And another task was identified.  We needed to establish a social media plan.  Social media is key.  We had to get a social media presence in order to begin establishing an audience before we launched.

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Thank you!

(Next - Getting Social)

04/06/2016: Storytime Pup - How it All Started (Part XII) Let's Pretend

     The last segment idea I wanted to add was some kind of imagination exercise.  With electronics being introduced into children's lives so early these days, the need to pretend seems to have decreased.
     Computers, iPads, Mom or Dad's cell phones are captivating to children.  I have seen children of all ages just stare at them for hours.  Imagination is important in childhood and into adulthood  Imagination as a child leads to higher creativity as an adult.
     I grew up with parents and four sisters in a small house and we weren't very well off.  I wouldn't call us poor, but there wasn't much money for toys.  So, we spent a lot of time playing outside and using our imaginations.  I remember my sister MaryBeth and I looking for something to do.  We were in our basement and my father was finishing off a rec room down there for us.  There were two sawhorses sitting there.  But to us, they were not sawhorses.  We each folded a blanket and threw them over the cross pieces.  We then took two pieces of orange Hot Wheels track and slide them above the legs of the saw horses as handlebars and "tada" we had two motorcycles.  Side be side we road all over the country that day and next.  We laught about that to this day.  But, what a magical time it was just using our imaginations.
     So, in order to try to foster that imaginative play, we decided to add a "Let's Pretend" segment to Storytime Pup.  Storytime Pup will lead children in an imagination exercise.  For example, they will pretend they are going camping.  There will be a camping background behind Storytime Pup.  He will talk them through preparing for their imaginatonb camping trip.  What will they need to pack?  How big is their tent?  What color is their sleeping bag?  Pretend to put up tent and make camp site.  Then make pretend smores.

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(Next - Putting It All Together)

04/05/2016: Storytime Pup - How it All Started (Part XI) Seek and Find

     We still wanted a couple more segment ideas to keep kids interested.  I began thinking of things that I like when I was young.  I remembered that I liked those old hidden picture puzzles.  You know, the ones with a busy picture with hidden items somewhere in the picture.  Find the comb, find the feather, find the ball.  So, I thought it would be great to use the same format as the book reading, but display a picture on the right and Storytime Pup would lead the children in helping him find the hidden items.
     I set out to see if I could find some hidden picture books on Amazon and a willing artist. Well, I searched and found some, but got a lot of "no's". Until I came across an incredible set of books called "Find The Cutes" by Vincent Noot and his wife Celestial.  I contacted Vincent and he agreed to let me use his pictures for the Seek and Find segments.  I may have to scale the size down and only use a section of each picture do to the age o the target audience.  But, I am sure I can make it work.  Now, I just need one more segment type to round out the channel.

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(Next - Part XII - Let's Pretend)

04/04/2016: Storytime Pup - How it All Started (Part IX) Videos for Magic Window

     In looking to expand the format of the Storytime Pup channel beyond just reading children's books we looked at what was popular among kids on the Internet.  We found that one of the kids favorite activities is watching animal and other videos.  So, we came up with the concept for "Magic Window".
     The Magic Window segments will allow Storytime Pup to show children's videos in a fun new way.  Here's how it will work.  Storytime Pup will introduce the segment and then will say "Magic Window 1-2-3... Magic Window Let Us See".  The scene in the window will magically change to start showing a cute animal or other interesting kid-friendly and/or educational video.
     We didn't have any video footage, so we needed a plan to get some.  Some people just grab other people's videos off of YouTube or other sites on the Internet and use them.  This is a copyright violation.  We needed to get permission to use video footage  So, I spent several days searching for animal and other cute video footage for kids.  If I found something suitable, I contacted the owner of the footage, telling them about our channel and asking them to allow us to use their video footage in exchange for a link to their websites.  I found getting video footage to be much more difficult than finding willing children's book authors.  But, with persistence I was able to get a good line ip of videos to use to get started.  I am still working to find great footage.  I imagine this will be an on-going task to find fresh, kid-friendly footage.

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(Next - Part X - That's Music To My Ears)

04/03/2016: Storytime Pup - How it All Started (Part X) That's Music To My Ears.

     After adding the Magic Window segment we looked at what else was popular among children.  Children's music was also very popular.  So, we decided to add a "Sing-along & Dance-along" segment to the Storytime Pup Channel.  We would have Storytime Pup lead kids in a fun sing-along & dance-along segment.  But in order to do so, we needed children's music.
     So, here we were once again, faced with a search for rights to use something on our channel.  So, like with the children's videos, I set out to find owners of children's music that would be willing to give us permission to use their music in return for a link to their website.  There was royalty free music out there, but the cost per song was just way too high.  Plus, I figured there would be some people out there willing to work on a collaborate basis.  I was right. It took a lot of "no"s but I finally got my first "yes" from Nancy Stewart of Nancy Stewart's Children's Music (http://www.nancymusic.com/) I encourage you to visit her site for wonderful children's music.
     We were also able to source some royalty-free music CDs off of eBay from a company in the UK.  So we had enough music to get this segment kicked-off.

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And don't forget to subscribe to The Storytime Pup Channel

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(Next - Part XI - Seek and Find)

04/02/2016: Storytime Pup - How it All Started (Part VIII). Building an Author Base.

     We knew there was interest from the sample of authors that I polled from Amazon.  It was now time to get a list of self-published authors who would be willing to give us permission to read their books and show the illustrations on our channel.  We had to get signed permission forms to avoid any copyright issues.  So, I spend the next couple of weeks reviewing books in the 3-7 year old category, which is our target audience.   If I found a good book with good illustrations I did my best to find contact information for the authors.  I did this day after day during my free time.  Eventually I had 20 authors and about 35 books.  I had enough to get started.  But, the plan was to read 2 to 3 books a week, so I knew I had to expand our list of authors.  I began posting on Facebook and Twitter, looking for self-published children's book authors.  That worked well and soon word started to spread and authors started contacting us. So, we had a good start for our author list.  However, we still had to read and rate all the books.  We wanted to ensure all books that we present are good stories with very good illustrations. Not all books would make the cut.  Currently we have about 70 interested authors and well over 100 books to review.  So, we should have enough content to get us through the first year at this rate.  And we are hoping as the channel grows that authors will take notice and continue to approach us.

We encourage you to subscribe (on the right) and to leave your comments and feedback below. 

And don't forget to subscribe to The Storytime Pup Channel

Thank you!

(Next - Part IX - Videos For Magic Window)

04/01/2016: Storytime Pup - How it All Started (Part VII) Silly Voices.

     The next dilemma was a voice for Storytime Pup.  My adult male voice just wouldn't fit the bill.  And my wife's voice wasn't right either.  So, I set out to find a voice synthesizer program.  I planned to alter the pitch and run it through an equalizer until I found a suitable voice.
     I tested about a dozen different voice synthesizers until I found one which gave a suitable voice, without sounding robotic.  I ended up choosing Voxal.  I ran some final tests by recording some children's books in Audacity, while running Voxal in the background.  Then I imported these audios into Sony Vegas and overlaid them against some video.  The look and sound was good and I was pleased.  So, this was the final technical piece of the puzzle.  We had what we needed to shoot video.

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And don't forget to subscribe to The Storytime Pup Channel

Thank you!

(Next - Part VIII.  Building an Author Base)