Holy Sh*t Trivia

Hi. That's me in the centre of the picture with the big fish. The world's most fascinating man! Definitely a check mark off my bucket list. Can you identify the ocean? How about the type of fish? Both trivia questions because that's what I do - trivia. In the last couple of years I have written three little trivia books. Now that I am so close to retirement that I can taste it, I have decided to build a small business marketing these little books. Nothing grand or too time consuming but just something where I can make a few bucks (beer money) to augment mine and Mary's Old Age Security pensions.

And that is where you come in. I need a little help. I don't want to ask for monetary assistance and give nothing in return so I will reward you for your generosity. Reward scale is on the right hand side of this page. The money that we raise from this "GoGetFunding" campaign will go towards financing inventory to grow a network of stores across Canada where I can sell the little books. I have put together a package for these stores which includes a counter display unit holding eight of each of the three books. I will be targeting mostly gas bar/convenience stores, hospital gift shops, hotel gift shops and maybe Mom and Pop type souvenir and gift shops. If we are able to raise enough money and there is enough interest we may decide to expand into the United States and market there as well.

I never really intended to write a book, it just kind of happened. My job at Calgary Transit required a lot of back and forth e-mailing which really was sort of technical and boring. To lighten things up a little I decided to add a "fun fact" at the bottom of each e-mail and that is basically how the idea for a book happened. I compiled all of these little tid bits of information and organized them into a book. Mary was a great help as she was a second set of eyes to check grammar, punctuation and spelling. It was during one of these proofreading sessions that she exclaimed "Holy Sh*t, I didn't know that" and our title was born. As well, I had followed the marketing success of "Dos Equis" beer with their "World's Most Interesting Man" tag line so just for fun I decided that I would be "The World's Most Fascinating Man".

The funny thing is we discovered that the book actually sold. They retail for $15.00 each and are very attractively packaged. Two years ago the first printing of the little yellow book came out about three months before Christmas. At first I tried to sell it through a website but really had no luck at all. It is very difficult (at least for me) to get people to come to my website. As a result of this failure I decided I would try marketing the book at Christmas Craft Fairs. I booked a table and that first fair sold 15 copies of "Holy Sh*t, I Didn't Know That". Not great but at least a start. I finished that first season and sold out of my first print run of 100 books. The second year I now had the second book and ordered 150 of each of the two titles. I again sold out for a total of 400 books at just 35 weekend Christmas Craft Fairs over two seasons. Now that I have the three books it seems like the perfect time to market them to a wider audience. I will still do my Christmas Craft Fair markets but my goal is to have about 100 stores also selling the books.

It seems people do like trivia and the books make great gifts for all ages. They have been purchased as birthday gifts, teacher gifts, gag and secret Santa gifts, ice breakers for office parties, gifts for friends convalescing in hospital, stocking stuffers, travel readers and even for those just travelling as far as the bathroom. The books are small enough to fit in a pocket or purse, are entertaining, educating and written with tongue in cheek. Fun to give, fun to receive and fun to read. Oh, and for those into bucket lists, in the top picture that is the Pacific Ocean and the fish is a Marlin.

Rewards can be a saving from the regular retail price of $15.00 and are in Canadian dollars. Rewards will be shipped ASAP. Shipping costs are included. When making your donation please indicate in the comments section your reward choices ex: 1 yellow book and 1 blue book, or 1 yellow 1 blue 1 green and men's XL T-shirt. Thank you so very much and please remember to click the Facebook share button at the top of the page.

Thanks again,

Chuck