SLEEPY ANIMALS

“What the Sleepy Animals Do at the Audubon Zoo” is an independently published children’s book that our founders John Clark and Alyson Kilday illustrated, designed, and co-created together with New Orleans authors Ryan Murphy and Grace Millsaps. The book is a token of our appreciation for our favorite city.

Written, illustrated, and set in New Orleans, “What the Sleepy Animals Do at the Audubon Zoo” captures the charm of the city with rich illustrations and playful rhyme.

The book has 48 pages of colorful illustrations that were produced over the course of three months using a combination of pencil sketches, Illustrator, and Photoshop. We raised the money to print the first 2,000 copies by pre-selling books through Indiegogo’s crowdfunding platform. Thanks to brilliant online and social media marketing, we hit our fundraising goal of $5,000 in the first three days and eventually reached nearly $8,000 during the 30-day campaign.

In the first year, we sold over 10,000 copies and donated a portion of the profits to the Audubon Nature Institute. The book was recognition by receiving the awards ‘Best New Orleans Children’s Book’ and a ‘Silver Medal Ippy for Independent Publishers’ and highlighted in several prominent news outlets.