We will be using kickstarter! I think this will be huge in the success of the book. The children's book section seems to have a fair bit of investors that would make a reasonable donation, amounting to atleast a pre order of the book. At worst its another platform to reach our audience, at best we raise 5k and sell like 200 hardcover copies in advance!

here is a great analysis on a publishing project that went up on kickstarter: http://craigmod.com/journal/kickstartup/

Reading this thread is like warning someone they're about to drive off a cliff and then watching them floor it down the road that you know is going to end with them going off the cliff. This is what writers call a tragicomedy.