Well, our first weekend out of the gate has been a fantastic explosion of excitement from fans of The Partridge Family and David Cassidy all over the world! I am thrilled to see such a response! As we move toward our Kickstarter launch, I wanted to share one of the inspiring stories behind my attempt to self-publish.
When I began research on this book in 2010, one of the first people I met along the way was Denny Tedesco. Denny is the son of the late, great Tommy Tedesco--one of the greatest session guitar players of all time. In fact, he played on the Partridge Family albums--the very reason for which I originally reached out.
Denny put me in touch with several other musicians who played on the Partridge Family albums, and they were all interviewed for this book. Every one of them had great stories to share about the Partridge Family music, David Cassidy, and working together in the studio on the Partridge Family albums!
When I first spoke with Denny, he had recently completed a documentary about his dad and the other musicians from that era. His documentary is called "The Wrecking Crew." He spent several years out on the road, showing the film, raising money, all in hopes of paying off the costly music rights so a theatrical distribution could be had. He refused to cut the music from his film to lower the budget, and he stayed on path to make sure the fans got what they wanted and deserved.
In the fall of 2013, he ran a campaign on Kickstarter.com and it was HUGELY successful! I encourage everyone to check it out. It is amazing what can be done when the fan base gets to decide the outcome! Tedesco exceeded his budget, making over $300,000 and ultimately landed a distribution for his film.
Our campaign for When We're Singin' is scheduled to begin on May 1, and it has been modeled after the success of Tedesco's campaign. But the real key to success is getting the word out to all the fans interested in The Partridge Family and David Cassidy. There are thousands of fans worldwide, and it is our job to find them and let them know what's happening. I hope I can count on all of you to keep spreading the word. We have 24 days left before the campaign begins.
In the coming days, I will be sharing more with you about the content of my book and the amazing experience it has been so far! In the meantime, here is a recent quote from Denny Tedesco about his experience in independent funding: "It's all about marketing, spreading the word," Tedesco said. "That's the reason we're here today, because of the people from Wichita to New York to Japan that either donated or talked about the film."
So are you ready, Partridge Family/David Cassidy fans? Let's keep spreading the word! Get everyone you can to come join us on this site, and subscribe to the news blog! Tell them about our launch on Kickstarter.com beginning May 1, 2015! Only 24 days and counting...