KidVenture Vol. 3
Middle Grade Fiction
Date Published: 03-30-2023
Chance, Addie and Sophie launch a new venture when they get lost in the country and stumble on the idea of starting a corn maze business. They quickly discover that while it’s easy to rush into a maze, finding your way out is hard. They will need to convince an investor to fund the venture, persuade a reluctant farmer to let them build their maze on his corn field, and figure out a way to work with his headstrong nephew. Along the way they will realize just how little they know about planting corn, designing mazes and writing business plans. Through many twists and turns —and dead ends— they will learn how to keep a partnership together and what the true job of a leader is. There’s only one thing harder than finding your way out of a maze: creating a maze people want to get lost in.
Tell us about your new release.
Through
The Maize is the newest book in the KidVenture series. It’s about a
group of kids who decide to start a corn maze business after getting lost one
day and realizing good things can happen when you’re lost. They remember going
to a corn maze when they were younger and discover It’s out of business since
the original owner passed away. Chance, Addie, and Sophie decide their town
needs a corn maze so they set out to build one. Pretty soon though they are
astray in a labyrinth of difficult decisions as they have to figure out how to
plant corn, how to raise startup money, and how to actually create a maze
people want to get lost in.
KidVenture
books are business adventure stories for middle grade leaders. In every book, a
group of aspiring entrepreneurs launches a new business and then contend with
all sorts of challenges as they struggle to make it profitable. In the first
book, Twelve Weeks To Midnight
Blue, Chance and Addie start a pool cleaning business over the
summer and have to learn how to market their business to make it stand out from
all the other pool cleaning services. In the second book, There’s
No Plan Like No Plan, they are joined by their sister Sophie as they
form a snow shoveling venture over the winter and learn how to manage the group
of neighborhood kids they’ve hired as their work crew.
What is the hardest part of writing your books?
I want my books to be appealing to two very different audiences.
First, the books need to be fun stories that kids in middle school want to
read. They really are adventure books where the characters set out on a quest,
encounter adversaries, fall into predicaments and have to figure a way through
them. They are not in danger of dying — but their business is. The books track
the profit of their business in a similar way a video game tracks the “hit
points” of a player. Run out of money and you’re dead.
KidVenture books are first and foremost written for kids. But
they also need to work as business books. The scenarios need to be credible and
the calculations as the kids track revenue, costs and profit margin need to be
sound. When proofing my first book I discovered I had an error in one of my
computations and the numbers were slightly off. So I busted out a spreadsheet
and redid the whole things. I had to go chapter by chapter and fix the business
reports the characters were looking at. The change was very small, I don’t
think most people would have noticed, but I wanted it to be correct for that
attentive young reader who is enjoying following the math side of the story.
I am trying to teach real business concepts I’ve learned in 25
years of being an entrepreneur. My hope is that an adult who reads KidVenture
books will also learn something about business from them. As I’m writing these
stories I am constantly trying to figure out how to explain in simple terms
complex subjects like opportunity cost, price discovery, risk, return on
investment, the difference between fixed costs and variable costs, and so on.
If a kid can understand these ideas through the story, then anyone of any age
interested in entrepreneurship can too.
Do you have critique partners or beta readers?
Yes, I have two very different kinds of beta readers. The first
are my kids. The main characters are loosely modeled after them and some of the
story elements are inspired by experiences they’ve had. They are the first
audience for all my books. It’s very rewarding when I read them a first draft
and they say things like, “I don’t Addie would say that,” or “That’s so
Sophie!” Sometimes they’ll remember minor details from earlier books I’ve
forgotten and I have to make small edits to stay consistent. The most helpful
feedback is gauging their reactions: are they laughing at the funny parts? Are
they leaning forward during the plot twists?
The second group of beta readers are some of my friends who
themselves are investors, CEOs and entrepreneurs. They keep me honest in the
other direction: is the story realistic? Is that actually how a business would
run?
If the story can pass muster with both groups, then I know I’ve
got something special. Then it’s up to the most important group, the reader, to
make their own judgment.
About the Author
KidVenture stories are business adventures where kids figure out how to market their company, understand risk, and negotiate. Each chapter ends with a challenge, including business decisions, ethical dilemmas and interpersonal conflict for young readers to wrestle with. As the story progresses, the characters track revenue, costs, profit margin, and other key metrics which are explained in simple, fun ways that tie into the story.
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