Yesterday, we were the featured guests on Boomer and The Babe Show. It was a great opportunity for us to explain in detail how the Dads Behaving Dadly project came about, why it is important to feature stories about today’s dads and why the book will be a big hit with the public. Please take time to listen to the show here.

The Dads Behaving Dadly project has far exceeded our expectations already. When we began the project a couple months ago, we hoped we could get enough good stories to make a book. What we have received are phenomenal stories that give us an excellent start at one incredible book. As we have shared our idea, we have received tremendous praise for our project from influential people in the fatherhood movement and assistance from the energetic actor, musician and father Tray Chaney.

Three weeks ago we submitted our manuscript proposal to a publisher who Hogan has a good working relationship. They had been receptive to this project idea and we hoped would jump on the opportunity to publish it. They didn’t.

In our experience with the publishing world, though, this is nothing unusual. It is hard to get a book published no matter how good the idea is (and this is a really good and timely idea).

We are now shopping our proposal to other publishers. The hard work the dads who have submitted their passionate and honest stories make it easy for us to feel confident pitching this book to any and every publisher. We know one of them will understand the idea and realize the time is right for a book like this to sell big with a public hungry to identify with fathers of this generation.

As we work on finding the right publisher, we need your help. We currently have enough for about 1/3 of a book so we need the final 2/3. This means we still need your stories! We have a new deadline of June 30, 2012 to receive about another 60 stories so we can finish the book.

We also need your help in talking about the project. Share this post with your friends. Encourage other dads and moms to get involved with the project, offer praise and submit stories. The more people talking about Dads Behaving Dadly will help a publisher understand the book will sell.

The support everyone has shown to us and this project has been overwhelming. We greatly appreciate it and look forward to paying you back by getting this book in a book store near you soon!

Book Project to Radically Rebrand Image of Fatherhood

Experienced at-home fathers and writers Hogan Hilling and Al Watts are excited to announce a new book and website project titled, Dads Behaving Dadly: Chronicling the Fatherhood Revolution. The two are working together to gather a range of stories detailing the real lives of involved fathers in the United States, Canada, England and Australia.

Hilling and Watts expect the project to rebrand the image of fatherhood by highlighting all that is good about dads; provide good role models for fathers; help the public recognize and appreciate fatherhood; acknowledge the benefits of a dad’s presence in a child’s life and community; and validate a father’s contribution to parenting.

“The perception of the last 100 years has been that dad is the secondary or back-up parent,” said Watts. “The truth is that many dads today are actively and passionately involved with their children and we think it is time to share the stories of these dads with the world.”

This will be the fifth parenting book by Hilling, a veteran motivational speaker and fatherhood advocate and the first for Watts who is President of National At-Home Dad Network, (formerly Daddyshome, Inc) and a blogger for several websites. Their project launched today at www.dadsbehavingdadly.com and on Facebook.

Dads Behaving Dadly: Chronicling the Fatherhood Revolution will consist of real stories from involved dads. Hilling and Watts already have more than 100 dads commit to telling their stories and are actively seeking more.

The written submissions must be less than 750 words and include an experience the dad had with his children; express his feelings that occurred in that situation; address his problem solving skills; illustrate the lessons the children learned; and tell how his children benefit from his active involvement. Topics can include virtually anything fatherhood related, from pregnancy and childbirth to helping children achieve their milestones and goals or how the dad helped his children do something special for their mother. View a sample story at http://dadsbehavingdadly.com/story-samples/.

Stories can be submitted at http://dadsbehavingdadly.com/submission-guidelines/.

Because the editors feel strongly about the need to support active fathers, they plan to donate 10 percent of the proceeds of the book to the National At-Home Dad Network, which supports, educates and advocates for stay at-home fathers.

For more information email info@dadsbehavingdadly.com or visit www.dadsbehavingdadly.com/.