GLASGOW — Batty the Bat may go to school because of some local fifth-graders, but he probably won’t be learning about how to be an entrepreneur at age 11.

The children in Christina Anderson’s class at Caverna Elementary are taking the grown-up task of writing, illustrating, marketing and selling a children’s book, the proceeds of which will go to find a cure for white-nose syndrome, a disease that has affected many bats in North America.

The Kentucky Entrepreneurial Coaching Institute, a group run out of the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, is working with the class to find a publisher and a lot of buyers for their book.

“We receive a $1,000 grant to help solve a problem we find in an area and the problem here is reading,” said Karen McGinn, one of the coaches and also the owner of Gallery Donuts & Bakery in Horse Cave. “We’re going to help teach them how to write a book, and then one book will go to each child.”

Anderson came on board after Ken Russell, a Caverna School Board member, was looking for a teacher to take on the project. Since her fourth-graders had just done a unit on Mammoth Cave and the cave systems, she thought the book would be a great way to carry on the learning into the fifth grade.

On Friday, the children saw another facet of the book’s creation take shape. Malcolm Munro, president of the Management Foundry in Montgomery Village, Md., visited the class to talk to them about what it takes to find a publisher and get people to buy their book.

“How are people going to know about this book?” he asked the students, who offered suggestions like putting an ad in the newspaper, running their own website, and putting banners over bridges. “That’s what we have to think about, how to get the book from here in the classroom to an actual book.”

He explained that the book has to be charged according to how much it costs to make the book, and how much profit the students wanted to make to go toward white-nosed bat syndrome.

For each aspect of the book, there is a skill that some student has that is necessary to make the book happen.

“Some of you say ‘I don’t like to write, well maybe you can draw pictures,” Munro said. “Everyone here has a special talent.”

The homework assignment he gave for the weekend was to think of three things about another student that would be beneficial to building the book.

The students were vocal when asked for ideas about how to get the book to the public. Since there aren’t a lot of people in Horse Cave, they said, trips would have to be made to neighboring cities and counties.

“We could sit outside Walmart with a big old stand,” one student said. Others said they could mail the books, make a website to sell the books, announce it on the radio and tell family about it so they could tell their friends about it.

Munro even explained that e-books, books read from an Amazon Kindle, a Nook, an iPad or a cell phone, were very popular now. Not only could a book about bats sell, but other things related to the book.

“Do you guys watch Disney Channel here? Do you know how Disney makes most of their money? Most of the money is from stuff,” Munro said, specifically toys and games. Movies and songs were brought up as well.

While they were discussing the book, Munro received a message from a printer who said the baseline price to print 100 books would be $5.98 per book. Now the class has to decide how to collect donations to pay for the creation.

The next step for the book is to be storyboarded in class next week, which Anderson said will really help the idea of the book become more of a reality.

“It still seems really big right now, it’s all pretty abstract,” she said. “Once we start storyboarding, it will be more real, and making it concrete is going to help it get going.”

She also said the book is tying into every other aspect of their learning, including everything from how to spell “entrepreneurial” to learning about economics in social studies.

Because of snow days, the project is about one week behind schedule, but the estimated date the class will finish the book is March 12. Anderson hopes to make this a yearly project to bring Batty on many new adventures. Munro is glad to be along for the ride.

“You have to write the story that makes people want to read the next one,” Munro told the class. “Your book will go as far as you want it to.”