Suzie Eisfelder
February 10, 2017

I get a lot of email about books, writing and publishing coming into my inbox. It’s always exciting and generally there’s too much to read so I tend to pick and choose depending on the headine. Yes, I’m just like anyone else and need a good headline but I object to clickbait.

Today I have the good, the bad and the uplifting for you.

The good is about Kickstarter. We all know about crowdfunding and if you don’t then you should. It’s like the film The Producer by Mel Brooks where Max Bialystock goes around wooing little old ladies for their money to back his productions. In the case of crowdfunding the ‘little old ladies’ could be anyone with a bit of money and the right accounts. There are varying levels and you can donate to the comfort of your hip-pocket nerve and the level of reward you want. I’ve always wanted to back a film and this gives me the power to do just that, even if it’s just $25.

Kickstarter Hits $100 Million Mark for Publishing, Adds New Countries, New Tools in 2016 Kickstarter has been around since 2009. It’s not the only crowdfunding tool out there but it’s the one everything thinks of. They’ve made a lot of money for people and have added the ability to live stream so the publisher can have a conversation with their backers.

The bad is about Milo Yiannopoulos. When I first heard about his book I wondered why they were only thinking of the bottom line. It seems I wasn’t the only one to want to protest and other book publishers have done exactly that in writing to Simon&Shuster to ask they not publish this book. What this article boils down to is if you’re silent about this issue then you’re complicit. What Joy Peskin says in this article has me more worried about the publishing of this book than I was before.

Why the Milo Yiannopoulos Book Deal Tarnishes the Publishing Industry

And the uplifting? It’s really hard when you’re young and don’t know what you’re going to do in life. If you have no idea of what talent you have and how you’re going to use it. My first talent was in making scones, then bread and then touch typing. While I’ve wanted to write for as long as I can remember it was always assumed by me and some key people around me that I had no talent. This article has excerpts from a book where authors and artists talk about their beginnings, how some of them were encouraged and some weren’t but they all persisted and now their talent is on view for everyone to drool over. I love each and every story here, I’ll be salivating for a long time while I wait for this book to come to my bookshelf as it doesn’t come out until July. The last one, the story of Yuyi Morales is my favourite as that’s me, the quiet one, we get somewhere in the end.

What Children’s Authors and Artists Wrote and Drew When They Were Young

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