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A review by jason_pym
The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
4.0
Amanda Palmer is not a personality everyone warms too, but I like her music and she includes a few songs here. There is also, inevitably, a fair bit about her husband Neil Gaiman, so it probably goes without saying this is a Marmite book.
I like the story about Thoreau; apparently all that time he was communing with nature on Walden Pond his mum would bring him doughnuts and on the weekends he’d have a hot meal at his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house. Amanda says once people know this they feel it destroys his credibility, and that it diminishes the value of his work, but…
‘To the artists, creators, scientists, non-profit-runners, librarians, strange-thinkers, start-uppers and inventors, to all people everywhere who are afraid to accept the help, in whatever form it’s appearing,
Please, take the donuts.'
Nice.
Plus, the image of Thoreau staring out across the lake while munching down on doughnuts is just great.
Amongst the personal stuff there is useful discussion about how to support yourself as an artist. New to me was Patreon, which I always thought was another Kickstarter. Instead it works by automatic subscription, every time you release a work (story, song whatever) each of your subscribers automatically pays a fee, which is a nice idea. She has a few interesting stories about Kickstarters that didn’t work and why, and people’s attitude to the creators they fund. But if you’re just interested in this side of things and not in Amanda’s life better to just watch her TED talk.
I like the story about Thoreau; apparently all that time he was communing with nature on Walden Pond his mum would bring him doughnuts and on the weekends he’d have a hot meal at his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house. Amanda says once people know this they feel it destroys his credibility, and that it diminishes the value of his work, but…
‘To the artists, creators, scientists, non-profit-runners, librarians, strange-thinkers, start-uppers and inventors, to all people everywhere who are afraid to accept the help, in whatever form it’s appearing,
Please, take the donuts.'
Nice.
Plus, the image of Thoreau staring out across the lake while munching down on doughnuts is just great.
Amongst the personal stuff there is useful discussion about how to support yourself as an artist. New to me was Patreon, which I always thought was another Kickstarter. Instead it works by automatic subscription, every time you release a work (story, song whatever) each of your subscribers automatically pays a fee, which is a nice idea. She has a few interesting stories about Kickstarters that didn’t work and why, and people’s attitude to the creators they fund. But if you’re just interested in this side of things and not in Amanda’s life better to just watch her TED talk.