Support Shawn's writng with a donation

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Why I'm doing a Kickstarter

I’m raising funds for a new book cover on Kickstarter. Why am I raising funds there?  People have complained about the covers, and I want to improve the quality of them by hiring a professional artist to design them.

 So far after a week, $1 has been donated. $499 more is needed to meet my goal.

Brothers and sisters now have 499 chances to help be part of the solution in the next 53 days.

For a $20 donation I’m offering a free copy of Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess. For $100 donation I’m offering pledgers autographed copies of all seven books in the Isis series.

People, love to complain about the art I draw for my book covers. But I’m noticing when I ask them to take action and be part of the solution, like buy the books so I can improve the quality of the product, they become silent, or just disappear. A handful will argue, but almost no one will help take action that rectifies the situation.

This Kickstarter is I’m doing an opportunity for all those complainers to help me solve the problem. It’s tax time and Black folks are flush with cash from tax refund checks. Here’s an opportunity for brothers and sistas to apply some of that $1.1. trillion dollars in spending power they have towards supporting a Black-owned business. Participate in Group Economics.

Black folks will spend all their tax refund money on rims, tires, Air Jordan sneakers, designer jeans, designer handbags, hair weaves, elaborate  nails, big screen TVs, video games and other sundry items destined to wind up in a landfill.  But how much of that money will go towards supporting Black owned business?

Not much I’ve seen.

At Christmastime, I wrote several blogs requesting Black people participate in Group economics and support my books. That call all but fell on deaf ears with Black people.

Instead of supporting my books, many of the Negroes took to the streets and waited out in the cold at 2.A.M. in the morning for the local Foot Locker or some Korean owned sneaker store to open so they could buy a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. Some literally were fighting in the street for these sneakers.

Desperate to hand their money to a nonblack person who makes every effort to mistreat and disrespect them. But when a Black business like mine asks for support, these same Black people literally disappear.

The way I see it the people who were complaining about my covers are making excuses. They have the money to support my books and the ability to tell their friends about them. But they’d rather use the cover as an excuse to not support the product.

Meanwhile these same Black people will accept substandard products from nonblack companies like Nike, Gucci, and Microsoft for years. They’ll buy Xboxes and PlayStations, Gucci Bags and Air Jordans and iPhones make excuses to why the products are supposed to be poor quality.

But when a Black-owned business like mine tries to make honest efforts to get to the marketplace they complain and refuse to buy the product from day one. Not giving me a single opportunity to improve the quality at all.  


Brothers and Sisters, here is your opportunity to be part of the Solution. Help me raise the money so I can take my books to the next level. I’m listening to the talk, but now I need to see you take action. Right now It’s $1, down $499 to go. Here's an opportunity to use your money to make a difference. 

8 comments:

  1. People spend their money on goods and services that have a value to them. Regardless of what YOU think they should spend their money on, and regardless of why they spent it, they spent it on what they wanted to spend it on. It is a waste of time and energy to go on a tangent about what folks choose to do with their money. If it were me, I would be wondering, what is it about my product that people don't want to support. Or...what is it about me, that make people not want to support me or my product.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Or he could look at it like this-the folks that complain about his covers were not going to buy his product no matter what he does.
    How about stop trolling him and his product if you have no interest in buying it.
    It's one thing to buy the product, read it and then explain your stance but if you never bought it-why comment?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pledging $25. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your support Kokanee. I really appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. At $500 per cover,it would cost around $3000 to redo covers for the entire Isis series.That's an unseemly amount of money to spend especially if you're unemployed.

    You should try a 3d program like daz 3d or Poser to redo all of your book covers.Older versions of Poser are affordable and still capable of producing quality artwork with minimal time and effort.

    Daz Studio is FREE!

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Cottrell:

    I'm not planning on redoing all the covers in the series, just this one.

    $500 is well spent to me when it can help a fellow artist pay their bills. I've been in the comic book and publishing game a long time and I do what I can to help a fellow artist out. I've read the stories about comic artists who have struggled to pay bills when they're out of work and since Comics have been a big part of my life since I was four years old, this is my way of showing my appreciation to all those who helped inspire me to overcome a hard childhood in the ghetto.


    Sure I could save some money using 3-D software, but I'd rather pay the support forward to a fellow artist. This is how group economics works. You help others and they help you. I may not have a job or much money, but this is just good business. The greatest thing a man can do for another person is give them a job.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I merely wanted to thank you yet again for your amazing site you have created here.

    Its full of ideas for those who are really interested in that subject,
    particularly this very post. Your all actually sweet along with thoughtful of others as well as reading your website posts is a good delight
    in my opinion. And that of a generous reward! Jeff and I will certainly
    have pleasure making use of your guidelines in what we must do in a few weeks.

    Our list is a mile long which means your tips will be put to great use.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very descгіptive articⅼe, I liҝed thаt a lot. Will tһere be a рart 2?

    Check Out Уour URL : Finding The Best Encryption Ѕoftԝaгe & How To Really How To Encrypt A Password Ϝor
    Free

    ReplyDelete