Go Fund Me, Amazon · 23 April 2016
We were talking about higher education and how to help Thing 2 get through college without too much debt (ours and his), when we ended up talking about GoFundMe.com and other crowdsourcing. Not being one to miss the opportunity to promote myself, I said, we already have a way to beg for money. It is called Amazon.
Do not get me wrong. I believe there are legitimate reasons to use crowdsourcing. And I do not really think it is begging. At least not always. I just happen to think that our not saving enough for our children’s educations is not a reason for looking to others to fund them. Of course, if they were selling stocks in themselves, it might be a good investment, but that is a different story.
(Far be it for me to complain, but the cost of higher education is getting out of hand. The state schools seem to be competing with the private schools for who can charge the most for degrees. Although the private schools do seem to have money to give to make them closer to the cost of state schools. Go figure. Anyway. I am sure much of it is inflation over the past thirty years, but I know that my quarterly tuition was only triple digits not five. True, it more than doubled when I was there, but again, that is a different story.)
So while asking people for money is always an option, it does not seem either practical or efficient. And even if begging online is not very personal, it is still begging. Which is not something I want to do.
However, I do not mind telling people to check out my books. They are all available on Amazon. In fact, the purely digital ones are only available on Amazon. Like all aspiring writers, I am hoping to do something like the author of The Martian already did. But I suppose I am just dreaming. After all, not many writers hit the big time and get the printed book deal and the movie deal after a digital release. And although it would keep readers engaged, I do not really want to ask them what they think ought to happen as I am writing the story.
Still, I do have the books out there. Middle grade fiction, screen plays, and of course, collections of my Musings. For a few measly dollars each. Or if you have Amazon prime, the digital books are free. Just download and read through the pages. (The more pages you read, the better. Especially, if you like the stories. Critiques are welcome too.)
So what does promoting my writing have to do with funding me? Or rather, my sons? I told my wife and kids that they ought to be the ones promoting me. After all, they could have their friends buy my books and that could be our source of funds for college. (Did I mention that Amazon Prime members can get my books for free?) It would be better than begging. Rather, crowdsourcing.
Well almost.
I suppose that if you have read my writing much, you might think that asking people to buy my books is a lot like begging. And I know that asking people to give up a latte or two might is asking more than I can imagine. Still, I figured it would not be too much to ask my wife and kids to do a little promotion for me. But I guess it is. After all, they gave more thought to the GoFundMe idea than how to promote me. Ah well.
(By the way. Did I mention that you can get my books on Amazon?)
© 2016 Michael T. Miyoshi
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