Writing a book, asking for funding help - Part 2

[Red Phoenix]

So I finally got there, to the starting point, that is. The thread is for anyone that might be able to donate a little to help fund this. Or for anyone to get links related to it to send to others that they think might be interested in what I'm doing.

 

The basic plan is to use my website to write notes, summaries, posts extracts, etc, of what I'm generally planning on having in the book. Not everything covered on the site will be added, and some things might be added that don't even make it to the site (the latter will be rare though, if it happens at all.)

 

Then as the months pass, start organizing those notes, expanding on them, and writing chapters for the book, which I hope will be ready around February or March.

 

Any questions, etc, feel free to ask. And if you see any mistakes that I've made anywhere and you can point them out, that will also be a huge help. Or even if you have any suggestions, or think I'm doing something wrong, let me know, and I'll at least try to take it on board and see if anything can be changed.

 

So here's the campaign page (If anyone donates, the "suggested" figure is something I couldn't alter, and it has 100 quid in the field. I'm in no way suggesting anyone donates that amount, it's just the default amount the site has set for some reason) : https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/research-notes/x/4279909

 

2500 is 1k rent up until the new year, then basically enough for what I think I can survive on, plus a few hundred towards getting the actual book sorted, buying books to help research, and to keep the website going. The book will go online though as well, and will be free and also public domain. (meaning anyone can copy it, modify it, whatever they want to do.)

 

Other links :

 

Website : http://researchnotes.uk/

 

Twitter account : https://twitter.com/research_notes

 

Tumblr account : http://researchnotesuk.tumblr.com/

 

Thanks loads if anyone can help. Like I said on the campaign page, I just feel like I'm supposed to do this, and am hopefully going to be putting a lot of hours into it over the coming months.

 

 

edit - have decided to just start the actual writing, as well as notes : http://www.researchnotes.uk/book/main.html

[Dan Vito Corleone]

Good luck to you. Keep us all updated.

[Cardie]

No fucking chance.

[Arl arse]

Good luck, fuck the haters.

[razor]

No fucking chance.

 

Thanks for dropping by...

[Red Phoenix]

Have just had someone donate the first 10 pounds on this recently. It might be someone random who's been browsing Indiegogo, or someone from here, not sure. Either way if you're from here, thanks loads. I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but the main thing is that I at least tried, and enough funds or not, I'll carry on writing either way.

Am also going to do what I did last time : place a link on the site for the actual book, and just post up bits and pieces as they're progressing, so anyone can see exactly how much of the book I have done at any time, and whether or not they think it's good enough for them.

Finally, I know that some here don't think I can do this. That I'm basically out of my depth here and that it's not going to work. That's to be expected, and no matter how well or not I do, there's always going to be some that don't like what I'm doing. I have to just accept that and keep writing.

As I carry on writing though and this page expands, at least anyone is free to make their own mind up by actually looking at the work itself.

 

No fucking chance.

Thanks Cardie. Why not? I'm not writing a book about conspiracy theories, if that's what you think. I've no idea at all what your problem is. If you think I don't have the ability to do it, that's cool. All I can do is keep updating the page I'm about to set up, and if you don't think it's good enough, no probs. It's impossible to please everyone.

 

 

edit : progress link is now at the bottom of the OP.

[Captain Turdseye]

I've got no change mate.

[Red Baron II]

I'm curious. Why do you need "funding" to write a book?  Just need a PC, Open Office (which is free) and somewhere to sit. Not knocking your idea, but your approach is a bit weird...  

[Red Phoenix]

I'm curious. Why do you need "funding" to write a book?  Just need a PC, Open Office (which is free) and somewhere to sit. Not knocking your idea, but your approach is a bit weird...  

 

So that I can work on it full-time basically, and get it done by Feb/March next year. I'm covering five areas : health, science, governments, corporations, and media. There's a lot I have to learn and go back over to make those sections work to a standard I think will be good enough, and with added notes, writing, making sure I find the right sources I can for every chapter of every section, it's just something I think would be best done full-time.

 

So I'm just trying to cover living expenses until the new year basically, and have some extra left over for books that I'll need, paying for the website, and actually starting to get a book printed at the end of it all.

 

It is basically full time hours learning more about each area as well, (science especially, have just been looking at that over the last hour, have spent quite a few hours reading up over the last month or so, and there's probably a good 100+ more hours I'll need on that alone to stand a good enough chance of getting that section sorted properly.) the only problem I've been having over the last few days is having a break from it. Will probably drive myself a bit mental if I don't take breaks more shortly, but it can be addictive, especially learning more about these areas as I'm interested in them anyway.

 

Sorry for rambling anyway, I just felt weird doing this as it is, so am trying to explain so that people aren't left wondering if it's one of those schemes to get money without actually putting it to the use intended. I've already signed off the dole, am just waiting to see if things go well over the next month, then will tell the rent people too. Don't want to mess around with that though unless this works properly.

 

If it does fail, I'll just make sure I spend the exact donated amount on research books, keeping the website up, and on a physical book if it's eventually done properly, and still try to get it sorted. If this works it's just a lot less stressful. I did think it was too strange at first, but I've already seen several others on fundraising sites doing the same (some asking for figures a lot more than I've asked for too.) so decided to go ahead with it.

[Jose Jones]

You seem like a good sort RP and your heart's in the right place, but I am going to now piss all over your chips.

 

First off - getting people to fund your life while you write a book is extremely unlikely to happen.  Signing off the dole and housing benefit already will leave you deep in the shit. 

 

Why the rush to get it done by Feb/March?  Why could you not get a part-time job (or full time for 6 months) and work on it 2 days a week and take a few months longer?  Even that is a luxury most first time authors don't have, working primarily out of their spare time and holidays.

You seem to care about people, why not try and get yourself sorted doing something fulfilling with your time, and getting paid for it?

 

Finally, the book seems haphazard and unstructured and will be impossible to complete in any sort of readable format with the topics you have chosen.  Health, science, governments, corporations, and media are all topics that have had hundreds of thousands of tomes written on them, with many books covering one single tiny issue of each topic and if you want to provide insight or intelligence to a debate worth having you are not going to be able to do it by lightly skating over them in 50 or 100 pages.  Most likely you will send yourself down a rabbit hole of research and information and find it impossible to pull together.

Pick one topic in one subject, and do it properly is my advice here.

[Jairzinho]

I thought the whole point was to cover several subjects.

[Red Phoenix]

You seem like a good sort RP and your heart's in the right place, but I am going to now piss all over your chips.

 

First off - getting people to fund your life while you write a book is extremely unlikely to happen.  Signing off the dole and housing benefit already will leave you deep in the shit. 

 

Why the rush to get it done by Feb/March?  Why could you not get a part-time job (or full time for 6 months) and work on it 2 days a week and take a few months longer?  Even that is a luxury most first time authors don't have, working primarily out of their spare time and holidays.

You seem to care about people, why not try and get yourself sorted doing something fulfilling with your time, and getting paid for it?

 

Finally, the book seems haphazard and unstructured and will be impossible to complete in any sort of readable format with the topics you have chosen.  Health, science, governments, corporations, and media are all topics that have had hundreds of thousands of tomes written on them, with many books covering one single tiny issue of each topic and if you want to provide insight or intelligence to a debate worth having you are not going to be able to do it by lightly skating over them in 50 or 100 pages.  Most likely you will send yourself down a rabbit hole of research and information and find it impossible to pull together.

Pick one topic in one subject, and do it properly is my advice here.

 

 

No probs at all. It's best getting this out of the way anyway. I didn't want to go into detail about personal stuff but to clear some other things up I will do.

 

I didn't bring this up in the OP or the funding page because I don't want it to seem like I was creating a sob story aspect, etc. I've spoken about depression/anxiety several times over the last couple of years, and it hasn't been fully sorted, which makes the dole on my back, or working with other people, difficult to say the least.

 

There's just something I can't easily explain about the effect that being able to focus on this has either, but a big factor is confidence that I'm doing something I've been wanting to do for over a decade, which is work on getting a book actually fully written. Having this focus is just weird to explain, but the depression/anxiety just kind of disappears as I'm reading, writing, and learning about each subject.

 

Yes, you're right about the rabbit hole of research, and yes, it'll be difficult to pull together, last year I found it too much. It's some of the work I did last year though, before I gave up, that should help the book page actually have quite a bit already written in the next fortnight. If I didn't have that, I'd be a lot less sure about being able to finish it so quickly.

 

Anyway, It's late and I know I'm rambling. I could word this better and make it shorter, but the main aim is for you to have a fuller picture of why I'm doing this, so hope it helps.

 

As for dole/rent : there's no way I'm cancelling rent, I can probably backdate the dole a couple of weeks, and I've just got my most recent dole paid into the bank. So there's no probs at all for the next two weeks at least. At that stage I'll look at how this is working, and then just sign back on or keep on going as I am doing. If I do actually start reaching a good enough funding amount, and it looks like I can actually do this, I'll return the next rent payment, and just restart it when I eventually need to. I actually screwed myself up with cash problems last year doing exactly this, but I didn't even get the funding page started, I kept putting it off, then lost confidence that I could do it. This time I'm actually confident that I can do it, and I think that changes a lot of things. (and I know not to screw things up with money, because yes, that can turn nasty very quickly.)

 

And like I said, there's actually quite a few people that use fundraising sites for writing, and a good amount of them will be doing exactly what I'm doing, getting living expenses sorted to fully focus on it, etc. I know the subjects seem like an odd mix, it's down to me to prove that I can do it though, and I think that will happen if I keep writing.

[Red Phoenix]

I thought the whole point was to cover several subjects.

 

Yep, it's also a reason why I can agree with some people thinking this is odd though actually. They might not at first sight mix easily, but about half of it is already in my head because a lot of subjects interconnect in certain ways, so I'm confident that it can work.

 

Governments and corporations for example, they can blend very easily in a lot of ways. So much so that they're probably going to merge into one section for the actual book. They're often hard to separate with some subjects, and to create two different sections for them would have me referring back between one and the other far too much. So already there's four sections. Then with links between media and governments/corporations, well that makes things even easier, and should give a better idea of where I'm going for a big part hopefully.

 

So it's not as hard as it might actually seem at first. In fact a lot of it can be fairly straightforward as a general idea.

 

 

edit : sorry, final thing. I've researched governments and corporations a lot over the last decade or so. Health and media quite a lot over the last few years. So there's a lot that I know about what I want to write about, and there's already plenty that's more or less planned out. Science is the one point I need to work on the hardest, but I think it's really important to add as a last subject. So it's probably not as hard as it might seem, as I've already become familiar with quite a bit of most of the subjects I want to cover.

 

Anyway, will shut up now. With enough effort though, the site content should be able to show what I'm doing to quite a good level over the next couple of weeks, and thanks again to those that believe that I can do this.

[Fowlers God]

I'm funding my own family by working, so I'm out!

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I know I give you a hard time, and I've got to say I'm more than sceptical about the book and how it'll turn out, but I wish you all the luck in the world. Sometimes in life you've just got to say 'fuck it' and go for what you believe in. If it helps you in some way, even only in a cathartic sort of way, then great.

[Fowlers God]

I do wish you good luck, just not on my dollars I'm afraid

[Jose Jones]

No probs at all. It's best getting this out of the way anyway. I didn't want to go into detail about personal stuff but to clear some other things up I will do.

 

I didn't bring this up in the OP or the funding page because I don't want it to seem like I was creating a sob story aspect, etc. I've spoken about depression/anxiety several times over the last couple of years, and it hasn't been fully sorted, which makes the dole on my back, or working with other people, difficult to say the least.

 

There's just something I can't easily explain about the effect that being able to focus on this has either, but a big factor is confidence that I'm doing something I've been wanting to do for over a decade, which is work on getting a book actually fully written. Having this focus is just weird to explain, but the depression/anxiety just kind of disappears as I'm reading, writing, and learning about each subject.

 

Yes, you're right about the rabbit hole of research, and yes, it'll be difficult to pull together, last year I found it too much. It's some of the work I did last year though, before I gave up, that should help the book page actually have quite a bit already written in the next fortnight. If I didn't have that, I'd be a lot less sure about being able to finish it so quickly.

 

Anyway, It's late and I know I'm rambling. I could word this better and make it shorter, but the main aim is for you to have a fuller picture of why I'm doing this, so hope it helps.

 

As for dole/rent : there's no way I'm cancelling rent, I can probably backdate the dole a couple of weeks, and I've just got my most recent dole paid into the bank. So there's no probs at all for the next two weeks at least. At that stage I'll look at how this is working, and then just sign back on or keep on going as I am doing. If I do actually start reaching a good enough funding amount, and it looks like I can actually do this, I'll return the next rent payment, and just restart it when I eventually need to. I actually screwed myself up with cash problems last year doing exactly this, but I didn't even get the funding page started, I kept putting it off, then lost confidence that I could do it. This time I'm actually confident that I can do it, and I think that changes a lot of things. (and I know not to screw things up with money, because yes, that can turn nasty very quickly.)

 

And like I said, there's actually quite a few people that use fundraising sites for writing, and a good amount of them will be doing exactly what I'm doing, getting living expenses sorted to fully focus on it, etc. I know the subjects seem like an odd mix, it's down to me to prove that I can do it though, and I think that will happen if I keep writing.

 

Good on you mate.  I always find that spending too much time reading books, or especially, especially online makes my head weird and get detached from reality and that I feel better by getting out and doing stuff.  Fair play if it's the other way around for you!

 

I get a bit better where you are coming from on the book though - still reckon you need a theme though.  Otherwise you will just be skating on the surface and not doing any topics justice.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Yeah, I agree with Jones. You can't do subjects that size without going into a wee bit of detail. I mean, check Chomsky's work on some of these subject. He must have at least 300 words, if not more, on them. EACH!

[Jairzinho]

Talks a load of old bollocks though, that Chumpsky.

[neko]

 

 

[neko]

 

 

 

[neko]

[neko]

 

 

 

just want them all on the same page, so they're not missed.

[Section_31]

Boss them Paul!

[Jairzinho]

Not as good as the ISIS colouring books they're got for kids in America.