Not offended at all, and if I can drag "Spots" along with me I totally will. Because it is awesome. Call on me any time if you think I can help. I'm a fan.
I've gotten many, many offers for free editing, free book block design (from the guy I'm paying to do it, a friend), free artwork. The problem with free is, you don't get as much choice in who you really want to edit/design/etc, and you get, for lack of a better word, the dregs of the person's time. It's free, so understandably it's at the bottom of their work stack. You get better work in a better time frame when you pay.
And the more important thing is: You deserve to be paid. So do the other people helping you achieve your dream. Your editor, your graphics team, your web team if you have one, they deserve to be paid! I'm afraid I've lectured more than one aspiring crowdfunder on paying vs soliciting freebies. (It's a hot spot with me.)
To successfully crowdfund, you gotta hustle, really hustle. Some people point to that as reason for self-pub/indie people to go back to the traditional way. "The publisher/record company/whoever will do all that for you, and you can spend that time creating." The new reality for most of us is, no, they won't. The artist is expected to hustle more than ever before.
So if we're going to have to do all this work anyway, why not do it for ourselves?
no subject
I've gotten many, many offers for free editing, free book block design (from the guy I'm paying to do it, a friend), free artwork. The problem with free is, you don't get as much choice in who you really want to edit/design/etc, and you get, for lack of a better word, the dregs of the person's time. It's free, so understandably it's at the bottom of their work stack. You get better work in a better time frame when you pay.
And the more important thing is: You deserve to be paid. So do the other people helping you achieve your dream. Your editor, your graphics team, your web team if you have one, they deserve to be paid! I'm afraid I've lectured more than one aspiring crowdfunder on paying vs soliciting freebies. (It's a hot spot with me.)
To successfully crowdfund, you gotta hustle, really hustle. Some people point to that as reason for self-pub/indie people to go back to the traditional way. "The publisher/record company/whoever will do all that for you, and you can spend that time creating." The new reality for most of us is, no, they won't. The artist is expected to hustle more than ever before.
So if we're going to have to do all this work anyway, why not do it for ourselves?