Whoa whoa whoa. Back up there, Tex. If you toss one friggin dime towards one of these ridiculous projects before you drop something in my tip jar, I swear to god I will funnel myself through the ethernet jack on my computer and use your mouse cord to strangle you at your desk. Now that we’re clear: what’s your honest opinion? Would you help out a begging author who’s down on her luck with nothing in return? (In Bugs Bunny voice: NOW HIT DA ROAD!)

Zandt has a publisher for this book, Berret Koehler, but they do not provide authors with advances to write their books. For some (unexplained, especially as the book is due to be published in June 2010) reason the book is “incredibly fast-tracked” and so she needed “to stop working as a consultant for the next three months and do nothing but write the book. Thus, I need investors. I need you to help me raise $15,000 to cover my expenses, travel, and research. Please toss some money into a ‘Feed Deanna’ pot!”

Surprisingly, perhaps, Zandt had reasonable success with her call out for “investors” (although there is no payoff for donors other than a copy of the book for those who donate more than $100. And a nice warm feeling inside, of course). She raised more than $6,500, somebody covered her rent, and a pizza company provided free snacks.

I’m not sure Zandt helps her case by writing in the “about me” section on her blog that “alas, I was not meant for the world of ‘getting up’ at the ’same time’ every day”. Zandt, that’s how most writers get their work done early in their careers – by fitting it before or after or somehow around a day job.

Zandt, however, argues that “I disagree that sacrifice is the only way to produce good work, and I feel like this is a perverse theme in western culture that hurts artists and creative folk more than it helps them. Suffering does not, contrary to popular belief, produce sustainable, good creativity. Joy does.”