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by slamdunc 5165 days ago
Hi Mz,

I’m relatively new here and hadn’t caught one of your posts before. Tonight I saw your reply to the Instagram post, someone’s reply to you, and I started to read through your HealthGazelle and KidsLikeMine sites and comments on HN.

I’m grateful and happy that people here have reached out to you, and so I want to try as well. I’ll summarize here and follow up with an email after I’ve had some time to give it some thought.

-- You are a great writer, and your blog posts are a compelling mix of passion with the mundane, common sense and a bit of adventure with trying new things to feel better (“Teeth” and “Throat” on gazelle are examples). Have you thought about publishing an e-book? Just today I heard an “On the Media” story on how people have made money by writing for the Kindle/Amazon platform and pricing their books (of varying quality) at 99 cents. [1]

Though the majority of your CF community may not be ready to listen to your experiences on reclaiming your (and your family’s) health, I think the broader general public is hungry for real-life examples of how people are finding health again. Especially through nature/naturally and on a budget, two things that it seems you are able to do well. And I know you would be able to come with some great book titles that would catch people’s attention (here’s a quick example: “What a walk in the ocean can cure, and other natural health remedies that have worked for my family”).

-- Have you thought about Kickstarter? I haven’t posted a project there, but it seems that there are only two components to listing a project there: 1) a short video describing the project and 2) a written description of the project and the levels of backing. And with your tablet (shoots video?) and skills, you have what you need.

I think your potential funding rewards could be very attractive to folks (eg, $1 gets name added to supporters on site, $10 pledge gets that and an early edition and any updates to your next ebook, $100 gets the person a 1-hr phone/Skype conversation about ways that you’ve been able to get healthy naturally, etc). IANAL and I don’t know what disclaimers you’d need so that you don’t run afoul of medical/legal issues that this might bring up though (related, I did sell a table on craigslist years ago and the lady that bought it gave me a self-published book she published on getting healthy naturally and her belief that her daughter’s health issues were caused by excessive flouride, MSG and aspartame, and she wasn’t a doctor).

Searching Kickstarter for “homeless” turns up a handful of film projects; searching for “health” yields 300+ projects... [2]

Please forgive the late-night ramblings, something just made me want to jump in and try to help if I could.

Hang in there – though with the fight and spirit I’ve read in your posts, it doesn’t seem like I need to even say that...

[1] http://www.onthemedia.org/2012/apr/20/

[2] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&#3...

1 comments

Thank you for writing. I have had people suggest Kickstarter before and I have looked at it. I don't grok what qualifies as a "project". I cannot wrap my brain around why people praise what I have already done but won't donate money, won't promote the site and won't tell me something like "All you need is a rad t-shirt!" It always involves creating something new to get something back for my work. Further, people seem to be openly hostile to me as a person who gives advice. They like me far more as an entertainer. And entertainment sites, like webcomics, do make money. If I have to start from scratch to make money, a new project that lacks the boatloads of emotional baggage and personal scars seems far more logical.