I thought that was her secret. Mass appeal gets you known. The personal and sincere connection is what led 25,000 people to pony up. Only a small fraction of those people gave substantial amounts, and $1 got you the digital download, which will be DRM free.

I feel like those who attribute her success to her fame or her husband are throwing away the two facts: her connection to her admirers, who she treats all like friends not fans, and the sheer number: 25,000.

her savvy flogging of the $50 reward, especially toward the end of the window, certainly bumped up the average stake.

I don’t think that’s really borne out by the numbers- the $50 reward was claimed by only 5% of donations, and accounted for only 6% of the total amount.

The real cause for the high average appears to be the 0.6% of donations of $1000+; this accounted for 26% of the total donated!

i’m just saying that there was some old-fashioned entrepreneurship in play

While that was a factor, I think it’s more that Ms Palmer knows her fans astoundingly well.

Automatically assuming that Palmer’s husband is responsible for her success is akin to the assumption that the NYT made when they claimed that men (and only men) were responsible for the Internet. It’s lacking in data and context, and reinforces a narrative rather than a history. I’m sure it’s a lot easier for some people to attribute Palmer’s success to riding her husband’s coattails, but the fact is that she was successful in her chosen profession long before she met him. The fans who supported her are her fans. She earned them fair and square.

not that the reward, a full-color art book with fold-outs and such, isn’t worth it in some sense. high production values on a limited run will easily soak up the allocated $$. i’m just saying that there was some old-fashioned entrepreneurship in play.

Another of their shorts, probably linked from BB, was that hilarious parody of Labyrinth. God, I can hear that caterpillar cackle even now.

Creativity clusters… that’s an iron law. In collaboration, synergy, resources, brainstorming, support, and in attracting new talent.The thing about having the right connections in creative fields is that these people came together because of the creativity… the connection didn’t make success out of talentless people. Talented people are interacting in complex orbits of artistry.

Of course, for the connections without the talent, one need only look so far as Wall Street, or network television.The bigger question to me isn’t how do creatives find each other, it’s how do they manage to shed the psychic vampires, the stalkers, the scammers, and grifters who are attracted to vortices of creativity even faster than are other creatives?

http://soundcloud.com/amandapalmer/

Though they’ve done some great collaborations… the most recent I stumbled across was a charming short film with Bill Nighy that draws from Amanda’s living statue experience.

Heck, even The Pirate Bay are getting into the PR business to help bands:  http://thepiratebay.se/promo 

Art is subjective, so not always going to be everybody’s cup of tea.

Why, I discovered Gaiman through being a fan of Douglas Adams (Neil wrote a great book about Douglas and HHGTTG).  Then through a comment Neil made about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, I discovered Susanna Clarke.  Clarke’s partner, Colin Greenland wrote some fantastic novels and I read them.  Then discovered through Colin and Neil, Jane Goldman who is married to Jonathan Ross (well, I knew about him already – but wasn’t quite aware that he wrote comics).  All the while, having wrote a blog about JS&MN, other authors get in touch with me – self-published authors – I like them, and both eventually get publishing deals.It’s a small world, and I like introductions to other people’s work regardless of how they may be related (or not).  Go with the flow, I say.