Another Sky - Neo-Patronage

So I posted about book sampling, which led me to Cooking with Booze, which led Neil to point me at Daisy Bennett's' unpublished manuscript, which she is trying to get published by crowd sourcing on facebook and blogging and that.

But, as Neil points out in his post, there are loads of interesting experiments in publishing happening at the moment, one of which my mate Carlos showed me today.

Another Sky is a new kind of publishing company:

At Another Sky Press we do things a little differently. In addition to making our books available for free online, copies of our books are sold at cost plus optional contribution. 100% of contributions go directly to the individuals involved in the project. If you dig us, please spread the word.

They call this neo-patronage: you decide how much something is worth after you've experienced it and if you can't afford it, that's fine:

Art should be for all, not for those who can afford it. Contribute when you can, if you can. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t contribute to every artist who you’ve enjoyed. Instead, be proud to contribute at a level that is comfortable to you both ethically and financially.

[Don't you just want to give them money?]

A model recently mainstreamed by Radiohead.

Inevitably with this model you encounter a version of the free rider problem, but I'd like to believe that kindness and decency that lies beneath this distributed patronage isn't a fallacy:

Everyone that puts out a project via Another Sky Press believes in you. We want to share what we create with you and with everyone. With your support we believe we can make the world a better place - one in which art defies commerce yet still manages to put some food in the belly of the artist.

We want everybody to win.