Used to be no end of people willing to gang up and go with the flow without question. Couldn’t say if it’s just being human, cultural or something peculiar to a moment in history, but it’s true that the society in which I live has gotten into trouble more than once over this pervasive trait.
But now it looks like some of us want to do something different. We’re grasping at what shape it might take, like unmolded clay spinning on the wheel. We know that we want it to be useful, beautiful and for everyone to use.
Right now, corporations still count on the reflexive behaviour of consumers but a growing portion spurn their advances. Loathing the connotations of group-think and materialism, they’re taking their money elsewhere and creating their own enterprises and harvesting the joy that is to be found in community principles and personal creativity. From bitcoins to barter and timebanks to co-ops, there are new ideas popping up out of the ground from all over.
I know a few of them, admire lots of them and now I am giving it a shot to be one of them.
So I’ve started my own online bookstore, Beetroot Books; no shortage of those of course but there’s definitely a dearth of ones created especially for people who have seen the writing on the wall and have decided they’d like the word from somewhere else. Beetroot Books exists to champion the alternative and progressive. We want to be part of the new way of doing things.
Building on our success promoting books on subjects ranging from ethneogens to earth religions, polemics to poetry and many other positive and useful titles besides, we’re now aiming to build a community of independent writers. We're going to introduce ebooks and promote them by publishing work directly to ebook formats, commission free.
It’s about time there was something different from current online self-publish sites; our emphasis is on community, shared values and cooperation not money. We’ll be working with specialist editors to showcase talent in a publishing climate that is obviously risk-averse and beholden to the bottom line – just look at how many ‘celeb’ biographies line the shelves of your local megastore!
Declaring independence necessarily takes you into the rough country but we know we’ll be alright in the end, as long as we keep trying out ideas, keep smiling and keep sharing everything with the friends who risk the rocky road with us. If you want to get somewhere new you’ve got to walk off the path.
Perhaps you would you like to help us? Any and every single bit of support you can give us with our crowdfunding pitch, whether it’s the word you spread or the dollar or pound you donate, could make a big difference and we thank you for it.
To take a look at the pitch and find out what you get in return for your help, just search Beetroot Books on crowdfunder.co.uk or go to
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/beetroot-books-1687
Image by nSeika.
