A Few Words of Clarification on the Vanderboegh Fundraiser

When people have needed Mike,
he's been there for them.

I've seen some discussions on other sites about my fundraising effort for Mike, and unsurprisingly, some quickly devolve into ignorance, squabbling, attacks, and everything EXCEPT caring about our friend and doing the two simple things being asked for: Spread the word and make a payment acknowledging value received from his work.

I disagree with the contention that "Absolved" would be an automatic money-maker, and question the industry experience and qualifications of anyone making such an assertion. If it were, a publisher would have offered Mike an advance sufficient to complete it. As is, my sense is that without a dramatic increase in willingness to help, better odds portend a garage full of self-published boxes of books, with most sales on Kindle, and the vast majority neither spending any money OR encouraging others to check it out.

Hopefully I'm flat-out wrong and future sales of whatever product emerges will exceed wildest expectations. I don't claim a crystal ball, merely an ability to observe that anything not backed by establishment interests generally requires a committed grassroots effort.

As for the contention that Mike should have pulled back from Fast and Furious to work on the book and let someone else pick up the slack, that's just plain ignorant and comes from those who doesn't know what they're talking about. I don't  even have words, so I'm just gonna let that one go.

And did someone say "blog ads"? Revenue there is driven by page views, click-throughs and purchases, and guess what: The same people who won't help with the fundraiser won't help with that, either.

By way of a project status update, and corroborating my observations, I put out my plea for Mike four days ago -- that post, as of now, has brought in as many page views as this blog typically gets in only one day. My Facebook post only has 80 shares. My Twitter post has one retweet and two "likes."

"Profiles in Apathy" is the name of that self-defeating game, and I've seen it more times over the years than I care to recall.

But all is not negative. Far from it, thanks to a happy few.

Thank you to all who have shown leadership in this, made donations and spread the word. Just so you know, your efforts have already made a real and positive difference for Mike and Rosey, and I'm committed to growing things even more, with additional posts planned. My cynicism isn't with you, but with a majority that never lifts a finger beyond sharing discouraging opinions

Here's the deal: I didn't do this to argue with anyone about anything. I intentionally titled my appeal "Plea to All Friends of Mike Vanderboegh."

I didn't address it to anyone else. I don't care about them.

If you're not his friend, if you won't share the link and if you won't make a gratitude offering, your reasons why are neither important nor solicited here. That isn't what this is about. Go do something else and leave those of us who care about him to do our work in peace.

And if you are Mike's friend, act like one.