This is a slightly different context than Manfred Macx – the money goes to charity – but it’s the same idea.  You can have your name or the name of your choosing featured in an upcoming book by a best-selling author.  Here is the first one I became aware of (via draccah), but there are a bunch of similar items for sale, proceeds all going to charity.

It’s interesting – this sort of thing is not that uncommon in a charitable context, but it’s pretty rare for the author to be using a similar technique to make a living.  Is it a perception thing?  That this is okay for charity, but not to make a living?  I think the idea that we can get a pass for doing otherwise objectionable things if it’s in the name of charity is wrong.  Either the ends justify the means, or they don’t.

If the ends justify the means, the end result of raising money in this manner is that an author can make or supplement a living by writing.  This is generally seen as a good thing.  It may not be as important in the grand scheme of things as feeding the hungry or fighting disease, but advancing the arts is universally accepted as a positive outcome.

And if the ends don’t justify the means, then anything objectionable is objectionable in the name of charity or otherwise.

In either case, authors should be doing more of this sort of thing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 9:08 am and is filed under Changing the market, Charity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.