At the new user-driven fundraising site KickStarter, a group of 100 strangers chipped in $30 apiece to self-publish a 100 page book–one page for each contributor.
The New York Makes a Book!! project raised $3,000 for the book in less than two weeks. Kickstarter has been used by filmmakers and musicians as well, an innovative way for creative types to fund their work during the recession.
Here’s more from the site: “A photo, an essay, a scan of your foot, a recipe… it’s up to you. As long is it fits on an 8 x 10 inch piece of paper. Once the books are ready, we’ll takeover a bar somewhere in the city and pop open the box of 100 books … Please be a local. We want to see you at the bar! Mostly because we don’t want to ship these books.”