Update to Explore Atlas Shrugged

 Posted by on 5 April 2011 at 9:00 am  Explore Ayn Rand
Apr 052011
 

For some time, I’ve been meaning to update my materials on Explore Atlas Shrugged. With the release of the movie on April 15th, I’ve realized that I need to do that… pronto!

Here’s what I plan to do — hopefully with the help of your pledges:

  • Update the questions for each section, making them more clear, focused, and engaging.
  • Revise and post the extra questions from my database.
  • Add the break points in e-book and audiobook editions for each session.
  • Create nicely-formatted PDFs for each of the 20 sessions, as well as text versions to be easily copied into e-mails.
  • Write a guide to creating and managing an Atlas Shrugged Reading Group, including recommendations on group size, venues, finding members, solving common problems, and more.
  • Create questions and other resources for a three-session Atlas Shrugged Reading Group suitable for a book club or stand-alone group.
  • Create a list of local Atlas Shrugged Reading Groups for people interested in joining one.
  • Re-organize and improve the Explore Atlas Shrugged web site.
  • Promote Explore Atlas Shrugged with Facebook and Google ads. (Those ads will be funded by your pledges.)

That’s going to be quite a bit of work for me! I expect it to take about 60 to 80 hours of my time, meaning that I’ll have to make it my primary focus for the whole of April. I’m determined to finish the work by the end of April, but I’ll roll out as much as possible by April 15th.

If you’ve benefitted from my podcasts and questions for Explore Atlas Shrugged — or if you’d simply like such material available for readers of the novel — I’d ask that you support this work by your pledges. As usual, you choose your pledge amount, and you don’t pay anything unless the work is done. (I’ll send an invoice when the work is complete and payment is due.)

Also, you might also think of your pledge for this update as payment for my past work on this project. I created and published the questions and podcasts for Explore Atlas Shrugged without any compensation — yet each one required about 20 to 40 hours to produce. Yes, that’s about 600 hours total time spent on the project!

Of course, I didn’t ask anyone to pay for that work at the time: I’d not yet invented the pledge model, and I didn’t want charge for access to the materials. So nobody owes me anything for that: I’m not demanding payment. Nonetheless, if you appreciate the work I did to create those resources — and make them freely available — then I’d happily accept any pledge on that basis.

I’ll leave the pledge form open until Friday, April 29th at noon. That’s my final deadline for delivering these updates, but I expect to have much done and posted before April 15th.

Notably, due to the fast-approaching April 15th release of the movie, I plan to make these updates, even if I don’t receive much in the way of pledges. But I hope that doesn’t happen, as that would be so disheartening! Also, then I wouldn’t have much of a budget for advertising on Facebook and Google.

So… please pledge! If you have any ideas for further updates, please put them in the comments of the pledge form. If I like the idea, I’ll do it!

Update: If you would prefer to “tip” me more directly for past work done for Explore Atlas Shrugged, rather than pledge for this update, you can do that via PayPal:

If you would prefer to send a check, please send it to “Diana Hsieh; P.O. Box 851; Sedalia, CO 80135.” Please write “Explore AS” in the memo field. Thank you!

 
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