Short Summary
Hi, I’m Melissa Harris. I’m on a mission to offer any guidance and/or inspiration I can to assist folks in tuning in to and utilizing their own creative and intuitive abilities. I want each of you to live life to the fullest which I believe includes being "awake" and tuned into Spirit as well as integrating our creative abilities into our lives in a meaningful way.
SO HOW AM I QUALIFIED TO DO THIS YOU ASK ???
Artistic Background: I’m an internationally published author and artist as well as a psychic. I hold a BFA in Painting from Syracuse University and an MFA in Painting from Queens College in New York. I attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School on a Max Beckman Scholarship and received a Fulbright grant to study Painting in Paris.
CREATRIX is my publishing line of notecards, prints, and other gift items. My work can be found on CD covers, book covers, magazines, and calendars in shops worldwide. My “Anything is Possible” activation card deck won best in show at the International New Age Trade show in 2008.
Psychic Background: After a profound spiritual awakening in my late 20’s I began offering readings, which transformed into hands on healing. I studied formally with Barbara Brennan at her Hands-on-Healing school. I’ve been doing readings since that time and in more recent years found that I enjoy doing what I call “Spirit Essence Portraits” which are a combination of an intuitive reading, followed by a narrative watercolor painting of what I discover after tuning in.
Teaching
I teach workshops and classes that combine artistic technique with spirituality called “Painting Outside the Lines”. I also offer workshops on developing and using your psychic awareness.
The Book-
The book is autobiographical in nature and also contains what I believe to be truths about some general traits of artists, as well as common ingredients of an artist’s as well as a psychic’s life. I've also addressed questions that folks have asked me time and time again:
Does being psychic have an effect on my artwork?
What’s it like to be psychic?
How is my world different?
How does an artist deal with rejection?
Here is a look at the juicy table of contents:
The Psychic Child—Why Am I Different?
Beyond the Canvas: The Empathic Artist
Young Adulthood
Beyond the Canvas: Atmospheres—Where to Live,
Eat, Paint
NYC—Life in a Faster Lane
Beyond the Canvas: Teaching and Learning
Nomadic Whispers and Volatile Relationships
Beyond the Canvas: Why Women?
Polaroids and Crystal Balls
Beyond the Canvas: The Spaces In Between—
My Comfort Zone
Portrait Painting— Doorways into Souls
Beyond the Canvas: In the Eye of the Beholder
Life in France—Speaking in Tongues
Beyond the Canvas: Cats and Butterflies—
Painting What I Love
Hands-On Healing—Studying Energy Healing
Beyond the Canvas: An Artist in Dreamtime
On the Road—The Sensitive Traveler
Beyond the Canvas: Inspiration and Style
Making a Living as an Artist
Beyond the Canvas: Spirit Essence Portraits
and Healing
Day Job—Psychic Reader
Beyond the Canvas: Spirit Guides
Is It Worth It?—Sacrifice
Beyond the Canvas: About Empowerment
Bonus Section
12 Tips To Open the Door To Your
Psychic and Creative Self
The Artist and the Ego:
Using Rejection as a Catalyst
A Few Other Favorite Paintings
Yes, it may seem like $21.95 is a lot to pay for a book. probably seems like it is. But Painting Outside the Lines isn't just any book. It has many paintings of mine you won't see anywhere else and lots of them. It may never be published by a larger publisher and I'm not printing a huge number of copies.
You'll get a book. But it's a really special book. Only a few hundred other people will have it. And you'll also be helping us change how books get into the hands of readers.
And by the way, if someone tells you that $21.95 is too much to pay for a book, ask them how much they spent for the last concert they went to. Was it worth it? Absolutely. But a book is more than a 2-hour experience. Also, you get to keep it to read again. And if you want to, you can lend it to a friend to experience as well. These things all have value, (And if you really value that live, in-person experience, I have a donation level for that.)
WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING
It's going to cost me almost $25,000 to publish the book including production, editing, design, galleys, postage, book tour expense, marketing and publicity. I'm asking you to help cover a portion of these expenses.
- Editorial, design and consultation services $10,000
- Galleys for review and postage $600
- Book tour expenses, marketing, and publicity approx $5,000
- Production - printing, binding, packing, shipping etc. $9,000
- Payment of Indiegogo fees, and fulfillment of perks UNKNOWN
The Impact
I'm sure this book will be helpful for YOU in some way. Most everyone wants to be able to access and develop both their creativity as well as their intuitive abilities. Even if you are not interested in either of these you will surely enjoy browsing through the collection of my artwork- much of it never seen before. People have been enjoying a certain body of my artwork for years and this is an opportunity to see more- a body of very personal work - dear to my heart. So take the leap and donate now to receive your copy.
I've taken this text from the body of another author's campaign and it is right on.
Let's take a moment for a lesson on how the traditional publishing industry works, because this might help explain why I'm undertaking this experiment. As a writer, I give my book to a publisher. In exchange, they give me a little money (the advance) as a good faith gesture. But that money isn't really a payday. It's a loan. Before I get any more money from my book, I have to pay that loan back in the form of a royalty I'm credited with for each copy of my book that sells. Only after I've paid back the advance do I get any more money.
So let's say a publisher really loves my book and decides to give me an advance of 10K for it. (I'm using round numbers to make this easy on my math-impaired brain.) The publisher prints a paperback and assigns a price of $15. If I have a good deal with them, my royalty rate is 8% of that $15 sale price, so for every copy of Painting Outside the Lines sold, I'm credited with $1.20. If my math is correct, this means I have to sell 8,334 copies of my book to pay back that 10K I was given as an advance. Only after that's done does the publisher owe me anything else.
And here's the thing--most writers never earn back that advance. 8,334 copies is a lot to sell. Most books sell far fewer copies than that. FAR fewer. So most authors are never going to see any money beyond what they were given for an advance. And advances are getting smaller and smaller as publishers get more and more reluctant to take chances on anything other than books with broad commercial appeal.
Part of the problem, of course, is that 92% of a book's sale price (on the paperback in my example) goes to the publisher. Now, they've taken all the risk and put up the money for editing, designing, printing, marketing, and distribution, so maybe this is fair. I'm not here to argue that. I'm just trying to explain why it is that the authors of the books you love to read so often seem to be in financial distress.
This is why I love things like Indiegogo. It gives writers (and all artists) a chance to take our work directly to readers. A huge percentage of what you donate will still go to covering the costs of editing, designing, and printing a book, or recording a CD. But because more of what our work earns is going to us, the artists you support will have a fighting chance of going on to make the next record, or write the next book, or create the next show. By removing the obstacles created by outdated ways of operating, we're creating new opportunities. And that's exciting.
Please--share my campaign with friends you think might be into it. Put it on your Facebook page. Send out one of those awful "My friend is doing this cool thing!" emails. You'll get karma points. And if we meet in person, a hug. Possibly cookies.
Other Ways You Can Help
