Winston Churchill Coffee-table Book Crowdfunded In S.f.

Carlson’s project was expedited by Inkshares, a San Francisco startup that launched last spring with the motto: “Authors pitch, the crowd funds, we publish.” “This is my baby and I could make it look how I want, once I raised the money to print it,” says Carlson, who has asked friends for money before, having been chair of the gala for the San Francisco Ballet, a fundraising training ground if there ever was one. Between handing these out and e-mailing 500 friends, she raised $16,000 for printing 2,500 copies, plus $10,000 to cover copyrights for Churchill’s images and words. The pledges were all done by credit card, so she doesn’t have to follow up, asking for missing checks. [...] the outreach has been done by crowdfunding, says Carlson, who counts 114 “readers,” as donors are called, at a minimum of $50 each — a good deal since all contributors will receive a book, which retails for $50. People you have not heard from in the longest times say the nicest things and are so supportive, says Carlson, 60, a graduate of USF who has lived in San Francisco for 30 years. “My mother used to look forward to once a week listening to these radio addresses from Churchill because his intoned words would calm them and empower them,” she says. While raising her own two daughters in San Francisco, Carlson had a business importing grandfather clocks from England. [...] she knows how to search things out, and for this project she went on a hunt for photos of a young Churchill, the holy grail being images from his wedding to Clementine Hozier on Sept.