Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world's most successful music Kickstarter.

Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for—as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife. She learns that she isn't alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of THE ART OF ASKING.

Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. THE ART OF ASKING will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.

Amanda’s audience is huge and passionate. (Her viral February 2013 TED talk, “The Art of Asking” – one of TED’s top rated, now viewed nearly 5.5 million times) On a daily basis, they read her blog and join the discussions about current events, art, giving, loving, and treating each other well. She inspires, she galvanizes, she brings down the house. A staunch advocate for women’s rights, Amanda recently spoke at a press conference at the United Nations to discuss The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Amanda Palmer rose to fame as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist for the acclaimed band The Dresden Dolls, and performs as a solo artist as well as collaborating with artists including Jonathan Richman and her husband, author Neil Gaiman.

Quotes from the jacket of THE ART OF ASKING—

"This is the kind of book that makes you want to call the author up at midnight to whisper, 'My God. I thought I was the only one.'"
-Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess and the author of Let's Pretend This Never Happened

"To read Amanda Palmer's remarkable memoir about asking and giving is to tumble headlong into her world. At first, you find yourself thinking, 'Goodness, what a crazy world that Amanda Palmer inhabits! How does she possibly endure it?' Then, gradually, as you read along, a doorway opens up in your heart, and you realize, 'I want to live in a world exactly like hers.' God willing, this book will show us all how to do it." -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things

“Amanda has a direct line with her audience – a lifeline for them and for her, the co-dependency all truly great performers surrender to… she’s capable of anything, incapable of telling anything but the truth.” – Bono

"A story about a life in one dollar bills, from statue to icon, where media doesn't matter, crowds do. Mandatory reading in the digital age, for aspiring artists and their doubtful parents. - Nicholas Negroponte, Founder, MIT Media Lab

"Amanda Palmer joyfully shows a generation how to change their lives." -Caitlin Moran, author of How to Be a Woman and How to Build a Girl

"Amanda Palmer's generous work of genius will change the way you think about connection, love and grace." -Seth Godin, author of Tribes

"From this beautiful, heart wrenching story of art comes an incredible account of the nature and future of commerce - or one part, certainly the most important part, of that bit that's new. Here's a truth that someday the economists might begin to grok, but which meanwhile will define everything that's interesting about how art and culture will thrive." - Lawrence Lessig, author of Free Culture

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Agata Żabowska

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