Virtual Tip Jar

 

See Creativity vs Money and Why Tip? below.

Tip Options

If you'd like to buy me a coffee, help me fill my gas tank, or meet some other "daily life" need or want, I can accept "tips" via...

• Postal mail, to the address shown on my Contact Me page
• Square Cash: cash.me/$StuartWhitmore
• Venmo: Stuart-Whitmore-1
• Or, just buy The Ambitions of Kreltahk (an inexpensive novel) or any of my other books.

Creativity vs Money

I've been giving away my creative work for 20+ years. I don't give everything away, but I've given away a lot. I have no plans to stop anytime soon.

I like to create. It's a simple statement, but it explains why I produce so many things (photos, writings, software, etc.) and share many of those things for free. Even my books, which you can buy through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere, were written mostly because I really enjoy the creative activity of writing. It's not accurate to say that publishing was just an after-thought, but it was not the primary motivation.

I have shared over a thousand photos on morgueFile.com, and I have shared dozens of sounds on freesound.org, all at no cost to those who would like to use those works in their own creative ventures. My free ROT13/ROT47 online encoder/decoder is used every day by people around the world, and who knows how many copies there are of the offline version floating around.

It's about creativity, not money. For those who say artists and other creative types will stop creating new works if they're not adequately paid for what they create (which is a notion typically put forth by uncreative suit-wearing executives at entertainment corporations), I'm living proof — along with many thousands of others around the world — that this is false. Saying people will not create music, software, photos, etc. without being paid for it is like saying people won't play baseball unless they're paid for it. It's silly, to put it politely.

So Why Tip?

I live in the real world where things often cost money. Whether it's rent, or gasoline, or a hot cup of coffee on a cold morning, or pizza and beer on a Friday night, many things in life are not free. Giving away my creations doesn't help me pay for those.

So if you'd like to give me a "tip" for something I've given away and which you particularly enjoyed, whether it was a photo, a sound, a story, software, or something else, the options listed above are available to do that.

Thank You!

Even if you decide not to send me a tip, thank you for at least considering it. And if you do, thank you very much for your support of my creative efforts!