Last year on Labor Day, I posted an entry on this blog about something I called “the True Fan Boost.”  The idea was to use Labor Day as a reminder to support the independent artists we love, either financially by buying some of their work or at least by sharing their work with others.  I’m going to do the same again this year.  If you like the idea, I invite you to do the same on your own blog, Facebook, or wherever seems most appropriate.

After the jump, in no particular order, are the artists I’m going to shell out some bucks for right now:

Alex King
I don’t know much about Alex King.  He’s apparently a web developer out of Denver.  I know of him only because he writes and continually improves many of the WordPress plugins that I find absolutely essential to the management of my blog(s).

If you run WordPress, you owe it to yourself to check out his plugin page.

I, personally, use the WordPress Mobile Edition, Share This, and Twitter Tools and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them all.

I’m going to throw him a $20 PayPal donation right now.

Lawrence Watt-Evans

I’ve been a big fan of LWE’s writing for almost as long as I’ve been reading.  I must have picked up my first LWE book when I was in 7^th or 8^th grade and I’ve read almost everything he’s published since then.  Recently he’s been doing some online experiments in donation-sponsored writing.  It’s worked for a couple Ethshar books, but his current project, Realms of Light, is a sequel to a sci-fi novel published decades ago: Nightside City.  I think I’m going to kick a few dollars over to speed up the posting of the next chapter.

Penny Arcade
Of course, after a weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo, how could I not support Penny Arcade?  I made sure to buy last year’s PAX DVD while at the show.  Good thing; it doesn’t appear to be in their online store just yet.  I never get to see all the panels and events because I’m usually hard at work on the Omegathon, so I’m excited to sit down and watch it.

I also slipped Wil Wheaton $20 at the show, with Labor Day in mind.

Jonathan Coulton
JoCo headlined a hugely successful Saturday concert at PAX this year.  He’s gotten so popular among the nerds that the line to his booth was forever too long for me to stand behind.  I really wanted to pick up a copy of his Best Concert Ever DVD – guess I’ll just have to order that puppy online!

Lonely Island
The Lonely Island group is a little bit of an internet success story – it might be stretching it to call them independent artists now that they’re working on Saturday Night Live.  I don’t care, I just want to buy their new CD, Incredibad, with “I’m on a Boat” and “Saxman.”

Matt Harding
You’ve probably seen Matt’s YouTube video; you and 23,436,678 other people.  He’s the guy that traveled all over the world, dancing a silly little dance in a crazy number of exotic locales.  I found him to be inspirational long before Oksana and I decided to take our own trip.

He has a book out called “Where the Hell is Matt? Dancing Badly Around the World.”  I’m going to buy myself a copy and see if we get any new ideas about world travel.

Man, I’d love to buy that guy lunch, pick his brain.  Too bad I missed him while he was in Juneau!

John August
John August is an A-list Hollywood screenwriter who keeps a blog about screenwriting.  I’ll probably never write a script myself, but I find the processes of writing sort of fascinating.  He does a great job explaining things, even going so far as to create a series of “scriptcasts.”

Earlier this year, John wrote a short story called The Variant.  He released it as an eBook, mostly, I think, as a way to test out the Kindle market.  It’s only 99 cents – not much financial support for an artist that gives me a lot of free content over the course of a year – but I think I might buy it just so I can test out the Kindle app on my new iPhone.

That’s it from me this year.  Which independant artists are you supporting?l