Amanda L. Barbara is the vice president of Pubslush, a global crowdfunding platform for books. Authors can raise funds, understand their audience, and self-publish or traditionally publish their work. Pubslush also operates an independent imprint that acquires books from the platform, and for every book sold, donates a children’s book to a child in need. Its first title has recently been released. A Beautiful Mess, by Ali Berlinski, is a collection of humorous essays chronicling the biratial author’s coming of age among divorced parents with disfunctional families living on opposite sides of the country.