Patreon! (Or more importantly - Astreiant!)

[byslantedlight]

Hmmn - another of lj's features that I've never actually used - the share button! So let's give it a whirl, because I'm quite excited about this... *g*

Originally posted by mescott at Patreon!
My Patreon is live!After a bunch more talking and tweaking, I’ve decided to concentrate on Astreiant for now. I’m doing a simple monthly appeal: if enough people

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[fiorenza_a]

Been thinking about this, I have a friend who writes professionally, and I have ambitions in that direction myself, but not in Romance - I think we both know I'm not cut out for that. It took my friend ten years to hone her writing to the point where she got any kind of deal.

(I've got an original science fiction I began when I was eighteen or so, it's plotted - more or less - but not finished. I haven't taken it out to have a look at because I don't want to depress myself! But I will. I've also got an original on the go right now, and I'm being badgered by my family to write down the stories I used to tell them when we were children - but those are still in my head.

I started writing fan fiction as a way to say thank you to all those authors whose stories had lifted my spirits when I was a lot iller than I am now and housebound a lot of the time [actually something the medics took more seriously than I did - I was quite happy being housebound!]. But in so doing I began to see what it actually might take to write properly - and at length - something I admire in helenraven's work is her ability to sustain a plot at length. I love 'Waiting to Fall' [Sorry for bailing on that conversation, but I was working in London with no access to comment on Lj - apparently 'Social Media' is confined to Twitter & Facebook - likely to be in Birmingham next week - with the same problem] but you can't really say it sustains a plot - more like a series with a story arc.)

Anyway, my thoughts are that it takes a lot to write professionally and this kind of 'crowd funding' is fine. You have no obligation to fund, if you don't want to - and the author does seem to be offering something more than the privilege of supporting her writing in return - and there are a number of levels at which you can do it. So you could just offer $1 (€/£ etc.) a month until you were sure how you felt about it.

But is it morally acceptable? I can't see it's any less morally acceptable than the sort of 'subscription' funding authors in earlier centuries went in for. It's just a case of whether you, as an individual, want to support the cause.

As for 'deserving' causes - only you can be the judge of that, one person's 'deserving' is another person's 'waste of money'. With regard to the end product - that's the price of sponsoring the arts. You can make a judgement about how well you already regard the artist - or the art - or you can take a punt. Again, it's a personal judgement.

I think the important thing is to be clear about your motives and what you expect from your investment - once you have that, you should be comfortable with your decision and any end result.