Writing Wednesday: Patreon patronage

[mizkit]

A while ago I was muttering about how I wanted somebody I *knew* to have test-run a relatively new distribution opportunity for self-published writers, and one of my friends said, “Er, Catie, you’re the one who does that. You go charging off the cutting edge and we all wait to see how it works out and then follow, having learned from you.”

I said

Comments

[pers1stence]

As a patron on Patreon, it is unclear to me what if anything I need to do for this new project to support it - do I have to do anything? Does it just carry on from where M&M? I did go poke at it, but couldn't tell.... The challenge, for me, with M&M, was that I figured out how much I could justify for a book, and then divided that into a per chapter price point, which ended up quite small. I would've rather, as you say, have just had a monthly "support the artist" or one big "per thing" option.

[mizkit]

Yeah, chapters were not a good way to go with Patreon. A Learning Experience!

You need do nothing at Patreon to continue supporting at your current level, but if you want to you can go click the 'edit my patronage' button (which should be on the left of the page, at the top of the left-hand column) which should let you change it to, er, well, whatever you want. There are several one-click options now, but you don't have to actually choose any of them. :)

[silly_swordsman]

I set up a Patreon in April, and I can definitely identify with the getting twitchy about asking for money. I'd hate to go on about it all the time, but on the other hand, people have said "Oh, I didn't know you had a Patreon" even though I have a link in my bio. (I primarily write microstories on Twitter/Facebook/Google+/Tumblr so I tend to pick up followers who never look at the bio

[dancinghorse]

Thank you so much for the summary. I am seriously contemplating one to help with dog and horse bills, with a Camp Lipizzan angle, and your reality check is just what I need.

I've been worried about Patreon getting in the way of Kickstarters for large fiction projects, but from what I understand, the two are separate in donors' minds, and aim in different directions. I know for myself that's true, but I'm kind of an outlier, so...

[mizkit]

It actually lifts my heart a little to hear that this is a helpful thing for me to have posted.

Judging from Sharon Lee/Steve Miller's patreon, it appears that having real-life needs that are being delineated as What This Money Is For helps to bring patrons in. Mind, Sharon and Steve have also been crowdfunding successfully for a really long time, which also helps. But I suspect those concrete needs they're outlining don't hurt at all...

[dancinghorse]

It is very helpful.

Kickstarter can go postal if the "creator" says she's going to live on the money. I guess Patreon is the answer to that?

[peadarog]

Yes, it is. :)

You are the one we look on as the pioneer!

Patreon

[amberley]

Good discussion of per-item vs. per-month, thanks.

Patreon adds all up the pledges for the month and bills the backer's card once, so the credit card fee should only be troublesome for backers who are funding just one person, or very few. That's its big virtue vs. micropayments.

I actually pay Patreon with Paypal, linked to a bank account rather than a credit card, so there's no card fee. Patreon gets a modest cut (10% or so?), as they rightly should to keep their servers running and cover their overhead.

I support artists via both Patreon and Kickstarter, and much prefer them to all other crowdfunding sites.