Something new has appeared in the wondrous–and sometimes helpful–oddities of the internet. A means whereby creative folks like myself can gather their most ardent fans to chip in a few bucks every time the creator does something cool. It’s a new form of crowdfunding called Patreon.
I’ve been hankering for a few months to try it, but first I had to do some soul-searching, get some life-changes squared away, and move to another country two hemispheres away from my old digs in Colorado. I’ll be living in New Zealand until mid-2016.
I’ve done two successful Kickstarters for the last two books in my Ronin Trilogy. Each time, I raised $5700-6000 to fund the publication of those novels. I was incredibly gratified, and the result was the completion of a series of which I’m immensely proud.
Patreon, however, is a whole new ballgame for creative projects. Unlike Kickstarter, where you pledge to support a project before it’s finished, Patreon allows you to give a little tip to the creator after something is created. You get to become a patron of the arts and a supporter of the makers you love.
For you, Patreon represents a chance to be part of something much more personal than just buying a novel when it comes out. You become a trusted patron, in that old sense of the word, part of an elite group of superfans with backstage passes to the creative process.
Becoming a Patreon supporter is a way for you to help our culture move from one that expects its creative people to entertain us for free, to one where we collectively value art and artists. The way that we support the artists, musicians, indie filmmakers, and yes, writers who we love is to cross their palms with silver, as directly as possible.
Here’s a quick video on what Patreon is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-IDF809fQ
So I’m here right now asking for your support.
Why Patreon?
The bottom line is this. I’m a writer, and like all artists I need to eat, pay rent, and occasionally buy equipment. In my case, I use a laptop with several pricey software packages to produce stories, novels, screenplays, podcasts, book designs – all the creative work I do. Occasionally those tools need to be updated or replaced.
Any creative person’s most valuable asset, however, is TIME. As this campaign grows and reaches toward its goals, I will be able to scale back other demands on my time, such as freelance projects, and devote more time to creating fiction.
What’s in it for you?
For your patronage, you’ll get the stories before anyone else sees them, you’ll get some of my poetry (which no one has really seen), you’ll get to take part in the activity feed, comment on what I’m doing, and in new ways get involved with my creative process.
You’ll also have exclusive access to bits of wackiness as I conceive them, a rogue video or two, who knows? We’re entering an unexplored realm. Anything could happen.
What is good fiction worth?
Is it worth the cost of a latte to read a great short story, to lose yourself for a time in world that’s not your own? What if the cost of one or two lattes a month could help keep me writing stories for years to come?
Please support my campaign. Thank you.