Thinking Seriously about a Patreon...
Mar. 2nd, 2021 12:11 pm Periodically, I think to myself, "I should have a Patreon."
At this point, we are well past the period when all the cool kids were doing it, but I still hear Patreon success stories now and again from writer and artist friends. Honestly, for me, it wouldn't take much for it to be worthwhile, either? I used to make less than a couple hundred bucks a month busting my butt at the library, so anything on par with that would be totally successful in my book.
Of course, like all writers I know, I swear I have enough impostor syndrome that I am easily convinced that I'd be lucky to get a dollar a month from ANYONE.
That aside, there are a number of things beyond the obvious "I will produce and share x number of pages of a work" kinds of premiums that I think people might like.
1. During the pandemic, I started a "fictitious World Tour." I've been sending a random collection of my friends (for whom I had snail mail addresses) postcards from around the world with a little silly note talking about what my ideal vacation would be, if I were actually travelling there. In 2020, these were all real places. Now that the pandemic has worn on, I started to include space travel and time travel.
Image: several different kinds of postcards: a dinosaur, art, and several destinations... including MARS!
Postage prices being what they are I could potentially offer to send a postcard to a donor willing to give me $3 - $5 a month. For five bucks a month, I could even send postcards internationally. I wouldn't make a huge profit, but I have a lot of postcards lying around. Also, postcards are easy to MAKE. So, I could also send out some of my silly cartoons of void cat on postcards at some point, too, if I find keeping myself in travel postcards is too expensive.
2. I could also offer the service that I offer a lot of my friends during the pandemic. I could write a no-strings attached (as in, you don't have to reply) snail mail, personal letter once a month. If I did this for Patreon, I would be clear that my intention would NOT be a newsletter or any kind of spam. It would just be letter that would update people on mundane happenings in my life.
3. Special access to other writing related things?
This is where it starts to break down for me. What things do people WANT as premiums for a Patreon? Pictures of my cats? Sneak peaks of works-in-progress? Fan fiction?
I should also add that![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
naomikritzer and I are thinking about starting a writing-related podcast, so obviously there could be sneak peaks/early access to that? I mean, that i provided that we actually get that off the ground.
I know some of you have these. Ideas for what works?
At this point, we are well past the period when all the cool kids were doing it, but I still hear Patreon success stories now and again from writer and artist friends. Honestly, for me, it wouldn't take much for it to be worthwhile, either? I used to make less than a couple hundred bucks a month busting my butt at the library, so anything on par with that would be totally successful in my book.
Of course, like all writers I know, I swear I have enough impostor syndrome that I am easily convinced that I'd be lucky to get a dollar a month from ANYONE.
That aside, there are a number of things beyond the obvious "I will produce and share x number of pages of a work" kinds of premiums that I think people might like.
1. During the pandemic, I started a "fictitious World Tour." I've been sending a random collection of my friends (for whom I had snail mail addresses) postcards from around the world with a little silly note talking about what my ideal vacation would be, if I were actually travelling there. In 2020, these were all real places. Now that the pandemic has worn on, I started to include space travel and time travel.
Image: several different kinds of postcards: a dinosaur, art, and several destinations... including MARS!
Postage prices being what they are I could potentially offer to send a postcard to a donor willing to give me $3 - $5 a month. For five bucks a month, I could even send postcards internationally. I wouldn't make a huge profit, but I have a lot of postcards lying around. Also, postcards are easy to MAKE. So, I could also send out some of my silly cartoons of void cat on postcards at some point, too, if I find keeping myself in travel postcards is too expensive.
2. I could also offer the service that I offer a lot of my friends during the pandemic. I could write a no-strings attached (as in, you don't have to reply) snail mail, personal letter once a month. If I did this for Patreon, I would be clear that my intention would NOT be a newsletter or any kind of spam. It would just be letter that would update people on mundane happenings in my life.
3. Special access to other writing related things?
This is where it starts to break down for me. What things do people WANT as premiums for a Patreon? Pictures of my cats? Sneak peaks of works-in-progress? Fan fiction?
I should also add that
naomikritzer and I are thinking about starting a writing-related podcast, so obviously there could be sneak peaks/early access to that? I mean, that i provided that we actually get that off the ground.I know some of you have these. Ideas for what works?
