Why Your Subscription Means So Much

So, the Bridgetown Patreon has been going for a couple of weeks now and I've released four items of content and I have a small Aladdin's Cave of gifts for the first 100 subscribers. So far, as you can tell from the page, things haven't been going so well.

Copy has been retooled, videos have been re-shot, re-edited, re-rendered and re-uploaded. Subscriber bonuses have been generated. General subscription content has been released and the free stuff has been pointed to and given a little bit of a spit and polish.

In addition I have conscripted friends (not close ones but, yes, still friends) to have a look at the Patreon page and see if it looks okay. So far the two major criticisms have been 1. I am not charging enough, I should set my prices higher and 2. I am taking my subscriptions in dollars and not pounds.

Well, I have done a little towards 1, knocking out the largely redundant $2 subscription level. I would now say that the $5 is the "reasonable" sub level with $1 being firmly the "token" subscription level. As to the second, well, there's not much I can do about that at present. Maybe one day Patreon will do currency conversions for the international market. Honestly I think that was a bit of a bizarre critique. Worrying though if others are put off by the presence of the $ sign.

So, hopefully, one day I will have tweaked the page enough to make the attractiveness of the proposition clear. Until then I just have to keep working at it.

There is a problem though.

Working at my current level is not sustainable in the long term. Market forces would dictate that if no-one wants to participate in puzzles, games and interactive stories set in a comic fantasy universe the Patreon will have to go. Okay, so I am the author but already I feel that would be kind of a shame.

I have played Levercastle on and off for over five years now. The players absolutely love it because of its playfulness and humour. I have had unlooked for compliments come my way regarding the stories too. Those first three books I did to please myself, so knowing that they pleased others too was a good thing.

I know that with a few subscribers we, that is I as the author and the audience as participators in the ongoing creation of the Faerie world I have created, could have a real good time. To a certain extent it's not about living off Patreon money as it is that it's about people buying in to Levercastle/Bridgetown and the idea that an author can produce some great content independently for a low price.

In all honesty I think that just sponsoring anyone who's producing something you like on Patreon is an important act beyond the money that you pledge. It says 'I believe in this artist, sure, but I also believe in independent art. I believe in artists being paid directly for their work without having to also buy the work of a bunch of administrators and middle men too."

It's the same kind of philosophy as all the other crowdfunding platforms out there, in a way it's slightly better because you are paying for work done via the medium of "paid posts" it's not some elaborate investment opportunity you're paying for things that have actually been produced.

I didn't go with Patreon arbitrarily. I think it's a superb platform and I am keen to subscribe to projects that I believe in myself.

Maybe I am fooling myself with Bridgetown and it's actually not that good. Fair enough. But just because you don't think my stuff is good enough to subscribe to doesn't mean that there's not something else that is. Why not have a look about on Patreon? You're not just chipping in a dollar, you're validating artists who are doing work you can support and you're helping in a small way to realise someone else's dreams.

It's bonkers to think it I suppose but I have always believed that helping other people get what they dream of (world domination notwithstanding) will one day lead to me getting mine. My recent setbacks have done nothing to discourage me from this way of thinking.

Please feel free to let me know what you think.

The Crowdfunding Dilemma

Back to The Huffington Post for this tidbit. Authors now have their very own crowdfunding platform: pubslush (catchy, n'est pas?). And therein lies something of a problem.

Look at it this way. You are a penniless dreamer with a great idea for a blockbuster movie about hamsters from the fifth dimension invading earth via portals they beam into bowls of trifle. Oh, the humanity as an ordinary birthday party turns into a blood soaked rodentine massacre. Awesome concept, I think you'll agree.

However the only feasible way to generate the big bucks necessary to make it happen is through some sort of crowdfunding (or get the attention of a wealthy tycoon who has a deep seated mistrust of hamsters). This the theory of evolution applied to the world of culture.

Now imagine you are a penniless author with the same idea but the modest ambition of turning it into a gripping novel for e-readers. As you pen your pubslush entry demanding that people stump up the cash to allow you to pen your opus that little bit faster and maybe hire an editor and a cover artist and whatnot you realise that what you're essentially doing is kidnapping your own genius concept and holding it ransom to a world that has proven itself time and time again to be uncaring.

So now you face the dilemma. Do you go ahead with your pubslush campaign and risk your gnius being quashed by the jaded cynicism of the masses? Or do you just hang it all and squeeze in authorship round the day job? You know, like everyone else who's starting out has to.

I guess that the pubslush author has grand designs on a promotion package with their work. Essentially what donators will be giving money for is so that the author can not just write the damn thing but organise a signing tour and an advert in the margin of facebook and a billboard next to every Waterstones and whatnot.

I'm not down on the idea. I think it's kind of fun. But honestly when I put up my pubslush idea it will be for something that, without the funding, I probably would never get around to writing anyway. Otherwise people can just not donate and be sure that one day my idea will find its way into the general domain anyway.

Happy Sunday folks, I'm off to crack out Manuscript and boost the percentage of The Silent Majority that is edited from 2% to something a bit higher.