Patreon

Patreon is now one of my most favorite websites.

And I didn't even know about it half an hour ago (turns out that randomly surfing the internet can lead to Good Things).

In summary Patreon is a place where creators can say "Hello! This is what I'm making! Do you like it?"

And people can say in response, "Not on your life!" Or, better yet, "Yes!"

And then small donations (paid regularly, based on what we could call "triggers," like "every month" or "every two songs") can be made to support said creator. Donations as small as a dollar. Creators can offer specific content or services to individuals who give specified amounts every time that a trigger is hit or to the fanbase as a whole when the total amount donations reaches a certain level.

Shortly before I went to Utah I had been converted to the idea of 1,000 True Fans, which points out that that if you have only thousand people who can be counted on to spend $100 on you every year then that translates into $100,000 for you. Every year.

The goal isn't getting millions of readers. It is, in my situation, finding one thousand people who are each willing to buy ten $10 books. I figured that I would jury-rig Kickstarter in order to get this going and put up stories at projects to be funded like Greg Stolze does.

Patreon streamlines the process that I was going to try to build. Even better, it makes any income that I have more consistent. I don't have to worry about taking a $10,000 hit if one of my ten books doesn't fly because it's too something or another.

Even better, I can set my stories in the context of all of my creative work. This blog, the Idea Bank, any number of more gonzo ideas that are rattling in my head, and on and on forever. I look at what I have planned, and I can see forever.

And now that I've found Patreon, I can see how it's all going to come together.