After much debate (and some requests) I have signed up with crowdfunding service Patreon to better support future blogging efforts. You can find my Patreon page here and more information after the jump.
What is Patreon?
Patreon is a crowdfunding site that allows people to support their favourite bloggers, authors, artists and creators, from as little as $1 a month.
What do people get out of it?
The writer gets financial support. In my case, this will allow me to spend more time blogging and writing and delivery more content to a higher standard. In the contributor's case, they get exclusive or earlier access to material.
What more stuff will you be able to do?
I'll be able to devote funds to buying new PC equipment like cameras and mikes to move into video blogging (it's where the cool kids are these days), with a video version of The History of Epic Fantasy at some point. I'll also have the time to pursue The History of Science Fiction, which lots of people have asked for. That's an absolutely massive project and would only be viable if I could dedicate full-time work to it.
I'll also be able to attend more events, meet more authors and writers and expand the range of content on the blog.
Wait, does this mean supporters get stuff normal readers don't?
In my case, no. Patreon supporters will get early access to my next blogging series, Cities of Fantasy, with each article to be published on Patreon one month before it is published on the Wertzone. Everything that appears on Patreon will appear either here on the Wertzone or Atlas of Ice and Fire, if a few days or weeks later.
I like the idea of supporting you, but not on a monthly basis. Can I make a one-off contribution?
Absolutely! You can use the Wertzone tipjar account to make donations via PayPal. I've moved the tipjar into a more prominent position in the top-right of the blog to help with that.
UPDATE (27 November 2017)
Thanks everyone. So far we're up to about $178 a month, which has made a big difference in allowing me to afford to do more stuff for both this blog and Atlas of Ice and Fire. More stuff is coming down the pipe, so if people have been thinking about donating now is a good time to do so!
22 comments:
I've wanted to support a number of projects on patron for a while but have been put off because, last time I checked, if you're from the UK you have to pay a charge with every payment for it to be converted to dollars. Do you know if that's the case still? If it's not then I can get on the case to support this blog and a money of other projects I follow.
Just as a note I'd expect a lot of your readers to be on mobile. Blogspot doesn't seem to have a responsive mode (just 'desktop' or 'mobile') and the PayPal button isn't displaying on mobile. Not sure if you can change that in settings.
I cycle my Patreon payments through Paypal, where the charge is pretty much negligible (and I have to pay it at at my end, I think), so that shouldn't be an issue. Actually, since the pound fell a lot post-Brexit, right now is the best the exchange rate to the dollar has been for years.
I didn't consider that issue with Blogger showing up on Mobile. Argh.
Saturday, 16 January 2077 -->
I believe the post is written on 16/01/2017 & not on "16/01/2077".
Please do the correction.
Warm regards,
XeroFearstreet
That's how you sticky posts on Blogger, so no. This stays up here until I'm 98 :)
Oh... "sticky post", got it my friend...
:)
The sticky post is a little confusing as I have been checking in daily thinking there is no new content .
It's not the most elegant solution (unlike WordPress, Blogger doesn't have a just "STICKY POST" feature), but it is the best way of getting attention to the Patreon page. If I can find a better solution I'll look into that.
Thanks for your support everyone.
I was under the same impression as Chilly Willy until I read these comments
How about doing a blog post about the popularity of Chinese fantasy in the West? Your reader base might find it interesting.
The genre has millions of English readers (3 years ago, it was 0 reader base) and the fan translation website even purchase the copyrights from the Chinese publisher for 20 novels.
It is also raising money to buy more copyrights.
patreon user name renwoxing
1,059
patrons
$14,564
per month
(Deathblade is a translator that probably has a monthly donation in excess of $10,000)
patreon user name 3109706
1,948
patrons
Adam, I'm still waiting on your workaround for people who give you one off donations... C'mon man...
I've been trawling through my donation notification emails and building up an email database. I'll start sending stuff out this evening :)
There isn't actually much I've done that's Patreon-exclusive so far, but the bits I have done will go out to the one-off donators shortly.
That's been sent out now. Let me know if you didn't receive the email.
I got it.
Much appreciated, thank you :)
Adam, I made a one-off donation just now but I'm not sure what I need to do to unlock the paetron articles.
Bill
I'll do another collection of articles and send them out to the mailing list in the next day or two. If you've donated via PayPal, it'll be sent back to the same address.
I see that you are posting from the year 2077. What fantasy written in the early 21st century have stood the test of time? And how many terms did Trump serve as President? Just curious.
Hi Adam. Sometime earlier you wrote about the upcoming kickstarter for a Game of thrones war game. The kickstarter is on and it could use as many posts about as it can get :) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/a-song-of-ice-and-fire-tabletop-miniatures-game
I have to thank you for the efforts you've put in writing this site.
I really hope to see the same high-grade content from you
in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now
;)
bookmarked!!, I love your blog!
Hi Adam,
on a different note, you might want to check the links in your sidebar if you got a spare hour or so. Several websites are defunct (Scott Lynch's forum, Kate Elliott, fe.), lead to different sites (Paul Kearney is now a personal trainer, Highland Reviews is some ads ...) or have changed URLs (Not a Blog, J.V. Jones' site, fe.). Also, some blogs haven't been updated for years now - 2012 isn't exactly the newest in Fantasy, though the archives might be worth keeping.
Hi. Really love the blog keep up the good work. Regards CharleneIzere
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