And I got a little love for the offering

[sovay]

I am seriously considering setting up a Patreon, mostly to see if people will give me money to write about film with the same frequency I have been doing for the last several years, i.e., at least twice a month I talk about something that really interests me (and more often if I have regular access to TCM and/or arthouse theaters). Advice from people with Patreons of their own would be greatly appreciated. I have never run anything of this nature before. I don't even have a PayPal account.

In other news—

For the third year in a row, Strange Horizons has been nominated for a Hugo Award. Editor-in-Chief Niall Harrison talks about the ways in which the honor is complicated this year.

I did not know that anyone had, in poetry, called T.S. Eliot on his anti-Semitism while he was alive, much less to his face at a conference in 1951. That's where Emanuel Litvinoff comes in: "To T. S. Eliot."

I have just discovered there is a Takarazuka musical about the Mayerling affair. Given that a very distant relative of mine figures as the antagonist in at least five retellings of the story I've been able to verify, I'd love to know if anyone has information about this one. The whole phenomenon really entertains me. (Especially the Frank Wildhorn musical.) I am very invested in someday tracking down the TV film where Eduard Graf von Taaffe is played by Raymond Massey.

I have three books and an actor I really want to talk about. It's one of the reasons I need time.

Comments

[genarti]

I think setting up a Patreon for the film write-ups you're doing anyway is a fantastic idea. That said, I have no personal experience with Patreon, only with donating to a couple.

That poem by Litvinoff is fantastic. Wow.

[yhlee]

The practical advice I received was to be sure to include perks at the lower tiers, say $5 and $10, to induce people to bump up from minimum $1 monthly donations. I don't know what this would look like for you--maybe posting snippets from poetry-in-progress for those reward tiers. (You can post locked updates to Patreon, including locking entries to X tiers and above.) In my case, I am lazy and only have a $10 low tier where every month I send a postcard with a doodle and a trinket to the backer, but I am abusing Joe's willingness to snail things for me plus the fact that I have an insane supply of beautiful Korean stamps/bookmarks/etc. from decluttering that I want to get rid of anyway.

Also, have someone design you a really pretty banner! I have a ridiculous kludge of a banner. I bet you could nab beautiful and appropriate art out of public domain or screencaps from movies, though; I couldn't think of any options I was going to have for space opera from public domain. *wry g*

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I would contribute to that Patreon!

And I have just the person--make that people--to answer your Takarazuka question. wakanomori, what say you?

(With some people's LJs, if you mention someone by username, they get a notification, but this isn't true for all LJs--or maybe it doesn't depend on the blog, maybe it depends on the person mentioned, and their settings. In any case, I'll ask him; he loves assignments like this.)

[gwynnega]

I would contribute to your Patreon as well!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Oh my god yes, I would contribute to a Patreon like that. And I would signal-boost the hell out of it, too.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Where do I sign up?

Nine

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Adding my voice to the three-person throng: I will signal-boost the crap out of your Patreon, and (God willing) may also be able to sign on. Do it do it doooo eeeeet. (Please.;))

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear some good news about the Hugos.