You know, that's little brass coins that you can't spend nowhere, only at the company store

[sovay]

1. So the news from Patreon looks more garbage fire by the hour. Natalie Luhrs has further thoughts, Julie Dillon has further information, and the Outline has further statistics. I have informed my patrons of the upcoming changes and I have, unsurprisingly, already lost some. I am not upset with them. I am very upset with Patreon. "We have very clear, rigorous internal criteria for what we consider financially successful—there is a specific threshold that we've found to be 'life-changing' for our Creators." Well, I understand that it looked like nothing worth mentioning to the suits, but the money I made every month on Patreon was life-changing to me. It was income every month I could rely on. It was readership and community. I didn't know anyone who made a full-time living off it, but I knew many, many people for whom it was the mainstay of their artistic life. It was a central part of mine, insofar as film writing became an art. Did I do the things that might have farmed me a megafollowing? Of course not. I'm not sure I could have, even had I wanted to. But Patreon was a place my work could exist that helped. And apparently it was all a mistake. I was not the kind of artist they wanted to support after all. Not that top-tier, rags-to-riches, investor-rewarding success story. I am not pleased. I am not shutting down my Patreon, but if the company does not rapidly rethink its screw-the-little-people priorities, I am not sure what I'm going to do next. Write extra about films this month. Send out cat pictures. Try to write poetry. Very angrily grieve.

2. Courtesy of kore: Amazon's hunger games. Left as a comment on her post: "I am so angry that Boston—not to mention Somerville—has involved itself in this race to the bottom. I can't even use the usual contemptuous sexual metaphors to describe it because it's a dick-sucking competition only if the dick ejaculates hydrochloric acid and is also on fire."

3. Courtesy of spatch: the great state square-dancing conspiracy. Massachusetts is one of the states that appears to have fallen prey to the innocuous sound of American folk dance, despite the fact that modern square dancing is no such thing and has crazily, I mean Henry Ford was involved, racist roots. Personally, just to spite his memory, I would happily nominate just about any other form of dancing as a replacement state dance. Quadrille would be actually traditional to New England, but I suspect not multicultural enough to upset Henry "Jazz is a Jewish creation" Ford. Any suggestions?

4. In much better art news, please enjoy (and take recommendations from) Fiona Maeve Geist's "Transformative (Injectable) Lit," a photo-essay on books and transition.

5. And tomorrow evening, if we do not get wiped out by impending snowstorm, I will be reading at the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council in Providence. Come hear me!

Comments

[pameladean]

I don't know anything much about Drip either, since it's currently invitation-only; there are just tantalizing hints that it's more like Patreon as it was than anything else. Aaand no, the name does not inspire confidence. But none of the other suggested platforms really works for me.

I thought they were about making a space for art that wasn't a zero-sum game, the grace to create and appreciate instead of just subsist. Patreon as it was founded was a good platform for people who were getting by, not raking in millions. But apparently it was a casino all along, and we were supposed to win big or go home.

Just so. That's part of what's so very upsetting and insulting. They seemed to be doing a good, unusual thing for artists, and it was all a scam.

P.

[sovay]

But none of the other suggested platforms really works for me.

What else are people suggesting? I have backed Kickstarters before, but cannot see myself running one for my writing—I associate them with dramatic, one-shot projects rather than steady work—and I never really paid attention to the other crowdfunded options before people started recommending Patreon in the spring of 2015. I am not comfortable with just putting out a PayPal button. (I don't even have a PayPal account.)

That's part of what's so very upsetting and insulting. They seemed to be doing a good, unusual thing for artists, and it was all a scam.

Rose Lemberg has likened it to the Republican tax bill, with which I find I cannot disagree.

[pameladean]

Honestly, though I have backed Kickstarters when I could, the thought of doing one myself makes me want to hide under the bed. And yes, they are for a single large goal. I mean, I guess one could run one for a year's worth of what used to be Patreon money, and then do the things, but you'd just have to do it again in a year. And if you don't make your goal, you don't get the lesser amount that people have pledged; it has all been for nothing.

Someone I know from Twitter is putting together a list of alternatives:

http://kittyspace.org/gettheshowon.pdf

I'm sure they are all fine for somebody, but they don't cut it for me.

I'm very much afraid that Rose is right on way too many levels.

P.

[sovay]

I'm sure they are all fine for somebody, but they don't cut it for me.

None of them look like options for me right now, either. One of the virtues of Patreon was how low-key and low-maintenance it could be: pledge money and a certain amount of art turns up in your mailbox every month, make a certain amount of art every month and take home money. None of these platforms appears to have that flexibility and open-endedness, except for maybe Ko-Fi, which has explicitly no subscription service and puts your financial information much closer to the public than I am comfortable with. I am really hoping gwynnega is right and some other company will fill the exact void left by Patreon when it ceased to behave reasonably, because I have less and less faith each day that it will ever behave reasonably again.

[pameladean]

Sadly, I agree with you on all points. If I don't lose too many supporters I might end up just sticking with Patreon and feeling vaguely grimy all the time. Your eloquent description of the good Patreon in its original form did you is very similar to my experience. It's not enough money to live on, but it provides breathing space, it provided funds specifically for the making of fiction; and it also made me accountable. That's why, even though the fees I used to pay before they put them on the donors made me wince every month, I thought Patreon was worth it.

P.