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We hear a lot about multi streams of income for your author business. For most, that means ebooks, print, perhaps the sale of rights to your books for readers overseas and maybe even audiobooks.
Today’s guest, Kameron Hurley is a multi-time award winning author, who still works a full-time job so she can put food on the table. As you can imagine, she’s all about finding new sources of income for her writing and a couple of years ago so decided to try Patreon as an outlet for her short fiction.
You’ve heard of Patreon, right? It takes the old patronage model where an artist can receive support from their fans, or patrons. I’ve supported musicians, filmmakers, and a few others on Patreon, but never an author, until a couple of months ago.
Which got me thinking, I wonder if there are any authors out who are seriously supplementing their income using Patreon. So I looked. Granted, Patreon has a really poor search function, but I did come across Kameron, who writes a blog I’ve referred to often because she writes so openly about the publishing business.
Kameron’s patrons contribute for each short story she writes and they receive rewards based on their support level.
In this episode, we’ll discuss the Patreon model, why she chose it, what she’s changed in her two years on Patreon and which type of authors this model is best suited for. We also discuss her recent Hugo Award nomination and her new book, THE STARS ARE LEGION.
Links
Kameron’s website www.kameronhurley.com
Kameron’s Patreon Page www.patreon.com/kameronhurley
Buy THE STARS OF LEGION at Amazon
Kameron’s new podcast Listen Here
Seana McGuire’s Patreon Page
N.K. Jemison Patreon Page
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Before getting into the business of writing I spent twenty-five years in the technology business as a financial guy, and then as a serial entrepreneur. I know what it takes to start and run a successful business.
I’ve had a patron for about a year and a half, initially per project, though I switched to monthly a while back. In addition to being a novelist, I also produce podcasts and design games, so this gives me a lot of “creative byproducts” I can mine for rewards.
I don’t make nearly what Kameron does, but it does bring in a welcome extra that helps me offset the costs of my various creative endeavors – especially those that don’t generate an income in any other way.
One of the biggest benefits I’ve found is that Patreon becomes sort of like an uber-mailing list for your most engaged fans. They’ve invested in your career, and are far more likely to interact, comment, write fan mail. Listening to them is listening to your career’s heart-beat.
Great point about the uber-mail list of most engaged fans. Did you notice a specific change (up or down) when you went from per project to monthly?
I was worried about losing some patrons at the time, but they all stuck with me. The Patreon has continued to grow since then.