Patreon & On & Off

For a little while now, I’ve been running a Patreon on the side. At its best, I made close to $100 per month, though I let it languish as I slipped into illness over the last year, and before I closed it out I was making around $40. Both ends of that spectrum were fine by me. I never counted on it as a replacement for income or as an integral part of my business model, though I know many who did, and do, in both cases, and I wish them all the best. However, recently I have made the decision to shut my Patreon down.

For all that I just said I didn’t rely on my Patreon income, I am nevertheless incredibly grateful for my Patreon backers. They stood by me, even when I was producing next to no exclusive content, and that added jolt of a few hundred bucks every now and again was often a lifesaver, especially during lean times. Even if it hadn’t been, I appreciated the relationship that I had with my patrons. That appreciation is part of why I’m choosing to shutter my Patreon account.

Recently, Patreon announced a new fee structure rollout that would put the onus of fees not on creators but on patrons, in ways that I (and many others) found unconscionable. Now, to say that this fee change proved unpopular would be a massive understatement. It proved calamitous, as anyone could have predicted, had Patreon bothered to ask. And in short order Patreon issued a statement backpedaling and saying that they would not be rolling out the new fee structure after all.

By then, however, plenty of damage had already been done. I had already said that I would be shutting the doors, other creators, who relied much more heavily on Patreon as a part of their business model, had lost vital income, and Patreon had alienated much of their customer base, both on the creator side and the patron side.

In general, I’m a big fan of giving people a second chance when they mess up. But Patreon isn’t a person, it’s a company, and I feel like, in spite of their “change of heart,” their initial move to roll out the fee structure change in the first place shows that I can’t trust them the way I want to, and I no longer feel comfortable having my hat in their particular ring. I’ll be looking for some other way to interact with people who want to give me a few bucks now and again so that I can keep writing weird stories.

If you’re one of my Patreon patrons, keep an eye on this space. If you’re not, well, you probably keep an eye on this space already, if you’re reading this, so thanks for hanging around.

I know plenty of creators who are still using Patreon, and I’m happy for them, and grateful that Patreon saw the error of its ways, if too late for my comfort. This is a personal decision on my part, not some kind of moral stance. I still support all the creators who are using Patreon to help create their projects. I just won’t be one of them anymore.