The Challenges of Starting a Patreon

I didn’t think I would ever have a Patreon. Then I made one. Now I’m seeing what works and what doesn’t.

I don’t want people to “support” me, I want to use Patreon in a way that people feel supported by me. When people are paying a monthly pledge amount, I want them to get value out of it. The premise of patronage seems one-sided: how can the artist make money doing what they’re doing when what they’re making can’t be directly sold? Then, only those of their audience whose hearts are bubbling over with gratitude will actually go and become paying patrons.

In his book, Share Like an Artist, Austin Kleon writes about a similar tension about the notion of patronage. “There are … some strings attached to crowdfunding” he says. “When people become patrons, they feel…they should have some say in how their money is being used. It’s partly for this reason that my business model is still pretty old fashioned: I make something and sell it for money.”

I recoil at the thought of someone buying something of mine just to support me. That would be like pretending to laugh at a joke even if it wasn’t funny, just to “support” the comedian.