7 More Days til Patreon Launch — Purpose

Why am I launching a Patreon and what can you look forward to?

I’m excited to officially announce that I will be launching a Patreon on Tuesday, December 4, 2018! That’s just seven days away. Everyday until then I will be posting daily about the different tier benefits, goals, and so on about my page so you can learn a bit more and take your time on deciding whether or not you’d like to become a Patron.

The topic of today’s post is on the purpose of this Patreon.

Purpose

Some of you might know me from Twitter, and you might also follow my art on Instagram. I enjoy creating all sorts of content — from my art series of cyberpunk gals to Twitter threads about social issues to cultural critique essays published at places like Cosmopolitan and Wear Your Voice.

By supporting me on Patreon, you’ll be directly helping me while I continue to provide my educational and entertaining content on Twitter and Instagram as well as get exclusive access to my process, thoughts, and more.

I also hope to build out my Patreon to become a sort of central hub for my content — both art and writing (and maybe more in the future!). Here’s my thought process and how I ended up deciding on going with Patreon.

Why Patreon For My Writing

For online writers who wish to be paid, we have several options:

1. Pitch to online publications and hope they accept it and will pay.
2. Create your own website or blog to post your content to that you can monetize.
3. Post on a platform like Medium and leave payment links if folks want to donate.

I have done number 1, and while it’s awesome to share a link on social media like “Hey y’all, I was published somewhere!” I find that it’s stifling and slow. Sometimes the pieces I want to write are incredibly niche or aren’t as relevant to current news so finding A Home for it can be tough. It’s also hard to get paid a consistent and fair amount and it takes time to pitch.

While number 2 gives me more control over my content, I don’t have the time or energy to invest in building and maintaining a website, much less monetize it. I also would rather not force y’all to go read my content only to be bombarded with ads.

Number 3 is the path of least resistance and also allows folks to directly comment and clap for my content, which feels like I have a direct connection to supporters, but is also the least likely to get me paid for the amount of work I’d like to put into my writing.

Therefore we’ve reached the option of Patreon. I’ll be able to consistently post all of my content in one place, have control over which content is free or not, and most importantly — have a direct connection with the folks who wish to support me. Your support directly funds my writing and through Patreon, we’ll be able to create a community together with Patreon’s social-media-like features, like the liking, commenting, and sharing functions.

Why Patreon For My Art

While Patreon provides similar opportunities for artists to be paid without taking the time and energy to create a website (like the options mentioned above), I’m especially drawn to the ability to provide behind-the-scenes content and post art-related content that simply doesn’t fit on social media.

For example, certain tiers will have access to full livestream recordings pulled directly from my Instagram and Twitter livestreams. I can post these on YouTube and link them on social media, but the ability to post it to Patreon and make it easily searchable for current and future patrons is incredible. I’d love to create an archive of this sort of content.

Another exciting benefit is I’d like to start creating is Art Work in Progress (WIP) Blog Posts, which will break down step-by-step my thought process when approaching, creating, and finishing up a piece. I try to put a little bit of this into my Instagam captions and tweets, but social media is not built for long-form content like that. I’d like to host this content and more on Patreon to help any other artists who might find this helpful to improving their craft.

Why Create A Patreon At All?

These past few years of building a community and creating content on Twitter and Instagram have been amazing, but there are limitations. One of the themes for my Patreon is “creating new worlds.” This refers to building out my cyberpunk worlds through art and writing, but it’s also a reference to my want to create a fun and exciting community on Patreon that simply cannot exist in limited social media spaces. And as I’ve mentioned before, I want a place to create and post different types of content, like long-form posts and videos that my supporters can enjoy.

It’s also nice to be paid consistently. Outside of the essays I’ve been paid for, most of the work I do online is done for free. This work includes Twitter threads about culture, race, representation in media, gender, and sexuality and all of the intersections of those things. This work includes the hours I spend on creating my art and writing captions that help educate other artists on my techniques. I’d like to create even more and deeper content — like better quality art process videos, short fiction, and comics — and the financial support of my Patrons helps me do that.

If you’re sold — great! I look forward to your patronage when my Patreon opens up to the public on December 4.

If you’re still on the fence, I hope the next week of daily posts can further inform your decision to support or not. I’ll be posting about tier benefits, goals, giving you a sneak peek and tour, and more. Please look forward to it!

1. 7 More Days till Patreon Launch — Purpose
2. 6 More Days till Patreon Launch — Tier 1 Benefits
3. 5 More Days til Patreon Launch — Tier 2 Benefits
4. 4 More Days til Patreon Launch — Tier 3 Benefits
5. 3 More Days til Patreon Launch — Goals
6. 2 More Days til Patreon Launch — Sneak Peek & Tour
7. 1 More Day til Patreon Launch — Tomorrow’s Action Items
8. Day 00.000: Patreon Launch Day!