Personal Patronage

How loyal fans can give authors a useful additional income stream

This piece was first published in The Self-Pushing Guide 2026

Many loyal fans will support their favourite authors financially if there’s something it in for them. Simon Whaley looks at how Patreon.com can help connect patrons with authors.

Artists have often sought patrons to help finance their creativity. The Earl of Southampton financially supported William Shakespeare, and the Earl of Halifax gave Samual Johnson a job that gave him the time and funds to concentrate on his writing.

These days, we don’t need an Earl or a Duke to support us financially. Many readers who enjoy our work will make a small regular financial contribution to encourage us to keep writing. In return, they like access to exclusive content.

We only need a few patrons to support us in this way to make a real difference. Five pounds a month from one person might not seem much, but £5 a month from fifty people becomes a not-to-be-sniffed-at £3,000 a year.

There are several online services that make this possible, but one of the most popular for creatives is Patreon.com. Not only do they help creatives connect directly with readers, but they also deal with all the financial processing and content hosting.