Slice of Life: A Little Bit Goes a Long Way

(This is a piece for Slice of Life, a weekly community writing adventure with Two Writing Teachers.)

FREE E-BOOKS FOR YOU!

I found this in my email bin this morning, and I was quite happy. You see, I have started to contribute each month to support a few artists that I like via Patreon, which is a crowdsourcing site that puts into practice something I like to believe in: your audience will not only find you if you do creative things, but they will also help support you in order to support your art. (I did a book review last week on Cory Doctorow’s book — Information Doesn’t Want to be Free — in which this idea was a central tenet of how artists can survive, and thrive, in the digital age.)

At Patreon, I pitch in a dollar each month to support a few folk — including Audrey Watters and her insightful pieces about education and technology; David Finkle, and his work on creating comics about teaching called Mr. Fitz; and Dave Kellett, whose Sheldon comics I love to read every day for their wit and humor. It was Dave who sent out some free ebook gifts as thanks to his supporters. Audrey and David Finkle often send out material that we get to see first, or works in progress.

A dollar doesn’t sound like much, but if a lot of people pitch in a dollar, it can make the difference between an artist making art or flipping pancakes for a living. Kellett, for example, wanted to remove advertising from his website for Sheldon, and so the Patreon campaign is designed to replace the income from ads through direct support from fans.

I was happy to support Sheldon Comics even without the ebooks but now … now, I need to get these on my iPad for pleasure reading …

Peace (in the giving and in the receiving),
Kevin

 

6 Comments
  1. I’ve never heard of Patreon either. I love stopping by and knowing I’m going to learn about something new! Thanks Kevin!!

  2. What a cool way to support authors! Free stuff is a nice bonus. I joined a fundraising campaign for the “Unshelved” comic strip, and got a card-catalog-shaped USB drive with their archived strips–score!

  3. We have never heard of this either –look forward to exploring it and sharing with others. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    Clare

Leave a Reply to Stacey Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *