So, it's obvious my old methods of earning a living are completely broken

[james_davis_nicoll]

But I am so stressed out I can't feel my fingertips and I can't see a way out of the corner I am boxed into:

A: Work has dramatically slowed down in the last year.

B: For reasons I am going assume for the moment are not due to deliberate choice on the part of the companies I freelance for, none of checks I've expected this month have materialized (if I am not stress-confused, I think at this point the most recent invoice that has been paid is about 2 months old); when companies were actually issuing checks they were irregular and unpredictable. This isn't specific to one company: nobody is paying me. Nobody. And even if all the money I am owed showed up today, I'd just be treading water.

UPDATE IN MID POST: in fact I just got email assuring me at least one check will definitely not be showing up for at least a week thanks to the new system (another company told me privately my checks might be cut in a week and then sent out a public email telling freelancers to expect the delay to be a month). I'd walk away from book reviewing at this point if there was anywhere to walk to.

Actually, the above is not quite true: while Romantic Times pays very, very little they have never promised to pay any more than that and they do pay on time. So kudos to them; they are the one bright spot.

[I spend a lot of my time telling myself that this is not a repeat of what Guardians of Order did to me, even though a lot of the same notes are in this tune]

C: There are bills I have been deferring for as long as I can and expenses I have cut to the bone as far as I can but I'm pretty sure all the plates I have in the air are about to come crashing down.

D: Can't afford to create the Millennium Reviews book and frankly I don't understand a lot of what people are telling me how to create it.

(That said, editing all the reviews and adding new commentary for all 35 essays would take me two weeks to a month)

E: Review site ditto: I know how to create content for it but I can't see how to create it and the advice I am seeing doesn't mean anything to me.

Open to suggestions here.

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

And do I aim people here or do I create a brand new site? This one is at least established.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I don't know what's involved in creating a site (I had a friend do mine) but if you (or a web-savvy volunteer, who is not I) created a even single page with info on the kinds of reviews you were doing and what they cost and how to pay and Patreon (or whatever you choose to do), I'd be happy to signal-boost the hell out of it.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Clarification: I think there's nothing wrong with continuing to post reviewstuff/content here, but it might be worth having a separate webpage with things-that-you-do for easy reference, as opposed to something buried in an LJ post. At least, I had remembered that you did reviews for $ but wasn't sure where to find it, since I suck at bookmarking/memory-ing. But I don't know what's the best solution for you and doubtless others will have more useful input.

[iayork.livejournal.com]

If you can set up Patreon account that allows a small donation monthly I would do so; I feel I owe you back wages for many years' worth of education and entertainment. It would only be a little bit, but I'm sure there are quite a few others who feel the same and "quite a few" time "a little bit" may end up being a useful amount.

You can do both a monthly and a per-review Patreon, though. Their FAQ says:

"I am a creator of multiple types of content, what do you recommend I do?
You have two options. You can do a monthly campaign where your patrons will support you for each month of all types of content you release. Or, you can create two separate Patreon accounts and pages."

It looks as if Patreon supports distribution of paid content as well. So you could consider uploading reviews there for distribution. But I'm not certain how this works.

I strongly suggest you immediately set up a Patreon for monthly payments simply for your LiveJournal content, and mention it here. That's the simplest to do and the least commitment, and gives you a chance to start working on a more complicated approach, per review or whatever.

There is no need at all to produce exclusive context for Patreon donors, as far as I know, but you could offer as a reward -- say, if you reach $500 or $100 a month or whatever -- to provide exclusive reviews or something. But I don't think you need to, or should, wait until you've figured that out. Set up something at once.

Edit to include Patreon's guidelines for rewards; note that they are fairly simple and non-elaborate:

We do not want fulfilling Patreon rewards to be a burden on our creators. We want you to have rewards that are scalable, cost effective, and easy to fulfill. NOTE: As a general rule, most pledges on Patreon are somewhere between $1 and $5. We recommend you focus heavily on your $1, $3, and $5 reward levels, making the $5 reward the most interactive of the bunch. Rewards might include:

Access to the Patron Activity feed
Social media connections
Live webcasts
Access to content EARLY
Behind the scenes photos
Producer or special thank you credit at the end of the video/piece
Anything else creative you can think of! Browse our creators in your category and grab whichever ideas you like!

[alienne.livejournal.com]

We can aim people at the new site which WILL BE SET UP THIS WEEKEND OR I WILL COMMIT SUICIDE PUBLICLY. And we can also redirect and/or crosspost to here, with helpful links and stuff.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I'd say put together a Wordpress site, but cross-post to both Dreamwidth and LiveJournal. That way, you may bring in new readers, but also make it easy for your current readers to continue to read you the way they prefer. My understanding is that Wordpress integrates pretty damn easily with both LJ and DW, so the cross-posting should (note "should") happen automatically.

[sesmo.livejournal.com]

I would use the method Ursula Vernon did: http://www.patreon.com/ursulav

She doesn't promise anything, because it stresses her out. She is still getting $347/month, having promised to do absolutely nothing extra.