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]

So, should i set Patreon up as a monthly or per review? I can't guarantee I won't inadvertently post more than two reviews a week so it seems fairer to go for monthly.

Plus the edited Millennial Reviews with new commentary as a plus for subscribers?

[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.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Looking at Ursula Vernon's, I'd say just go for monthly, and don't make many promises.

You've ruled out cat pictures or videos, which of course makes the internet sad, but have you considered cat stories?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Can I set up patreon and then go back and change it?

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

A quick google search shows that you can, and quite a few people have.

But I haven't used Patreon at all, so I'd ask around.

(Have you been in contact with K.B. Spangler? She is also considering a Patreon, so odds are she's researched it far more than I have.)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Wow, they really, really like videos over there.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

The fundraising video is something I've never understood. I've never watched one all the way through, even from people I've given money to.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I'm a reader; videos just talk too *slowly*.

[w. dow rieder (from livejournal.com)]

I would suggest for James not to worry about videos because of the target audience - people who enjoy reading.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes. No videos. Ew.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Yes, I vote for this.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

And how much per review do I put on the patreon site?

thinking out loud

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

ETA: I am not at all an expert in Patreon, so I second the recommendation to consult somebody who's done it before. That said, here's what makes sense to me.

If you do it by review, and charge $1 per, that's $2/week per subscriber, or $8/month (assuming this covers both your current review series). That's about in line with a monthly Spotify subscription, for instance (which is $10/month). If you get 100 subscribers, that's about $800/month. Price point is always tricky with these things; you want to make it low enough that lots of people are tempted, but high enough that it actually adds up to something.

Does Patreon support optional one-time donations? If so, that's how you could field review requests. Otherwise you could do it directly through Paypal.

If you do it by month, the tiers could be something like :

$3 - you get to read one set of reviews.
$5 - you get to read both.
$10 - extra content or the ability to nominate and vote on books to review, choose one.
$15 - extra content and the ability to nominate and vote on books to review.

I realize the second option depends on several unsolved technical issues. Maybe start with per-review, see how it goes, and then switch to the other?

ETA2: or you could just set a minimum, say $2/month, and promise little or nothing.

Re: thinking out loud

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

$3 - you get to read one set of reviews.
$5 - you get to read both.


Do I have to learn how to make the site visible to specific people, then.

Re: thinking out loud

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

It would probably require that. Reading other people's advice about Patreon here, I think now that it makes more sense to use as few tiers as possible, and nothing that requires more effort or technology on your part. As someone said, people tend to give the amount of money they feel comfortable giving regardless of tiers.

As someone else said, Ursula Vernon asks for $1/month minimum, and that's it. Probably the most reasonable, strategic thing would be to start with $1 or $2 (I don't see why not to start with $2), with no rewards, and then add tiers later if you feel like it. But you've already got a number of people willing to pay individually for reviews, so just having a PayPal button on your site could let you do that, rather than making it a Patreon tier.

I remember at an earlier point, you said that separate streams for each review series would allow you to track how many people prefer which. It seems like there might be another, less technological way to do that, like occasional polls here.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

If you're using Wordpress, you can password-protect entries individually, and then just email the password to those who qualify for it, then edit the entry later on and make it public.