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Covid 19 and Charity (Patreon)

Published:
2020-03-30 18:12:30
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Covid 19 has hammered the world. Like, seriously, just put entire economies to a stop, put at least 20% of people out of work. Taken lives and forced a LOT of people to risk their lives, sometimes for not a lot of money.

Canada has done really, really well at helping people out. Or will be once the website is up. I'm super happy with our government, which is something I have heard from most people up here.

I've also seen a lot of charitable things happen. Giving away books free, giving music free, doing readings, etc.

My initial reaction was to do the same, but another author friend pointed out that all these free books also do another thing - they hurt the income of authors who might be struggling to make ends meet with the sudden changes. That... put me on hold.

I'm still taking part in a sale on Monday / Tuesday for A Gamer's Wish. I'm pledged to give away at least half my earnings. 

And that's where this post comes in.

I'm committing to give away at least the entirety of the series sales (Hidden Wishes) for March. That amounts roughly to around US$700 at the present moment. 

The question right now is where. Some of the options that have come to mind:

- Food banks & other charities. Advantage is they make your dollar stretch significantly more.

- Direct to readers / fan base. This is likely to be in allotments of I don't know... $200 or so. It'll help some people who need it, but it won't pay a mortgage bill. So... more good, and it's to people I know (sort of). The negative is that I'd have to ask for details to some extent to screen out people who are in need and those who are just idiots (not that I expect a lot, but it always pays to check).

- To a registered charity like the SFWA's who have a Covid 19 fund. That'll help other authors who are desperately in need of help, especially when editing jobs and other things dry up. Again, it's a specific smaller group but the advantage is they're a registered charity. So... yay(?)

- More generic charities for first responders, healthcare professionals, etc... 

The list goes on. I'm not entirely sure which way to go. 

I'm assuming that since most of you are still here and not deleted your Patreon accounts, you can afford to give a little to money. Which I guess puts you in a similar position to be able to understand my concern.

So. 

Recommendations? Suggestions? Where should I donate? Love to hear from you guys.

Comments

Kusarscout

My recommendation would be charities like SFWA that have a fund for authors that are being massively impacted by covid-19. Alternatively, you could choose to help other registered charities or action agencies (those tend to be places that run various help programs like food banks, help with rent/utilities, etc.).

Han Pol

I likely live to far away from canada but am also mostly happy with my goverments response so far. Personally I think that food banks are the best options with the hoarders , these food banks have problems getting their stuff to help the ones already at the bottom of society at least were I live that is the case to some extend. While most non big name authors who don't live from selling paperbacks will not really be that badly affected by the crisis at least I guess that authors like you, who sell their books over amazon aren't to badly affected by the curent crysis.

Tao Wong

I'm an anomaly among authors. Most authors I know have seen at least 20-30% drops in sales - some up to 100% (dystopian / post-apoc stuff has been hit hard). There's some indication things are normalising and sales are going up, but a lot of authors who were on the fences of f/t or who had other jobs are getting hurt badly. F/T authors are rare. F/T authors who make their living entirely off their books and aren't indie are even rarer. And f/t authors who can take a 30% drop are even rarer. I'm lucky that I have substantial savings from my old career, great readers and am in a genre that is somewhat insulated. Having 20 books out makes a big difference too. I can weather a long drought (especially 'cause we live up here where things are relatively cheap). But yeah, I'm not 'normal'.

Kyle J Smith

I would think food banks or the SFWA fund as that would have the most impact.

Han Pol

Ah thanks for clearing my misconception up, I guess i follow mostly non normal authors then.

Tao Wong

The LitRPG group of authors are all doing relatively well, mostly due to how hot the demand is. I think the fact that a large % of readers are geeks (and thus their work isn't affected) helps too. But even then, I know some who have discussed problems privately. Few people want to discuss negative things in public, for understandable reasons.

Chong Go

Food banks seem like a good choice, in that they'll get a lot for a dollar. Off topic, I'm certainly glad to get a bit of distraction a month early! Thanks! I'd suspect that this is going to do a lot for ebook sales (no-contact delivery, cheaper, faster, etc,) but who knows. Sales are always down in a big politics year, and this one has them all beat for crazy. I'm trying to limit myself to no more than 30 minutes of news per day. More than that and I don't do so well.

Tao Wong

Yeah, that is very true on the politics year. Add the big event, and for a long while, there's going to be a dry period in the start and then again during the election run-up. It'll be insane