New Patreon fees (Patreon)

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note about the revised fees that Patreon is charging. You probably got an email from Patreon about this two days ago. Follow the link to see their new fees, and the reason for the change.

Patreon informed us creators about their plans the day before they publicly announced the news.

It sounds like Patreon has been wrestling with some of the complexities of their business model, which is about facilitating payments from many individual donors, to many individual creators, using many individual transactions that were occurring on many different anniversary dates throughout the month.

It's a complex scenario for them to reckon with, and Patreon chose a 'one size fits all' solution to fix the problem.

In the past two days, there has been a general backlash to this move. The backlash is mostly from those who support a lot of individual creators, with a lot of small payments, especially those donating $1 per month. Cartoonist Jeph Jacques has been covering the issue comprehensively on Twitter, including initiating a phone call with Patreon's CEO earlier today.

I think Patreon was "solving" a problem that not all creators wanted  solved. They seem surprised at the negative reaction this is getting.

My hope is that they backtrack somewhat from their original plan, and give creators (or patrons) the ability to choose between different fee options. (My idea: initially charge new patrons a pro-rata payment that will cover them for the rest of the month, and then charge all future payments as bulk payments site-wide on the same monthly anniversary). Edit: actually, this model is a similar, but better option.

The impact on me personally, so far, seems to be losing 4 supporters: dropping from 82 to 78.

What do I think about all of this? Patreon is still by far the most promising method for me to fund my artwork from my readers. It still beats the majority of one-off crowdfunding platforms I have tried, as well as the treadmill of applying for arts grants.

So I will be sticking with Patreon. In fact, I am going to push even harder towards 'more published artwork, more crowdfunding' in 2018.

I think we should make sure we don't lose sight of the forest for the trees, as I think Patreon is a much better option than what existed before. I also think we should give Patreon the opportunity to respond to the backlash.

What do you think about these changes? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Post in the comments below.

As always, thanks for your ongoing support. My $10 per month+ supporters can expect to receive 4 (four!) postcards in the mail between now and New Years. And everyone can expect my new comic Notel to be released in roughly a week's time.