I talk a lot about how to best support creators on here, mostly because a lot of the content consuming public doesn't actually know the ins and outs of how their activity translates into funding for those artists they like. And this week I wanted to remind everyone that if you want to keep the creators you like in business, the best thing you can do is give money to them directly. It doesn't have to be a lot, but services like Patreon, Ko-Fi, etc. are your best bet when it comes to making sure your favorites can keep food in the cupboard and rent covered from month-to-month.
Incidentally, folks who get to the end of this and decide they want to help fund my efforts are encouraged to check out The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page in addition to my Ko-Fi!
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| Seriously, every little bit helps! |
Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
Eyeballs Versus Donations
When most of us think of supporting the creators we love, we think about following them on social media, sharing their posts, buying their books, reading their blogs/articles, or watching their YouTube videos. And all of that is helpful, don't get me wrong... but it's not always as helpful as just handing the artist you love a tip and saying, "You do good work, champ, keep it up!"
And to illustrate this point, I'd like to throw some numbers at folks.
- YouTube pays roughly $3-$5 per 1,000 video views.
- Spotify pays roughly $0.04 per every 10 streams (meaning you need more than 200 streams just to earn $1)
- Vocal (where I put articles like 5 Tips For Playing Better Evil Characters) pays $6 per 1k reads if you're a Vocal+ member. Half that if you use the free version.
- Sales for an RPG product like 100 Cults to Encounter can range from $0.15 to $0.40 each.
- Sales for a novel like my sword and sorcery tale Crier's Knife range from $2-$4 each.
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| Now ask how popular something would need to be to pay your rent. |
Looking at this, there's no denying that your eyeballs and activity have value as a member of an audience. However, even if you leave a video, stream, or channel on all day, you probably didn't earn that creator more than a handful of nickels. Even if you spent hours every day digging through a blog or article archive reading everything you found, it would be worth maybe a couple of dimes. Even buying a copy of three dozen RPG supplements, or an arm load of novels, would only earn that creator a couple bucks.
Incidentally, this is the reason so many individuals have sponsors for their work. Even I was lucky enough to get a sponsor for my article How To Build The Catachan Jungle Fighters in The Pathfinder RPG, and that sponsorship was really the only meaningful payment I received for putting that guide together.
Now, does that mean you shouldn't listen to music by bands you like, watch YouTube videos of creators you enjoy, or read blogs? Absolutely not! We all create this content for it to be enjoyed by people like you. However, in order for traffic alone to pay our bills we would need a truly massive audience who were all tuning in and reading/listening/watching every single day, sharing the links on their socials and making sure our signal got boosted to hell and back.
Most of us don't have that. We probably never will, no matter how hard we work.
Direct Support is What's Most Effective
Do you have $1 you could spare to help keep a creator whose work you enjoy flowing? For most of us out there (even those of us with very limited budgets) the answer is probably yes. We could scrounge 4 quarters from the couch, and pass that along to an artist we love.
We could. But most of us don't.
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| So come on... help a fellow out here? |
Consider this. I have just over 800 people following my Neal F. Litherland Facebook page at time of writing. That's really not a lot of followers for a professional creator. However, if every person who has elected to follow me all went to my Patreon page and pledged $1 a month, my monthly bills would go from, "Making me sweat bullets as I struggle to make ends meet," to, "Everything's paid for, I can actually save a little bit, and maybe splurge on a pizza on game night."
Hell, if even half of the people on that page all became $1 patrons, my bills would be covered. Things would still be close, but I would worry far less than I do now. I might even be able to take my foot off the gas a little bit to work on larger projects that don't have a 1-month turnaround because I could financially survive long enough to get new novels, RPG campaign paths, or equally big projects finished and ready for my readers to check out.
Again, the lesson here is not that we should all stop streaming music, watching videos, or reading blogs. Rather that we need to all acknowledge that if we really want to help the creators we love actually cover their bills that it's better to just give them a little tip, in addition to watching, listening, sharing their content on social media, buying merch when you can, etc.
Because it just makes the bigger impact... even if all you're giving is pocket change.
Also, before I forget, if you haven't subscribed to the Azukail Games YouTube channel yet, please do so! Audio dramas, world building, game discussions, and more are going on over there, and we're trying to get the thing monetized by the end of the year. We need 1k people and 4k hours of watched time in the past year, and we're nowhere near that level.
Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!
That's all for this week's Business of Writing!
If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!
If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!
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