The Patreon model and what it means for authors and readers (2025)

I've seen a lot of talk lately about how to use the patronage model to write books. I've seen lots of authors who run Kickstarter campaigns for their books, hoping for a huge success like Brandon Sanderson's, which raised 15M in one day. I see authors who set up a Patreon, where for 1$ a month you can be the recipient of free stories and early book access. Author Brian Niemeier is going whole-hog with his own Patreon:

As one of my cherished patrons, here’s what you can expect:

Free books
The lower tiers offer free copies of my select eBooks. Signed print copies become available at higher tiers. Subscribe at the highest level to get one of my print books, signed, every month.

Exclusive posts
In addition to my regular blogging here at Kairos, I’ll be posting regularly on Patreon. Subscribe to get access.

Patron-only Discord Q&As
Fans of Geek Gab and my guest appearances on other live streams will be glad to hear of my return to regular streaming. I’ll be holding a live AMA each month on Discord to talk shop, pop culture, or whatever else the chat asks about. Server access is for patrons only. $10 a month secures your ongoing reservation for the live chat. $50 gets you a recurring seat as my co-host on the panel. Save your spot now.

Private group chat
For those newpub whiz kids who want more direct, focused face time with me, there will also be a monthly hour-long group chat. If you want to discuss the ins and outs of the writing business, brainstorm book ideas with fellow pros, or talk marketing strategy with a #1 bestseller, this is your chance. So take it now.

And of course, no neopatronage service would be complete without …

Direct patronage
This is it, the heart and soul of neopatronage. Maybe you’ve reviewed my books on Amazon, given me feedback on Twitter, or even claimed a Build-a-Mech perk on Indiegogo. All are varying degrees of reader input. But now, for the first time, I’m going full Willy Wonka and opening the doors of my story factory to avid readers who are ready to become elite patrons.

Tired of waiting for the Amazon launch to read my books? For just 25 bucks a month, not only will you get to read my captivating tales before anyone else – even Indiegogo backers – you’ll get alpha-level access to my projects before they’re even done!

Brian Niemeier, Soul Cycle Books

This kind of business model makes me squirm a little bit. How is a new reader supposed to interact with this author if all of their media is locked behind a paywall? With XTwitter being more and more paywall oriented, and the other platforms also squeezing off the media of anyone who doesn't cough up, it's harder and harder to reach new people.

Also, isn't the sale of a book enough? Why do authors need to double- and triple-dip when it comes to their fans' generosity? Newsflash: authors aren't actually that interesting. The behind the scenes stuff is only of interest to a fraction of a percent of hardcore fans. This sort of model is only viable to the superbestsellers, not the little guys just starting out.

I was interested to read a similar argument on Deviantart. Of all the artists I follow, exactly one of them routinely locks his dragon art behind a paywall or a subscribers-only wall. So he asked,

Why don't people like subscriptions?

I used them even when they were in beta access. ... At the same time I noticed that some people here earned 20-30+ subscribers. I never saw more than 34-35. What is wrong with dA's system? And how you think what we, artists, can do to get subscribers here?

The artist got lots of responses, but this one sums them up:

I'm not going to pay money to basically look through an art gallery. As an artist myself, why should I have to pay money to view other people's art… on a social media platform that's supposed to be for artists to share their works?
I won't pay for something that used to be free. I'm not paying just for the privilege of 'looking' at something. I pay for the right to 'own' something. I don't care how good you are.

This site was supposed to be for people to freely give eachother advice and enhance eachother's skills through social communication.

Read the whole sordid discussion here

The paywall artist asked, "But artists have a right to make money, too," to which people replied, "Then take commissions."

When applied to authors, this boils down to "write books we want to read and sell them on every store".

Discoverability for our books is as tough as it always was. No matter what new tools or tricks pop up, the best way to sell books is still word of mouth. That's why Christians trying to cancel Harry Potter rocketed it into the stratosphere, where it sits to this day. You can't beat word of mouth advertising like the kind that was leveraged against Harry Potter.

But when you take a middle of the road book, or two or three, and lock most of your marketing behind a paywall, this seems counter productive to me. Sure, locking your private discord behind a paywall means fewer trolls get in, but it also means very few other people get in, too.

The Realm Makers conference has most of their social media presence built on Facebook. But as Facebook gets more and more restrictive, they've moved their main presence to Mighty Networks ... and locked it behind a paywall. Sure, you can go there and look at posts and reply to posts, but only paying members can make a new thread. This has led to a stale backwater with no new conversation and no new blood. I don't think it's a viable way to run a business.

Anyway, I don't have any answers to this. I've always tried to smooth the path from potential readers to my work as much as possible, providing multiple access points (art, comics, book ads, talking about my work, etc.). It just seems like career suicide to slam a giant paywall right in the middle of that path I've been trying to smooth.

Also I know this is basically heresy to post on Substack, the major paywall site, but … yeah, it’s something I’ve been contemplating.

The Patreon model and what it means for authors and readers (2025)
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