Have you heard of Patreon? They are a cross between subscriptions and Kickstarter. Their purpose is to enable fans to support and engage with content producers. It’s become quite popular with people that regularly produce free content (podcasts, YouTube channels, etc.) and I think it has a lot to offer the publishers of online magazines.
Clarkesworld has always accepted donations, but this portion of our income has always been erratic and unstable at best. It is almost impossible to plan around a year’s worth of donations, so instead, it becomes the rainy day or special projects fund.
Patreon’s model is based on recurring pledges. Basically, it’s a monthly subscription and that’s a model that works extremely well for a magazine. You can plan around that and it fits our existing infrastructure beautifully. It also allows us to provide another option to the people who want to support us, but have no interest in ebooks. We’ve heard from several people that fit that profile, so…
Clarkesworld Magazine now has a Patreon account and it is fully integrated into our citizenship program. (Don’t know what that is? Details on our Patreon page.) We’ve also established a goal that, when reached, will add another story to each issue of the magazine. Yes, this is in addition to the same offer we’ve made in regards to our digital subscriptions at Amazon, Apple, Google Play and Weightless.
Check out our page and let me know what you think.
A.C. Wise
Being one of those people who isn’t particularly interested in ebooks, I think it’s a brilliant idea. I hope other publications sign on. Giving people more options for supporting your work is never a bad idea.