fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3266 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3266 ⌋

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I have this friend who's always pushing their Patreon and complaining how people are not willing to pay for their content, to the point that I'm slowly starting to feel like a shitty friend because I don't give them money. Like, I'm on a pretty moderate budget too, and I can't afford to donate to their Patreon for stuff that I'm not really interested in, only because they're my friend. It's not even art or anything, it's pop culture opinion pieces (which are nice, but nothing special, like mostly your average blog post honestly), and short stories (which are also nice, but not omg must have to me), and I'm not gonna pay monthly for that, I'm sorry. But they're always whining about how little money they have, and how hard it is to get people to pay for their content and support them, and it sometimes feels a little…entitled? I mean, I respect it when people try to make money with their writing and I have no problems with Patreon either, but you can't MAKE people chomp at the bit for your stuff, they either do or they don't. In my experience, it's really hard to consistently get paid for writing even if you have long experience and an established reader base.

To be fair, they are also actively looking for work so it's not as if they rely on it, but I still feel their expectations for the whole thing are maybe a little high. And the constant reminders of how much it sucks that not more of their friends are supporting them are honestly kinda grating. And yeah, I know I'm not obligated to give them money, and yeah, their financial problems are probably worse than me being annoyed at some posts, but still.

Idk, things like Gofundme and Patreon etc. might be great at times, but I feel like they've also opened up a whole lot of new avenues to guilt your online friends. I feel mean, and I'm not gonna say anything, but yeah.

Tell them people will pay what they think the product is worth, if people are paying jack shit then tell them to make the connection. If they still want to create after that, then tell them they are doing it for the art of it since the market has spoken. Capitalism, that is how it works.

Yeah. That doesn't have to be a reflection on the work. Even skilled artists have a hard time.

Why Your Music Is Worthless
(And How To Sell It Anyway)

This is actually a super easy read on economics and sell-price things (brain dead, I know there is a word specifically for that). Like, this works as a general intro to the idea of economics in whole. Thank you for sharing this!

Edited 2015-12-13 22:17 (UTC)

Microtransactions?

Not necessarily. Some people don't feel like paying regardless of quality.

Now it's possible the product is shit and nobody cares about it. But it also sounds like OP's friend doesn't know how to promote their product, or is pushing it on the wrong audience and needs to rethink their method.

Those people are the minority though. Most people will pay at the right price. Trouble is a lot of sellers, big small, and intermediate think that price ought to be higher than the market is. In that case people resort to piracy and freeloading until the price drops.

(OP)

Yeah, thanks for putting it into words. Even though I'm not a huge fan of their writing, I know others like it, so I don't think it's impossible for my friend to make money with it or anything. And they do actually have some subscribers, too! I just think they're kinda going about it the wrong way, like being too passive-aggressive about it for starters.

Do you think they're passive-aggressively doing it to you on purpose, or is it you feeling that way on your own?

I'm not sure, to be honest. I think they would probably complain regardless, but since they always complain to the same group of people (which includes me), with stuff like "How hard is it to get my friends to care about __?!", it's kinda difficult not to take it personally, or at least be very annoyed. They've always had this huge chip on their shoulder about their writing not being appreciated enough, tbh. (And as you can maybe tell, I was never all that crazy about their writing.)

Yeah, you can't really expect a handful of your friends to pay you a wage for writing a blog. Making a living off of writing and art usually requires a big audience with excess disposable income, and the economics are such that only a small fraction of society can really do it. :/

(Says someone who never even launched her Patreon because she didn't feel up to making bonus content for people.)

People like that are their own worst enemy, because even if I liked an artist's work and had the disposable income, I wouldn't want to spend it on someone who sounded that entitled.

Yeah...the remarks about their friends not supporting them...that IS entitled, no matter how you slice it, and it sounds like they're trying to guilt people, which is obnoxious.

I agree. :( It's one of the reasons why I dislike the whole Patreon and GoFundMe stuff, it's a new way for people to guilt you into giving to them.

I have a friend who opened up writing commissions, and I made the mistake of telling them flippantly that 'maybe' I'd consider commissioning them. Cue a few weeks later when they exploded on me about how I 'promised' that I'd commission them and then demanding why I hadn't yet. It just ugh, made me feel so bad. (But not to the point where I gave in, I'm not soft like that.)

as a friend you should emotionally support them, you're not obligated to support them financially.

Yeah I've got a couple of friends who go all pushy salesmarketer on things. I just wish them good luck and that I'll promo it. That's it.

You're not obligated to support them financially whether you like the work or not

[ SECRET POST #3266 ]

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