ncase
patreon
My Books 2018 + Reflecting on 4yrs on Patreon
🕑 Added 2019-01-01 12:01:01 +0000 UTCCan I just say how amazing public libraries are? Just the fact they exist? Anyway, I read 67 books in 2018, and here's the three that changed me the most:
📖 The Most Meaningful Books I Read In 2018 [8 min read]
You know what else I'm super grateful exists? You! Awww stop blushing, you know I mean it. You supporters literally pay for my bread and butter (well, brown rice and beans) and gift me space, time, and resources to be creatively autonomous.
Speaking of which, it's been exactly FOUR YEARS since I joined Patreon! Might be a good time to reflect. You may have noticed I still leave up how much I'm make a month on my Patreon page. (Other creators I know & respect hide their income, for understandable privacy reasons. Internet randos can be weird about money.) I'm not doing this out of “transparency”: I'm an individual, not a non-profit/corporation/politician.
Rather, I'm doing this because I want to help other creators make an informed decision about whether to use Patreon. (or other crowdfunding platforms)
However, the number on my page only shows my current $/mo, and doesn't show the long, bumpy road leading up to it.
Here's a graph of my long, bumpy road, starting from when I signed up 4 years ago:
As you can see, it took me 31 months to get my Patreon to just a sustainable level. (Cost of living is high where I'm living, but I may move to a cheaper town in 2019)
For many creators, waiting 31 months may not be an option. I was lucky in that I had savings + freelance gigs + the Knight/Mozilla OpenNews Fellowship supporting me during most of 2015 and 2016. So, if you're an aspiring artist considering Patreon, I highly recommend having a job/freelance/stable source of income for the first few years. And honestly the thing that pushed my Patreon to “sustainable” level was an unusual fluke. That's the huge bump in July 2017.
And what was that fluke? Well, here's the same graph, with my projects overlaid on top:
I launched my Patreon a week after Vi Hart and I released Parable of the Polygons. There were a couple projects for the next year. Then, starting October 2016, I promised myself to try to release one small project per 3 months – which I actually kept up! First We Become What We Behold, then To Build A Better Ballot, then LOOPY, one mini-project Fireflies, and then...
...my fluke: The Evolution of Trust.
I did not expect that one to get popular. It was half an hour long (an eternity for internet attention-spans) had relatively little interactivity (it's all buttons and sliders) and was on a fairly niche, technical subject. And yet, that project was the tipping point that let my Patreon go from “just-in-case side-hustle”, to “holy crap, I can actually survive off this.”
As of writing, you all are generously gifting me $3,452/month. While this feels more than enough for me, I acknowledge and understand this can't support everyone's life. I don't have children or a mortgage. I, gratefully, don't have any costly illnesses. I don't even have any student debt to pay off! (Canadian colleges are cheaper, and besides, I dropped out) To be fair, I'm making some potentially pound-foolish decisions like not having healthcare. But anyway, if you have a higher financial need, you may want to get “a real job” instead of being an internet panhandler like me.
Alternatively, you could draw porn and make $9,000/month on Patreon.
(Seriously, I am so tempted to start a porn patreon. Pay me $50/mo and I'll draw lewds of your polygon-sona)
Anyway, in summary:
If you're an artist, gamedev, or other kind of creator and considering using Patreon, I hope this post gave you an info-splash of useful realism! Patreon's been a lifesaver for me personally, but I had to have 31 months of runway + have low financial needs + get a viral fluke. Ultimately, you have to decide if Patreon (or some other crowdfunding) is right for you.
If you're one of my supporters, thank you so so so much for gifting me the freedom to make weird internet things! If you're a fan who can't give money, that's absolutely okay, giving feedback, encouragement, and shares is incredibly valuable too! (I genuinely mean that: feedback makes my projects better, shares are what help me build an audience in the first place)
Either way, thank you so much for sticking with me through 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018... and I'll see y'all again in 2019. 🎆🎇🎆
<3,
~ Nicky Case
Comments
Nicky Case
Hi Andre! And yes sorry I've been behind on that – I'll send out an email to the peep-backers next week asking for reference pics so I can badly draw a peep of you. Thank you for your patience!
Nicky Case
Good observation & question! It may be disguised because I also released a new project in Dec 2017 (Joy.js) which brought in new peeps while others left at the same time due to the Fee Fiasco? Not sure!
Eric Willisson
Thank you for sharing! One thing I notice is that the Patreon fee change at the end of 2017 that was quickly rolled back doesn't seem to show up much on your graph - if I have the time right, it might be correlated with a period of flat subscriptions, or not even that. Obviously it's hard to say what that means, but from what I remember when it first happened, "it's unremarkable a year later" did not look likely.
Andre Latchman
Thanks for sharing you list Nicky! How do I get my badly drawn peep?
Nicky Case
Wow, that's surprisingly and honoring to hear Evolution of Trust is actually part of an organization's *onboarding process*. I hope my game's helpful, and thank you again so much!
Mayank Jain
Beautiful! Fun Fact: One of the co-working spaces in India, 91Springboard uses "The Evolution of Trust" as part of their team onboarding process! I was amazed when I heard that when my wife joined the company. I told her, yeah I know about that game. I am one of the Patreon :) Good stuff! Looking forward to your work in 2019! Cheers! All the very best!
Jerry Michalski
Super helpful, Nicky. Thank you. I'm on that long, low stretch of the Patreon curve...
Crimson Sun
This was both insightful and reassuring. Thanks for taking the time to make this post.
Monster Mansion
You're welcome! (haha - crowdsourced healthcare plans are clearly the only reason people make art :P)
Jonathan
(My support is like 99% because of the better ballot thing; I haven't viewed most of the other things.)
Tigran Hakobyan
You're amazing so please continue producing great content. There are some days when I spend hours on your site :)
Nicky Case
And thank *you* for supporting me! <3 (Next goal after "rent and food" – having an actual healthcare plan???)
Monster Mansion
Thanks for sharing this, it is very helpful and cool to see! Yay for paying rent from being an artist xD
