How Long Does Patreon Submit for Review Take?

12/18/14: An updated version of this post is available here.

We launched our ClarkesworldMagazine Patreon page virtually three months ago. In that time, I've heard from a lot of authors and editors who were interested in their service, but non certain if it was right for them. The requests have been picking up, so…

 What is Patreon?

In their words:

Founded in May 2013 and based in San Francisco, California, Patreon was created to enable fans to support and engage with the artists and creators they love. Empowering a new generation of creators, Patreon is bringing patronage back to the 21st century.

In mine:

Patreon is a cross between subscriptions and Kickstarter. Dissimilar Kickstarter, Patreon doesn't focus on a ane-fourth dimension project. It'southward aimed at fundraising for long-term projects that include recurring creations, similar bug of a magazine or episodes of a podcast. In our case, your Patreon pledge is a per-issue contribution to the magazine.

Why Patreon instead of PayPal?

1. Patreon'southward Patron Manager provides a nice and reliable interface that allows me to manage, track, and communicate with our supporters. I could probably build something similar, only the amount of time I'd have to invest (programming and supporting) is too meaning. My fourth dimension is improve spent on the mag.
2. Yes, PayPal tin collect recurring payments on set intervals. If y'all miss a month, PayPal still charges them. Not then with Patreon. This isn't much of an issue for us, but I know it does bear upon others I've spoken to.
3. Not everyone likes PayPal. In that location are people out in that location that are violently opposed to using their services in any way. Patreon supports credit cards and PayPal.
4. You can do both. We nonetheless accept one-time donations via PayPal. Having choices is adept.

What do you lot think so far?

Like whatsoever fundraising there are going to be pros and cons:

Cons:

1. Discoverability. My only major complaint. The odds of someone browsing Patreon's site and discovering y'all are very slim. The search tools are very basic (and only work confronting the title of your projection) and the featured creators and artists on their dwelling page change rarely, if ever. They could acquire a lot from Kickstarter's approach when it comes to finding and featuring content.
   Note: They are working on this. Recently creators were asked to select categories their projects fit into. The options are not as detailed as I would take liked, but it is definitely a stride in the right direction.
2. Payment processing. I know I'g being picky on this 1, just since Patreon pledges are processed per-creation and charges practical run at the end of the calendar month, you tin can run into serious timing bug. For example. If we postal service new "paid" content on the first of the month, anyone signing upwardly on the second will not be billed until the terminate of the following calendar month. That means it could take upward to two months for their rewards to boot in. That confuses people. To get effectually it, I made the final podcast of the calendar month our paid content instead of the new effect announcement. This change causes the majority of new Patrons to accept their reward get-go the next month. I suppose they could add something that would let a Patreon to pledge support starting every bit of the first of the month or with the most contempo paid creation, simply that's probably as well disruptive as well. It'southward the whole do I commencement a subscription with the electric current issue or next consequence argue. If you lot aren't providing rewards, this probably isn't equally big a deal.
3. New. I've had to explain Patreon to a lot of people. Instead of focusing on marketing our presence there, I've had to convince people they are a trustworthy organization. This volition laissez passer as more than people hear about them. Certainly zilch I tin fault them for.

Pros:

1. Support and service. They've been fantastic to work with and unlike many companies, they appear to be very open to customer feedback. Everyone I've spoken with there is on top of their game. There have been several software updates and each has been flawless. Heck, they even negotiated a better rate with their payment processor and passed forth the savings.(My groundwork is in technology. Information technology takes a lot to impress me.)
2. Growing community. I've noticed a lot of new projects launch on Patreon in the concluding iii months. As things motion forwards, I believe discoverability will somewhen find its way to the Pros list and when that happens, in that location volition be a marketing benefit for all of usa every bit our Patrons discover what else is out there.
3. We're getting paid. We currently have pledges of just over $200 per issue and we take been receiving payments. It may not sound similar a lot (particular compared to some of the YouTube-based projects earning thousands per episode), but information technology does boost our bottom line and as helps. At this point, I remain optimistic about the service and information technology's ability to get a meaning source of revenue for the magazine.
4. Opportunity. I've said most of it higher up, but I also believe there is some do good for the field. Literary projects are however a small percentage of what's on Patreon. I retrieve we're on the leading edge of something that volition only grow in size as more from the science fiction community notice it.

Closing Thoughts

It should be fairly obvious by at present that I'g optimistic well-nigh Patreon and our hereafter with them. While I exercise accept some issues, I believe they can (or will be) worked resolved in timely fashion. While I highly recommend their service, to run across value from it, you will have to heavily market your presence in that location. It's not all that different from tossing a book up on Amazon. This isn't magic.

That said:
Visit patreon.com/clarkesworld and sign up to become i of Clarkesworld's patrons today!

Questions? Comments?

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Source: http://neil-clarke.com/patreon-three-months/

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