How Patreon is funding a new generation of writers

The writing industry can be harsh. One way or another, the market is limiting and unfair for writers. Whether it be monetary reasons or writing freedom reasons, writers are often handicapped one way or another. Patreon can help solve these issues, allowing for a way for writers to be independent with their work.

Good writers will bring in views to a publication, but is it worth it if the writer is unable to tap into their desired style and create the content they’re wanting to? Working at a publication – whether as a blogger, journalist or creative writer – puts the writers in a box that fits the mold of the publication to provide the work that best suits the publication instead of the writer’s talents.

How writers are able to monetize their work

There is a way for a great writer to monetize their own work, however, with Patreon. They’re able to put their work behind a paywall. This also allows the writer to become their own boss, unlocking all creative control to write the way they want to write.

Holding creative control over your own work can be invaluable to writers, as a part of the reason people get into the industry is to share their work with others, not write what a publication wants. Through places like https://fanscout.com/category/writers/patreon writers are able to easily fund their work throughout a longer period time with full autonomy.

Patreon offers writers different ways to monetize their work. Readers can either pay per story if they want to get niche work, or the writer can offer a subscription-based model to offer all their work under a flat rate.

Benefits of a subscription model

The monthly subscription model may be the best for writers. They can offer different tiers – those being the Lite, Pro and Premium plans. This allows for them to offer different levels of content, opening more avenues to scale in revenue.

This system works for a variety of writers. Sports journalists and writers are a market of creators that can thrive on Patreon. They can offer a base tier of sports reporting and upgrade their coverage for each tier of supporters.

Sports reporters naturally build their social media platforms, as sports fans look to these writers and reporters as a channel to get the news. These writers can then funnel the traffic to their Patreon channels to provide a deeper level of coverage and analysis by putting it behind a paywall.

If sports writers can properly direct their social media traffic, they can then double down on their coverage, using more premium tiers to add a show or video content to make the content more digestible for readers and fans.

This doesn’t just go for sports writers, though. If a creative writer or blogger is deciding to release a book on top of their typical blogging, they can begin using the tiers to release snippets of the said book or bring on guests in their niche of writing for exclusive interviews.

Helping with distribution

Another benefit writers get from using Patreon to publish their work is an email list, making the distribution to readers that much easier, allowing readers to either seek the content or let it hit their inbox.

All-in-all, Patreon is a great platform and provides an opportunity for writers in any niche to jump to independent coverage, allowing them full creative control and the ability to control how much money they make. Those wishing to expand their skill set – adding in a podcast or video content – get their own platform to test out those mediums while earning for their work. Breaking the mold of editors controlling content or being held back by a publication and guidelines, creators can unlock their full potential by building a community and receiving feedback when creating for a certain audience.