As some of you have likely seen, going around on social media, Patreon has announced that starting December 18th, they are going to be changing how they collect payments and fees from creators and patrons. Previously, patrons pledged a particular amount to a creator, and from that amount, Patreon would assess fees, which were deducted from that total before being paid out to the creator. That is, all of the fees (credit card processing etc.) were assessed after a patron gave their pledge.
That is changing.
Now, instead, some of these fees will be charged directly to patrons themselves. That is, when you make a pledge, there will be a surcharge added for each contribution (.35 cents + 2.9% of your pledge) you are making to each creator on the site. So, if you are making a five dollar pledge to a creator, that $5 dollars is now going to be 5.00 + .35 + .15 = $5.50. A one dollar pledge will be $1.38, and a $10 pledge will become $10.64.
I don’t think this is a good idea, but I can also understand why the platform is making the change. It has been difficult at times, as a creator, to know exactly how much you will be receiving each month, because fees could vary widely depending on the number of supporters you have and the size of their contributions. This shift makes it much more clear–every creator is guaranteed to receive 95% of what their supporters contribute. This, actually, is a sizable raise in what I get from the site–essentially an additional $70 dollars a month–but that’s because the cost has, essentially, been shifted to the supporters, rather than coming from the contributions I’ve collecting after they’ve been made.
That said, I know that even a small additional charge is a burden, especially for those of you who are supporting multiple creators (I myself support several, and the fees can add up quickly) and I don’t think it is particularly fair for Patreon to force these fees onto supporters. That said, there’s very little I can do to alleviate this–there’s no way to opt out, as far as I can tell, but there is one thing I can do, at least.
Starting December 18th (the day these changes take place) I’m going to be reducing the $5 and $10 tiers on my Patreon by one dollar each, to $4 and $9 respectively. I can’t do anything to help those of you at the $1 level, unfortunately, because I can’t reduce that pledge any lower, but for those of you who would be inclined to stop pledging, this will give me a way to shoulder that cost a bit. Most importantly, I urge you to keep supporting your creators! Patreon has made it possible for so many of us to help support ourselves with our art–unfair or no, I think it would be a tragedy if people pulled their support from artists, writers and musicians over the very poor choices of the platform. That said, if you are able and willing to take on these unfair fees, I salute you–I’ll be doing that for the creators I support, certainly, rather than pulling my contributions, and I would urge you all to do the same–but for those of you who can’t afford the fees, this will hopefully help a few of you manage.
Thanks again to all of you who support me, in means so much that I can write these crazy stories and also make a sizable income from it as well. If enough of you keep pledging at the current level, and push me over the $700 dollar tier, then starting in January I’ll be posting content seven days a week! What that will look like, will be five days of content like I’ve been providing, and two days a week I will do either a caption, or an interactive story of some sort, like I’ve done in the past!
If that’s content you want to see, then I hope you’ll keep pledging, but if you can’t afford the changes, I fully understand, and thank you for your support up to now.
tl;dr – Patreon is shifting fees off of creators, and onto patrons, which means your pledges will be going up. For people who would find this extra cost prohibitive, I’m dropping two of my tiers (the $5 and $10 levels) by a dollar each on December 18th to help offset these fees for those who can’t afford them. That said, this change could push me over the $700 goal line, and if it does, I’ll start producing content seven days a week in January, as promised!
I just wanted to reblog this for people who may not have seen it, and I also wanted to include a couple of links.
Second, here’s a more robust FAQ for patrons, if you’d like more details.
Bracken's Corner 