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Create a patronage tier

The tier that works is the one you can still send in the month everything goes wrong. Write that one first, price it honestly, and add a second only when the first is easy.

20 min 4 steps

The walk

4 steps

  1. Decide what a patron actually gets

    Be specific and be small. "A letter about what is on the bench, on the first Monday of the month" beats "exclusive access to my creative process", and it is a thing you can actually do.

  2. Price it against your worst month

    A few dollars a month, times the number of people who like you enough. If a tier only works when you have time, it is priced wrong, not written wrong.

  3. Write it in your own voice

    Patrons are choosing you, not a product. Say what it is, how often it arrives, and what it is not. Honesty about frequency prevents almost every cancellation.

  4. Publish it and tell your buyers

    The tier sits on your storefront under your work. The people most likely to say yes are the ones who have already bought something, so write to them first.

Good to know

  • Say how often something arrives, and then be early rather than late. Frequency is what patrons actually judge you on.
  • Announce a tier to the people who have already bought from you before you announce it anywhere else.

What to promise

Tiers that survive contact with a real year

The studio note

One letter a month. Cheapest tier, most patrons, least work, and the one that keeps people longest.

Work in progress

The sketch, the test, the draft, sent with the note. Costs you nothing but a photograph.

Something in the post

Quarterly, not monthly. Twelve parcels a year is a job; four is a pleasure.

The demos

For musicians and filmmakers, the things that never came out, sent with the note. The releases themselves stay free for anybody to stream.

A room

A monthly call or a critique. Small, expensive, and the tier patrons value most.

Not this

Anything you would have to invent from scratch each month. It works twice and then it becomes the reason you dread the first Monday.

Next

A studio shop corner — a shelf of numbered prints in cellophane, a stamp and ink pad, a stack of flat mailers

How it works

Open a storefront

From approved to your first thing listed
A printmaker sealing a stack of identical envelopes with handwritten names, a small letterpress print peeking from each

Feature

Patronage

Monthly support with something behind it
A writer at a kitchen table with a typewriter and a stack of stapled zines, a mug, morning light

Who it's for

Writers

Chapbooks, zines, serialised work, illustrators

Questions, answered

How many tiers should I have?
One, until it is easy. Three is the most anybody needs, and the middle one is usually the one everybody picks.
Can I offer a yearly price?
Yes. It is billed once and renews once, and it is what people who hate email choose.
What if I have to skip a month?
Tell your patrons before the billing date, and say when the next one comes. Taking a tier off your page stops new patrons joining, not the billing of the ones already on it, so the telling is the part that counts. Nobody minds an honest skip; everybody minds silence.

Next

Open a storefront

From approved to your first thing listed

40 min 5 steps

Upload a release

One upload, a stream and a price list

45 min 4 steps

Set up payouts

Fifteen minutes with Stripe, once

15 min 4 steps

Write one tier this week

Ask the people who have already bought from you. They are the ones who say yes.

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