I've set it to the lowest monthly amount: $3 U.S. / $4.50 Canadian. I was trying to think of what kind of amount I could afford. I know money is tight for everyone.
I'm currently writing some kind trilogy based loosely around the desire for utopia:
This makes me realize I need more writing time then I've needed in the past.
If people were to sign up it would really help give me the extra time necessary to finish writing these books. For those who do so, they can read excerpts as I am writing them.
As well, as everyone knows, I'm very addicted to social media. So I'm wondering if this particular kind of addiction can help bring in any funds. (Also, a lot of people seem to be leaving social media at this moment. So Patreon could be a place for me to post things.)
In the long run I'm hoping to sign up 1,000 people. So far I'm at 2.
I know a lot of people like my books. I'm just wondering if any people like them enough to help out a bit.
“In the privacy of their own homes, away from the eyes of the Spaniards, what the Nahuatl speakers most often wrote was history. Before the conquest, they had a tradition called the xiuhpohualli (shoo-po-WA-lee), which meant “year count” or “yearly account,” even though Western historians have nicknamed the sources “annals.” In the old days, trained historians stood and gave accounts of the people’s history at public gatherings in the courtyards located between palaces and temples. They proceeded carefully year by year; in moments of high drama different speakers stepped forward to cover the same time period again, until all perspectives taken together yielded an understanding of the whole series of events. The pattern mimicked the rotational, reciprocal format of all aspects of their lives: in their world tasks were shared or passed back and forth, so that no one group would have to handle something unpleasant all the time or be accorded unlimited power all the time. Such performances generally recounted stories that would be of interest to the larger group – the rise of chiefs and later their deaths (timely or untimely), the wars they fought and the reasons for them, remarkable natural phenomena, and major celebrations or horrifying executions. Although certain subjects were favored, the texts were hardly devoid of personality: different communities and different individuals included different details. Political schisms were illustrated via colorful dialogue between leaders of different schools of thought. The speakers would sometimes even slip into the present tense as they delivered such leaders’ lines, as if they were in a play. Occasionally they would shout questions that eager audience members were expected to answer.”
– Camilla Townsend, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
People often ask me how much I make from each of my books when they sell. And it's kind of a complicated calculation, so I'm never able to answer off the top of my head. But I just thought to look it up again, and thought I would share it here (if you've asked me in the past and I've given a vague answer, here is a more precise one):
PRINTED EDITIONS:
10% of List Sales from the sale of the first 3,000 copies of printed editions of the WORK;
12.5% of List Sales from the sale of 3,001-6,000 copies of the WORK;
15% of List Sales from 6,001 or more copies of the WORK.
ELECTRONIC EDITIONS:
25% of Net Sales from the sale of all electronic editions of the WORK
AUDIO EDITIONS:
25% of Net Sales from the sale of all audio editions of the WORK
(If I understand correctly, this is all after the book has sold out it's advance. As the contract clearly says the advance "will be deducted from the author’s Royalty Commissions." As well, just to be clear, this post was not meant as a criticism. It's just a question people frequently ask me.)