The Bush Unbeaten (The Future of This Blog)

One of my best Patreon rewards goes out to everyone who donates $3 or more. The reason is because small donors are so important to me and to what I do.

I will try not to beat around the bush. If you've been with us for a while, you know that by this time of year in other year I would be teaching summer school and kind of losing my head. And the past couple of years I've used the six weeks to do a "full court press" of trying to get more people signed up to be patrons.

Well, largely thanks to all of you, there's no more summer school. I was able to give my notice last year (which was good because they were cutting more and more corners and treating the teachers like shit). And this year (at the end of summer) I'm going to be able to hang up my leash and catnip and stop doing pet sitting. (Which was a great side-gig for a writer, but still took time away from writing.) Two years ago I was able to stop teaching night classes. And three years ago I was able to step up from one "real" post a week to two or three. Several years ago, I was able to remove ads from Writing About Writing, which gives me a bit more latitude in the kinds of things I can post but mostly just means an ad free experience and a place where I don't feel dirty for selling out. Also, I've been able to commit to making sure all of my writing is always online for free.

All of this is because of my patrons.

But I still have rent to pay and the lights to keep on I still have side gigs. I still spend 20 hours a week wrangling the wild baby. (Time I could spend writing.) I still live in a two bedroom place with three roommates. Last year my insurance and taxes went way up due to the political situation in my country. I'm still not making ends meet without side gigs, and that's where (hopefully) you come in.

I'd like to be posting more and better quality posts. I'd like to post more fiction. And I'd like to keep Writing About Writing an ad free experience. But there are some numbers I just have to hit, and right now I'm coming up short. I've got some plans in the works and a book that's cooking. And I really don't want to have to introduce ads.

Please become a Patron through PATREON.

A single dollar goes a long way. It might not seem like much, but they add up faster than you think. As much as I completely adore my big ticket patrons, my ideal donor "ecosystem" would actually consist of many many $3 patrons. It puts a lot of pressure on a big donor when they are 10% of my income. If something goes wrong in one of their lives, sometimes it takes me months to recover. I'd rather be able to roll with those punches because I have so many $3 and $5 dollar patrons. Even a single dollar (just $12 a year) will get you in on backchannel conversations, polls, and news, as well as make a difference.

Of course if you do not want to make a recurring donation (or if you just want to make it through Paypal because you don't like Patreon) you can do so here: paypal.me/WritingAboutWriting