How to Lose Patrons and Alienate People (non-fiction)

Update 3/23/2024: It wasn't my intention to set off a flame war or turn the comments section into a referendum on the author in question. I normally take a hands-off approach with the comments section, but with the caveat that people refrain from getting abusively hostile with each other. Since it looked like that was exactly where the comments section on this post was headed, I've turned the comments off. ~Eric

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So, like most people, I have a few series that I like well enough that I'm willing to shell out some money to read chapters early. Well, earlier today, I had a rather unique and, to me, baffling experience as a subscriber to someone's Patreon page. So, this other writer, who will remain unnamed by me, but who you would probably recognize if you haunt the halls of the Cultivation and LitRPG genres, basically issued a blanket "fuck you" to all of his subscribers. Said writer went on to say that they didn't write for the audience, only themselves. They didn't like the negative comments they were getting. They went on to say that didn't need the money their subscribers pay because they're making seven figures from Amazon. Then, they ended it with an invitation for everyone who doesn't like it to unsubscribe. So, I unsubscribed.

Like anyone who posts on a public (Royal Road) or quasi-public (Patreon) platform, I went into it holding firm to that sage old piece of advice that you can't please everyone all of the time. Every plot decision you make, every new character you introduce, every relationship option you open or close, right down to how your main character solves a problem in a book will inevitably piss someone off. It might even piss a lot of people off. It just goes with the territory. You can't make everyone completely happy. So, rather than focus too heavily on negative comments, I try to keep my focus on writing books that are entertaining and reserve telling someone off for specific individuals who press the limits of my tolerance.

So, it was with that mindset that I reacted to the blanket fuck you. My first thought was, it's super fucking tacky to talk publicly about how you're making seven figures from Amazon sales. Not least of all because there are probably zero people subscribed to your page who also make that kind of money. There are, however, a lot of people still struggling to make ends meet. For a lot of the people who are subscribed, that money may well be something they have to work very hard to come up with every month. Even if it means nothing to you, it means something to them. My second thought was, those negative comments you're so pissed off about are accurate. Here's a little context. The MC has basically been on a 200-chapter dungeon crawl that has produced approximately no forward motion in the actual story. The unacceptable complaints were that the dungeon crawl was dragging out for too long and that the story wasn't progressing. Granted, some people were obnoxious about it but that didn't make their comments untrue.

For a bit more context, if I were writing that way, Sen would STILL be inside the mandala from Volume 6 and you could expect that to continue on into volume 8. If I were doing that, I would expect every last one of you to be complaining to me because I'd stopped telling a story. As for that chestnut about only writing for oneself...that's crap. Every writer wants an audience the same way every actor, artist, singer, and musician wants an audience. Sure, you can do the work alone, but the work only becomes something as part of an interaction between your words/art/performance and an audience. It's ultimately a collaborative effort between my (or another writer's) imagination and the imaginations of the people reading the books.

So, I went on this big long rant so I can tell all of you that I do not take you for granted. I respect that having a subscription to this Patreon page may well be a sacrifice you're making because you love these characters and this world. I am grateful to all of the people who choose to spend their money here, rather than on all of the many, many other things that you could be spending it on, because it lets me do this as my job instead of a hobby. And while I may not respond directly to your comments/concerns, or even choose to ignore some of them because I know things about the future of the story that you don't, I do my best to read and consider all of them. So, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart...Thank you to everyone who subscribes, reads, comments on, and loves the books I'm writing. I'm literally living my dream because of you.