As always, if this is the wrong forum, let me know what would be a better forum. (Also, is it actually possible to move a thread too a different forum, or do I just delete and repost elsewhere?) So I have seen some fan writers who have Patreons. This is somewhat interesting to me as I am a fan writer and I am underemployed and would like money. Is there anyone where who is both a) a writer or fan writer b) who has a Patreon c) who would like to answer some questions about Patreon? I am thinking of maybe starting a Patreon, and kicking it off to my Occasional Attempt to Do Nanowrimo. So questions: While I do have a donation thingie via Paypal on my blogs, Patreon seems a little more officially getting paid to write fanfic, which to my understanding is Bad and Wrong. How does this work legally? From my understanding, it's possible to make some things available only through Patreon. Is it like one of those pay-to-read sites? How difficult is it to set up Patreon, and how do I get the entirely theoretical money?
(I'm an artist, not a writer, so I'm not answering the writing-specific questions) You make "creator posts" on patreon with whatever content you want. You can designate how public or restricted each individual post is. You can make a post that anyone who visits your patreon page can see, or a post that only patrons can see (regardless of how much they pledged), or a post that only people who pledged (for example) $5 and up can see, and so on. You can post art, audio files, documents, links to dropbox folders, put your fanfic in the text of the post itself, etc. It's not "pay to read" in the sense that readers would pay for the ability to read fics/posts individually. They pledge a certain amount either monthly or per post you make (you as the artist choose which of those options your patrons can do), and then they get access to all posts available to that pledge tier - both retroactively and for all future posts - as long as they stay your patron. Patreon is easy to set up, IMO. It's a step-by-step process the site automatically guides you through. I recommend looking at Patreon pages by other fic writers to see what sorts of rewards they offer for different tiers and what their pledge goals are, because those will be the hardest things to decide on. Money is pledged monthly or per post you upload. After signing up, each patron is charged automatically at the end of each month, unless they cancel their patronage. You can choose which of your financial accounts your Patreon deposits to (your debit account, your savings account, your paypal, etc), and you can choose whether Patreon automatically transfers that stored money to your outside account, or whether you have to manually transfer it. I recommend fully setting up the page and asking several friends to look at it before you announce it anywhere or link to it. Uploading a video (they have some guides on this) about your patreon (why you're doing it, what the rewards are, and so on) is recommended, as it is apparently statistically correlated to higher success levels in getting pledges.
I don't have a patreon myself, but I should warn you that AO3 does not want you to link to or even mention your patreon anywhere on AO3/in your fics/in your author's notes. Here's an in-depth explanation.
