patreon

[pwalker8]

I see that another indie author, this time Marc Alan Edelheit, author of the Stiger books, has gone the Patron route. He's taking a somewhat different approach than Glynn Stewart did. He's basically giving access to the author and various goodies rather than pre-release copies of the eBook.

I signed up as a patreon for both. For me, the point isn't to get goodies, it's to make it so my favorite writers can keep putting out books for me to read. As far as I can tell, the whole point of going the patron route is to have a steady, predictable revenue stream for the author. I suspect this makes up for the advances that publishers give writers.

These two are my two main indie authors. I suspect that one aspect that makes patreon viable for both is that both price their books in the paperback price range ($6 or so) making it more likely that their fans aren't just looking for cheap books and thus more willing to shell out $5 to $10 a month to help support them. Of course, both are also quite popular.

[John F]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I see that another indie author, this time Marc Alan Edelheit, author of the Stiger books, has gone the Patron route. He's taking a somewhat different approach than Glynn Stewart did. He's basically giving access to the author and various goodies rather than pre-release copies of the eBook.

I signed up as a patreon for both. For me, the point isn't to get goodies, it's to make it so my favorite writers can keep putting out books for me to read. As far as I can tell, the whole point of going the patron route is to have a steady, predictable revenue stream for the author. I suspect this makes up for the advances that publishers give writers.

These two are my two main indie authors. I suspect that one aspect that makes patreon viable for both is that both price their books in the paperback price range ($6 or so) making it more likely that their fans aren't just looking for cheap books and thus more willing to shell out $5 to $10 a month to help support them. Of course, both are also quite popular.

I don't know about his "Stiger" books, but it looks like most of his paper books are more than $6; more like >$10.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I see that another indie author, this time Marc Alan Edelheit, author of the Stiger books, has gone the Patron route. He's taking a somewhat different approach than Glynn Stewart did. He's basically giving access to the author and various goodies rather than pre-release copies of the eBook.

I signed up as a patreon for both. For me, the point isn't to get goodies, it's to make it so my favorite writers can keep putting out books for me to read. As far as I can tell, the whole point of going the patron route is to have a steady, predictable revenue stream for the author. I suspect this makes up for the advances that publishers give writers.

These two are my two main indie authors. I suspect that one aspect that makes patreon viable for both is that both price their books in the paperback price range ($6 or so) making it more likely that their fans aren't just looking for cheap books and thus more willing to shell out $5 to $10 a month to help support them. Of course, both are also quite popular.

Those Stiger books look interesting. I checked out the first (Tales of the Seventh) from KU. We'll see if I like it.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by John F

I don't know about his "Stiger" books, but it looks like most of his paper books are more than $6; more like >$10.

Indies commonly price their paper prices fairly high. I think that's the standard print on demand price that Amazon has. Most Indies seem to be mostly digital, i.e. eBooks and Audiobooks.

[binaryhermit]

Generally isn't it cheaper per copy to print in a massive print run than to make PoD copies?

(For most indies the costs of warehousing those copies until they sell or just getting rid of them because they didn't make a massive print run unfeasable)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

Generally isn't it cheaper per copy to print in a massive print run than to make PoD copies?

(For most indies the costs of warehousing those copies until they sell or just getting rid of them because they didn't make a massive print run unfeasable)

If I understand it correctly, Amazon will print and bind a book on demand when someone orders a print book for such authors. Yes, it's a lot cheaper to do a print run, but my understanding is most indies rarely sell print books, it's just a service that Amazon offers.

From what I've observed, most indie authors who sell significant print books tend to have deals with small publishers for the print books. If you go to Michael J Sullivan's web site, he goes into a lot of detail of the business side of both being an indie and using a big publisher.