Thanks for mentioning me and my works in your post! Just a note — your link to me is broken… my personal website is https://www.mattselznick.com.

I've always been pretty open about my income as a creator who utilizes neo-patronage, among other models.

I haven't done the big overview for 2009 yet, but you can check out how I've fared in 2008. I can tell you without doing the tally that, like 2008, I didn't make even a fraction of a living wage from my creative endeavors alone, despite the fact that I released far more original content in the last year than in the previous.

Based on some conversations with some of my peers, we're coming to recognize that depending entirely upon our audience to compensate us for the works they enjoy is not viable. People still do not connect the positive experience of enjoying a story (in any form) with the months or years of effort that went into making that experience possible… which is a shame.

So the answer? It's counter-intuitive, but one answer may be to charge for more stuff.

For my own part, everything I create has several for-pay options and at least one free option… and I will always maintain that free option in the future. And I'll try to be louder when I preach the necessity of compensating creative endeavors.

Best,

Matthew Wayne Selznick
Creator