Fantasy-Faction has a Patreon page! For years, people have been suggesting we set something like this up, but we’ve always held off. I’ve seen Patreon as a great website for artists, but one that you need to have some great rewards or wild ambitions in order to justify.
Well, this year I’ve come to the sad, frustrating conclusion that with F-F growing and with so much demand for more varied content and events we need a pot of money to draw from. As it stands, we can continue delivering our kickass content, running a Grim Gathering once every year or two, but I have a vision for a bigger site and one that reaches even more people via even more means.
We’ve thought for a long time about doing a Podcast, I’d love to be able to travel to authors, agents and publishers and do some professional quality video interviews with them and share their insight with readers and writers around the world. Then there are events, Fantasy-Faction was so, so close to running a huge event this June – that we could have streamed for Internationals – but it fell through when we couldn’t afford a venue. How about a yearly Oscars-like awards system? Where we have categories such as “Best Character” or “Best Magic System” in addition to “Best Novel”?
The problem is… I don’t like charging people money for content and I’ve always kept away from working with publishers on a business basis (i.e. charging a publisher for advertising space or anything similar). I think it is important that Fantasy-Faction remain a free community and also that we remain independent: in my opinion, it would not be right to review a book that we are being paid to advertise. How could you trust a word we say on it?
So, that’s where Patreon comes in. Regular users who like all these concepts will be able to support us in making them a reality. How I’ve set the Patreon Page up is that should we reach $x per month, the site with evolve into a new version and something cool will happen:
- Version 2.0 will see a monthly podcast.
- Version 3,0 will bring author/editor/agent videos.
- Version 4.0 means a couple of events per year.
- Version 5.0 will see Fantasy-Faction’s annual awards launched.
I realise that asking anyone to invest their hard earned cash into a website is a big ask and I will never insist upon money being handed over to access Fantasy-Faction. The reason I started the site was to promote great fantasy books and amazing authors bring people together to talk about the genre and tempt newer readers to check it out. If you can spare $1/$2.50/$5.00 a month to help us achieve some of the above, there are some cool rewards on offer and we will be eternally grateful to you for helping us achieve our goals. Indeed, you will also be able to take pride in the fact you’ve helped Fantasy-Faction reach a new level and even more users as the new content begins to get released.
Thanks for reading and I hope you are as excited as I am to be contemplating Fantasy-Faction Podcasts, Videos, Events and Awards! Here’s that Patreon link one more time: https://www.patreon.com/FantasyFaction?ty=h
Geoff Matthews
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
I think it’s a good idea. All the best to getting the funds and reaching Version 5.0.
[…] The interview also includes a shout out for the splendid people at Fantasy Faction, who have just launched a new Patreon which Marc hopes will allow them to do bigger and better things with what is already a bloody excellent site – I recommend you go there, see what they’re up to, and back it! […]