Rerun: 17th Century Patronage to 21st Century Kickstarters

How artists make their living

Today is the last day of school!

I bet my students don’t know Alice Cooper’s song, but it’s been running through my head for the last two days. Summer break means more time for writing, relaxing, and family time. It’s been a hard push and I’m beyond relieved! A very special thanks to my husband for putting up with, and supporting, the stress ball that has been me for the last month and a half. Here’s to a creative and fullfilling summer break.

I’ve been anxiously waiting for the two kickstarter campaigns, and finishing the Renaissance unit with my students, I have had patronage and modern crowd funding on my mind a lot. This email is brought to you by those two kickstarters, The Artisan Author, with Johnny B. Truant, and The Eden Book Society.

I’ve been following

Johnny B. Truant

closely on substack, Inspired as F***k, as his upcoming kickstarter has been not so quickly approaching. His take on the author mindset and the business approach is refreshing and right up my alley. This one is more for the writers out there and the readers who are interested in the behind the scene looks at a writer’s life.

The Eden Book Society Kickstarter is on theme with today’s rerun. The Eden Book Society was established in 1919, a secret society that published horror novellas for private subscribers. Dead Ink acquired the rights and are now working on their second Kickstarter campaign to launch these secret tales. Dead Ink says it better than I can:

“Presided over by the Eden family, it was handed down through the generations issuing short horror novels to a confidential list of subscribers. Eden books were always written under pseudonyms and were rumoured to have been written by some of the greatest horror authors of their day, many of whom had strong ties to the Eden family.

From 1919, six books were produced each year, supplying the archive with almost a century of unseen horror. Dead Ink will be reproducing these books. We began our reissue of the Eden editions with our Kickstarter for the 1972 collection and now we return with the 1993 collection. For the first time, these books – nearly a century of unseen horror – will be available to the public.”

With my latest paid subscriber project taking place in 1993, I jumped at the chance to further immerse myself in the time period. Their goal has been surpassed and the kickstarter closes, TODAY. I have my summer reading now :)

My own project is still in the drafting phase. I hope (fingers crossed) to have a completed draft this summer. Here is the blurb:

Maya Han is discovering her voice and the power of activismin the 1990s. What starts as a high school class project leads her to a college campus, where she throws herself into the movement. But when Maya vanishes, her mother, Audre, is left with nothing but unanswered questions, and a mailbox filling with letters that may hold the key to her daughter's fate.

A gripping found-fiction experience delivered straight to your doorstep. Get ready to check your mail again.

There has been a long history of patronage, a traditional way of artists being paid for their work. This brings me to our rerun for today. Enjoy!