Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Glee, "Express Yourself."

I am considering doing a thing.

So here's the thing:

I am writing a lot of stories set in the history of the Price-Healy family, slowly pushing my way toward the modern day. There are also stories set in the present day, such as the Antimony-centric novella, "Bad Dream Girl," which is going to appear in the anthology Glitter and Mayhem. A lot of these get given away for free on my website, in a variety of formats, with covers and everything. I like keeping the canon centralized.

That said, unless an anthology is commissioning something, it can be hard to carve out the time for what is essentially unpaid work. I need to prioritize my time according to what I'm getting paid for (which is why, for example, the rate of "Velveteen vs." stories went up so sharply when I got a print contract). So...

How would people feel if I opened a "tip jar," with the understanding that for every X amount of dollars, I would add a story in one of my universes to the master list of Paid For Things? Those stories would still have to fit around everything else, but it would make them easier to schedule, and would also make my lights easier to keep on. The stories themselves would remain free on my website, so if you didn't want to donate, you could just stand back and wait for nature to take its course.

Thoughts?
Tags: contemplation, requesting things
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  • 279 comments

ebartley

March 11 2013, 23:14:59 UTC 4 years ago

I would contribute to such a tip jar, and if you ran separate tip jars for separate universes / characters I would contribute to at least Francis (or the old Healy generation), Sarah, and Velveteen (or anything in her universe.)

You're a professional giving away work in your field for free. IMO, you shouldn't feel shy about asking those readers who can afford it to chip in something, whether that takes the form of telling the next installation when the storyteller's bowl has enough coins in it, or shaking the tip jar when you've told a story.

reedrover

March 12 2013, 00:47:49 UTC 4 years ago

I agree with everything stated above, as stated. And so, I second the idea of separate jars so that I can spend more money on things I like and justify it as multiple things!

melebeth

March 12 2013, 02:25:16 UTC 4 years ago

I third this idea! But I would happily contribute for more Price-Healy tales.

alicetheowl

March 12 2013, 01:18:38 UTC 4 years ago

I like that idea. It would be like voting with my money.

Though, if it's too much work to maintain and track the separate jars, I'm cool with just one, too.

seanan_mcguire

March 12 2013, 03:17:25 UTC 4 years ago

I can't run different universes; my head would explode from the accounting. Right now, it would just be for the InCryptid stories.

ebartley

March 12 2013, 03:26:54 UTC 4 years ago

I would be happy to contribute to a tip jar for more InCryptid stories.

Heck, I'd be happy to contribute to a tip jar for the three InCryptid stories you've already given me (and the rest of the internet) for free.

mrs_norris_mous

March 12 2013, 07:14:34 UTC 4 years ago

I am in, it would be nice to know how much tip we would need to give in an exchange for an eventual story :)

ladymondegreen

March 12 2013, 14:48:47 UTC 4 years ago

It might make sense to open the sponsorship jar and close it again, possibly showing jar fullness with a meter, so that the collective enthusiasm of THE WHOLE INTERNET does not create a situation where we all want more stories, but there is not enough time to create them.

If we all throw money and it's enough money for N stories, that's a nice idea, but throwing more money does not make more writing time or physical energy, even if it does subsidize whatever extra writing time might exist.

On the other hand, having an all-the-time tip jar to say thank you for for existing stories when the sponsorship jar is full is also a really good thing.

ebartley

March 12 2013, 15:07:10 UTC 4 years ago

This.

maladaptive

March 12 2013, 14:57:16 UTC 4 years ago

You're a professional giving away work in your field for free. IMO, you shouldn't feel shy about asking those readers who can afford it to chip in something

Yeah, this. And I think it's a potentially very cool business model-- not that it makes lots of money, but it's a cool model, especially for getting across stories readers may want to read that you want to tell that may not really be otherwise "sellable."