In light of Amazon’s latest shenanigans, this time involving Dragon Award-winning mega best seller Nick Cole, author Benjamin Cheah revisits my concept of neopatronage.
During the Renaissance, the wealthy supported up-and-coming artists through a patronage system. The artist was able to earn a living and create masterworks. The wealthy in turn earned bragging rights for being the person who made such art possible. We could see a return to such a model.
Elle Griffin discusses the possibility of creating an angel investment fund to support artists—including writers. The investors agree to fund the writer, and in turn earns a cut of the writer’s royalties.
I don’t think this will work out for most writers, for the very simple reason that most books won’t earn a significant amount of royalties. Investors will demand a return on investment, and the royalties most books earn will barely cover production costs. The kind of author who can launch a book and earn the kind of royalties that would attract an investor is the kind of author who doesn’t need an investor.
If we take the idea of attracting patrons or angel investors, and incorporate crowdfunding and blockchain technology, here’s how it might work:
An investor or group of investors agree to fund a writer’s salary. They direct their social media followers to him, and the followers in turn also send more money his way. The writer is then able to work full-time on the book. He may provide real-time updates on a private website or Substack. When he is done, he sends a copy of his manuscript to everyone who supported him—and to the original investors, he gives them an NFT of his book.
The value of an NFT does not lie in the NFT itself. A digital NFT isn’t scarce. An NFT can be easily reproduced simply by taking a screenshot or by copying and pasting the NFT elsewhere.
The value of the NFT lies in the transaction. It is in the irrevocable record on the blockchain that shows conclusively who purchased a copy of the NFT. Armed with this proof of purchase, the patron can boast to his friends and say, I funded this writer, I helped to kickstart a new genre, I am a patron of the arts. In so doing, he signals that he has excellent taste, he can recognize trends, and he has plenty of money to spare—which reinforces his reputation and opens new doors.
An investor may also receive a cut of the royalties from book sales. But I don’t expect this to be a substantial return on investment, unless the investor is also an influencer with a huge following, who regularly points his audience to the book he helped to commission. In this scenario, more than just offering financial support, he is kickstarting the author’s career.
The key to making this work is in segmenting the value proposition of the author and the book. To the super-wealthy, value lies in the social status that comes from backing an artist, in having a stake in the creation of new art, and in being perceived as a patron of the arts. To the regular reader, values lies in the book itself, and in the knowledge of being able to support an artist. An artist with this business model needs to communicate both value propositions fluently.
Of course, this is just one possible scenario. There are many, many roads to success, and technology is opening more roads to success.
Benjamin has come up with some creative models, there. He’s right about the inherent paradox in the angel investor model, which doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Often, it’s the people in least need who get the most assistance.
The model involving a group of backers looks like the most viable scenario to me. It could be an old man yells at cloud moment, but the mention of NFTs reads like a bid to boost SEO by sprinkling in a trending buzzword. The NFT concept flies in the face of ontological realism–without which you get crises fueled by imaginary money like the 2008 housing crash and student loan debacles. “The value of the NFTs lies in the transaction” is a roundabout way of saying NFTs have no intrinsic value.
Also, as the Stonetoss flurk fiasco shows, NFTs are far from censorship-proof.
But regardless of the specific mechanism used to transact the eventual neopatronage model, all that’s necessary is for an author to develop a modest but loyal following who will show up to buy whatever he writes. Build a readership of 1,000 avid fans who will turn out on launch day, no questions asked. Release $100 worth of content a year. You now earn six figures.
Amazon gave countless writers their start and blazed the alternate path that enabled newpub to circumvent the oldpub gatekeepers. But nothing lasts forever, and it’s becoming apparent that KDP has served its purpose. Whatever comes next for indie authors, it’s exciting to know we’ll have a hand in deciding the shape of what’s to come.
If you need expert advice finding your audience, my friend and business associate, top ghostwriter Joshua Lisec, is here to help.
Take his informative course now.
