A year and a half ago, I initiated a subscription and support program for bedlamfarm.com, my blog. I began the blog in 2007, in the midst of a period of great creative turmoil and fear for me. I was reluctant to do it, I always saw the blog as being free, and it is has grown steadily and rapidly in the past few years. It is also increasingly costly and time-consuming to produce. There is my time, the photos, the photography and video equipment, the maintenance fees and improvements, software and security updates.
In the years since I began bedlamfarm.com, the entire dynamic surrounding creative work and the Internet has changed. Hardcover book sales and royalties – the primary source of my income for 30 years – have declined in the face of e-books and free content online, and drastically so. I came to the conclusion that it was not only acceptable to be paid for my work, but appropriate. And, to be honest, necessary. So I began my subscription program.
And many of you have responded. Thank you.
The subscription program is quite flexible. For people with no money, the blog is free. For people who wish to make a single credit card contribution of $60 a year, there is that option. People are notified a week in advance of their renewal dates so that they can cancel if they wish, and people can, of course, cancel at any time. It is simple. We do not store any credit card or personal information on my site, it is secure and protected by two security companies.
(A reminder that I cannot cancel or initiate subscriptions, for your protection. I do not ever handle your money, only you can do that.)
For those who wish to subscribe by check, there is a Post Office Box: P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816
For those who wish to contribute monthly, there are three options – $3 a month, $5 a month, and $60 a year. Everyone receives the full blog whether they subscribe or contribute or not, and no matter the amount. Increasingly writers and artists like me are offering blogs but are limiting some of the content. People who can’t or don’t wish to subscribe receive a certain number of posts every day, those who do receive the full range of content. I’d rather not go there, but I may eventually have to consider it.
There are two issues here for me, the first is generating the income I need to maintain the farm and the blog. Farms and custom blogs are expensive. The second is being paid for my work. The Internet wreaked havoc on the income of creative people, so many of whom have been struggling to survive in a world where people increasingly expect something for free. There is a new ethic, creative people are demanding to be paid for their work. I support that, even if I haven’t quite done it myself.
I haven’t sorted this all out in my mind yet, I do not care to walk away from the people who have supported me from the beginning, but I am also obliged to earn a living just like anyone else. Being paid for one’s work isn’t only about bills, it is about self-worth and identity. I am one of those people who spends a lot of time working for free – writing about the carriage horses, writing plays, taking photos, teaching classes. I sometimes think I am kidding myself doing that, living another kind of delusion.
In any case, I write about the subscription program rarely, but it is important that I mention it once in awhile. We live in a new and changing world, and if I want to survive and be relevant in it, I have to change as well. So please consider contributing or subscribing to the blog, it costs a lot of money and time to produce and I can’t afford to work for free, nor do I really think it’s right. I don’t monitor the subscriptions, I don’t keep track of who is contributing. I would remind you that if those who can afford to contribute do so, then it will remain possible for me to keep the blog free to everyone. There is, after all, a difference between having no money to subscribe and simply not doing so.
If the blog is meaningful to you, then I would ask that you consider supporting it in any way that is comfortable for you.
A very small fraction of my blog readers contribute anything at all, that is the nature of Internet micro-marketing, I am told. You cast a wide net, but few fish come to eat. I wish to be paid for my work by those who can afford it. Thanks for listening.