It’s become a sort of ritual for us, the day after our Open Houses, we sit down and we discover afterwards that our bank account has drained like a bath tub unplugged. This has become sort of a ritual for us, it happens every year. We are not people who have an intuitive feel for money, like so many other people do. I think we will never make it to the one percent.
Writers and artists are usually broke, that is no big deal, but the odd part is that every year we vow to structure the Open Houses differently – ask for donations, split fees, any of the things that rational adults do. We are not, alas, rational adults. We love the Open Houses and the good things that radiate from them. But to be honest, we also spend many hundreds of dollars on maintenance, transportation for some people, cleaning up the grounds, preparation, staff, portable toilets, flyers and things like bottled water.
So, I said, to Maria the point is that I am dumb, this year and last. I am the last person on earth to figure out that it really is okay to be paid for your work. I am working hard to get there. She is not much better. We love to facilitate artists and poets and writers making money, but for years, I thought I was above all that. No longer, I am always growing up, the joy of being alive.
So the point here – I like to be straight about it, I am not easy talking about money – is that I was reminded today that I am late, as usual, in thanking people for subscribing to the blog and reminding others what the subscription program is, and inviting them to join. Subscriptions are simply a payment to me for my work in producing and maintaining the blog and my time in writing it and taking photos. Photography is an expensive pursuit – I need some new equipment – and so is a custom blog that can handle the traffic this blog draws. The blog needs work, it is, like the farm, always hungry and needs to be re-constructed to handle the rise in mobile and tablet usage, among other things.
That includes computers and online usage fees.
Blogs, like houses, need to be maintained.
Simply, the subscription program is payment for my work. Unlike NPR, you don’t get any mugs or Starbuck’s coupons. You just get me, the farm, the dogs and animals. Maria has her own blog. She doesn’t have a subscription program.
The blog is free to anyone who wants to receive it, whether you subscribe or not. If you subscribe, you are simply paying me for my work and for the blog. If you can’t afford it, then you will receive it for free. I won’t ever cut off the people who have always supported me. You can get the blog delivered to you by entering your e-mail in the “e-mail” window on the top left page of the Farm Journal.
You can subscribe by going to the subscription page, which is quite secure, and also has it’s own button at the top right of the Farm Journal page. No financial information of yours is stored on my blog or website at any time, and you can cancel the subscription at any time. Some people – very few – enjoy canceling when I write something that ticks them off, I have a knack for doing that sometimes.
A week before your subscription expires, you will be notified by mail, and you can renew or cancel with the click of a button. You can manage your own subscription account, neither I nor anyone else have any access to your account or money at any time. I can’t cancel or renew subscriptions.
This is for your protection and my sanity. I am not good at tech support.
There are several subscription options, this is to give people several inexpensive ways to pay me for this work. You can subscribe for $3 a month, $5 a month, $60 a year. All are appreciated, you get full access to the blog whichever option you choose, including not subscribing at all.
Publishing has changed, as many of you know, and it is not longer possible for mid-list writers like me to earn a living just writing paper books. We have all, those of us who are willing to change and wish to be relevant, become small and mostly electronic publishing companies. The blog is increasingly our creative home, Facebook is our marketing department. Our readers – you – have migrated to the Internet. I do wish to be relevant, I embrace this change. The blog is my living memoir, my great work. It’s just like buying a book and paying for it, only you can get it just about every day.
So I am out to break some new ground and pave the way for the new writer and the new writer’s life. I like doing that.
The blog is my work, my life, my creative heart and soul. I love it and work hard at it. I started it in 2007 to support my book work, and more and more, the blog is my work. I don’t get many royalty checks these days. But I do have about four million hits each year on the blog, about 350,000 unique readers. What I am shooting for is for 10 per cent of them to subscribe. That’s how Internet marketing works in the new world: lots of people spending small amounts. Very different from my book publishing life, and very exciting. I am one of the lucky ones.
So I am grateful for your support and interest. Many people are used to getting their Internet information for free, more and more people are beginning to understand that there will be no writers, artists and musicians if we can’t get paid for our work. And I know now that it is right and just to be paid for my work, I didn’t grasp that for awhile. So thanks to those of you who have subscribed – one or two percent of those who read the blog – and thanks to those of you who are thinking about it. Thanks also to everyone who reads my blog, I appreciate you.
Time to start planning for the next Open House. Maybe a basket, says Maria, for $5 donations. Maybe we’ll remember to do it next year.
