Thread by @AlexandraErin

Last retweet: Crowdfunding is literally always okay. It's a free market transaction, perhaps the most free market transaction. Individual people decide to give money or not. People who are dubious or have to prioritize their resources otherwise or choose not to give can scroll.

Which doesn't mean people won't have to wrestle with the question of "is this okay?" because the backlash can definitely not be worth it. But that's an external, artificial constraint being imposed by cultural biases.

I've mentioned this before, but with almost two decades of experience as a crowdfunded artist, the biggest thing I've learned is that people mind crowdfunding less the less it seems like you need money.

If a successful game developer or comic artist who is a genuine cultural phenomenon decides to kickstart their next project, people will pay a hundred bucks to be part of it.

If a struggling artist needs $100 to make rent.. hoo, watch out.

And here's the kicker: the successful artist is also using their crowdfunds to pay rent, keep the lights on, buy food, etc.

But the way it's phrased.

Like the old "joke" about how banks will loan money to absolutely anyone who doesn't need a loan: if crowdfunding seems like a fun, quirky thing you're doing because it's experimental and cutting edge? Cool.

Need money? Go hang.

We wind up re-creating the same old gatekeeping on the new, theoretically egalitarian marketplaces, because on some level we as a society can't imagine life without it.

And there are other factors than "how much do you need it?" If you have an established audience or other community who knows you, you can show them your need and it will help engender sympathy instead of scorn and suspicion.

And past a certain breaking point of emergency, need becomes less of a liability. So you get shame and doubt for needing a hundred here for UrgenCare and then money for antibiotics, but when you can't get that and it turns into pneumonia and you almost die? Maybe different story.

Best advice I can give, whether you're busking to earn a buck for your art or desperately trying to make rent or pay for meds?

Don't beg.

I don't mean don't crowdfund, I don't mean don't ask, I mean don't beg. People will say you're begging regardless. Absolutely ignore them.

State your need as it's relevant, but don't plead. Don't use language that references begging or pleading, beyond a single polite please. In your heart, acknowledge that you are setting out a box and people can put money in it if they want, and that's all that's happening.

It is a market transaction. Everybody gives or doesn't of their own free will. It works better when you're matter of fact and to the point. Long preambles and apologetic language attract bullies, gatekeepers, and trolls, and make a lot of other people feel awkward and look away.

If you've got a longer story (medical backstory, pitch for project, etc.) to tell, by all means tell it. But make sure your request for aid fits in a single tweet, because that's what you want to make sure people share, and it might be the only thing people read.

People will try to impose shame on you for crowdfunding, but if they can get you to live that shame, to embody it before you even start... you might not start. And if you do, your pitch will be couched in terms that make it easy for them to tear it down.

We can't all just harden our hearts to fear and shame. I've been practicing doing it for a long time now and it's still a work in progress.

But the good thing about internet posts is, no one sees how many drafts you don't post. Harden your words.

I haven't done a lot of work on here (work meaning timely and in-depth threads) this week because I've been dealing with emotionally fraught stuff. So I haven't posted as many tip jars, and haven't made much money.

It happens.

It's the first week of the month, though, so I've got fresh Patreon money sitting in my bank account. So I'm okay.

Still, if I had the kind of emotional strength and momentum I had before the summer, right now? I would have been putting my tip jar out anyway, fearlessly and apologetically. Because that's what works. I know intellectually from long experience that's how it works.

It's my writing day, so I'm going to be off social media and away writing creatively for most of the day. If you want to give me a hand with that, you can help fuel my word processing machine. It's a hybrid engine. It runs on alcohol, caffeine, and money.

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