So here’s the thing.

In the last year, I’ve spent WAY less time on Facebook, WordPress, and Twitter, and WAY more time on Patreon. My subscribers get all of the stuff I used to post: essays, ruminations, process diaries, stories, news, photos. This is the exact purpose of Patreon: to monetize artists’ work, without whom the Internet would not exist. WordPress doesn’t pay creators or have any mechanism for us to be paid. In fact, they require US to pay THEM to advertise. Whereas on Patreon, subscribers give money directly to me, which I use to make art to give directly back to them.

My job is to write about the future. Honestly, I don’t think blogs or social media in their current forms are the future. They can’t be. We can’t keep working for free.

So on this Small Business Saturday, consider subscribing to my Patreon for $1 a month. Upon subscribing, you immediately get links and passwords for MOST of my art. Why is it still password-protected? Because I don’t make a living wage, so I can’t afford to give it away. (If I DO get to a living wage—$3500 a month—I’m going to make all of my major works free to the public, so that anyone can access them regardless of age, finances, or geography. If you have a lot of $$$ and you’d like to make this possible, for a limited time or in perpetuity, please get in touch at monica@monicabyrne.org, and thank you.)