When I started writing The Lazy Allen Stories, I didn’t really know what to do with them. I started posting them on this blog, then built a place for them of their own. I looked at maybe submitting them to literary magazines, but that didn’t sound too promising to me. First, I didn’t really know any. My background is in painting, not short story writing. So I asked the Googler, and discovered that indeed there are a bunch of literary journals operating in Canada. Most of them welcome manuscripts. Most of the prefer you only submit your story to them and nobody else. Most of the take 3 months before making a decision. Some of them even offer a bit of money if they publish, 25 or even 50 Canadianos. I thought about that then decided I could likely find as many readers over time on the internet than I could attract with the more traditional approach.

I had been watching some lectures on YouTube about the game of go, and at a certain point, I noticed that one of these “go streamers” put up a little note that said, if you love these lectures and want to support them, go to my Patreon page. I checked that out and I liked the model. I liked it because I could continue to post these stories for anyone to read for free, but if there were some people out there somewhere who loved the stories and wanted to support the project financially, that option was available through Patreon.

The way I have Patreon set up for the stories is that I’ve created the option to support the project at only one level – $1 per story. I don’t have any special goodies for supporters, beyond the satisfaction of supporting the project, but I will thank all supporters on Patreon, on the stories site and here. My goal is to write and publish one story per month until my brain runs dry. Supporters have an option to limit monthly support, just in case I go on a crazy writing jag and publish faster than anticipated. The way I was looking at it, someone supporting the project would be pledging about $12 per year for a dozen stories, less than the cost of a paperback. So readers have a choice, enjoy the stories for free (and that’s fine – please continue to enjoy them), or pay for them at $1 per story (even more fine).

I really have no idea if Patreon will be successful for The Lazy Allen Stories over time. We’ll see. Maybe it’s a crazy idea. Who knows?

Today I got my first Patreon supporters, so I want to send out an extra big thank you and some big hugs to my dear friends Candy Minx and Anthony Stagg, for believing in my folly writing project. I really appreciate your support!