Why You Need to Support Creators Directly (When Possible)

Somewhere in the past few days, I read an article about how the war in Iran is going to hurt Etsy sellers. I wish I could find it and provide attribution, but I skim so much content that little of it sticks, and I rarely realize that the thing I saw is going to be important to something I decide to write. Anyway, the concept is that what people sell on Etsy is discretionary spending, and when gas prices go up, people don’t have money to spend on things that can’t be classified as necessities.

To which I, and anyone else working in a creative field, respond: No $#@%&, Sherlock.

This is the history of creatives trying to make a modest living. Housing prices go up? Our sales go down. Food prices go up? Sales go down. Student loan payments go up? Sales go down. Elect a serially-bankrupt felon who thinks he understands the economy better than trained, experienced economists? Sales go down.

Yeah, a lot of us have been feeling this pinch for a while. It’s not news to us. Etsy has its own self-inflicted issues that have nothing to do with gas prices or shipping routes or current events, but this doesn’t help. A lot of people who have been making a modest living are struggling, and people who were already struggling are starting to panic.

So this is my pitch: if you do have any discretionary income left and want to support a creator, see if you can buy from them directly. I can only cite myself as an example, but for instance, if you buy a book on Amazon, I don’t see that money for at least two months, and they take a substantial cut. Buying from bookshop.org is better; they take a much smaller cut, but I still don’t see a dime for at least a month. If you buy directly from lightspress.com, I get that in under three days, and the only deduction is a small payment processing fee from PayPal, Stripe, or Square, depending on your payment method.

I know it’s hard to step off your retail platform of choice. I am well aware that very few people followed us when we left DriveThruRPG; for a portion of the hobby, if you don’t sell roleplaying games there, you cease to exist. Fiction writers experience the same thing with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et al.; if you were a “real” author, you’d be there, right? But there are valid reasons, logistical, ethical, and personal, to choose not to be in certain places.

So, find out if your favorite creator has a website. Find out where you can buy their work that has the least friction, the lowest fees, and the shortest time between your purchase and their payout. If it’s a creator that gives their work away for free or depends on ad revenue, share it. Repost it. Spread the work so they get more followers and more eyeballs. If they have a tip jar, tip them. A one-time payment of a couple of bucks makes a difference. It all matters. And it’s appreciated.