A major issue is that I don’t know how to market myself. Given that I am a writer who has dedicated millions of words to the world wide web over decades, it’s strange that I haven’t been able to pin down what makes my voice special. I cover everything. I was a critic. I used to be a journalist. A lot of my writing benefits from getting personal. For close to a decade now, I’ve even produced short stories as well as two novels. How could it be that in a sea of endless self-indulgence that I couldn’t come up with a quick blurb to describe my talents?
Even having taken marketing classes, I’ve realized that it takes a special talent to appeal to the masses in clear, direct ways. As someone who spent years watching the Don Draper saga play out, it’s amazing how few techniques I picked up. If anything, I ascribed to be the writer who spoke to every whim. I needed to make the medium matter. It’s one of the reasons I switched my career from journalism to creative writing. Even then, I don’t know that I’ve ever escaped the tension around shilling myself for easy money. I’ve technically tried, but that learning curve came with some moral questioning.
Since 2008, I’ve watched the industries that I craved to be part of change. Much like the phone booth, newspaper stands disappeared and most significant publications were put behind paywalls as staffs were laid off. Elsewhere, I found a love of podcasting before the medium gained enough respect to warrant Sarah Koenig parodies on Saturday Night Live. I never felt comfortable “hustling,” or basically reaching out to sponsors who could theoretically move my bank account up a few pennies. I’ve known plenty of friends who’ve landed decent offers, but I guess my objective was less the business side of art and more the production.
That may be why I have taken so long to get to this day. For many years now, I have wanted to start a Patreon. While I never believed I could retire off of donations, I wanted to offer some of my work at a price. Even if I regularly produce work I’m proud of, I still think there was a skepticism that anything I had to say was going to get traction. Not only that, but I knew most successful Patreons to have very active creators behind the scenes releasing triple their output at a reasonable price. In my mind, it’s still a radical idea that anyone could become self-made this way, though I greatly admire those who can. It’s a mentality that I haven’t been able to yet hone.
There came a point fairly recently where I came to the revelation that was always there. Maybe there would be more profitable ways to launch a Patreon. I could dedicate more hours than a single individual could achieve to get votes of confidence. I could, but it was also the gift and curse that landed me in this situation.
Between 2012 and early 2021, I ran a website called The Oscar Buzz that focused on cinema as it related to Academy Awards and marketing. It remains one of the things I am most proud of. It also garnered acclaim from unexpected places (including a reference in The New York Times) that only made it bittersweet when I reached a state of burnout that caused me to part ways. The ongoing influence can still be seen on my current website, The Memory Tourist, where I regularly run A24 A-to-Z which takes in-depth looks at every film released by independent cinema’s most popular studio. It remains one of my passion projects as I attempt to get through every film with greater appreciation for the highs and lows.
While everything else has been shelved permanently, there was one series that I was dying to bring back ever since my farewell. On a website full of proud achievements, Failed Oscar Campaigns remains the one I wouldn’t let go of. I wanted to work on it again even if it didn’t fit within the larger ethos of The Memory Tourist. There needed to be a home to it and a way to better value my time creating it. Given the hours of research on top of writing and editing, I wasn’t about to dump it as a regular feature for free.
That is why, for the current price of $2, I am launching my first official Patreon column. Failed Oscar Campaigns will emphasize the marketing campaigns of films that sought prestige but didn’t receive a Best Picture win. The first entry on Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s comeback title Bardo (2022) is currently available. It features discussion not only of the film, but the campaign and whether or not it received any awards season love. At this time, I am planning to make Failed Oscar Campaigns into a bi-monthly series with October featuring an entry near the middle and end of the month. While titles won’t be announced ahead of schedule, my hope is that they will be a mix of oddball choices and those relevant to current buzz.
At the moment, this will be my only series as I learn how to navigate Patreon and make the most of my efforts. Any entry that I had written for The Oscar Buzz will still be available via the website for free. Similarly, I have no intention of transitioning anything published on Patreon onto the main feed unless the reasoning becomes pertinent.
There’s also currently no plans to make any “interactive” behind the scenes features. This is mostly an outlet for me to release columns that require more than casual effort. While Failed Oscar Campaigns will remain my only series for the immediate future, I do hope to expand in time to include various other subjects. I am currently designing one around the history of sports mascots. It’s a topic that has interested me for years and I think is deserving of its own deeper dive.
My goals going into this are simple. I am not some lucrative mastermind who will get rich off of anything. What I write is more an excuse to share my passions with everyone and hopefully connect with people who share in that curiosity.
After years of wanting to start a Patreon, I am happy to be starting this journey. I will be surprised if this gains any traction, but that’s the fun of it. I could continue to revel in the “What if?” of planning the perfect account, but at some point you need to strike out on your own. I’m hoping somebody likes it and maybe one day I’ll even start a tier for user-submitted article suggestions. I love the potential that exists somewhere in the ether.
For now, I need to see how this goes. Maybe I’m selling myself short. Maybe this is something long overdue that will lead to greater things. Whatever the case may be, I cross my fingers and step into the great unknown. Time to start learning what’s on the other side. Here it goes! Come join me for the ride!
EDIT: As of September 29, 2024, the account is under review. My hope is that this will be a quick, painless process and you'll be able to access it soon.
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