I've been a little surprised at the success of Patreon. I kind of assumed that it would make for a nice tip for creators, but not much more. Instead there are

I've been a little surprised at the success of Patreon. I kind of assumed that it would make for a nice tip for creators, but not much more. Instead there are a few webcomics that I read, taking $1000's a month (eg. SMBC at $8700/month on Patreon alone). That's a pretty decent living when you factor in that they can still do their normal t-shirts, adverts, print books and general merch on top. The only question now is how long it takes to build up that kind of audience - can you can get that many people willing to pay? Quickly enough to succeed? Will new authors look at the likes of SMBC and assume that they can make a living, only to realise that their Patreon is barely scraping $50 a month? If it takes years of investment to make patronage work, they may give up before they get going. It might mean that instead of just being a great artist, you have to be a great promoter too. (Kinda like being a successful academic nowadays also involves being a successful grant proposal writer.) Maybe we'll start seeing the rise of patronage agents? People whose entire job is to manage the promotion of new talent in order to get to a sustainable patronage level. There already exist companies that provide Kickstarter services, so perhaps internet talent agents are just the next step.