Sistine Chapel Patronage

Neopatronage: Seek and You Will Find

Innovation often emerges from the collision of new ideas with established systems, leading to a disruptive reordering of the status quo. That popularly called "creative disruption," facilitated by platforms like Amazon, drove the rise of indie publishing. By democratizing access to the world's top book market, Amazon enabled indie authors…
March 18, 20246 Comments
Amaranth Angels

Neopatronage Ascendant

Big news broke in the indie comics world this week as the upcoming manga Amaranth Angels met its ambitious funding goal. The brainchild of Ascendant Fiction writer Yakov Merkin and artist Philip San Gaspar, this sci fi adventure features all you could ever want ... Cute girls in space. Watch…
October 20, 20234 Comments
Newpub Neopatronage

Newpub: Neopatroange

The moment you try searching Amazon for a book you want to read, it becomes clear that something has gone quite wrong. Maybe it's vacant-eyed bugmen obsessed with fixing what's not broken throwing wrenches in the works. Perhaps it's cynical pens-for-hire hijacking the algorithm with payola. Or maybe it's outright…
September 28, 20234 Comments
Neopatronage Rising

Neopatronage Rising

Innovation is a constant series of creative disruptions. When new ideas meet an established system that's no longer fit for purpose, the result is a shakeup of the order, followed by a new status quo. That's what happened over a decade ago when Amazon put a Kindle in everyone's hands,…
September 15, 20234 Comments
Mighty Sons of Hercules

Mighty Sons of Hercules

Cirsova returns with a neopatronage nod to the sword and sandals epics of 1950s cinema - now in an all-new fantasy anthology: Long ago, in ages past... there were men who travelled the world, seeking adventure. Fighting injustice, defending the weak and the helpless, looking to right wrongs wherever they…
July 14, 2023
Sanderson's Neopatronage Masterclass

Sanderson’s Neopatronage Masterclass

Back in March, this blog reported on rock star author Brandon Sanderson's all-time number one Kickstarter campaign. At the time of that writing, Sanderson's crowdfunder had amassed over $35 million, an unprecedented sum not only for a book project, but for the crowdfunding site itself. But in a recent update…
June 14, 20225 Comments
Nepatron Brandon

Neopatron Brandon

Longtime readers of this blog will know that a core theme here is charting the death of oldpub and trying to envision what comes next. I predicted oldpub's demise years ago, not that it takes a prophet to foresee that a business locked into expanding its share of a contracting…
March 28, 202210 Comments
Bravalanche

The Bravalanche

A concept introduced on this blog that's gained some traction in newpub is the neopatronage model. Though still developing, this is the proposition that societal changes will cause a shift away from the old entertainment business model. Instead of artists selling their rights to corporations in exchange for access to…
March 3, 202216 Comments
patrons

Neopatronage Revisited

In light of Amazon's latest shenanigans, this time involving Dragon Award-winning mega best seller Nick Cole, author Benjamin Cheah revisits my concept of neopatronage. During the Renaissance, the wealthy supported up-and-coming artists through a patronage system. The artist was able to earn a living and create masterworks. The wealthy in…
January 19, 20229 Comments