Five out of Ten is now on Patreon!
We want to change the way we make this magazine forever, by asking readers to support us rather than buying each issue. Our goal is to build a long-term sustainable future for the magazine by reaching our funding goal, which will allow us to release new issues for free to everyone. This means that if we meet our funding goal before we release Issue 12, everyone can read it – we wouldn’t need to sell a copy!
Traditional publishing is weighted towards the publisher, at the expense of a magazine’s contributors. There’s a better way than this: we want to pay our writers as much as we can, while ensuring they retain copyright over their work. We’ve worked hard to achieve that so far, and now we want everyone to enjoy our magazine – even those who can’t afford it. Help us set Five out of Ten free!
Background
We’ve been working on Five out of Ten for almost three years, from the comforts of our respective bedrooms. We love making every issue, and we think that love comes across on every page. But selling digital magazines in an era when most writing is available for free is difficult: it’s hard for you to share your favourite articles, and it’s hard for us to make something that only a few people can read. We spend a lot of time marketing, when we’d much rather be making.
We founded Five out of Ten on the principle that videogame culture was worth writing about, and good writing was worth paying for. But what if we could pay our writers and let everyone enjoy the magazine, even if they lack the means to pay for it? Wouldn’t that be even better? As a small magazine, we could never support ourselves through advertising. That means we need wonderful people like you to support our work.
With your help, we can reach our fundraising target and create a sustainable income for our talented writers and artists. At first, Patreon backers will get a free download of every new issue, but we hope that soon everyone will be able to enjoy Five out of Ten for free, regardless of patronage.
What’s the Goal?
Our goal is to make Five out of Ten sustainable by reaching a target of $2000 per issue. We have decades of combined experience in making and running the magazine, and this is a realistic target that will give our contributors a fair return on their work.
Five out of Ten backers are supporting the magazine, not subscribing to it. Our goal is actually to eliminate backer rewards by giving everyone the magazine for free. So please back us with whatever money you can afford, rather than the rewards you want!
$2000 may sound like a lot of money – because it is – and we want to be transparent about where your money is going. The figures break down as follows:
55% – contributors
5% – cover artist
20% – editors (5% x 4)
10% – site hosting and development
10% – Patreon and Paypal fees
It’s important to understand that we are paying our contributors a cut of each issue’s earnings, not a set wage. We’ve worked this way from day one: it’s honest and fair. The more we can raise, the more will go directly to our writers.
