Gumroad Day: April 4
I’ve been making my creative work available on Gumroad for years now. They take a flat 10% fee, don’t penalize you for making your work available elsewhere, and have never messed up an order or payment. There’s also no algorithm to game, so I’ve mostly referred people directly to my Gumroad page.
Though my work is all available on a pay-what-you-want basis (because I don’t want to pay for a bunch of ISBNs, which I would need to make these available through libraries, I want to ensure that my work is available to everyone, so they’re pay-what-you-want. I certainly welcome payment and certainly do not expect it.)
Anyway, this Thursday, April 4 2024 is Gumroad day, which means that they’re waiving their fees for things you buy on that day, sending 100% of the cash straight to creators! You know, like Bandcamp Friday! Except for stuff other than music!
So I’m planning to buy some ebooks, some zines and comics, and maybe even a TTRPG or two. Because Gumroad can be hard to navigate (and because the site is awash in “how to make money selling [insert product or service here]” kind of stuff, which you should always be wary of, because if it’s so easy to make money selling [insert product or service here], why is the author trying to sell you a book about selling [insert product or service here] instead of just doing it? Hmmm?), I’m including links below to categories that interest me.
The cool thing about Gumroad is that because nobody’s really able to game the algorithm to make lots of money, the stuff you find there tends to be more interesting and quirky than the stuff you find on Amazon. You want a 1920’s steampunk adventure featuring a plucky blind and asthmatic reporter with a ghost for a best friend? They’ve got that! You want a children’s book about how Arsenal isn’t that great of a team anymore? They’ve got that too! You want a book on using chess to beat your porn addiction? Good luck with that, but they’ve got that too! My point here is that independent creators have the freedom to deliver stuff from their own idiosyncratic point a view without having to be vetted by a sales force skeptical about how many copies it can move.
Don’t get me wrong—I like mainstream stuff too, but just as on Bandcamp, I get a kick out of discovering and supporting artists doing their own thing.
So, Thursday, April 4, I’ll be browsing the following pages:
Of course I’d love it if you grabbed some of my stuff while you’re there, but I hope you’ll consider getting stuff from any of the independent creators on Gumroad. It’s very hard to be an independent artist and not really know if your work is reaching anyone, and one sale can really make someone’s day or even week! You might be the person who gives someone the inspiration to keep making cool art! I’m just saying!