An Update on 2020: The Year YOU Control Nathan Rabin, Which is Being Held Over For Two More Weeks Due to Non-Success
Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place has two primary functions. First and foremost, it exists to give me, a veteran pop culture writer who written professionally for twenty-two years, written six books and countless columns a safe, happy place where I can be my best, truest, fullest self, where I do not need to compromise or pander and I can pursue ambitious, years-long projects like The Weird Accordion to Al, Travolta/Cage and the Travolta/Cage Project.
The second primary purpose of the Happy Place is to make enough money via crowd-funding that I’m able to continue to live my dream of being a full-time pop culture writer and feeding my family and paying the mortgage through work I find creatively and emotionally satisfying.
I’ve been able to make the Happy Place the overwhelming focus of my career for nearly three years now but it has been exceedingly difficult. My online therapist is always encouraging me to frame things in positive ways so instead of saying that it remains an enormous struggle to make a living as a writer over two decades into my career I am going to say that it is a wonderful challenge that has brought out the best in me and forced me to be creative, productive, enterprising and prolific.
The need to make a living doing the only thing I know how to do was the impetus behind the creation of Control Nathan Rabin 4.0, an absolute godsend that allows readers EXACTLY LIKE YOU to choose a movie I must watch and then write about in exchange for a one-time, one hundred dollar pledge to the site’s Patreon account. The price goes down to seventy-five dollars for each additional entry. I’ve written up 78 Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 choices so far but I can always do more.
Thanks to Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 I will end 2019 around the same place as I started it in terms of Patreon income as opposed to having made substantially less money. That said, I need a baseline of about three thousand dollars a month from Patreon to get by and I am well below 2900 dollars for the first time in a while this month.
In a bid to increase to Patreon income to more sustainable levels I introduced another of my big ideas: Control Nathan Rabin 2020. Here’s what I wrote about the idea back when I very prematurely introduced it back in September:
“2020 will be the year YOU Control Nathan Rabin on both a macro and a micro level. Last year I did a series of theme months I really loved and got a great reception, most notably Rodney Dangerfield Month and Corey Feldman Month. AND of course I love Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 because it brings me closer to y’all and provides essential income for the website. 2020—The Year You Control Nathan Rabin brings these two ideas together. You can still, of course, pay between one hundred and seventy-five dollars to have me watch, and then write about a movie of your choosing for Control Nathan Rabin 4.0. But in 2020, and only in 2020, I am introducing a new wrinkle and anew feature.
I will also be nominating a series of potential theme months. The idea is for my ideas for themes to go up against yours in a poll that begins today and officially ends December 31st, 2019.”
2020: The Year YOU Control Nathan Rabin did what it had to do in the short term in providing a much-needed influx of money in the form of the four or five people who chose 2020: The Year YOU Control Nathan Rabin.”
I was hoping more people would suggest 2020: The Year YOU Control Nathan Rabin pledges, particularly since I’ll throw in a free Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 movie with every pledge suggesting a possible theme month but that has not happened.
Here’s what we have so far in turns of options for 2020:
My choices:
Phil Hartman Month
Direct to Video Sequels month
Mismatched buddy cop month
Hip Hop Movie month
Podcast Month
Disco Month
Nominations from Patrons:
Marvel Month!
Nora Ephron Month
Danny Devito Month
Martin Lawrence Month
John Candy Month
Unexpected Tear-jerkers
Lovable Losers
Mo’ Money, Mo Problems
That’s not even enough to cover twelve months so I am extending the deadline to December 31st and then we’ll vote on the options and kick off 2020 January 15th.
I still have faith in this idea. Like so much in this world, it just needs a little push. Or a not so little push.
Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 and 2020: The Year YOU Control Nathan Rabin provide an opportunity for me to cater my writing more directly to readers and just as importantly allow me to stay in the game, and at this point that’s my real, overarching goal. I’ve got to survive and then hopefully, at some point in the future, possibly decades from now, I will thrive commercially as well as creatively.
I make most of my living from Patreon so if you would be kind enough to pledge over at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace it would be amazing and much appreciated. This Christmas season why not slide a dollar or two into my digital stocking
AND of course y’all can get in on Travolta/Cage too at https://www.patreon.com/creator-home We haven’t had a single new patron in two weeks, and if you pledge as little as a dollar we will shout you out by name on the podcast.