PatronQuo.com Blog

Just days after she posted up her new patron badge, the patrons came out to play – and pay – this week for fiction author Cori Jones’ novel excerpt Hanging Wasp.

Three aggressively generous patrons in just a couple days vaulted Hanging Wasp well into the top rank of the novel category, showing the potential of a patronage model in promoting authors while securing them much needed income.

To date, Hanging Wasp alone has earned a cumulative total of $230 on PatronQuo.com. Who knows how much more money this novel submission will continue to accrue a month from now, in two months, in a year, and beyond?

For an unpublished novel excerpt to attract this much patronage is a testament to the potential commercial appeal of this property – both to readers and to the patrons who stepped up to show their support for this tale. It is also a testament to the appeal of a literary submisson web site like PatronQuo.com to pull in the fans to support authors in a manner that may one day potentially outstrip conventional publishing venues as a source of income for fiction authors – both published and unpublished alike.

Hanging Wasp’s leading patron – for all-time and for this month – is Tony Ferrero, who also happens to top the All-Time Patron Rankings.

In his bio, Tony Ferrero describes himself as a “drifter”, but he does provide a link to his apparently popular blog at the Village Voice site, where he writes under the moniker “Plague of Paradox.” Given the dearth of bio information offered by Cori Jones’ other recent patrons, we will respect their apparent interest in maintaining a low profile.

In other news, a landmark of sorts was achieved for PatronQuo late last month when Patron Ellen Pall stepped up to patronize two tales of her choosing: Running Away…A Memoir and Craftsman’s Volley.

In effect, Ellen Pall’s patron profile now functions as a recommended reading list of the stories she’s patronized.

Incidentally, Ellen Pall also happens to run “the free, non-profit book-recommendation website www.DebbiesIdea.com to encourage adventurous reading.” How apt that her patron profile now showcases a sampling of her literary tastes for those visitors who are interested in following her and checking out her site.

Following are the charts for the top ranking All-Time Patrons and This Month’s Patrons
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All-Time Patrons

1. Tony Ferrero
2. Liz
3. Jean Irizarry
4. Heather Kephart
5. Stuart Ackerman
6. Jason Cook
7. Ellen Pall
8. Lauren Lepow
9. Paula Phillips
10. Vivian Zabel

This Month’s Patrons

1. Tony Ferrero
2. Liz
3. Jean Irizarry

It’s raining patrons this month on PatronQuo.com – okay, well, more like drizzling – as new patrons step in to confer their patronage money on the authors of their choice.

Still retaining the lead for This Months’ Earnings – and for All-Time Earnings – is author Holly Jahangiri for her short story The Trouble With Oliver. Achieving a record in the short life of this site, The Trouble With Oliver now stands top-ranked in its number of cumulative patrons (5).

Patron Anne Bender stepped in to boost The Trouble With Oliver well into the lead this month, while Patron Carole Gill bestowed her patronage on J. Leland Kupferberg’s Craftsman’s Volley, which takes second position in earnings this month and cumulatively.

Author Isabella Nativ took up third position in earnings this month and cumulatively with the help of Patron Paula Phillips, who cast her patronage for Bedtime Story.

By day, Paula Phillips works as a childrens librarian, but by night, the mask goes on, as she interviews various authors and reviews books on her blog, PaulaZone. Paula also works as a freelance writer.

Patron Anne Bender describes herself as a “writer-in-training” on her web site AnneBender.com. She also runs an informative blog at AnneOnLife.com.

Patron Carole Gill is also a published author with an upcoming novel entitled The House On Blackstone Moor. Carole primarily focuses on dark gothic horror fiction, and runs a blog dedicated to the genre on DemonVampireHorror.blogspot.com.

Following is a brief summary of the stats this month (note that, in the event of a tie, the higher ranking goes to the earlier registered patron/author/story):

This Month’s Patron Rankings

1. Paula Phillips
2. Fine Line Editorial
3. Caroline Leavitt
4. Carole Gill
5. Anne Bender

Author Earnings This Month

1. Holly Jahangiri
2. J. Leland Kupferberg
3. Isabella Nativ
4. Jonathan Papernick

Short Story Earnings This Month

1. The Trouble With Oliver
2. Craftsman’s Volley
3. Bedtime Story
4. Skin For Skin

Over the past few days on PatronQuo.com, two new patrons stepped up to put a pair of authors at the top of the rankings for This Month’s Earnings.

First up was Patron Caroline Leavitt, who is also a highly regarded author and professional mentor and teacher to aspiring writers. Ms. Leavitt chose author Jonathan Papernick’s Skin For Skin as the story most worthy of being associated with her esteemed patronage.

Was it the clever double entendre of Papernick’s short story title that tipped the scales for Leavitt (a play of words on the main character’s “issues” with her lover’s foreskin)? Whatever her motivation, she briefly moved Jon Papernick up to the top rank of this Month’s Earnings chart.

But within a couple days, a new patron, Fine Line Editorial Consultancy, entered the fray, casting its patronage in support of Holly Jahangiri’s The Trouble With Oliver, moving it into top position for earnings this month, and further padding its money take – and lead position – in the All-Time Earnings chart.

Currently, The Trouble With Oliver leads in cumulative number of patrons, which now stands at four.

Patron Caroline Leavitt teaches beginner and advanced novel writing courses online through the UCLA Writers Program. She also offers private, one-on-one mentoring/manuscript consultation. As a professional and highly regarded author, she has written nine novels, and her work has appeared in Salon, New York Magazine, and many other prestigious venues. She is also a book critic for People Magazine and the Boston Globe.

Ms. Leavitt’s patron support is significant on two levels – one, as a public call to other professional writers to step up and show their support for an online patronage model that promotes the work of their colleagues; and secondly, as a professional seal of approval for the work of fellow author Jonathan Papernick.

Mr. Papernick is the highly regarded author of the novel The Ascent of Eli Israel, a collection of short stories set during the Oslo Peace Accords. He has also authored Who By Fire, Who By Blood and the newly published short story collection, There Is No Other – which features the short story that was patronized by Ms. Leavitt. There Is No Other may be purchased through Amazon.com.

Ms. Jahangiri’s latest patron, Fine Line Editorial Consultancy, is a U.K.-based company that offers professional editing services for novels, short stories, and poetry. Its Chief Editorial Consultant, Kate Gould, is also a published author who has worked as a literary agent and as a publishing submissions assistant.

Fine Line Editorial’s patron participation demonstrates the kind of impact and impression that can be made on members of the literary community when a profesisonal editor steps in to show readers and authors the quality of its literary judgments – in this case, by singling out Ms. Jahangiri’s short story as the kind of polished work that Fine Line Editorial could assist other aspiring authors in achieving.

It’s a message that other professional editors and proofreaders would do well in considering – to tell writers about the editing services they have to offer them while publicly signaling their support for a patronage model that potentially enriches their clientele with extra money.

Author Holly Jahangiri continued to mop up the patronage, as patron Jason Cook chose to funnel more money into her account. Cook now takes his place at the top of This Month’s patron rankings, while Ms. Jahangiri widens her lead in All-Time Author Earnings.

With his first payment, Mr. Cook became eligible to take advantage of our Patronage Matching Fund, in which we match, dollar for dollar, the patron’s payment – and direct the money to the story of the patron’s choice.

Mr. Cook chose to direct his matching funds once more in support of Jahangiri’s leading entry, The Trouble With Oliver.

The blog talk radio show, Page Readers, is now in second place in This Month’s patron rankings. Patron Heather Kephart maintains her position as the All-Time ranking patron so far.

Following is a brief summary of the stats as they currently stand:

All-Time Patrons

1. Heather Kephart
2. Stuart Ackerman
3. Jason Cook
4. Vivian Zabel
5. Page Readers

This Month’s Patron Rankings

1. Jason Cook
2. Page Readers

All-Time Author Earnings

1. Holly Jahangiri
2. J Leland Kupferberg
3. Cori Jones

This Month’s Artist Earnings

1. Holly Jahangiri
2. Cori Jones

All-Time Short Story Earnings

1. The Trouble With Oliver
2. Craftsman’s Volley
3. Hanging Wasp

This Month’s Short Story Earnings

1. The Trouble With Oliver
2. Hanging Wasp

In a day filled with heart-stopping patron action at PatronQuo.com, Jason Cook from Ampersand Books cast his patron payment in favor of writer Holly Jahangiri, taking the crowning scroll position over her story The Trouble With Oliver, moving it into top position in this month’s rankings over Cori Jones’ Hanging Wasp, which had taken this month’s top position earlier in the day thanks to the patronage of Page Readers.

Now, fueled by the contribution of Patron Jason Cook, Holly Jahangiri has widened her lead in All-Time Artist Earnings, and owns the stat for cumulative patrons – now at three – with patrons Heather Kephart (still the All-Time leading patron), Vivian Zabel, and Mr. Cook in her corner.

Though Mr. Cook’s patronage moves The Trouble With Oliver into this month’s top position over Hanging Wasp, Page Readers maintains its position as this month’s top-ranking patron.

Where entries are equal in patron contributions, the higher ranking goes to the earlier entry. So even though The Trouble With Oliver and Hanging Wasp have earned equal patronage for the month, Ms. Jahangiri takes the month’s top ranking position because her story is the earlier of the two submissions, while Page Readers maintains its top patron ranking due to its earlier contribution over that of Jason Cook.

As the Fiction Editor and self-proclaimed “mastermind” of Ampersand Books, Jason Cook heads up a small press that “specializes in young writers, in fresh and inspiring ideas, [and ] in raw talent.” Their talented “Justice League” of young writers have published collections of poetry, short stories, and fresh contemporary fiction under the Ampersand imprint. Among their stable of published authors are the poets J. Bradley and Melissa Broder, the cutting-edge short story writer Adam Gallari, and many more. They also publish The Ampersand, a periodical of poetry and fiction.

Will the rankings at PatronQuo stabilize for the time being, or will other fiction writers and short stories come up from the rear to threaten the leading contenders?

Will the existing patrons up the ante with extra money for short story submissions, or will new patrons step in to assert their claim to the most patron-worthy tale?

Meanwhile, PatronQuo’s readers anxiously await the patrons’ reading recommendations, as the participating writers anxiously wait for their next bowl of patronage to be served up.

Who feeds? Who starves? Stay tuned with “the literary death match that never ends.”

A new patron has stepped up to choose the writer they deem most worthy of their patronage payment – and has now vaulted writer Cori Jones to the top of this month’s earnings on PatronQuo.com.

We proudly hail the supporting contribution of our newest patron, Page Readers, which hosts a live internet radio discussion show for authors of all genres.

Page Readers is the first patron to take advantage of our new Patronage Fund, which is open to select patrons by invitation. Page Readers was invited to select the best story it could find on PatronQuo, and we, in turn, offered to provide the patronage payment to the selected writer on their behalf. It is indeed a significant gesture toward the writer, since only one full courtesy payment applies per invited patron – and Page Readers chose to apply it in favor of Ms. Jones’ short story submission, Hanging Wasp.

Hanging Wasp is now the top-earning story on PatronQuo this month. Its All-Time ranking is at third place, behind Holly Jahangiri’s The Trouble With Oliver and J Leland Kupferberg’s Craftsman’s Volley.

Patron Heather Kephart maintains her position as the All-Time leading patron on PatronQuo.com, while writer Holly Jahangiri maintains her position as the All-Time top-earning artist.

PatronQuo continues to invite various publishers, presses, literary journals, and editors to take advantage of our Patronage Fund to select the story most worthy of being patronized on our dime.

In addition to the one full courtesy payment they can advance to a chosen writer through us, they can choose to patronize more writers on their own, and we will match their contribution to their selected writers, dollar for dollar, until they have exhausted the fund.

In this manner, we’re trying to get as many patrons as possible on board so that the literary community – and those who market their services to them – can see how valuable a patronage model is in simultaneously showcasing the work of deserving literary talent, while providing the only tangible feedback support that counts – financial patronage.

Every dollar adds up, and fans are always invited to get into the action and choose for themselves the stories that most deserve to move up the rankings. Those fans, in turn, can enter the rankings as patrons, and additionally have their names – and links to their profile – showcased on the stories they’ve chosen to patronize.

Whether the current leading stories are most worthy of their present rankings is up to you to decide. If you feel the best short story on our web site has been unfairly short-changed, here is your chance to step up and change the ranking in its favor.

Patronize a writer – and show everyone else the way.