2023 Financial Review
Financial transparency of a Creative Human surviving under Capitalism!
Reading time: About 10 minutes. About 5 to 8 minutes if you opt for the introduction, overview and conclusion or just the intro and conclusion.
Three years back I decided to post a financial review of the year, and I am continuing that for 2023! In addition to being a homemaker, I am a small business owner. Sharing the finances associated with my art and writing is an act of solidarity and transparency. One only rarely makes a living as an artist and a writer. My hope with these posts is that folks will gain a better idea of the myriad costs creative folks face when we want to make a living from the thing we love, and how you can support your local creative human.
As ever, I am immensely grateful for the support of my community. I joke about my parents and partner being my biggest fans and patrons, but legitimately, I couldn’t do what I do to the extent I am able without them.1 It is also because of the eight people with a paid subscription to this blog, the fourteen people who bought my artwork, the two folks who commissioned art from me, the six folks who contributed to the commission crowdfund, and the three people who left me tips this year that I am able to do the thing I love alongside managing a household.2 I can tell you exactly who supports me and how, and it has never been a tech company, social media platform, or a politician. It’s friends, family, fellow Buddhists and mutual connections who support my work. It’s 29 specific individuals, almost all of whom I have met and most of whom have been supporting me steadily for years, many of whom are creative folks trying to survive under Capitalism too.
So thank you: GK, Shannon, Julian, Ivan, Monica, Annica, Adam, Jenn, Christina, Iris, Ris, Elizabeth, Oliver, Margie, Edwin, Kyle, Samten, Chance, Lia, Jeanine, Jean, Amanda, Chanda, Michele, Jodotha, Elizabeth, Eugene, Emily and Jonathan. Ya’ll kept me in art supplies, helped cover all the fees and expenses of having a website and managing a small business, and made it possible for me to contribute to mutual aid and organizations doing valuable work.
I am so grateful to each and every one of you.
Your contributions have meant I was able to support three small local art shops, two local fibre arts suppliers, a local printing house, a local framing company, a friend who is a jeweller, fellow writers, a local print maker, an online Indigenous-owned paint maker, and several organizations working for our collective liberation.
And now, my 2023 financial review:
Overview
2023 was exciting in that I made more from my art and writing than I have ever made in any year previous! I started the year with $1,235.08 and earned $9,565.62 throughout the year. My total spending in 2023 was $7,716.77.
A significant chunk of my earnings came from the commission I got for Avalokiteshvara, which I go into detail about below. A significant chunk of my expenses were art supplies and general operating costs, specifically my Adobe subscription, which, alas, is going up significantly in 2024.
Overall, I maintained a nice balance through the year and for the first time ever I was able to buy whatever art supplies I wanted and not just the budget option! This meant I supported the heck out of local indie art and fibre shops and online suppliers like Beam paints and an embroidery artist who also provides supplies.
But I’m starting 2024 strong with $2,100.63!
2023 Direct Support Income
In 2023 I had two stable(ish) income streams: Substack and a regular e-transfer from my mum. I also got $83.35 in tips!
I had hoped my Substack income would reach the similar $80/month I had coming in through Patreon when I had been using that platform, but my income seems to have stabilized around $30/month. I don’t mind that Substack is staying small though, since the founders of this platform insist on letting Nazis build and grow their followings here.3 I’m looking at how I can divest from the small funds that do come in from this platform without having to switch *yet again*.
My mum opted to switch her contribution to a regular e-transfer of $50, so I basically have a steady income of $80 each month, give or take.4 It varies because not everyone opts to pay monthly. I currently have eight paid subscribers, two of whom pay on an annual basis.
In total direct support Just Because I recieved $1,332.92.
2023 Regular Outgoing (operating costs)
Operating costs vary from year to year. This is because things like hosting and web fees are usually on an annual or bi-annual basis, service fees change regularly, and how much I spend turning a piece of art into a print or cards folks can buy depends on the art I made and what supplies I bought etc. etc.
The only steady cost I have is Adobe, which charges a fee of $75.59/month (going up to $82.94 in 2024!!! FUN!) and is not a cost I can do much about. I use Adobe for a lot of stuff, from designing the headers and graphics for this blog to print design to making assets for my website to prepping cards and prints for the printer. It’s a frustrating case of a monopoly I can’t divest from, as I don’t have the energy, time or patience to learn a new tool when I am already proficient at InDesign and Illustrator. Adobe knows it, and so yeah, they can jump the subscription up by $7.35/month with little notice. And you bet they will increase it again next year!5
Okay. Adobe rant over.6
The other regular cost I had in 2023 was the small space rental I was paying to be a part of the 9th & Brick creative maker space. This cost is not going to apply in 2024, as the woman who operates the space has had to pivot for her own financial reasons, and is converting it from a storefront to a venue folks can book for workshops, classes and whatnot. This is super great, and works out well as I had intended to pull my merch from there because of the Adobe fee increase.
Calendly is an annual fee and I gotta say, $202.92 hurts a bit as a price to pay for a relatively easy booking system that does remove the headache of figuring out time zone difference but that I only used for booking stuff a handful of time in 2023. This is one of those time/costs savings calculations I have to reckon with. It’s draining to figure out calendars and availability and Calendly removes that entirely, but at what works out to just shy of $17/month, when I am beholden to the Adobe fee, means my regular monthly outgoing costs exceed my regular income. This charge comes out in March, and it is very likely I’ll be cancelling my Calendly account, despite the mental space it frees up.
Service fees included the cost of having Manjushri imaged and framed, a “blaze” campaign on Tumblr for $35 to see if it helped (it did not), and a Vimeo fee so the videos I have on there stay up and accessible.
On the plus side though, the services fees, art supplies, merch creation and postage were all costs covered by commission payments and pre-sales, and ultimately where I made the balance I’m starting the year with. Thankfully, all that is pretty easy and low-effort for me, with my talent for organization and project management.
Moving into 2024, I intend to focus my energy into reproducing my work and connecting directly with people to share it, without the buffer and barrier of tech companies and social media.
My total operating costs in 2023 were $4,768.29.
My other key income streams were merch sales, commissions, and a small consulting gig.
2023 was a very exciting year for me what with getting TWO commissions. The first, for Avalokiteshvara, is for a total of $8,000USD, which is paid in two parts. In 2023 I received the first payment of 50% to cover supplies and getting started. So $4,000USD, which I converted at the time and came to $5,471.85CAD. The rest of the commission income came with the second commission, for Shakyamuni. Thus far I have received $250USD from the patron and $607.15CAD from folks participating in crowdfunding this project.
Merch sales includes the sales of prints, card sets, t-shirts, stickers and pins. Stickers and pins were sold through my website AND in two different collective storefronts, 9th & Brick in Calgary and The Quiltbag in Edmonton. The Quiltbag takes a 40% cut from all sales while I paid rent of $26.25/month to 9th & Brick.
I had one brief website design contract early in the year and it made me realise that I would rather offer my website design services for free to fellow artists than deal with contracts.
In total, my individual income through writing, art and consulting in 2024 was $8,233.70.
2023 contributions & supporting fellow creators
Miscellaneous costs is basically the money I spent supporting others. Classes payments were for silkscreening lessons through Cinic studio and two writing classes I took with fellow writer, Chris La Tray. Supporting other creators was me spending money on other people’s art and offerings either directly or via Patreon. I made two mutual aid contributions to help out fellow creatives facing eviction after rent increases, and made donations to the NDN collective and See Change thanks to art sales.
It means a lot that I can literally pay forward some of my income to supporting others in my community and network. I always want to be able to give more, but it’s nice to be able to give anything without it putting my own stability at risk.
My total contributions to others in 2024 was $3,093.82.
Conclusion
Support living artists! Buy from us directly whenever possible. Go for handcrafted or self-managed printed cards and prints and printed clothing and jewelery instead of mass produced tat. Trust me, it’s nicer to have genuinely hand made thing or to gift hand made things.
If you find something on Etsy, check if the person has a webshop where you can buy directly from them without Etsy taking a massive cut.7
Find out if you can support someone directly through a regular e-transfer if you are in Canada, rather than using platforms like Patreon and Substack where the middle-man exists just as a way of taking money off the top to make someone uber wealthy even wealthier. (You can set up a regular e-transfer to me: faunawolf ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com)
Stop buying stuff from Amazon, Walmart, and fast fashion shops. DELETE YOUR AMAZON ACCOUNT.
Buy from independent art stores and local craft stores not owned by giant corporations.
Go to the small café in your neighbourhood instead of Starbucks or Tim Horton’s.
Pre-order books from authors you love from local bookstores.
Buy ‘zines directly from authors!
Go to local collective art markets.
Trust me, it matters. It matters so much. I guarantee, you will absolutely make someone’s day when you buy directly from them or throw funds their way so they can write and make art.
Anyone who claims to be self-made is lying, delusional, or both.
Thanks to my task app, I now know I spend about half my days as a homemaker, which has been a good reminder that caring for a home is labour!
I will probably write about this soon! It’s gross! I hate Capitalism! And Libertarians are so annoying!
Say what you want about Canada’s banks, the e-transer system is *dreamy.* If you are Canadian, you can support me with a monthly or one-off e-transfer via my email faunawolf ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com.
And you bet this nearly $10 more they are claiming from all their users is going to make a billionaire EVEN WEALTHIER and definitely not go to providing living wages and amazing benefits to the people who do the actual work to build, operate and maintain their products.
Have I mentioned, Capitalism is the Worst and I Hate It?
Etsy charges people to LIST products, so they make money off of creative whether the person sells anything or not.