2024 Financial Review
An Annual Look At A Creative's Budget
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.
It’s that time again! When I look back over the last year of finances as a writer and an artist and go: Wow, it’s almost like politicians who claim to support small businesses *actually don’t* and that tech companies are not so much streamlining how we work as they are streamlining how to exploit people!1
All that being said, this was an exciting financial year for me as a writer and an artist. I am consistently seeing growth in my creative income and for the first time ever, I actually made a profit! This is a combo-career path that relies heavily on luck, timing, and nepotism, three things I have yet to benefit from, so seeing a significant (for me)2 uptick in funds is a genuinely lovely surprise. Especially because it means I can support other creative folks even more.
To my patrons: Thank you!
Thank you immensely for paying me for my labour, for buying art and ‘zines, for subscribing to this blog, for choosing to support my crowdfunding project of the thousands you could have supported. Thank you for helping me to live my best life and support my growing community of writers and artists. It means so much to me, and to any small creator you support, that you choose us to give your money to.
Specifically, thanks to my mum for the monthly e-transfer. These funds, added to the contributions from the seven paid subscribers on my Substack have helped me pay for my Adobe subscription all year.
Thank you to my paid blog subscribers: Annica, Adam, Kyle, Iris, Ris, Monica, Renate and one anonymous.
Thank you to everyone who backed the crowdfunding campaign for From the QILT2BAG+: Spencer, Jaime, Holly, JP, Annica (again!), Sheri, Lyn, Alex, E, Rachel, Ris (Again!), Natalie, Olivia, Kaitlyn, River, Erin, Elliot Rae, Zoe, Renate (Again!), Dallas, Eve, Emily, Shannon (again), Kendra, Sarah, Brittany, Tatzin, Moniqa, Amanda and Christina.
Thank you to everyone who purchased items from my shop: Monica, Ivan, Emily (again!), Mo, Amirio, Felix, Dan, Jenny, Jaime (Again!), Odeh and Pam.
Thank you Monica and Ivan for the two commissions that have funded ‘zine production and helped me pay other artists and writers.
And thank you to my amazing wife, co-conspirator and Unicorn, G. You keep me fed and sheltered and make it possible for me to do creative work full-time even without having full-time pay.
Above I have named every person who supported me in the last year. Aside from grants and a few honourariums, 100% of my income came from the forty-five people I listed. Supporting small, independent artists matters.
Buy from the people you know in your community. Go to small, local art markets. Find things local to you through Etsy filters and then see if those makers have a website or way you can buy from them directly, instead of through Etsy or any other third-party website. Commission that person who shares their work on Insta or Bluesky.
Also, PLEASE STOP USING AI. It is destroying the environment further and steals from living writers and artists who you could be supporting directly.
And so, with that little Public Service Announcement out of the way, my 2024 Financial Review…
2024 Finances Overview
For the first time ever I made a significant profit! I started the year with $2,100.63, which was about $860 more than I started with in 2023. My annual spending was $8,897.61 ( $668.01 less than in 2023) and my income was $14,966.10 - $5,400 more than I made in 2023!
Most of my earnings came from the second payment for the Avalokiteshvara commission and an artist grant I received from Calgary Arts Development.
I’m starting 2025 with $6,068.49—about three times as much as I have ever had in my art account at the beginning of the year!
2024 Direct Support Income
In 2024 my only stable income stream was a direct deposit from my mum. I am not counting Substack as a stable income stream because I lost four subscribers this year. Two were folks who stopped their payment because of the whole Nazi debacle, and two were annual subscribers who didn’t renew when their subscription ran out. This meant my paid subscriptions dropped to less than $30 a month by the middle of the year.
Total direct support I received in 2024: $1,327.19.
2024 Sales, Commissions & Grant Income
My key income streams were merch sales, commissions, and a grant + artist fee!
The Quiltbag in Edmonton still carries my stickers, but otherwise, merch sales were 100% from my webstore.
I completed both Shakyamuni Buddha and Avalokiteshvara in 2024, and so I was paid the remainder of the commission fee on both those pieces.
I also got a grant from Calgary Arts Development ($4,500), and was paid a speaking fee as an artist for a creative congress event they put on at the end of the year. I was also paid an honourarium for my time with the Coming Out Monologues.
The commission and the grant are why my income in 2024 was so extra juicy.
In total, my individual income through merch sales, commissions and grants in 2024 was $11,452.91.
2024 Operating costs
As usual, my biggest operating cost is the Adobe subscription, which increased by $7.35 a month in 2024. My aim is to have paid subs and my parent’s contribution cover this cost, as it is the biggest and most consistent besides art supplies, and in 2024 this was the case.
Bank fees are so annoying. These go up with every transfer I make and some months I can’t keep the transfers down as I am paying for services, sending funds to other artists, and paying back art purchases I could only make with the credit card.
I was accepted to an art market in October this year, which I ended up opting not to do, but I’d already ordered a Square reader by that time. As of yet, the Square Reader hasn’t been worth the $72.45 cost, as I’ve not used it to sell anything. Most folks who buy stuff from me in person just send an e-transfer, which is great because that doesn’t come with any fees. I received 100% of the transfer and they don’t have to pay extra to send it.3
“Services” are the cost of getting my artwork imaged so I can get prints and cards made. This, alongside merch creation, cost me $687.64 while my income from selling these items was just over $500. That’s not counting the nearly $300 I paid in posting said items, so merch not only doesn’t make me money, but it loses it.
Not included in the graphic above is the $1,500 I paid for the group residency I’m doing this month. This cost is covered by the grant I received, which is also covering my general cost of living, professional fees for a workshop I’m delivering, art supplies and travel for the month of January.
In 2025 I am going to focus more on finding commission opportunities and applying for grants and paid residencies, as these are really what brought me into the green at the end of 2024.
My total operating costs in 2024 were $4,813.04, (Only slightly more than it was in 2023 — $4,768.29).
2024 community contributions & supporting fellow creators
Miscellaneous costs include payment for classes, mutual aid contributions, buying work from other creators, and donations made from my art income. Being able to pay it forward in support of others in my community is always a joy.
The classes payment were contributions to Lama Rod Owens as part of a Green Tara practice he offered, as well as an additional contribution in thanks for his support while I was working on Avalokiteshvara.
Mutual Aid went to members of a Buddhist community I’m part of, to help pay for their labour, as well as the four other artists I’m doing the residency with, to cover transportation and food costs.
“Supporting Other Creators” is money I spent purchasing merch and services from others, including ‘zines, stickers, prints, patches, and in one case, a commissioned beaded brooch.
I made two donations in 2024, each to small grassroots organizing groups for one-off community offerings.
My total contributions to others in 2024 was $2,257.02, which was down from $3,093.82 in 2023.
2024 ‘Zine Production!
2024 saw the creation of From the QILT2BAG+, a community ‘zine project I started as a way to uplift and celebrate other 2SLGBTQIA community members and share my own work, including my love of print design. I produced four issues in 2024, and did a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds to produce four more in 2025.
The costs of this project were covered by the two commission payments I received in 2024, including payments to ten of the contributors. I set it up so contributors all received copies of the ‘zine to sell and keep the proceeds from, but they can also opt into getting paid on a sliding scale from $25 to $100 upfront for their work.
Thanks to the crowdfunding campaign, I will be able to continue offering payment to contributors, as well as covering the cost of posting issues to those folks who don’t live in the same city as me. You can see that actual sales of the ‘zines has not covered the production cost. This is mostly because I only really sell them through my website, and my “audience” is less than 200 people.
I do hope that I might be able to do one or two markets in 2025 and have the chance to sell more copies this way, but going forward, I may rely on crowdfunding to get the financial boost I need to keep producing this project.
Conclusion
Support living artists!4 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.
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. AVOID TEMU AT ALL COSTS.
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.
I jest, but only a little. If only there was a Claims Adjustor to challenge this horrific oligarchy we live in.
It needs must be said that I am still not making a taxable income.
If you are Canadian and you want to support my work and not get a paid sub, you can set up a re-occuring e-transfer to faunawold ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com.
I’m not going to change this from what I wrote last year. It remains true!