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Letter from the Editor: Head Butler needs you.

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Oct 21, 2017
Category: editor's letter

After 13 years, the Head Butler business model doesn’t work and the site no longer pays for itself.

If I’m to continue to publish regularly, I’ll need your help.

Many thanks to all who wrote to say how much you value Head Butler — and that you’d be willing to pay $X a month to keep it going.

Well, here’s your chance.

Click here to go to my Patreon page, a fund-a-creator service that’s about as simple as Amazon 1-click.

On my Patreon page, make a monthly pledge — any amount you choose. (Patreon’s settings suggest that as little as $1 is fine. Not to be an ingrate, but $1 a month is of no help to me.)

Then indicate how you’d like to have that gift transferred to me — Paypal or credit card.

That’s all you have to do.

It will take you less than a minute.

What will you get if you make a monthly pledge? Exactly what the readers who don’t chip in will get: Butler four (or maybe three) days a week. Does that seem unfair? Well, that set-up — some subscribe, some get it free — seems to be working pretty well for NPR and my favorite radio station, WFUV.

Really? Nothing extra? Sadly, no. Since 2004, I’ve been publishing four days a week, except for a few weeks in August and again in December. There are now almost 2,000 pieces in the archives. I’ve loved writing them. And reading and responding to your emails. And the close friendships I’ve formed with people I’ve never met. But I have a book to write, a play to promote, a movie that needs a production team, and a teenager to help and annoy. I simply don’t have time to create something “extra” for subscribers.

What happens if I don’t raise enough to cover my costs? I’ll have to stop publication. But I’ll leave the site up, and, if so inclined, you can read your way through the archives. If you read one piece a day, you’ll have me in your head for five years.

Best case: Butler lives. And with the financial crisis solved, I can continue to challenge, enlighten, educate and amuse you — I can go on being the best possible butler for your head.

Thanks for reading this.

— Jesse