Curious Fictions, a Patreon-like site devoted to fiction writers, is closing its doors. We only just reported on the site in May, although the site has been in operation since 2017. Founder Tanya Breshears wrote in an email to the community, “The business had a little outside funding at first, but subscriptions and payments never got to the point of allowing the site to pay for itself or to justify more funding. For the last couple years I’ve run the site alone, keeping the code up to date, featuring stories, answering customer support emails, and handling bug reports—all while doing contract web design work on the side to keep the company solvent. It was probably never sustainable, but adding in having a baby during a pandemic with no childcare, and it became outright untenable.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
