Precisely because of the explosion of non-professional writing in these channels, paid writing has dropped in income and effectiveness. That said, the story of the impoverished author was old when "new grub st" was written by George Gissing in 1891 (its a good, depressing read btw)
TL;DR patreon makes things worse not better. Kindle destroyed the revenue stream in traditional publishing, for Amazon's net benefit.
TL;DR patreon makes things worse not better. Kindle destroyed the revenue stream in traditional publishing, for Amazon's net benefit.