How it works
You make something. Someone keeps a copy and pays you. It stays yours. That is the whole thing.
One thing you make can do more than sit there.
The same page can sell copies, hold a seat, collect signatures, or book an hour of your time.
- A numbered copysold and keptcollected
- A ticketholds a seatredeemed
- A signaturegoes on the recordrecorded
- A bookingan hour of your timesettled
Four people get paid when this page sells. One wrote it.
The words are the writer's. The paper is a template an artist designed. The sticker is a second artist's. The fourth share goes to a cause the writer picked.
The Long Way Round
The writing
50%The writer
The words themselves, and the only part the writer has to make.
The template
20%The template artist
The paper it is set on. An artist designs the type, the rules and the ornament, and every page published on it pays them.
The sticker
20%The sticker artist
Artwork placed onto somebody else's page. The artist never sees the page and is paid anyway, every time a copy sells.
The funding group
10%A cause, chosen by the writer
A cause the writer sends a share to. Groups are approved once, then anyone can name them.
All four paid in the one transaction that settles the sale. No payout run, no invoice, nothing to chase.
A seat at a game table splits the same way: part to the host, part to the trophy artist, and the rest to the pot. See the games
Who gets a share
A template artist, a sticker artist, a collaborator and a cause. Each is written into the page when it is published and paid on every copy.
The template
The paper it is set on. An artist designs the type, the rules and the ornament, and every page published on it pays them.
The sticker
Artwork placed onto somebody else's page. The artist never sees the page and is paid anyway, every time a copy sells.
The funding group
A cause the writer sends a share to. Groups are approved once, then anyone can name them.
The collaborator
Anyone else who worked on it. An engineer, a venue, a co-writer, a band. Named when it is published, paid on every sale, no invoice in between.
You set your share. They set theirs.
An artist names their own rate when they submit a template or a sticker. You choose who else is in, a percentage each. Your own share is whatever is left.
You can give all of it away.
Your own share can be zero, so everything that is yours can go to a cause. The artists' rates stay, because those were never yours to give.
All three paid in the one transaction that settles the sale. No payout run, no invoice, nothing to chase.
Readers can add to a page after it is out.
A co-sign is left by a reader on the copy they collected, and it is drawn into the page. On The Record asks for a name, a stance and a line. Bottle Drop calls it a reply. It pays the writer, not the signer.
We, the Undersigned
The old way, and this way
Three things that were hard before.
You do not need a gallery to get paid.
Put it up. If people want it, the sale pays you in the same transaction, and it stays yours.
A team can fund a season from the people who show up.
Name the coach, the kit fund and the bus once. Every ticket sold pays all three.
A neighborhood can keep a record of what it made.
Not a page on somebody's platform. A record that outlives whoever set it up.
Same kind of page, a different look every time.
Every page below was made the same way, on a different template. Open one.
Signal in the Static
To the Night Shift
The Long Way Round
Overnight Batch
We, the Undersigned
Sonnet 18
Ferry at Midnight
An Open Letter on Open Source
Subtraction
Green Type on Black Glass
On Keeping Receipts
A Field Guide to Waiting
Seven things to do, one after another.
Do them in order. Four of them open a new app, and the last hands you an invite to give away.
- 01Send a messageWe buy the first copy
- 02Reply to someone else's messageThe sender gets paid
- 03Send three in allOpens On The Record
- 04Write two open lettersOpens Grammata
- 05Publish a pageOpens Tic-Tac-Boom
- 06Play a matchOpens Drop Four
- 07Win a matchAn invite to give away
Then: make something on 5 different days for another invite, and another every 10 days after. See the achievements
You never need to know any of this.
If you want to look anyway:
Show the technical details
Your work is recorded on the Stacks blockchain. That is what makes ownership and payment checkable by anyone, and impossible for us to alter. The record is permanent from the moment you publish. We can hide a work from view in the apps, but not change or erase what was recorded. The artwork is saved with us so the apps and link previews can read it. It stays with us until you write your own permanent copy. You do that yourself, signed with your own key.
Each piece is a numbered edition tracked on-chain. When someone collects one, the payment splits to every contributor in a single transaction. There is no separate payout step and no ledger that can drift.
You can sign in with Google or X and we manage the wallet for you. Some apps also accept a Stacks wallet you already have. Either way, the record of the work is public.
The parts are other people's work. The split is how they get paid for it.
Ask for an invite