What my cooperative media ecosystem could look like

My vision for a federated nation of independent writer states.

Jan 06, 2025

When I announced my dream, last week, to create a cooperative media ecosystem, many wondered what that might look like.

I specifically called it a “federated nation of independent writer states.” That’s because I think Substack is the best thing to ever happen to writers, allowing us to independently earn a living from their work, and I have no intention of re-bundling us back into traditional media organizations.

We should remain independent writers, growing our own followings and earning our own income, but I still think there is room for collaboration, and that we could share revenue when we do.

Some ways I would love to do that:

Two writers could host a six-part techno-futurism podcast together and share the earnings
Three filmmakers could launch an animated solarpunk film series and split the profits
Five writers could collaborate on a magazine or book about Cooperatism, Terraforming, or City States and share the earnings
20 writers could host an annual worldbuilding event and split the earnings

Our readers might follow and support our independent projects, but they can also follow and financially support our collaborative projects, attracting a larger audience and revenue opportunity for us both.

This idea is now possible thanks to Metalabel, a new platform from the former founder and CEO of Kickstarter,

Yancey Strickler

, allowing artists to create something together, sell it together, and split the earnings. I’ve been following its first year in business and I’m excited to now launch the Elysian Collective, an artist collective that will publish collaborative media projects imagining a better future.

For example, one of the projects I’m working on is a print magazine called TERRAFORM. It will contain articles by myself, and others, about how we could terraform the earth for the best benefit of humans and the environment we live in. Let’s say I invite three other writers and a graphic designer to contribute to this issue. We might brainstorm the issue, write articles for it, lay them out, publish the collection as a print magazine, and then sell it to our collective subscribers. As the creative director spearheading this project, I might handle the bulk of the work and writing and earn 30-40% of the profits and split the remaining 60-70% between the other four collaborators depending on their contribution. Or if we handle work more evenly between us, we might split the profits five ways.

Early on, this is as simple as it will be: We will launch various media projects, collaborate on them, sell them together, and share the revenue in a split that makes sense for that project.

Eventually though, we could create more complex campaigns with more elaborate splits. For example, imagine an animation team decides to create a five-part solarpunk short film collection and sell it for $50. The problem? The creative team doesn’t have a large marketing reach with only about 5,000 newsletter subscribers between them. As 5% to 10% of an email audience generally converts to paying customers, they might expect 250 to 500 sales and earn $12,500 to $25,000 through their efforts alone. But if they collaborate with, say 50 other writers/podcasters/video producers in their niche who have a combined reach of 50,000, they could boost the project to another 2,500 to 5,000 sales, earning the project an additional $125,000 to $250,000.

The creative team could decide upfront to keep 51% of the profits for themselves (split between creators) and give the remaining 49% to any number of promoting collaborators. If the project earned $250,000, the creative team would earn $127,500 instead of the $25,000 they would have earned alone. And collaborators could get some share of the other $122,500 for promoting it.

Projects published for the Collective could have any number of collaborators and be organized according to any financial split. Likely there will always be a creative director or creative team spearheading the project and earning the bulk of earnings, but they might decide to collaborate with any combination of artists, promoters, or investors who also earn a share depending on their contribution. This financial structure will incentivize artists to collaborate with and promote other artists. And to mutually benefit from that collaboration!

We will grow collectively even as we grow independently!

Eventually, we could even fund larger projects up front. If we sell hundreds of magazines, books, podcasts, videos, conferences, and events over the next 10 years, we could cumulatively sell hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in media projects. If the Collective earns a share of every sale, it could create a fund that invests in longer-term projects like sci-fi films or architectural projects with the expectation that the Collective would earn a percent of the earnings when it’s done!

(For more on this idea, read my essays: What if we fund artists the way we fund startups? or I’d rather have an investor than a publishing contract.)

Early on, our focus will be much smaller than this. The Elysian Collective will publish magazines, books, podcasts, and video series relevant to creating a better future for humanity. I have a list of projects I want to create, I am currently looking for collaborators on them, and we will release projects together as they are complete. I hope eventually others will pitch projects for the collective too, and that we can become an incubator for cooperative media projects.

We will experiment with this model in real time, iterate project by project, and fine-tune each successive one as we learn what works and what doesn’t. Eventually, all of my work might be cooperatized alongside the work of others as we slowly create a more collaborative media ecosystem together.

A collective of artists imagining a better future.

What my cooperative media ecosystem could look like

My vision for a federated nation of independent writer states.

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