Dear Readers: A New Year, Pyragraph Premium & You Peri's year-end letter from the Editor

Pyragraph editors - Pyragraph

The killer team: Josh, Eva, me and Jeremy. (Sage is here in spirit!) Photo by JAK Media.

It’s our last week of publishing before the new year!

As much as we’re all really ready to start day drinking and letting our laptops cool for a spell, we need to use this week for two really big important things: 1) Asking you discerning readers to subscribe to our newly launched Pyragraph Premium, and 2) making it clear to you why it’s such an excellent and smart thing to do.

If you’ve been reading Pyragraph since the beginning, you know that we are coming up on our second birthday—and all that time we’ve been publishing daily, original posts from working creatives like you: artists, musicians, designers, photographers, filmmakers, writers, and other creatively self-employed folks like soapmakers and artist-centric retailers. Every day Pyragraph features authentic voices from all over the world about how to make our creative lives and careers work.

We’ve even branched into podcasting with Self-Employed Happy Hour, which has been a lot of work but incredibly fun! Having Crispin Glover to my house for an interview was an amazing way to close out the year and I’m still atwitter about it.

We love what we do, and we need your support to keep doing it.

While we mostly run on fumes, we do pay our editors, writers, photographers, web developers and others who collectively make Pyragraph possible. Sponsors have been part of our business model from the beginning, but our subscription-based Pyragraph Premium wasn’t live until last week—but now it’s up and running! We’d so appreciate you helping us get it off to a strong start.

Please help us set a foundation for sustainability in 2015 by subscribing to Pyragraph Premium.

For just $15 a year—that’s $1.25 per month—you’ll not only help Pyragraph strengthen and grow, BUT we’ll give you access to valuable Premium Resources available only to subscribers, including copyright eGuides, downloadable spreadsheets and more tools to help you manage your creative career. More resources will be added every month!

Thanks, danke, gracias, shukriya, merci…we can’t thank you in enough ways for your support during our formative years. Growing an audience takes time and a lot of heavy virtual legwork, and we’re so thankful for all your shares, comments, retweets and follows. We’re incredibly excited for the next chapter of our business and our independent publishing story. And we look forward to sharing more stories with and about you!

Highlights from 2014

Crispin Glover podcast - Pyragraph

Crispin Glover blows my mind. In my living room. Pow. Photo by Turtle O’Toole.

Emily Best of Seed&Spark - Pyragraph

Co-hosting Seed&Spark‘s indie film crowdfunding workshop in Albuquerque was a highlight of the fall. CEO Emily Best is scary smart about the film industry. Listen to her! Photo by JAK Media

OneBeat reception - Pyragraph

We co-hosted the OneBeat reception at 516 ARTS. It was a fabulous, intimate party with amazing artists from around the world. Photo by Peri Pakroo.

OneBeat at the Rail Yards - Pyragraph

The main OneBeat event was jaw-droppingly awesome. Photo by Peri Pakroo.

Levitated open house - Pyragraph

We love the excuse to check out amazing creative ventures like Levitated whose open house events are incredible. Photo by Peri Pakroo.

Sam Miller and Pancho - Pyragraph

Pyragraph Presents brought Sam Miller and Pancho (as Elton John and Billy Joel) to Tractor Brewing in June, and it ruled. P.S. Sam sings the kick-ass Self-Employed Happy Hour podcast theme song! Photo by Turtle O’Toole.

Peri and Eva - Pyragraph

Whether she’s coming or going, we’re always happy when Contributing Editor At Large Eva Ave is around. Photo by JAK Media.

Love and kisses from Pyragraph

Love and kisses from Pyragraph to you. Photo by Turtle O’Toole.

It's a great idea to subscribe to Pyragraph Premium.

About Peri Pakroo

Peri Pakroo is the founder, Publisher and Editor of Pyragraph. Outside her work with Pyragraph, Peri is a business author and coach, specializing in creative and smart strategies for self-employment, small businesses and nonprofits. Her focus is on helping people build structure for their passions to find success on their own terms. Peri is the author of several top-selling Nolo titles on small business and nonprofits including The Small Business Start-Up Kit, The Women’s Small Business Start-Up Kit and Starting & Building a Nonprofit. Since 2012 she has produced and hosted the Self-Employed Happy Hour podcast.

Peri accidentally started her first band The Moist Towelettes at the age of 40 with her husband Turtle O’Toole. Since then she has played in a number of bands including The Directory, Bellemah and her own downer-country project, Peri & the FAQs.

In 2012, Peri saw the need for a resource featuring the voices of a wide range of creative workers and the many different career paths they take. She founded Pyragraph to fill this need. Here’s the Pyragraph start-up story.

2 Comments

  1. Jeremy Kinter on December 22, 2014 at 6:50 pm

    That Josh guy is kind of cute.

  2. Peri Pakroo on January 2, 2015 at 9:58 pm

    Stop stalking Josh, Jeremy!

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