Patreon Plans for 2023

[jimhines]

I’ve had a Patreon for a couple of years now. I’ve never really done much with it — people suggested I set something up, and a small group has chipped in each month to help support me and my writing. (And I’m very grateful to those people!)

Much as I’d love to just write and never have to think about money, this past year has convinced me to try something new. One of the deciding factors was paying my older kid’s tuition bill this morning.

So I’ve been talking to folks and studying what other authors have been doing in terms of offering rewards to supporters. Here’s my tentative plan:

• Goblin Corps: For $1 a month (or more), you’ll get to read a short story each month. These will be mostly reprints, because I’m not fast or prolific enough to do a new story every month in addition to everything else. Stories will be posted on Patreon to read, and will include some sort of introduction or commentary.


• Space Janitors: For $3 a month, you’ll also get your very own ebook of that month’s short story in .epub and .pdf formats.


• Libriomancers: For $5 a month, you also get a monthly sneak peek and progress report about whatever I’m working on. These will mostly be snippets and commentary on books-in-progress.


• Team Princess: For $10 a month and up, you get all the other rewards, and once per quarter I’ll mail you a book. It probably won’t be one of mine — it’ll be something I’ve read and enjoyed and want to share. I’ll throw in a bit of swag, too: a signed bookmark, a Smudge sticker, a goblin temporary tattoo…who knows! (Unfortunately, the economics don’t work for me to do this for non-U.S. supporters. For those people, I’ll send you a recommended e-book instead of a print copy.)

I may add additional support levels as I go. Possible rewards could be anything from short story or novel chapter critiques to video chats to Tuckerizations (your name as a character in a future book or story) to live online readings.

But I want to make sure I can fulfill what I’m promising, which means not overcommitting myself up front.

So…what do folks think? Any warnings or suggestions from more experienced (or just plain smarter) people before I jump ahead with this?

Comments

[xap]

I really like this idea :) And appreciated the tiered approach, as it gives folk more options and space for their own budget fluctations. Most importantly, it sounds thought-out and doable for you. Keeping it manageable is SO important. Not just for good business and all that, but your own stress level. Something meant to help you in one area shouldn't run you into the ground in others if you can help it.

[jimhines]

Definitely. I overdid it a little when I ran the Kickstarter for Goblin Queen. I'm trying not to do that to myself again :-)

[jazzfish]

You've done a Kickstarter so presumably you know this, but to reiterate: I would be very, -very- wary of offering rewards that might result in shipping out a bunch of stuff, because shipping is a) time-consuming and b) unpredictably costly. $10/mo seems really low for getting a physical book once a quarter.

(I'm in Canada and also in a tiny apartment, so I'm not in for More Physical Stuff regardless, but.)

[wild_patience]

Jazzfish, in my experience, they send them out electronically. You select which format, epub, mobi, or PDF, for your download. Musicians send music in a variety of formats as well.

[wild_patience]

I would up your prices just a bit - maybe double each? A short story a month is a big deal, even if they're reprints. Seanan McGuire offers a new short story each month for I think it's the $3 level. It's an incredible deal, but she is extremely prolific and doesn't have a day job.

As a reader, I feel like I get much more value for my money than what I contribute from most of the folks I support. (I do have a few pity supports - old friends fallen on hard times and such - from whom I don't get or expect much.)

I hope this works out well for you. I'm at my limit on what I can spend on Patreon so I can't sign up, but I think you're doing the right thing.

[xap]

Actually, Seanan's first is at the $1 level too, though yes hers are new - as you noted, writing's also her day job, and one she's incredibly prolific at :)
Part of it I think is her feeling that she's able to so she does...but also - sure it's only a dollar, but many folk may be able to do a dollar who couldn't do more, and for her side of the equation all those 'only a dollars' can add up together :)

[replyhazy]

I mean, as a reader, I'm all GIMME ALL THE WORDS. But, as a semi-reasonable human I say: if you want to have a $1 level, just offer some little scenes between your characters. Outtakes. Brief conversations. A couple paragraphs by you about whatever. For whole short stories it ought to be at least $3.

[laurenthemself]

I don't have warnings or suggestions from the author side because I'm yet to implement one, although I guess I could suggest what I'm trying to build up and what you already mentioned at the Goblin Corps tier: have a bank of stories ready. In your case, reprints; in my case, I'm trying to write six months' worth up front so I know I can dish those out if I don't write another story in the month.

I added your Patreon to my follow list and as soon as my replacement credit card turns up and I can set up pledges I'll do so. (I didn't mind the CC being out of commission in general, as I could work around it for groceries, but I went feral when I got a Patreon email saying my pledges hadn't worked. LET ME FEED MY WRITERS AND ARTISTS OMG.)

[themis1]

Recommend you consider using Bookfunnel to send out electronic stuff, as they automatically convert to the recipient's chosen format. For example, I use email on my Mac, they email me the Kindle version of what I've asked for and I can send it on to my tablet. Of course there's a price consideration but it's quite small for low numbers.

[reedrover]

As Jazzfish said, above, committing to mailing physical anything every quarter could get costly and time-consuming. I assume you’d be using Media Mail for the USA, but even so. You do have a day job and a teenager at home, so possibly you might want to change that to “at least twice yearly” or some other flexible format that better fits your life. And consider the money for the time trade off - are you selling yourself too cheaply? You could also split it and have a bibliovore tier ($15) and a swag tier ($7) for stickers and bookmarks to see if you could push some of the $5 people to move upwards.

Other folks have already mentioned Seanan’s very successful Patreon. If you are conversational friends with her, I recommend reaching out to ask how it has gone. Relevant to the concern about your time and money, it’s worth noting that Seanan’s threshold for mailing anything physical is $25 and she capped the number of subscribers to that tier.

Something else you could do to tweak your rewards could be an “in person” type of reward, where the stalwart Con-going Patreon people get first invitation to an informal round table chat at every Con that you attend, not to be redeemed more than X times a year.