Patreon Tier Reshuffle in February and General 2020 Developments (Patreon)

First of all, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s supporting me on here, whether  you’re a long-time supporter or you just joined. I know it's a big deal  to give your heard-earned cash to someone on the internet  and am well aware of the responsibility I have and what an honour it is  to be on the receiving end of your generosity and support. So, yes.  Thank you more than I can probably ever express. 

Secondly, a reminder that all tiers have access to our chilled out Discord server, so if your Patreon isn’t linked up to Discord and you’d like to come on over (lurkers always welcome - you don’t have to be the chattiest person in the universe to join!), let me know and I’ll create an invite link for you. We’ve got a channel for sharing photos of pets, for general chat, for monsters, for sharing artwork of all kinds, a library to share your own stories, an nsfw chat etc., so hopefully there’s something for everyone, but there’s no pressure to be active if you’d rather not be! 

It might be worth joining the server anyway because I have plans for a new  perk which will involve Discord (see below), and I also occasionally run ‘Discord Drabbles’ where I ask for prompts on Discord from folks, which you might have seen posted on Patreon from time to time.  

Now, finally, round to the topic of this post! 

I’ve been thinking about how to make sure that every tier gets  the most that I can give them for their money, so I’m going to do a  little reshuffle. It will start in February, and I’ve made sure that I’m  pretty much just adding stuff to each tier, so you won’t miss out in the reshuffle.  

Here are the new things I’m hoping to run from February 2020:  

Sculpt This! - Patrons can submit artwork or detailed  descriptions (a creature/monster, a character, an object) to a  designated ‘Sculpt This!’ channel on Discord, and I will pick one to  sculpt once a month. I will create a post on Patreon  with the artwork and the artist’s name (and a link to their page/site if they have one), and photos of my final  sculpture based on their design. That will be available to everyone from  the $1 tier upwards.  

For those on the $5 tier upwards, a short video will be available, featuring footage of the sculpting process itself.  

If the person whose art I use is on the $20 tier or upwards, I will post them the sculpture if they’d like it.  

Trope Tuesdays!  - A poll will go up prior to Tuesday, with a list of common tropes  (notably from the world of fanfic – things like ‘coffee shop’,  ‘bed-sharing’, ‘enemies to lovers’, ‘5 times +1’ etc. etc.) and the winning trope from that poll will be the theme for a short story to be posted on a Tuesday.  

I’m aiming for these short stories to be a variety of fluffy and steamy, available to everyone from the $1 tier up.  

Character Letters - $10 and up patrons can request a letter  once a month from their favourite characters from any of my stories  (providing I wasn’t using someone else's OC for a commission or the  like). This can be sent as a PDF by email and/or posted publicly to Patreon only (not Tumblr), with the option to remove the name if you’d rather remain anonymous.  

$20 and up patrons can request a hand-written letter once a month from their favourite character, again with the option to have the text posted to Patreon or not, and with their name, or not.  

Commissions –  I'm still in two minds about opening these up on here because I got  absolutely exhausted – mentally and physically – at the end of 2019 and  I’m only just recharging again. I had said I would open them up to  patrons only in January 2020, and I may yet  do that. If I do, I will create 5 slots, and a maximum of 5k words per  story initially, and see how that goes. I realise that’s a small number  of slots, but it’s still a lot of work for me on top of the rest of the Patreon  commitments. I hope you understand, but I know a number of you  responded in a poll to say you’d be interested in commissions from me  again. 

$10 patrons receive 5% off the first 5000 words of writing commissions, and $20 receive 10% off the first 5000 words of commissions.  

Continuing rewards:  

Monthly story –  the monthly exclusive story will still be available for $5 and up (some  of these stories have been known to go up to 10k words and be in  multiple parts – think Kieran the satyr’s story from October 2018!) 

Early release –  I will continue to offer all Tumblr stories (except paid commissions  from non-patrons and giveaways/specials) on early release – minimum of 4 days, sometimes longer.  

Polls – help me decide what to write next 

Future things I hope to bring in later this year: 

Gaming with Ghosti –  I hope to do some streaming via Twitch of me playing things either on  the PS4 (like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey or we could do a special Dragon  Age: Inquisition playthrough together),  or from PC which could include a number of games, from Witcher III (I  still haven’t played much) to Mass Effect, chilled out Minecraft  sessions, and a huge number of other games which you could choose to  inflict on me and watch me flail around in. Hopefully Mr. Ghosti could join in too and laugh along with you and just generally have a chilled out time. This would probably happen at the weekend, but I’d have to look into the logistics of it if there’s enough interest.  

Discount for Patrons on my Etsy shop 

It’s actually live right now, but I haven’t got anything listed yet as I’m unsure of the last few things I need to get  in place, but once I’ve got things up on there, I’ll make an  announcement and give patrons a special discount code to use in case  there’s anything you’d like to buy, from jewellery to polymer clay  charms/sculptures.  

More Q&A type things and video content 

Some  of you seemed to enjoy the video I did answering your questions, so I  could always do more of this, if there are things you’d like to ask! It  could be about anything, not just writing. If there’s interest, I’ll  look into it.  

More milestone giveaways and mystery ‘lucky dip’ giveaways 

I love sharing things with you, so when I hit 200 patrons, I’ll have to think up something special, and in the meantime, maybe I’ll do some more giveaways for you. 

If there’s something that you would like to see that you think I could put up on Patreon for you, then please get in touch! I’m always looking for ideas 

So, to summarise, the currently-occupied tier rewards will be as follows from February 2020, with brand new items in bold, and slight changes in italics: 

Shadows:  

access to the Patreon-only Discord

access to the ‘Trope Tuesdays’ poll and story

access to the ‘Sculpt This!’ posts

access to some character profiles, aesthetics, polls, and story ideas 

small discount on my etsy store (when it opens)

and my undying gratitude! 

Pixies and Goblins – all of the above, plus: 

one Patreon-exclusive monster story per month 

access to the ‘Sculpt This!’ process video

access to the extra, long-running story, released once a month (Werewolf story - coming soon!) 

early access for all Tumblr monster stories (excluding paid commissions) 

the ‘what’s next?’ poll to help me decide what monster or reader to write 

Elves – all of the above, plus: 

you can request a letter once a month from your favourite character of mine! This can be sent as a PDF by email and/or posted publicly to Patreon only, with the option to remove the name if you’d rather remain anonymous.

access to ‘Writer’s Corner’, featuring occasional blog posts about writing and workshop goings-on 

small work-in-progress previews from both my monster stories and my original fantasy fiction ‘Weaver of Threads’ 

5% off the first 5000 words of writing commissions, and priority placement in the commissions queue 

Orcs – all of the above, plus: 

you can also request a letter  once a month from your favourite character, but yours can also be  hand-written and posted to you if you’d like! You also have the option  of it being posted to Patreon or not.

One  short story (maximum 1500 words) with a monster and reader of your  choice per month (by request only), included within your subscription 

A PDF version of any monster story I’ve written and published on Patreon or Tumblr (by request, and sent by email) 

10% off the first 5000 words of a writing commission 

if your design was selected in the ‘Sculpt This!’ feature, I can post the finished sculpture to you, if you’d like to have it.

Dragons – all of the above, plus: 

One 5000 word story of your choosing will be written for you per month (no fanfiction) as a thank you for your patronage (by request only) 

A character with a name of your choosing (upon approval!) will be added to a monster story 

Priority on jewellery and metalwork commissions and a larger discount on my Etsy store (when that opens)

Hope you’re excited, and don’t forget that you can always get in touch with me on any of my platforms – Patreon, Tumblr, Discord. If you want to share something but also want to remain anonymous, just send an anon to Tumblr and ask me not to post it.  

Love Ghosti x