(production-notes) Episode 4.10 (Patreon)

Well, here we are, season 4.0 wrapped and I can't believe it's been a whole year of this wonderful journey!

Started from the bottom, now we're here!

Over a thousand plays a month of the podcast is ASTONISHING to me. I'm so delighted! (By the way, you'll find most podcasters keep their listener numbers to themselves, for advertising leverage. Not me, I'm delighted to share this with you.)

Let's also take a look at the patreon numbers:

The green bars show when new people subscribe (Hi new friends!)

Looking at these numbers from a pure business point of view, it's clear that the patreon numbers slowed this year. While I'm delighted for any and all patronage (thank you so much again), to allow me to fulfil my wildest podcast dreams (extra shows, merch, voice actors and professional collaboration), it helps to have a bigger budget. My long-term goal is to be able to pay myself and any and all talented people who work with me on the show. At the moment, it's a mix of friends doing me a favour, and paying very small amounts out of the patreon budget.

So, to that end I've started really thinking about what extra value I can offer not just to you, my lovely patrons, but to entice new people to subscribe. More on that in the coming weeks!

(I will re-state my pledge to never run ads on Lost Terminal. I don't think they're very good for anyone)

It's also clear to me that I need to up my twitter game - I find the more I interact with the lovely people in podcast twitter land, the more value I get out of it! So I'm focussing on that, too.

PHEW that was a bit dry wasn't it. LET'S TALK EMOTIONS: I always know I'm on to a powerful storyline if Lucy cries when I read her the final draft! There's been a lot of that this season! I was very sad to see Minnie/MINI go, which sounds strange for the author to say, but I'm only partially in control of things.

If you're an AMIGA or CRAY level, do watch out for the MINI special, voiced by my friend Kate Ashford, she CRUSHED IT! I had to have a sit-down after her first read-through, she's so good. More from Kate, hopefully, in the not-too-distant future - watch this space.

So that's it for season 4.0, I hope you enjoyed listening as much as I enjoyed writing!

Keep an eye on patreon and/or twitter, I'll be making changes to most things over the next few weeks to streamline pledges, introduce new merch to the store, and finally, I'll be announcing the next Lost Terminalverse podcast! (mostly, my new writing partner and I need to name it! The first episode is mostly done.)

Thank you all so much for an incredible year, without your support I might not have come this far. Talk to you soon <3