Zenith of Sorcery Billing Strategy (Patreon)

So, a little background here. When I first started posting Mother of Learning on Fictionpress, I published the first four chapters of the story all at once on the same day. I did that because I like to start my stories slow and it took four chapters for MoL to really get into the whole premise of the story itself... but also because posting multiple chapters in succession builds momentum for the story.

For Zenith of Sorcery, I basically intend to do the same thing. I will wait until I have about four chapters written before posting them on Fictionpress and Royal Road in quick succession. Probably one a day until I run out of chapters, at which point I'll switch to regular my  'one chapter every 3-4 weeks' schedule.

There is an issue, though - I normally charge you guys for each individual chapter. If I wait until four or more chapters are done and then post them in quick succession, that would mean I would charge you a whole bunch of money all at once. This isn't what you signed up for, and so I was considering how to handle patreon charges for a while now. I see three possible options.

Option 1: I switch to monthly payments. This way you would be billed at the 1st of the following month, and then once every month afterwards. Back when I was publishing MoL I basically published one chapter each month (when averaged out over the years), so I don't think anyone loses out if I do this. However, it does mean you get billed every month, regardless of whether or not I actually write something.

Option 2: I start billing you for the future test chapters I publish in the future. This would be done with the understanding that you're not really paying for the test chapters themselves, but rather the actual finished chapters that will be posted later. Then, when I finally publish the story on the wider internet, I charge you only once - for the very first chapter, which hadn't had a charged post.

Option 3: Things stay as they are. Before posting the chapters on Royal Road and Fictionpress, and after posting the first chapter, I will send you a warning so that you can temporarily unsubscribe from me to prevent a sudden succession of further billings hitting your account. You can then subscribe back afterwards as you please. This will allow you to pay for a chapter or two or however much you feel comfortable paying, and opt out of the rest.

Honestly, I am fine with any of the three options. Therefore, whatever option gets the most votes is what I will pick. Pure popularity contest on this one.

Also, no matter what wins, I will continue posting further test chapters to see the responses and adjust the beginning of the story for the final release.

Anyway, thank you all on your continued support, and I hope there is no hard feelings towards the winning option.