Important Announcement: Patreon Changes (Patreon)

Alright folks! I know I originally stated that the Patreon Changes Poll would run through the 30th, but the truth is that there haven't been any additional votes in a few days. More to the point, given the nature of the changes I've decided on, I want to give a bit more warning than just a single day before the changes come into effect.

First, a word about the poll results. The results were overwhelmingly (91%) in favor of some level of increase. With the largest chunk of votes (62%) being in favor of the larger change. Within the comments, the vast bulk of those who took time to comment on why they chose the other (lesser) increase option stated they did so for concerns over burn out. This isn't something I'm particularly concerned with, doubly so for the first month since I've actually been building up a bit of buffer just in case. Honestly, I'm at far greater risk of burn out from having to work two jobs than I am of doing more of what I actually enjoy ;-).

With this in mind, and following the idea that its frankly better to put all the 'bad medicine' (in this case, cost increases for those supporting me) down at once, I've decided to go with the Full Time solution. That said, I've also put some time into considering the best way to handle the shift, and am planning to use this alteration to address something else people have consistently complained about from pretty much day 1.

Namely, that a lot of people seem put off by the fact I update in big chunks, rather than more frequent but smaller updates. Some of that is hard to change, as there are workflow reasons I prefer to do it that way. However, with the larger word count coming into effect, I've decided I can attempt making some alterations to account for this. As such, here is what I'm planning for the new update schedule to look like, starting in June. This is an experimental schedule, so we'll see how it works out.

June Updates:

June 1st - 10,000 words of One Piece: Halfway Broken

June 4th - 10,000 words of Stripper With a System (Monthly Poll Winner)

June 8th - 10,000 words of Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy?!

June 12th - 10,000 words of Author's Choice Story (Haven't Decided Yet)

June 16th - 10,000 words of One Piece: Halfway Broken

June 20th - 10,000 words of Stripper With a System (Monthly Poll Winner)

June 24nd - 10,000 words of Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy?!

June 28th - 10,000 words of Author's Choice Story (Haven't Decided Yet)

Random Point - 10,000 words of Extra Content

Total Word Count = 90,000+ words

The dates might not be absolutely accurate. But that is the rough schedule. Four total stories (plus an extra) which will each get two monthly updates of decent size, totaling 20,000+ words for each story. This way, you're only waiting two weeks, instead of a full month, between updates for an individual story. This might end up being too rough, with me having to bounce between stories, and I may choose to switch to larger, once-a-week updates four times a month. Which is easier on me as it means less time and effort spent on updating the various platforms.

Of course, now...we also need to go over the Tier Pricing Changes. In order to support this much writing time, the cost of my various tiers are going to change as of the 1st of June. The changes will be as follows:

Tip Jar Tier

This Tier will go from the current cost of $1/month to $3/month. This, frankly, is still actually fairly low by the standards of most fanfiction Patreons. Given the large bump in update quantity/sizes, I don't feel too horrible about it...

Registered Voter!

This Tier will go from the current cost of $3/month to $5/month. Voters at this tier will receive 5 votes in the Monthly story Poll.

Voter Plus!

This Tier will go from the current cost of $5/month to $7/month. Voters at this tier will receive 7 votes in the Monthly story Poll.

Royal Voter

This Tier will not change. Voters at this tier will continue to receive 10 votes in the Monthly story Poll.

Generous High Roller

This Tier will not change. Voters at this tier will continue to receive 20 votes in the Monthly story Poll. (Not that anyone currently uses it anyway).

It is my hope that the changes will be sufficient to allow me to remain at a full time output level. Particularly as I'm hoping the more frequent updates will lure in more minions patrons! If, after a 3-month trial period, this proves not to be the case, I may lower both the prices and output level down to what I outlined in the other (lesser) option. I'd rather make the big jump now, than lower as needed, rather than have to jump through hoops with slowly increasing changes.

As always, thanks for your support folks! I hope most of you will consider the vastly increased output valuable enough to remain around despite the cost increase. But I'm a poor boy from a poor family, so I will completely understand those who choose to leave :-). Since updates will be coming more frequently, even non-patrons should benefit somewhat from this volume increase anyway...