Wednesday, December 18th

The Daily Report

Yesterday was a day of modest goals and modest gains, though I did publish a new story (Amazon link and Selfy link) and I got a new sponsor on Patreon, which I'm starting to figure out. I'm not yet sure if I'm going to be throwing open the floodgates by linking to it on the chapter that goes up today, or if I'll wait until the next one.

The reason I'd be waiting is that this Saturday I'm going to be flying back to Nebraska for family holiday purposes, so there won't be an update next week and I won't necessarily be as responsive to any issues that creep up with new Patreon subscribers.

The argument for not waiting is pretty much "strike while the iron is hot!"

It probably says something about my frame of mind right now that I'm finding them almost equally persuasive. I suppose I'll split the difference and make a note in the comments on the chapter, but wait to make a permanent front page link.

The State of the Me

Yesterday I received a re-supply shipment on my pills so, yay. I also had a really good night's sleep and was wide awake at nine in the morning today.

Plans For Today

Errand-running yesterday left my time and attention for writing a little fractured, so I have more to write today than I'd like on day 4, but I know what I'm doing and that's always a positive. I'm going to be transcribing some more chapters of Tales of MU and writing some more commentary.

Upon reflection...

...I've gone ahead and changed the period on my Patreon pledges from "once a month" to "four weekly updates". I feel like that's the better choice anyway from an accountability standpoint and I'm going to end up doing it eventually, and doing it now when there's only six sponsors means that fewer people have to conceivably edit/cap their pledges to adjust with it.

To explain how this will work: every time I update a chapter, I'll post a link on Patreon with a number out of four. Today's chapter will be #1/4. When it hits #4/4, I'll mark it as "paid" which means that Patreon sponsors' pledges will be processed, and the next chapter will be marked as #1/4 again.

In practical terms, this works out to being about once per month (and again, you can cap your monthly payment as being the same as your pledge to make it no more than once per month), but it adds a layer of accountability. If you pledge $10 for a month of updates and I update once, you'd still pay me $10. But if you've pledged $10 for four updates, that's what you get.

This is just one reason why Patreon might be more attractive to some readers than the PayPal subscription model I've been following. It might also be a reason why some readers prefer to stick with the PayPal one. I have no problem with using either of them. A couple of people have already jumped ship (or changed horses?) from PayPal to Patreon. I also recognize some people who've told me that they can't access the PayPal subscription service but who are now taking advantage of Patreon.

My father gave me the business advice to make sure that your interests and your customers' are aligned. My own personal maxim is: when people want to give you money, make it easy for them. Don't quibble about how they do it. So my main goal here is just to be accommodating.