alexandraerin | Lessons My Weird Fundraiser Thing Taught Me

Make hay while the sun shines.

I did this when I did it because things were getting a little uncomfortably tight, but there was no real crisis, and because of that I've got a comfortable cushion of money in my bank account that will be there if I do have a crisis between now and WisCon. If that happens, then the question becomes "How do I pay for WisCon a little bit from now?", not "Oh my God what am I going to do to get money right now?"

And because I'm ahead on things I can probably add to that cushion at the rate at which I expected to be saving for WisCon or more, so even after I pay for the con-related expenses I'll still be protected.
Rattling the cup < putting on a show.

I've said before that I need to rattle the cup more often, but you know, I think in the long term doing something like this... not this exact same thing but something fun and semi-competitive that's going to stir people up and get them involved... doing something like this every several months is going to work out better than rattling the cup a couple of times a month. You know? The sponsorships are at a nice steady level, and I think that'll only improve when I roll out a few of the things I've been working on quietly in the background here.

If I make a point of doing a fundraiser like this on a quarterly basis or so, not only will I not have to keep reminding myself to rattle the cup (which can feel awkward), but folks can plan accordingly. I know there were people waiting for payday, because they told me so. People who get paid on the other week or who don't have direct deposit might have missed out. Next time I'll plan ahead. I mean, I'd kicked this idea around since I started planning volume 2, but I only finally did it on an impulse.
Readers come up with the best incentives.

When I name a incentive target I always try to come up with something I think that the readers might enjoy that I probably wouldn't have done in the normal course of things. I mean, I'd love to explore more about Mackenzie's family overseas but they're just not connected to the main story, you know? But readers can come up with things that I wouldn't ever dream of writing about... Bill Springstep in the modern world? When I saw that request in my email, I wasn't sure I could do it, I mean, my first thought was, "I'm not even sure that Bill is real." But you know what? Apocrypha happens. Heck, the most recent Bill story that went up had a disclaimer on it that it was a later addition added in what was at one point the modern age. Do gnomes stop telling stories about Bill?

Thanks to everyone's who participated!

I know for me "putting on the show" really got me to donate. I've been meaning to donate for a long time but hadn't gotten around to it - I'm trying to pick a time when I donate to all my providers of free entertainment, but the traditional time for giving (winter holidays) isn't really a time of extra income. Seeing the competition really gave me the incentive to give right now, although I can't promise I will every time.

And I didn't vote for Dee, but I'm glad she won. And that sum just blew me away - good for you! That's awesome.

Seeing the competition really gave me the incentive to give right now, although I can't promise I will every time.

Don't worry about it. I've got tentative plans to do the next one early in May, to make it a quarterly/seasonal thing and because it would be convenient for me to get a boost right about then, but I've got no expectation that it will be as big as this one.

This was the perfect storm of mad character love, thrill of competition, a chance to impact the story... there just aren't that many parts of the story that are actually worth waging a wallet war over that I'd be comfortable putting up for sale, you know?

I bet someone could make a respectable sum doing a "vote-your-own-adventure-with-your-wallet" thing (they'd have to have an established name or a reason for people to care about the story, though), but Tales of MU's not going to be that kind of story and I don't think people would care about enough to stick around if I tried to make it into one.

This was just the right idea at the right time.

And that sum just blew me away

You and me both!

And thank you for being part of that sum.

Lessons My Weird Fundraiser Thing Taught Me

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