Setting up a Patreon

[CountVanBadger]

XNPC just went live on Sunday morning. So far it only has 5 readers, 370 views, and no favorites on SH, and 5 followers, 800 views, and 1 favorite on RR. I posted the first eight chapters on day one to get it up to the 20,000 word mark so it'd be eligible for RR's Rising Stars list, and I've been posting one chapter per day since then. After this Saturday, I'm going to switch to posting one chapter every Wednesday and Saturday.


All that to say, I know I'm not at a point where Patreon will do me any good, but I want to get to that point eventually, and I want to have everything figured out before that day comes. So, is this a good setup for my tiers? With two chapters going up a week, that averages about eight chapters per month, so for $5 they get eight advance chapters. For $10 they get 16 advance chapters. For $15 they get 24 advance chapters. For $20, they get all of the chapters I have written thus far, even if they haven't been edited and are still subject to change.


Am I on the right track here?

 

[Humanistheart]

I’ll be curious to see how people respond here. I personally imagine, and I could be wrong, that a Patreon might need other things besides just advanced chapters. Maybe bonus or extended chapters? Or possibly authors notes on them ?‍ I think some might include artwork.

Unrelated but I love your name. I could easily make a character out of that.

 

[CountVanBadger]

I’ll be curious to see how people respond here. I personally imagine, and I could be wrong, that a Patreon might need other things besides just advanced chapters. Maybe bonus or extended chapters? Or authors notes on them ?‍

I know some authors include other things, but those are mainly the really successful ones like the Shirtaloons, Zogarths, and Matt Dinimans who can afford to have extra junk like character art commissioned. Lowly badgers and human hearts just have to make due with extra chapters.

 

[Humanistheart]

I know some authors include other things, but those are mainly the really successful ones like the Shirtaloons, Zogarths, and Matt Dinimans who can afford to have extra junk like character art commissioned. Lowly badgers and human hearts just have to make do with extra chapters.

Hmmm, I’ve never heard of them, but perhaps I’ll look them up sometime.

 

[CountVanBadger]

I posted this same question over on RR, and someone recommended that I should limit it to two tiers: $10 for 20 chapters, and $20 for all chapters.

 

[Arkus86]

In my opinion it's a fair pricing. Neither too cheap, nor too expensive compared to other authors I have seen.

I’ll be curious to see how people respond here. I personally imagine, and I could be wrong, that a Patreon might need other things besides just advanced chapters. Maybe bonus or extended chapters? Or possibly authors notes on them ?‍ I think some might include artwork.

I have seen authors make decent profit off of Patreon with just advance chapters. It depends how popular your works turn out to be, and how wide an audience you can reach.

I posted this same question over on RR, and someone recommended that I should limit it to two tiers: $10 for 20 chapters, and $20 for all chapters.

Personally I would say keep the $5 tier at least. I don't have actual hard data, but as far as I can tell, it's a popular price point.

 

[Xcalibur_Xc]

Have patience. Post it on Webnovel but don't take contract, spacebattles, AO3. And majority readers usually invest their time after 50 chs or completion of vol 1 because 80% of the stories get abandoned.

 

[Callarel_04]

So a good point to start a patreon is around 50 chapters? I'm new to this as well and would like some advice.

 

[Zinless]

I’ll be curious to see how people respond here. I personally imagine, and I could be wrong, that a Patreon might need other things besides just advanced chapters. Maybe bonus or extended chapters? Or possibly authors notes on them ?‍ I think some might include artwork.

Unrelated but I love your name. I could easily make a character out of that.

Trust me, advanced chapters are more than enough.

 

[CountVanBadger]

So a good point to start a patreon is around 50 chapters? I'm new to this as well and would like some advice.

Fifty chapters is around the point when a lot of RR readers (don't know about SH) feel comfortable getting invested in a story since at that point it's a safe bet that the author is going to stick with it.

 

[Callarel_04]

My story have entirely smut chapters, so RR isn't an option . The smut isn't the main focus but that still violates RR's TOS, right?

Not that I need to think about it soon. 17 chapters posted and 10 in the backlog.

 

[Humanistheart]

My story have entirely smut chapters, so RR isn't an option . The smut isn't the main focus but that still violates RR's TOS, right?

I had a similar concern

Trust me, advanced chapters are more than enough.

Good to know!

 

[Fairemont]

Those values seem a bit on the generous side from what I am aware of. So, you'll probably be okay.

 

[FRWriter]

To start with, that isn't too expensive. Decent chapter/price ratio.
So if someone desperately wants more and wants to support you, this seems appropriate and fair.

Just to play devil's advocate... are you sure you are willing to commit to your Patreon? Maintaining a Patreon is quite hard, so if you commit to it, you will have to keep it up to date even if you only have a single supporter.

Anyway, I wish you luck.

 

[CountVanBadger]

I'm getting it set up now. Weird question, but does it matter what I name my tiers? Right now I've just got them set as Tier 1, Tier 2, etc. Is that okay, or should I come up with something more unique/cooler sounding?

 

[FRWriter]

I'm getting it set up now. Weird question, but does it matter what I name my tiers? Right now I've just got them set as Tier 1, Tier 2, etc. Is that okay, or should I come up with something more unique/cooler sounding?

Be a little more creative... pick something generic or something related to your story, will ya?

Geez, "Tier 1, Tier 2...."

 

[Humanistheart]

To start with, that isn't too expensive. Decent chapter/price ratio.
So if someone desperately wants more and wants to support you, this seems appropriate and fair.

Just to play devil's advocate... are you sure you are willing to commit to your Patreon? Maintaining a Patreon is quite hard, so if you commit to it, you will have to keep it up to date even if you only have a single supporter.

Anyway, I wish you luck.

I had been wondering that for multiple teers, is the an automation that releases the chapters that had only been for tier one into teer two as time goes on or would one have to do that manually. Seems like a lot of time would be spent if the latter is true

 

[FRWriter]

I had been wondering that for multiple teers, is the an automation that releases the chapters that had only been for tier one into teer two as time goes on or would one have to do that manually. Seems like a lot of time would be spent if the latter is true

There is no automation. I spend like 3 minutes doing that... EVERY DAY. Sometimes I get lazy and skip a few days and do it for a few days in a row, but people in specific tiers will miss out and sometimes even complain if that's the case (rightly so).
A Patreon requires some work, depending on a few circumstances. In my case, it gets harder and harder to do because I've released like 700-800 chapters already. A lot of clicking and searching.

 

[Callarel_04]

There is no automation. I spend like 3 minutes doing that... EVERY DAY. Sometimes I get lazy and skip a few days and do it for a few days in a row, but people in specific tiers will miss out and sometimes even complain if that's the case (rightly so).
A Patreon requires some work, depending on a few circumstances. In my case, it gets harder and harder to do because I've released like 700-800 chapters already. A lot of clicking and searching.

You just have to change which tiers are allowed to see that post, right? Or do you make new post?

 

[Grizzly18]

I know some authors do commissions for some of their tiers like writing little side chapters from other characters perspectives that don’t necessarily impact the plot as a whole but can expand the lore of the world. It could help challenge you to expand the scope of your story or it might be something that breaks you I don’t know. Up to you good luck ?