Patreon Advice

[Deleted member 166076]

So, I've been working on my writing since the first week of December about two years ago. In that time, I've managed to complete one five volume series, three volumes for a second series, and one volume for a third series. The amount of work to write each series has varied depending on the point I'm at in each series and which series I am working on. However, right now I have two dungeon core LitRPGs that require a lot of extensive planning including hours of research, creating pixel maps that are 25,600 pixels in size, planning extensive tavern menus, planning challenge rooms with rewards, etc. Then I also have a wiki on the Discord that needs updated and finished volumes that need endless amounts of editing and formatting. All this to say it's a lot of work.

Anyhow, I was originally writing one gamelit slice-of-life series that barely required 5 minutes to story plan and one dungeon core series. So I ended up with a schedule of 10x chapters / week for Patreon between both series. When the first series wrapped up, I just worked on one series for a while, but then the subscription numbers started to drop and I got excited about a new story idea, so I started another series. The problem is that now I'm working 40+ hours a week and earning $300 or less a month for my trouble. I already have a poor immune system and chronic health issues, but I'm overworking myself to the point where illnesses drag on for far longer than they should and I barely have time to just exist.

I want to cut my workload down to a more manageable amount, but I'm worried about losing all of the subscribers I have left. I live in the US where I have to pay $350 to H&R block just to access the paperwork to file taxes then another 15% of the total earnings have to be paid in taxes. Essentially, if I don't make enough I end up in the red. I don't want to give up when I'm just starting to self-publish to places like Amazon, but I have barely had time to do more than sleep lately just to keep up with everything. I wish I was exaggerating.

Recently I had to take a single week off from posting new chapters to fix a major plot hole in both of my series related to measurements. I have been losing subscribers all week as a result. This is the first week of no chapters in two years and I'm having to work even more than usual rather than less just to get it all done in the span of one week.

I guess I just don't understand how authors like LostRambler of Carousel can take weeks off constantly and still have earnings over $1,000 every month. I mean, I understand quality of writing and all that. However, most authors have maybe 5-10 early access chapters and still maintain subscribers. I have 50-100+ for each of my series and constantly fix and improve any issues with my writing, but I lose subscribers right away if I have to work on anything but early access chapters for a single week.

I'd appreciate any guidance or advice anyone can give me. Should I restructure my entire Patreon with different tiers for different numbers of early access chapters? Can I reduce my new chapters per week to focus more on story planning and such? How do I avoid upsetting my current subscribers in the process, some of them have subscribed ahead of time for an entire year?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I don't think you can change it without losing subscribers.

 

[Tyranomaster]

The unfortunate reality is that any restructuring will lose you patrons short term. The main thing to focus on is that the new format works for you and is "fair" to the patrons. Be transparent, and also advertise in author notes your patreon with it's new format.

I also do extensive planning and work for my series, not 40 hours, but about 25 hours a week for 3 chapters a week. I developed a weird lung condition earlier this year, and for two months, I couldn't sleep more than an hour at a time without waking up with an extreme cough, so I understand your pain when it comes to keeping up with your work.

Something else to consider is that you may have too many chapters in advance for patrons. If your highest tier is 100 chapters ahead on 3 chapters a week, then many patrons will do 1 month every half of a year, since that is how far ahead you are. Meaning that you're actually losing out on income by providing too much value. I have a few patrons who juggle my story every third month for that reason.

One other piece of advice that helped me a lot was analyzing my workflow and seeing if I could save time by consolidation of tasks. I go through and bulk schedule chapters once a month. It saves maybe ten minutes since I can just pull everything up at once and do it in bulk. Plus it can be done during time windows where I wouldn't want to write since I wouldn't be able to get in the zone. Find a few of those and you'll feel like you have a lot more time to do things, since you can utilize your time better.

 

[AncestorDuck]

Do you only post on SH apart from Patreon? Your story style might suit Royal Road quite good. There are many people willingly to pay...(if it is just about the money aspect)

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I'm literally just starting to toy with Patreon (finally got my graphics program installed so working on covers before I get much farther).
At this point, I have one story with 58 chapters (out of probably 800 when all is said and done - one chapter posted here), one with 23 (finished, but also with a sequel at about chapter 4; 17 of these chapters are posted here), one closing in on 20 chapters (may be just over or just under, not sure), one stalled at Chapter 8, one stalled at three, and another I seem to write a chapter a month in then forget about. And another that I restarted after losing the files and have rebuilt three chapters that are probably much better than the eight I lost. Another that is a collection of novellas with linking (fictional) anecdotes that has the first novella almost complete (still feels like I left out a few things but not sure), and the second just started. And there is Strange Awakening, which is close to 30 chapters, I think 13 posted here.
Oh and a romance novel that keeps dragging me back to write a few chapters and then saying "OK, that's enough, go away for a bit" and is at the ... well, the start of the story climax (there may have been a few other climaxes of varying points before that :D)... which is around 20 chapters.
So I have a 'buffer' against needing to take time off. But that has nothing to do with your situation - that is the next block of text... :D

From what I have seen in comments on Substack and elsewhere, it seems the key is communicating with your subscribers - if you are going to take some time off, or slow down - or even speed up for a while, perhaps anticipating a slowdown - warn them as far in advance as you can, and otherwise try to be consistent - and do NOT push yourself too hard. Also, you might want to look into getting on Substack or some of the other similar services, as they seem like they can help with the marketing side.

 

[Kalliel]

If you want to restructure your Patreon, it's going to hurt your subscriber base a bit, as a commenter has said, so be careful with that. Another thing is that if you are looking to pay your bills with money from doing Patreon, I'd suggest looking into the market on Royal Road. The readers there, from, what I can see, are more likely to spend money on novels than those on SH.

 

[Deleted member 166076]

Do you only post on SH apart from Patreon? Your story style might suit Royal Road quite good. There are many people willingly to pay...(if it is just about the money aspect)

I've tried 13 different sites in the last half a year, but got rid of those that didn't have enough of a readership. Now I just post to Wattpad, RoyalRoad, Inkitt, WebNovel, here, and Reddit Serials. I saw a large uptick to my finished romance gamelit series when I joined Inkitt, but that was only temporary due to it being finished. Honestly, I think it's mostly the balancing the overwhelming amount of work with maintaining the current audience that I'm mostly concerned with. I'm working myself into an early grave at the current pace.

If you want to restructure your Patreon, it's going to hurt your subscriber base a bit, as a commenter has said, so be careful with that. Another thing is that if you are looking to pay your bills with money from doing Patreon, I'd suggest looking into the market on Royal Road. The readers there, from, what I can see, are more likely to spend money on novels than those on SH.

I just post to Wattpad, RoyalRoad, Inkitt, WebNovel, here, and Reddit Serials. I don't think I'd mind losing something like up to 1/4 of my current subscribers with hope of eventually regaining some of it. I also don't necessarily need it to be able to pay the bills, just enough to cover the taxes themselves with a little leftover for a small treat occasionally for motivation to keep going. Otherwise I just want to be able to work closer to 20-30 hours / week instead of the current 40-60 hours / week.

 

[Tyranomaster]

I just post to Wattpad, RoyalRoad, Inkitt, WebNovel, here, and Reddit Serials. I don't think I'd mind losing something like up to 1/4 of my current subscribers with hope of eventually regaining some of it. I also don't necessarily need it to be able to pay the bills, just enough to cover the taxes themselves with a little leftover for a small treat occasionally for motivation to keep going. Otherwise I just want to be able to work closer to 20-30 hours / week instead of the current 40-60 hours / week.

I stated it before, but given the sheer number of sites you post to, if you don't have a good workflow already for handling multiple stories on multiple sites, I'd look into it. I save like 10 minutes a month, and I only post to SH, RR, and Patreon. With multiple stories and that many sites, you could probably save yourself a few hours of time if you aren't already by bulk scheduling.

Most authors (but not all) have a bit of a wind up time when they start writing until they actually make a good pace (getting into the flow). If you find yourself writing in 30 minute stints a lot, it might be worth actually timing out word counts that you produce in those times. From advice from a lot of publishing authors who crank out books, they say that time is usually wasted, and they'd be better off not even writing in that time, since they might get 100 words down in total over that thirty minutes, where as during a long writing stint, they would turn out 500 words in the same amount of time. Obviously, some people are exceptions to that rule, but I do find that if I don't set aside at least an hour and a half as a block, I write much slower than if I was writing continuously.

As for what to do in those thirty minute blocks where I was writing, but now don't, I schedule chapters, or do drafting (or even just thinking about what I want to happen next). I frequently find myself doing chapter scheduling in the time before I feed my dog at lunch, or in the window after work but before I need to start on dinner. I do one website at a time, and not needing to re-navigate to drafts each time saves some headache. Even though I'm doing almost the same amount of work, I feel less burdened. Getting those things out of the way also frees me up when I'm writing to focus on just writing, rather than the peripheral aspects.

If you're already being extremely efficient with your time already though, then it would be worth considering lightening your own load. Since you're already experiencing success, it's worth considering prioritization of some stories over others. Most authors have more ideas than they do time to write, so prioritizing the stories that people want to read (and pay money for) might need to be something to consider. If one of your stories is making much less money than others, potentially consider dropping it to either focus on a new story, or just to give yourself breathing room. A sad reality of being a writer is that many stories we want to tell end up unwritten.

 

[Nymenche]

H&R Block (tax preparers in general) are a scam propped up by massive lobbying efforts. It’s not the core of your question, but if your annual income is below $79k you qualify for free tax prep from your pick of a number of companies—the irs dot gov website should have a link on the front page that says something like “File your taxes for free.” If your annual income’s more than that you can still access all the forms for free.

 

[UnknownHero]

It looks like you're overworking yourself for not much benefit for your current situation. Highly advise lightening your load before you experience burnout. Yes you're going to lose patreons and readers but what are the alternatives?

I know you feel like you can't afford to lose your patreons and readers but if they aren't getting the best work from you then why persist?
Why not rearrange the workload so you can give them the "best" story possible without overburdening yourself.

You have to put yourself first and your writing second.


Just my two cents. Hope it was helpful.

 

[JayMark]

 

[PancakesWitch]

i think you're earning too little for your troubles, with the amount you write if you wrote something on Webnovel and contracted it, you would be earning thousands, also readers won't dissapear instantly if you take a few days break and then continue publishing for a week. the market outside of it for anything that isn't insanely popular is simply nonexistent.

 

[Tyranomaster]

i think you're earning too little for your troubles, with the amount you write if you wrote something on Webnovel and contracted it, you would be earning thousands, also readers won't dissapear instantly if you take a few days break and then continue publishing for a week. the market outside of it for anything that isn't insanely popular is simply nonexistent.

She has mentioned she wants to self-publish on Amazon, so webnovel contracts are off the table.

 

[PancakesWitch]

She has mentioned she wants to self-publish on Amazon, so webnovel contracts are off the table.

yeah though its ultimately the same thing if she goes kindle unlimited, both are exclusive contracts where you're forced to not make your story available anywhere else... Webnovel also has more immediate results and guaranteed money than throwing herself into the amazon void without a publisher. she seems desperate for money, so i am providing her with a way to get it quickly

 

[Tyranomaster]

yeah though its ultimately the same thing if she goes kindle unlimited, both are exclusive contracts where you're forced to not make your story available anywhere else... Webnovel also has more immediate results and guaranteed money than throwing herself into the amazon void without a publisher. she seems desperate for money, so i am providing her with a way to get it quickly

They aren't the same, since Amazon lets you keep your copyright. Webnovel claims full ownership. Amazon KU requires exclusivity for a period of time but selling your product on Amazon as a book with your name on it does not.

Webnovel is an unrevocable contract for full ownership.

 

[PancakesWitch]

They aren't the same, since Amazon lets you keep your copyright. Webnovel claims full ownership. Amazon KU requires exclusivity for a period of time but selling your product on Amazon as a book with your name on it does not.

Webnovel is an unrevocable contract for full ownership.

most authors take it as permanent for KU anyways, never uploading their stories back to any other site, so its literally the same shit at the end.

 

[Tyranomaster]

most authors take it as permanent for KU anyways, never uploading their stories back to any other site, so its literally the same shit at the end.

Only for the readers. Many who put their stories onto KU also sell physical copies. Can't do that with Webnovel.

 

[Bluebery]

i think you're earning too little for your troubles, with the amount you write if you wrote something on Webnovel and contracted it, you would be earning thousands, also readers won't dissapear instantly if you take a few days break and then continue publishing for a week. the market outside of it for anything that isn't insanely popular is simply nonexistent.

Why I do agree that Webnovel is actually a good place to start making money, she may find it hard to survive there.
Because her completed novel is only 150k words. She can stretch it to 200k but that's it. You simply can't go anywhere with just 200 chaps on Webnovel. It's still possible to make a few thousands with good release strategy though, but need a lot of luck.

However, OP, if you can make a story with 4-500 chapters at least and release everyday, Webnovel will be a good place to start.

Edit: I check again and OP actually have 100 more chapters and continuing! Yeah, Webnovel is an option.