Patreon - Discussion Forum, no links. :)

[Cynus]

I'm on a fact-finding mission here, and I hope the admins will bear with me. There will be no ads here or attempts to direct people to my Patreon, so I'm hoping this doesn't run against the rules for Google Ads or anything else, and from my understanding of the rules as they have been explained to me, it does not, so I request your patience. If this post IS a problem, I hope you'll simply let me know and delete it and that will be the end of it, as I'm definitely willing to comply with any and all rules.

That disclaimer out of the way, I'd like to pick my readers' (and anyone else's) brains about Patreon for a moment.

If you've heard of Patreon and what it is, feel free to skip to the next paragraph. For those who haven't heard of it, it is a crowd-funding website allowing patrons to support artists who release their work to the public. Basically, a person pledges a small amount of money (or a significant amount if they feel so inclined) per month or per creation, allowing a creator to earn a small income for their work. In theory, the small amounts of money add up and the artist is able to make a living through the service. Due to some generous patrons, I have also benefited from this service and I'll be able to cut back on hours at work soon in order to pursue writing more fully.

Who doesn't want more writing, right?

Now, the reason I'm writing this dangerous post is because I need some help with figuring out what to offer my patrons. This has been a constant struggle since I first started my own Patreon page. I never know what to offer. I attempted this experiment yesterday on Facebook of opening it up to everyone to make suggestions, and here is what has been suggested to me so far:

1. Writing advice/consultation: An offer to either look over someone's work and offer pointers, or general advice on how to approach various stages of the writing process.
2. Copies of handwritten chapters/short stories signed by me.
3. Copies of hand-drawn maps of locales used in my stories (I really enjoy making maps)
4. Copies of notes used to create my stories/backstories to how different stories were written.
5. Audio files of me reading my stories.
6. An invitation to friendship, through text or email.

 

There were a couple more which I don't rightly remember anymore, not without consulting my notes, but I think you get the idea of the type of thing I'm looking for. What I'm hoping to do here is to generate a discussion about what sort of things you might want from an author beyond just their stories. Even though it's not something I can advertise here (and I realize posting this is a risk because it may be seen as advertising), I'd like to enlist your help in making my Patreon more attractive and inviting, in the hopes that those who do visit my Patreon page will be more inclined to donate.

So, with that in mind, here's the question:

What would you want to receive from an author which they could reasonably offer you? Any answer could be helpful (Even though my dad's answer of "I'd like Louis L'amour's ranch" only helped by making me laugh, it's still a good one).

Any thoughts? Any comments at all? Please comment either here or through PM, or email me at Samuel.D.Roe@gmail.com if you think the subject is inappropriate for this forum. 

 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Cynus