I have a Patreon! It’s a place for me to share a few things that don’t quite fit in my main blog, as well as share early access to treats and research with people who’d like more of that, sooner. It’s also a chance to have some conversations in the comments.
What’s Patreon about?
Patreon – as you might be aware – is a way creators can share material with people who are interested in supporting or following them. Posts can be public or limited to a specific tier of support. I’m trying out Patreon for three reasons:
1) We can have conversations in the comments! Conversations are great. (You’ll need an account to do this, but there’s no cost for commenting on my public posts.)
2) A place to talk about some things that don’t quite fit on the main authorial blog, like writing tools and process, updates on specifics about the progress for books, etc.
3) A way to support my writing. Some of my readers (thank you!) have asked about ways to support me beyond buying books and sharing about my books with others. This is a way to do that, but I want to make sure all the content will be available to everyone over time.
Backing me means you get early access. Read on for more about the details of that.
Creating an account on Patreon
Here’s how to get started if you don’t already have a Patreon account. If you have any concerns about privacy, here’s some information from them about privacy choices.
Once you have an account, you can follow me (click the follow button on my page to get an email when I make a new post) or subscribe to a tier (read on for more about those options.) I’ll also be including links to all my public Patreon posts in the newsletter after they go up, so you can also keep up there.
The tiers
All tiers get exactly the same access – choose the one that suits your budget best!
We’re going for $1, $3, and $7 options here, because we have to have our sevens in the mix. We may add other options for tiers and what you get down the road, but for right now we’re keeping it simple.
Want to try it out? I have it set up so that it will bill on the 1st of the month. If you’d like to try it out without a charge, sign up (after the 1st of the month) and unsubscribe before the end of the month. This is a deliberate choice on my part, so if that helps you out, go for it!
What Patrons get
I want to make sure I’m doing something that’s sustainable long-term. To start out, you can expect one post a month behind the subscription wall, and one or two posts a month that are public.
In all cases, the subscription content will be available down the road for free. You can get the extras when they’re released via my newsletter. Research posts will be on my blog (possibly in a slightly different structure) when the relevant book comes out.
When I did my survey in November of 2022, a lot of responses were interested in hearing more about my writing process (tools I’m using, how I go about things, research resources). I haven’t wanted to put too much of that in my blog posts, because it can get harder to navigate. Patreon seems like a great choice here.
Starting in 2024, there are two Patron-only posts a month. Generally, you’ll get two extras, one each in different ongoing sequences. (None of them are spoilers for books that aren’t out yet, they’re precursors. I’ll mark what they relate to if there is a possible spoiler.)
Extras
Extras will involve a full scene or vignette from an upcoming extra. These involve other points of view on a particular scene, background, or other things I’ve written up. Extras will have had basic editing (typos, taming my commas, etc.). They won’t yet be revised for details in keeping with the larger arc of the extra or upcoming books.
When the full extra is ready, I’ll share it with everyone on my newsletter. I’ll also share a link to the entire extra in my Patreon to make it easy for patrons to get. (Check out the Completed Extras collection for those links.)
Research deep dives
Research deep dives will be related to the book I’m currently writing (so 6-9 months before the publication date). I’ll share them on my blog when the book has come out and the research might be interesting to a larger audience.
We may change this up once we’ve had a chance to see how it’s going, what people are interested in, and so on! Have something you’d like to see me talk about that fits here? Drop me a note and suggest it.
Sound intriguing? I hope you’ll join me on Patreon in some form.