Patreon Changes

Hey hi folks.

There's probably going to be a change in how Patreon works later this month, on the 18th, so here's a heads up.

You've hopefully all gotten the news by now (since there has been a couple of rounds of emails from the company) but Patreon is changing the way it charges patronage. Long story short, each pledge will be charged separately, and there'll be a %2.9+$0.35 charge on top of each of them; before, the creator (me) paid these charges, but now it's the patrons (you) who will. Here's how Patreon puts it:

I don't like it.

 (A deceptive part is that little extra orange bar on the right; it's representative for higher amounts, but if you're pledging $1, that bar should be bigger because $1 will become $1.38. That flat 35 cent fee is tiny on most pledge tiers, but it gets pretty big at the lowest one.) 

Patreon didn't consult us, or warn us ahead of time, or even tell us why they're doing this until we pushed back; apparently it's so they can more easily switch to a monthly subscription model later next year. But whatever their goal is, it's going to make it more expensive for patrons, and that sucks.

This site, your support, it literally has allowed me to do what I love doing: create things. I can draw, create video series, write and illustrate light novels... I couldn't do that without you all. And the last thing I want is to be given a tiny bit more money per pledge but have you all shoulder the fees. And heck, I'm going to be paying those fees too when I support my own creators, so nobody wins. I'm pushing back as much as I can with my fellow creators, but a lot of us are preparing for the worst in case Patreon decides to go forward with this.

This leads to me looking into alternative ways to organize the pledges. To minimize the fees and integrate some other features a little more smoothly (like itch.io fulfillment of books), I'm seriously contemplating switching this page from a biweekly format to a monthly format and reorganizing the tiers. That would mean the same amount per month for you folks, but fewer fees since it'd just be a single pledge instead of two ($2 once a month instead of $1 twice, and so on).

But no matter what I do, I'll let you know first, and work out with you the smoothest way I can perform this switch (if it does end up being the thing that makes the most sense). Besides, there's still one more two-week cycle to go before the 18th, and it's going to be a big one.

I'm going to wait and see if Patreon really does implement this change; who knows, the backlash has been so public and vocal that they might have second thoughts by then. Fingers crossed.

Please, feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below if you'd like to share.

In the meantime, thank you so much for your continued support. It means the world to me. And if the fee change does roll out later this month and you need to rearrange who or how much you support, please don't feel bad about it; there's only so much we can give.

Regardless, I'm going to do my best to keep giving you your money's worth—whether it's in making and sharing cool stuff, or showing you how your pledges are making a difference (because they are).

Thanks for being here; whatever happens, I'll keep trying to make this whole thing work, because I'm so close. I've just got to work a little harder.

Let's keep making wonderful things together. 💙