Part Time Editor Update

Hey Patreons!

I'm going to create a video for the entire channel which will explain this better than I can do here (either later this week or next week after Monday's video) but I wanted to give you guys the heads-up on what's been happening recently behind the scenes, and thank you for making all this happen :)

In December I did loads of Q&A videos back-to-back as I prepared for Stalingrad Season 2. What you may not have realised was that I didn't actually edit any of those videos. They were all edited by Terri (the graphic designer who did the Stalingrad maps). This included the "Why did people vote for you-know-who?" video - which quite a few people said in the comments that I'd "improved the quality" of the video somehow. Well, it wasn't me who improved the quality of that video, it was Terri. She's being doing extra graphics and the editing of a bunch of videos, and the ones she has done have had very positive feedback. She's also been editing more videos behind the scenes which will be coming soon, and she's been working on another map in addition to the Stalingrad maps - bearing in mind that you haven't seen the Stalingrad city-map yet, which is awesome!

Basically, I'm really impressed by the work she's been doing, and I'm often surprised by how quick she can get the editing and maps done. She's quicker at editing videos than I am! It's also freed me up to concentrate on Stalingrad and other research and scripts, and I think if I could commission her to do more hours per week it's very possible to get more videos out per week.

Now the reason I didn't say anything was because I wasn't sure how it was actually going to work, or even if it would work out at all. But it did work out, and it worked better than I could have hoped. You haven't yet seen all the benefits that Terri has brought to the table (more videos incoming) but it has been worth it in my opinion.

And it's all been down to you guys - you have made this happen, so I want to say thank you once again to all of you for allowing me to even attempt all this. I never thought I'd be able to do this full-time, let alone commission someone else to help me out. So thank you!!

Now, I will have to admit that I also messed up slightly... In the previous "ambitious" goal, I had hoped to hire a part-time editor and then make the leap to two videos each week (one quality Monday one, and a Q&A per week). But it turns out that this was WAY too ambitious a goal for a part-time editor + me to handle. It seemed like a reasonable idea when I made that goal, but I couldn't see the future... Not too long after setting that goal, I increased the quality of the videos with many more sources, and have been backing up what I said with multiple references at the bottom of the video, and have been doing longer videos with better graphics (e.g. maps) etc. So a part-time editor + me isn't enough for all that AND then two videos per week.

So basically, I set a goal, then moved the goal-posts!

Therefore, I've just changed the old goal to read 'reaching this will increase the quality of the videos' (which it has and will). And I've created a new "Full-Time Editor Goal" which will allow me to commission Terri full-time, and make the leap to two videos per week.

(Note: I'm combining the pledges of both SubscribeStar and Patreon together for these goals, so even though we've not reached the current goal set on Patreon, with the pledges on SubscribeStar, we actually have.)

Again, a super-super-ambitious goal, and I don't necessarily expect you guys to pledge more - you already pledge, so you're doing your bit! But as I mentioned at the beginning, I'm going to make a video for the entire channel to see which will be a call-to-action, asking for more support. The more that's pledged, the more hours Terri can do, which means more videos or longer or better quality videos for you :)

And, if anyone's doubting whether this is a good idea or not - I've reached the point where I personally can't do any more hours per week. And, if I'm honest, I burnt myself out mid-December... which a few people noticed :(

I'm at my productivity limit. So unless I found a way to work 25 hours 8 days a week, I've hit the limit of what I can do. Meaning: the only way to either increase the quality of the videos or do more videos per week would be to delegate some of the work to other people. And video editing and graphics creating is something that makes sense for someone else to do. I could then concentrate on research and script-writing, which is what I'm good at.

Again, I don't expect you guys to pledge more - I think you're doing enough. But I do want you all to know what's happening, and also that I'm trying to make things better for you guys - you want better quality videos and more of them, and I want to give you what you want :)

So, thank you for your support. I know I'm extremely slow when it comes to replying or doing Patreon/SubscribeStar updates, and I'm well-behind with the Q&A's... but I do appreciate everything you guys have done, and you're allowing all this to happen, so thank you.

Let me know your thoughts, any questions or whatnot, and I'll aim to get back to you as soon as possible

Cheers!