January update

Happy New Year, everybody! Figured I'd provide another update after forgetting to do so in December due to how busy that month tends to get with other stuff. There's a few changes to discuss, as well as some general updates, so let's get right to it:

• A Viper in the Hole...

  • has reached has reached 718 watchers, spread over SB, SV and RR. Though there's likely duplicates, that's still an increase of 267 watchers over just over two months, or a roughly 37% increase, which is huge.

  • has seen the second name vote happen by the Contributors, with 'Caesar' being the victor, though admittedly it was the placeholder name I personally came up with, it's also just a solid fit according to most feedback we've gotten so far.

• A Leaf of the Tree...

  • has finally received the canon omake "A drink to death" which won the November Contributor poll.

  • remains the 31st most liked quest on fiction.live of all time, which is pretty cool.

• Forth Éorlingas...

  • is sadly going on hiatus, because although I'm fond of the premise and I believe it has real potential, I've unfortunately had to come to the conclusion that I just can't commit to a live schedule any more, with how much busier RL has gotten compared to in years past.

• Patreon Rewards

  • Early Access is on schedule and will continue to function as normal, though my backlog has decreased noticeably, we've still got a bit over a full month's worth of backlog saved up and after finally punching out "A drink to death", my muse has thankfully returned.

  • For the Contributor-tier, I find myself forced to make a change. I will no longer offer a monthly omake poll for a roughly 4k omake for this tier. Though I am tremendously grateful to those who have been generous enough to show me such support, the sheer writers' block I ran into on "A drink to death" saw me falling behind on commitments and I don't want a repeat of that scenario. Instead, Contributors, whilst retaining the ability to vote on stuff like the names of Ran's team members, will also get the right to a personal 500 word snippet per month that they're at this tier. This benefit is both stackable across multiple months, as well as combinable with other Contributors, so Contributors can either get in touch with me directly, or use this post to communicate with each other, to combine their personal word counts for an even larger work. These rewards can be used on stuff of my existing fan works, but can also be used for snippets of another fandom, on the condition that I'm familiar with said fandom. Seeing as I didn't upload an omake poll for December, those faithful Contributors who were at that tier both last month and this month, of course start out with 1k in word count, rather than 500, as a form of compensation.

  • Depending on the success of the Contributor-tier, it may eventually be abolished, if it proves to be more work than its worth, or overhauled, if it should see a surge in members or if I get constructive feedback on it.

  • I have also been considering a (significantly) higher reward tier, which would be in the 50$ range and which would initially be limited to 1/2/3 slots. This tier would be named commissioner and would give its members the right to a personal monthly commission of 3-4k words. It's something I have mixed feelings about, but assuming there's interest, I'd be willing to try it out. Please get in touch either in the comments to this update, or via a direct message, if this is something you're interested in. If you think this is a bad idea, also feel free to tell me that. 

• Goals

  • I hope to see the Patreon grow a bit further. I could use the time I dedicate to writing to make roughly 500$ a month, post-taxes, by picking up a 'flexi-job'. or by going for my Masters from September onwards. Obviously, this would be significantly less enjoyable than writing, so it's not as if my Patreon needs to hit those same heights for me to continue with it rather than looking into those revenue streams, but in an ideal world I would like it to get somewhat close to that number by the end of June. Roughly speaking, this would mean doubling the Patreon over the next six months, compared to the growth its managed over the four months and change of its existence so far.

• Thank you

  • I remain immensely grateful to you all. I had set the personal goal of having a stable 200$ in Patreon-support by the end of 2024 and though it got a bit precarious in the middle of December, that goal was comfortably hit. I am tremendously grateful to you all. It is no exaggeration to say that your support is the main reason that I have been able to dedicate as much time to writing as I have. A Viper in the Hole would not be possible without the financial support I receive from all of you.