Patreon Update

[k_a_webb]

I have no patrons at Patreon, so I'm thinking of shutting it down. If I was making a little income from it I would leave it as it is, but I don't see the point in expending the extra energy, of which I have so little at the moment, on something that's not helping me towards earning money from my fiction. At the moment I'm barely going on my website - all I'm doing is posting Case, before moving onto something else, so I need to change that, because I'm certain I missed a raffle. That doesn't really matter, because no one's entering them and no one seems to be reading at the website, so I really do need to think about exactly what I'm doing with that. Finishing stories, obviously, is the most important thing, but it's hard to do that when I get so few comments. With my ghostwriting I get input, people tell me they like what I write, which makes it easier for me to focus on that... and it does help that I'm getting paid for it as well.

Being able to make $1200 from my original fiction is now the thing I'm aiming for and to do that I think I'm going to put the novellas at the top of my list, so I can put them online (although I'm still searching for an easier way of doing that, because I don't want to ring the IRS to get an EIN due to my phone phobia), as well as finishing the stories I've started posting, so I can start publishing them as well. What I need is more time, which I won't be getting until 2015 I think, when we're in the annex, because then, I hope, I'll be able to sort everything out better than I have now. The plan is to buy some things that will help me stay organised - like a nice white board for me to write down everything I'm working on.

Comments

[lunesque]

I was just thinking--a whiteboard seems to be a really inconvenient way of keeping all your stories together. Have you considered using GoogleDocs to keep yourself organized--or if you can splurge, what about a writing organization program like Scrivener? With you being online, it just seems to be a step back to be using a whiteboard for organization. Just my two cents! /o\

[k_a_webb]

I have Scrivener - what I need the whiteboard for is writing down all of my current orders on Fiverr, because that will make things simpler. Even though they have a to-do list it's actually not all that useful for me.

Plus, I like having things in front of me, where I can see them just by flicking my eyes in a certain direction.

[moonvoice]

You could consider doing what Ursula Vernon is doing - which is to have a Patreon with no rewards - that way you can keep the site up, but you need not pressure yourself with offering extras or bonuses (though obviously linking to things all the time can also get tiring).

It's also relatively hard to find (at least for me - I clicked on your profile page, where I couldn't see a link, so I clicked on your writing page and also your website, where I couldn't see a link, and now have clicked on further pages (including the crowdfunding and fundraising pages) and still can't see a link. Also I could be just an idiot and have missed it).

Anyway, there's also no reason you can't shut it all down now and start up again (if you want to) when you do have more time, with a different model / way of doing it. And not getting comments definitely sucks.

There's a really great youtube video that addresses artists about 'why they don't get good feedback' - and while it's artist focused, it's helped me so much as a writer. Mostly because he's so sweet and encouraging, and really speaks to all creative people. I watch it about once a month, lol.

Also on a weird side note, once people started paying for free fiction via crowdfunding / patreon, my comments dropped *a lot.* I don't know if this is a similar phenomenon for you, but if it is - it may be connected to the fact that people who pay with money no longer feel the obligation or need to pay with comments. And sometimes it's a disparity where you have old loyal readers who no longer comment (because that's more associated with the buzz of New Writer! Awesome Writing!) - and not so many new readers to pick up on that old buzz? Idk. This might all be way off for you, since personal experiences with this kind of writing vary so much. :(

I wish you luck getting through this part of the phase, and I'm really glad the ghostwriting is pulling positive feedback! I hope you can find the business model that works for you, that isn't too exhausting. *offers hugs*

[k_a_webb]

Thank you for letting me know about the lack of links. There's now one in the sidebar at my website, because I obviously totally forgot about that.

I've never got that many comments on my work. I get some occasionally and I don't know if it's because my writing's terrible or if there's some other reason.

Thank you for the hugs and the comment. *offers hugs in return*

[moonvoice]

I truly truly doubt it's a writing quality issue. :( But it really does SUCK to get a lack of feedback on work you cherish and put so much hard effort into. The majority of my writing before last year got almost zero feedback in general (and I'm talking nearly...um...4-5 years of publically accessible fiction), and it gets so discouraging - and yet I look back on some of those stories and I really don't think they're any lower quality than what I'm writing now. So it's just hard to know why some things get comments and some don't. Sometimes it's time and place, and I think reaching your audience - I didn't know most of my readers were Tumblr folk, until I got a Tumblr account. Will Terrell (the Youtube video dude) might help, he's a sweetie, and he just wants to remind you (and other creative folks) to stick out the tough parts.

And thank you for putting up the link!

Also, with your work being fully original - I don't know if you've been doing it, but consider listing it on Goodreads when you feel so inclined. :) This is legal and within their ToS - and as long as the stories are *complete* (or complete within a series) and about 10k words or higher, you can start linking back to your work and increasing its profile. A lot of people don't know they can do this (you can do it with completed fanfiction too, actually - I checked), but it's a good way to just sort of...increase your profile. So anyone who is searching certain titles or authors will come up with your work there too. :)

[k_a_webb]

Yeah, I'm up to over three and a half years worth now, so it's a lot of work, and I've posted a lot of words. All I'd like is for someone unusual, someone who doesn't usually comment, to tell me that they read something, as there are people I know read what I write, although they don't like everything. At the moment it really would help me to feel like it's worth going back to my own worlds, because there are times when I don't know if there's any point, until I reread what I've written. Then I do want to go back - it's just a case of finding the time around the work that does pay. I'm certain that will come with time and sorting myself out a space that is purely for work, as I don't have that right now. My desk is currently the place where paperwork goes to collect dust. :(

I'll do that with Goodreads when I have something finished that is 10,000 words long. At the moment I have a lot of snippets and beginnings that I want to go back to - it's just finding time, as I said, and working out where the story's going, because that can be an annoyance. There are some things I know I can finish pretty quickly, though, one I have some time.

[milkymoon]

... I'm wondering why you'd have to ring the IRS if you're not even in the US. You'd think they'd have something different if you're working from a different country.

(Also, I personally don't think your stories are crap - I like the amount of detail and creativity you've put into everything.)

[k_a_webb]

Amazon and Smashwords are both based in the US, so if I don't have an EIN they will withhold 30% of my earnings. I can't use my tax reference number for the UK for some reason and 30% of everything is much more than I'd pay here. *sigh* I can either put up with losing the 30%, which isn't that much in the grand scheme of things but makes the self assessment system we have here much harder.

(Thank you. :) It's good to know and always help me to get my head back to where it needs to be.)