[Update] January Post-Mortem & February Plans

I figured I'd write a post about this stuff. It's going to start off on a bit of a down note, but then I'll go into future plans and stuff which will  be more optimistic. And note, this isn't meant to be a complaint, or trying to guilt anyone. Ultimately, more than anything, it's about transparency and trying to understand what went wrong.

January

I'm just going to say it - January was... fucking awful.

After December - which was by far the best month I've ever had with this Patreon in terms of new subs and goals reached - January was like getting kicked in the balls about every other day. 

Stats: Over the course of January there were 

12 deleted pledges out of 58 total pledges from the start of the month for a ~20% loss in total Patrons. 

Luckily there were 5 new pledges, (Which, if you're one of those 5, or really anyone who's sticking this out, Thank you, a thousand times. Sincerely!) 5 is a bit low, but right off the holidays it's not unexpected so I'm not too disappointed with that at all.

Those new pledges cut the deficit to a -7 Net loss. This might not seem like a big deal, but since starting the Patreon there hasn't been a single month where the end result wasn't net positive by at least +1 - so while the odd dip isn't a big deal - and as I've always said, people coming and going is to be expected and I'll never ever begrudge anyone for taking care of their own finances first - having a drop that severe is sort of leaving me at a loss of understanding as to what happened.

Previous to January, the worst total for deleted pledges was 7 deleted pledges and the average per month is ~4. So this was very very high.

More than ever, I want to stress - if there's any time you feel like you're not getting your money's worth, or I'm not providing what you feel I'm advertising, or you have any problems at all, then please tell me so I can keep things as awesome as I possibly can for you guys!

February

So. Plans going forward. This month I will not be taking any commissions, and instead I will be working on a new special project - A comic! Now, before anyone makes any assumptions:

It will NOT be pornographic in nature, but it will have nudity and strong sexual themes and fanservice - and (hopefully) it should be entertaining.

It is Original in nature - it's not based on anything, it's an idea I've had for years.

That doesn't mean I won't do smut art based on the comic characters, in fact I'd say that's a safe bet, but right now I'm more concerned with getting it going first so there's a comic to draw smut of in the first place. And I'm sure if it gets off the ground that this Patreon will shift to accommodate that as a regular thing, but again - comic first, figure out the logistics later.

Right now the plan is to do and release a shorter "Prequel"/Chapter 0 that'll be a handful of pages to introduce the setting, the leads and the tone. If people like that enough to want more, I'll move on with a planned Chapter 1 which would be longer, and like any leading chapter will be mostly self-contained and if that gets released, then I'd again revisit the response to it afterwards and go from there. I don't have an estimate for how long Ch 1 would be, but it would be a lot longer than this prequel which I'm hoping I can get done this month (we'll see, read on about that)

The reason why I'm clearing my schedule a bit this month is simply because I've never tried anything like this before, and I honestly don't know how much time it will take to get right - which is very important for this to work, I don't want to half-ass it. This is an experiment of sorts, so depending on how it shakes out, we'll see where things go with it. 

I will still be drawing the poll winner for Final February and I would guess at some point there will be other things to fap to as well and once I have a few sketches done for the comic I will post those too so you guys can get a sneak peek at how it's coming along!

Once again, if you guys have concerns, or you don't like the direction of things, or whatever - don't be afraid to let me know. Maybe I can't change your mind about deleting your pledges, but maybe it's something I can use to help build things better going forward!

Love you guys, let's bounce back good and hard! <3

- Nero