Yet Another Musing of Changes...
Added 2015-07-03 23:53:25 +0000 UTCSo basically I have two forms of income right now, donations to the comics, and commissions. And I can't help but feel like I can't maintain this schedule. Don't get me wrong, I really love making the comics and I don't mind being dirt poor to do what I love. But at some point something has to give and I can't keep working what is basically 12 hrs a day and barely make it.
This is not whining to get you to donate more, please don't think that way.
However I've gone over some of the numbers. This past month on Patreon, I got $468 from the BT/Kaerwyn Patreon subscribers.
The image above is a screenshot of the numbers and the fees. Basically some credit cards were declined. So only $524 was processed, despite the $596 pledged. And then after the CC/Patreon fees, well it ends up being quite a bit less than the 4 days of Kaerwyn goal.
If I use this guide here to determine how much I make on the comics (4 Kaerwyns + 1 BT) then I make $3.90/hour doing the comics. The minimum wage here is $10/hr. This is based on only taking 6hrs to make the comics and sometimes they take quite a bit more time.
This is a labor of love, so I deal with it.
My other main source of income is from commissions. At this point in time, I feel like my time might be better served cutting out one or two comics a week and working on commissions in their place.
So I'm thinking about cutting out BT for a bit and setting the Kaerwyn 4 day schedule to $600/month. That would put the comics at making $6.25/hr, but it's still a raise I could use. In place of that one BT and Kaerwyn, I could do 4 commissions per week.
I posted a poll on my DeviantArt to see what people enjoy more, BT or Kaerwyn, to decide which one will get cut out. Feel free to post here or on there which one you prefer.
So while I haven't officially changed the Patreon goals *yet*, I probably will in the next few weeks. I just don't want you guys to feel cheated if I move the goals up again, and I wanted to let you know why I did it.
I am hoping that when I can get enough time to get The Delta Project rolling, that it will bring in enough money between it, Kaerwyn and BT that I can do nothing but comics instead of comics/commissions.
But we'll see how that goes.
Comments
Speaking for just myself, I'm here just to read BT. I care about the characters and want to know what happens to them next. Your art is beautiful but by this point I would rather read about Lore's story in stick figures rather than have no BT updates at all. Tried getting into Kaerwyn but I just never really got attached to them. I also have no interest in adoptables or Second Life. I do know how hard it is to be a struggling artist and dealing with writer's block, so if you feel like BT has to be dropped first because it's not as popular and you aren't having fun drawing it any more, I'll be sad but I understand.
Thed Preston
2015-07-09 21:04:02 +0000 UTCI agree, your comics deserve more.
Skyhawk
2015-07-04 07:45:44 +0000 UTCAs long as my Patreon went through correctly this time
Pheagle
2015-07-04 01:40:14 +0000 UTCActually, yours went through on my end! At least according to Patreon for me. I'm actually thinking about moving some of the donator perks over to the comic forums so people can alternatively subscribe via Paypal and still get the same perks that Patreon offers (like seeing the comics early). And I can do my raffle idea there without Patreon getting pissed.
Jakkal
2015-07-04 00:43:32 +0000 UTCI'm one of the people whose card was declined. It's not for the reason you might think. The thing is, the card, being a check card, has a huge available balance, and it works everywhere (except Patreon). It's a MasterCard, from a major bank, not some unusual or obscure thing. I literally bought gas, groceries, a Steam game, and a cell phone accessory on Amazon the very same day Patreon declined it, and the available funds on it are… well, enough to pay all my Patreon pledges for many years. It's not the first time, either. For whatever reason, Patreon has repeatedly had trouble charging my card. I think it's because the card expired last year, and was re-issued with a new expiration date. I updated my payment information, but the change of information seems to confuse whatever system Patreon uses to charge. Each time, I've been mortified. You and all the artists I support (and I only support artists whose work I genuinely admire and enjoy) are depending on me, and now I look like a deadbeat. I've tried changing the card information; re-entering the card from scratch; ranting at my bank (for days); and ranting at Patreon (for days), all to no avail. In early June, Patreon finally managed to charge me properly, and I thought all of this nonsense was behind me. But on July 1, the payments failed again. Finally, in desperation, I changed all of my pledges this week to use Paypal instead of a card. It seems to be working better, but only time will tell for sure. For what it's worth, another Patreon artist has reported that Patreon was "having issues with the payments" this week, and that it is apparently an issue on Patreon's side. Still, I will be staying with the Paypal payment method. I hope this will be the last time I get a "We couldn't process your pledge" e-mail from Patreon, and I'm truly sorry for disappointing you and every other artist to whom I've pledged. Do whatever you need to do for your well-being. My vote is in favor of keeping Kaerwyn.
VGR
2015-07-04 00:29:02 +0000 UTC
