Happy New Year, poll results, and January '25 plans

Happy new year! Updates and plans for January below:

New Writing

• I'm putting the finishing touches on the next chapter of the Therapist. It should go up today or tomorrow. I had hoped to get it done in December, but ended up sick over the holidays with little appetite for writing (or anything else). The best laid plans...

• The Thaumaturge remains my primary priority. The vote results are in (a tie between Diana and Viv, which I have to admit I did not see coming) and I've started working on that. As I mentioned, my goal is roughly one reader-choice poll a month, so expect a few chapters of this to get us to another major choice moment. The sex scenes will likely slow down a little -- the goal is that this series has a bit of a slower burn -- but obviously sex is central to the premise, as soon will become clear. ;)

• The poll results from paid subscribers are also in, and the next chapter of A Hospital Stay, Natalie's return, will also be on the docket for this month.

• In addition to that, I've got some stand-alone stories in mind. My first up is my take on a story about a D&D group. Obviously lots of erotica writers have tackled the things-get-sexy-in-a-D&D-group premise. I think I've got something unique enough to take a crack at it (tentative title: Dungeon Mistress). I'm not sure if it'll have enough legs to warrant multiple parts or if it'll just be a one-off; we'll see.

• If I can, I'm going to make some progress on the Therapist as well.

The Back Catalog

• Moving my back catalog over to Patreon and Literotica has been an interesting trip through the last year of writing, to say the least. Really proud of how my writing has improved! I've taken the opportunity to make some edits and tweaks as I move things over -- it's slower, but my goal is that when things are posted to here and to Literotica, they're "done."

• I am going to upload the full Therapist series next, probably all at once. In re-reading it feels a little uneven in tone, so I'm doing a more serious editing pass -- and will get those adjusted and posted this month, hopefully.

• There are a few other stand-alone stories to upload, but otherwise it's just my earlier series.

• And to that point, the very first chapter of An Unexpected Summer threw up a terms of service violation on Patreon when I went to upload it. (Too much, um, sisterly interaction, and if that's true of the very first chapter, well...) My Patreon experience has been great so far and I'm not going to risk derailing it, so that won't be uploaded here.

• I'm also debating what to do with the Resort and the Masseuse for different reasons. Both could use a heavy editing pass. I could bundle them into a single story or groups of chapters (maybe both posting them here and as an e-book?), leave them as-is, etc. I haven't decided yet.

Sponsored Stories

• I'm considering beginning to accept a commission or two each month. I welcome feedback on the model I'm considering.

• I'll probably do it via Patreon tier. (i.e. there will be a higher paid tier, with a limited number of slots each month, that offers giving me a single story idea as a perk that I'll write for you). That keeps my community in one place, lets me control volume, and keeps people from having to go to another payment platform/vendor.

• You'd give me a prompt, we'd discuss your idea, I'd ask any clarifying questions, and then I'd start writing! You'd receive one advance draft to offer feedback and suggest modest tweaks, and then the final version once it's done.

• As an experiment, I think I could start by charging ~$50 for a 5k word story. That's well below what appears to be market rate (which looks like ~4 cents a word; this is 2 cents a word). I don't know how sustainable that is in the long term, but I can try it for a few stories and see.

• The only way I can justify that kind of rate is if I retain the rights and can post these stories publicly to help continue to build my brand. I've got a limited amount of writing time; it's too precious to publish something that I can't share widely. So this probably won't be a good fit for folks who are hoping for a different arrangement (e.g. where you commission a story and guarantee it remains unpublished and privately yours, you're hoping to buy a story off me that you can resell/publish yourself, etc.) If you're really hoping for something like that, and would be willing to pay a higher rate, DM me and we can work something out.

• Similarly, I'm open to writing a lot of different things, so if you want to see my 'take' on a different style/genre/setting/fetish/etc., or if you've got some specific ideas, I'm game. But if you're looking for something especially outlandish or that might bump up against the terms of service for Patreon, it might not be doable; DM if you have an idea and want to check if it'd work. (In other words: check with me before you try for something that veers too far from my usual fare, y'know?)

Welcome your reactions in the comments to anything above (especially the sponsored stories).

Hope everyone's new year is off to a strong start.

JF