Content Plans for May! And Tier Information! (Patreon)

I have plans for more content in May, and it involves freeing up a lot of time to do more original content from myself, by phasing out the $50 commission tier. When I came up with the tier, I was new to Patreon and had no idea how successful it would be. I wanted it to be a good way to get people involved and guarantee a $500 hunk. Since then, Patreon has become far more successful than I ever anticipated.

Unfortunately, I also think there's been a bit of a rut. I've divided most of my time during my work days between commissions I must do, and comics I must do, without a lot of time for extras. Certainly not as much time as I want, or envisioned when I first created my account, here. I find I'm too tired to really do the sketches I want, draw new ideas for my characters, or other things I've thought of doing, by the end of the day.

Starting in May, all tiers will probably start seeing more content in general, but mainly more content revolving around my characters and stories, instead of commissioned content. Here's a more detailed explanation for the content plans per tier:

 - $12 tier: I really want to make the $12 tier more valuable than it is. Right now it feels like these patrons are the unsung heroes pledging more out of a sheer desire to support me, and they're getting about as much as everyone else, save for a vote on something every few months, and a work/chat video here and there. I want to do more regular videos where I make presentations about how I work, how I write, how I create characters. I'd like to try to do a couple a month, if not more. I also want to create more videos to just chat if I have something on my mind. I'd like it to feel like a little podcast or a Youtube channel. I'm also interested in doing more interactive and responsive content, like the "ask" series I did a very long time ago, where I gave the $12 tier the chance to ask characters questions. Another thing I want to do is give the steering committee more of a say in what fully finished illustrations I do, out of a variety of possibilities I will offer as rough sketches to vote on. If you're in this tier, I want you to feel like you're getting some real inside baseball stuff here, if that interests you. There is also a possibility I may do a single commission from this tier, if I can find a way to do it fairly. Apparently raffles are against the Patreon TOS, so doing that is out.

- $6 tier: the comic tier will remain largely unchanged in terms of rewards, other than I hope to complete even more content for this tier, each month, with my extra time. This includes the black and white side-project comics, and possibly more pages each month of the main adult comic projects being completed. Basically, if you're in this tier, you'll continue to get everything that's a "finished" project, without all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

 - $1 tier: this tier will be enhanced as I have more time to sketch my own characters and my own concepts that could lead to larger pictures and projects in the future, similar to my old Sketchblog from way back (if anyone's old enough to remember that!). I realized I often don't have the energy to do the sketches I want, or start on the stand-alone images I want, after I'm done with all the "must do" work at the end of the day. I'm hoping that I can replace the time spent doing some of the commissions I'm obligated to, now, with sketches of my own that I miss doing. Along with that, this tier will continue to see the stand-alone finished images that I do.

That about covers it for what's planned starting in May. If you have any questions and such, let me know, here, and thank you all!

Jay