$200 Milestone! (Patreon)

Excited to say it happened last night thanks to a patron who pledged exactly the amount needed to get there. I want to take a moment and say thanks, so very much, to all of you who support me! It probably seems silly, but knowing that I have people I am accountable to each month makes it easier for me to stay on top of work and to keep working even when other things attempt to dissuade me from doing so. 

Full disclosure, this was the point at which my Patreon income could cover my current federal student loan payments and I would have some money left over. It is still a long road to paying both them and my private loans, but the dream of my writing paying for the education which made me the writer I am is really starting to seem attainable.

When I set this goal's reward of a Basic Budget for Changelog, it was way before I even put together the first volume. I was still transitioning to having the collection be quarterly and only have a few pieces. Back then, I felt like most of the copies would be distributed to Patrons and that I would make a few sales outside of that. So it certainly seemed like that little extra bit of income was all I was going to have to play with in terms of extras for the book.

As we got close to print, I decided to take a risk and spend just a bit to show what I had sort of in mind for the book. I paid for a cover and a piece to use inside for the cover story. v1: My Girl Friend Is Huge started at a loss, but again I expected that. I had made a demonstrative piece to give people an idea of what I was reaching for. I figured v2, which was not even a glimmer, would just be a bare book. 

Then I made back the cost of the art in the first few days after Lemonfont reblogged the announcement with his cover art. I figured breaking even was good, it meant I could maybe justify spending some of that on a cover for v2. Then collection kept selling and selling almost to the point that I averaged two sales a day in July. 

In the past six weeks, the book has been leaps and bounds more successful than I could have dreamed. Changelog is funding its own existence at this point and I am fairly confident that trend will only continue. So while I feel like the money could go somewhere else and be useful, I just have no idea towards what. As it is, the extra this month and next will go towards getting the last little bit of art secured so that every story has a piece to accompany it and maybe do something else special for the book.

After that, we will have to see how things go I suppose n.n