Important Changes to Milestone Goals (Patreon)

Hey guys, I wanted to let you know about some changes I’m making to my milestone goals. August payments are going to start processing in just a couple of days, so I wanted to make sure you knew about these changes before payments go through.

My next two current milestone goals are:

$500/month - one bonus page per month

$775/month - minimum wage (for five pages)

I will be changing them to:

$621/month - minimum wage (for four pages)

$775/month - one bonus page per month (still at minimum wage)

After August payments are processed, I will also be removing any pledges that have been declined for three consecutive months or more.

Last month, with a pledge amount of $462.61, I earned $411 after declined payments and Patreon fees. If we disregard taxes, and time spent on rewards, extras and maintenance, my hourly rate last month for pages alone was $6.42/hour. Minimum wage in my state is $8.25/hour.

As most of you know, minimum wage isn’t a livable wage for most full time workers in the U.S.. What you might not know is that, for self-employed individuals, it’s even worse. If you have an employer in the U.S., your employer pays some taxes on your behalf, and you might even have a group health insurance plan offered to you at a very low premium. If you’re self-employed, you pay both employer and employee taxes yourself, as well as having to purchase health insurance out of pocket, pay your own work expenses, and more. So minimum wage is a REALLY low bar. But it’s at least a symbolic number that would help me give myself permission to continue putting so much time into this comic, rather than freeing up that time to take on higher-paying freelance work.

Some of you might also know that I've had some struggles with my health over the past 17 years or so.  This month, I had the "pleasure" of meeting my $3500 health insurance deductible, while still being only 1/3 of the way done with diagnostic testing.  I’m also still looking forward to weekly (or occasionally twice weekly) $50 copays for doctor visits for the foreseeable future. This has been a rough month. Next month will be rough. I don’t have a single medical condition that can actually be treated without the treatment bumping one of my other conditions up to a disabling level. Perhaps it’s better than 2013 when I wasn’t being treated at all, but it’s still difficult.

With these things going on right now, I really have to take a look at my Patreon and whether it’s feasible for me to take on more work when I’m not yet making a standard employee’s minimum wage.  At 5 pages, $500/month, I'd be making less than $5.50/hour.  As much as I’ve been wanting to put out this comic at a faster pace, I can no longer afford to take on extra work at that rate.

So I’ve rearranged my milestone goals to*first* make a semi-livable wage, and *then* take on more work. I will understand if this leads to anyone deciding to cancel their pledge. Even if you don’t get this message until after the payment cycle, I believe Patreon offers refunds.  I'm also running a little behind on the July $10.01 drawing, but if any of you need to cancel before I get it out, I will send you the drawing by email.

But I sincerely hope you will all stay and continue to support the comic, especially during these months when the comic is the most in need of support. And I hope you’ll agree with me that it’s important for me to prioritize being able to pay for my health treatments while continuing to put out weekly pages. You guys are literally the reason I’m still able to set aside time to work on DOTU, and I will never stop being grateful for that.