The a'Patreocalypse (Patreon)

Alright, the changes have been made. Let me try to explain, in greater detail, what the new tiers mean and the logic behind them.

$2.00 / Adept -- "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -- Chinese proverb

This is the "basic access" tier, adjusted to be the cheapest possible option for those who just wanna check out the smut and get out, and aren't interested in whatever else I'm producing. This will largely include finished commissions and poll stories, but there'll doubtless be some other stuff thrown in as well.

The big question, of course, is "what happened to the $1 tier?" which of course is a very good and very necessary question to ask. The answer being that I've been looking around at other peoples' Patreon pages and seeing a very specific thing popping up over and over again -- the lack of a $1 tier. The purported logic behind this is that Patreon takes so much out of a $1 pledge as to make it nearly meaningless, and Patreon's primary promises on the matter are to make it worse, not better. I want you to actually get something for your pledge, and with $1 you're basically throwing it at the website itself -- not me.

$3.50 / Winter Lotus Immaculate -- "I ain't givin' you no tree fiddy you goddamn loch ness monstah!" -- Chef's Dad

This more or less replaces the $5 tier, in that it's complete access to everything on the page. This will include all my written work -- blogs, poems, short stories, notes and articles, and whatever enters my braincase that has some actual work put into it. I wanted to price this tier at a point that would be tempting to a majority of people, because if everyone moves this way, we'll really be sitting pretty.

$6.66 / Seven Shadows Immaculate -- "Awake, arise or be forever fall'n." -- John Milton, 'Paradise Lost'

Let's be real -- having the polls be at the lowest tier was always a steal. If I wanted to make a mid-price tier competitive, I was gonna have to stop handing out one of the best benefits for basically free.

Obviously, this one lets patrons cast their votes on a new, somewhat different and more freeform kind of monthly poll, which will be more extensively described in the next entry.

$13.00 / Iron Phoenix Immaculate -- "Luck has a way of evaporating when you lean on it." -- Brandon Mull, 'Keys to the Demon Prison'

As you can see, while the lowest tier bumped up, all the others crunched down. This replaces the D&D tier -- which, yes, I do plan on continuing, but in a different format. At the beginning of each month I'll offer a theme consisting of a few words, most often likely a fetish, upon which pledges can offer story pitches in the comments. Pitches can be original or within fandoms, but it has to be within a fandom I'm able to write (I'll ask you to re-pitch if this is the case). Likewise, pitches must fit the theme and be generally tasteful. You will only get one pitch, so think over it carefully.

Once a week has passed, I will create a poll for those at the $6.66 tier and above, including all accepted pitches, plus one of my own for kicks, and leave it open for a week. Once the votes have been tallied, I'll adapt the pitch and write the story, and may even combine multiple ideas if they fit together and are sufficiently popular. Discussion of these ideas in the comments or on Discord is encouraged, but overworking them is not -- we don't need fully-fleshed pitches, just frameworks within which to build.

This is my best attempt at creating a premium tier that doesn't need to be limited, and will not produce infinite new work.

I'll leave this post pinned for a few months in the hopes that everyone takes the time to check it out and read it. Thank all of you so much for reading and hopefully sticking around. None of this would exist without all of you.

<3

-- Lexi