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Hey guys,

As there are so many of you who are already pledging very generously, I've set up some pledge tiers to reflect the commonly pledged amounts. At the moment they just reflect your current generosity, and an easy way for me to see who has pledged at different levels.

I don't really want to get into restricting access to the important stuff, like chapter discussions, polls, maps, pictures etc, as I'd like to share those with as many people as possible. If you can think of some good ideas for simple pledge rewards that you'd like to receive, I'm very open to suggestions. Perhaps a podcast or something like that? Although I'll have to figure out how to do one!

I'd rather not get into creating sidestories though, as I'd prefer to keep my focus on the main plot arc until the story is done. I'm juggling a lot of sideplots, and want to keep my head clear of distractions from other stories until Three Square Meals is done.

Thanks very much for your support!

Tefler 

Comments

Anonymous

An idea. Perhaps partner with an artist also on patroen and duel promote their art and your story. It would have the benefit of having a cohesive look to all of the art. And then offer exclusive stills of battle scenes etc.

Jim lynch

The only way hing we want is more chapters tefler and a signed first edition lol

Hammerfest

awww yusss! takes me up to $140~ a month for all the people/programs I sponsor/donate to!

Tefler

That's an awesome idea. All I need now is a talented artist! :-) I'll start looking into it (while I'm at work, obviously!).

Anonymous

Maybe a personalized thank you mail from you to the 10$ pledges?

Anonymous

How about releasing early chapters so we can read those offline. Many of us have read all of the chapters more than once and it would be easier to lookup questions from the comments sections.

Grimlakin

How about the higher omega amounts specify dibs and a mention in the forword of your boom when you publish? At the stupid levels a character can trace their leniage back to them. Maybe it's discovered they were the progenitor forefathers or something silly.

Morningfrost

That's one of the reasons I love StoriesOnline, actually. If you're a premium member there, you can download any story in a .txt, Kindle or epub format for offline reading. ~Morningfrost

Tefler

Actually that gives me a good idea for something down the line. Thanks!

Old Salt

OK guys, we are about half way to funding Tef for full time writing. We need to up our support a bit and encourage others to help. After all, supporting such a talented new writer is a worthy thing, independent of how we will benefit from faster completion of more chapters :-). Tefler what ever you decide is fine, but your storytelling is all the reward I need. I'm definitely hooked!

Anonymous

I only recently signed up to donate and I found your Patreon page on your profile narrative on Stories Online. For me the sum of the pledge is more or less irrelevant if you want more people to sign up then market this better - there was only one link to navigate you through to your page on Stories online and your stats tell you that more donate via Liteerotica, so do the math. Also I would have signed up sooner with a bit of a guide when I found Patreon as I'd never heard of it before. I'm paying a $ sum from the UK and still donated. Like probably everyone else we really just want more chapters, it was really tormenting having to wait knowing this was published early elsewhere.

Anonymous

I'd love to contribute at the highest tier but I've gone back to uni as a mature age student and juggling my finances is a struggle at the best of times. Being able to be apart of your journey is a reward in it self. I also really like and appreciate, based on above, how you want to give everyone that contributes everything you release so the suggestions below may help. So my suggestions are for the two highest tiers of the current reward structure. For the second highest tier they could have a minor non continuing character named after them that doesn't have any input from the Patreon or at a maximum of two input choices from a selection which Tefler would give i.e. Name of the character, Race, whether they die (if applicable), name of ship (if applicable), career, or any other things Tefler might think of. He might just have to have a standard template to choose from to make it easier if this tier increases with Patrons. For the highest tier my suggestion would be a step up from the above. Like additional input choices or maybe just the options I mentioned above if the second highest tier doesn't have input from the patron and is only named after them. The down side to this is if you get too many patrons (which isn't a bad thing) it could take time away from writing or break Tefler's writing flow while trying to correspond with the patron to get their input. On the upside if Tefler wanted to add additional reward levels he could simple add an additional choices that the patron could have. Also to help with writing flow put a restriction in that they have to contribute at that tier for a minimum of four chapters or something like that. Which would allow Tefler to communicate with that patron without having him stop writing and get the info before the four chapter restriction has eclipsed. (is that the right word? Lol)

Anonymous

I'm not sure if I really want to add this but I have another idea for a new highest tier (named progenitor overlord or something similar). It would have to follow the same restrictions of having to be contributed for a minimum of four chapters and be a stupid crazy value like $20 or high which you'll understand why in a moment. The patron that contributes to this tier gets to have input for a yet to be named new continuing character. Tefler could come up with a broader idea and choices and allow that patron to help narrow them down or something to that effect. Not sure if a new girl for John should be in the options but that would be up to Tefler.

Morningfrost

One reason for the disparity between StoriesOnline and Literotica, is the story was posted on Literotica roughly a year before it was posted to StoriesOnline, so a larger percentage of his fan base is likely to come from there. I would agree that the word needs to go out in more ways in order to drive traffic and create new Patrons, but I'm not sure what else can be done. One thing I wonder if Tefler might be open to doing is some blog posts on SOL, where say, we ask him a question about things from earlier in the story, things where the answers wouldn't necessarily cause spoilers, and then he would post a blog post with an answer to that question. Things like "Where did your inspiration for the fungoids come from", or " How did you determine that the Kintark would be the ones to utilize self-genetic-manipulation, rather than another species such as the Kirrix?" That would increase the number of times that Tefler's name scrolls across the front page, and would naturally have people looking at the blog or profile where the mention of Patreon is located. ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

I like the idea of being able to create a recurring character. One thing that Patreon allows you to do is to limit the number of people gaining a particular tier's rewards, so if that top tier were limited to one or two people I think that could be doable. I don't know how many more girls Tefler is intending to add to the crew, but getting the basic details from a Patron wouldn't be prohibitive (things like name, hair color, and maybe some of the most basic personality points like sarcastic vs. optimistic, or naive vs. cynical). ~Morningfrost

Anonymous

Btw these suggestions aren't for side stories just for new characters you would already add to the story anyway :)

Tefler

Some really great ideas here. I'm thinking Terran Federation officer names for big battles would be a great one for the $5 tier (and personalities too would be useful!). Then perhaps some more significant character names for the $10 tier: Eg, Maliri Matriarchs, their advisors, Ashanath Council members, Terran Admirals, Drakkar warbosses, Brimorians, Kintark High Prelates, the cast list is pretty extensive! :-)

Anonymous

Yeah that way you don't restrict content from all your patrons but allow for those that contribute more a reward for doing so. Everyone wins in this case. Having the $5 tier for Terrans means you don't need to correspond with the Patron and it would be a nice little surprise when they read their own name in the story, that is if you can see their full name from their profile. My suggestions were only that, take what you want and discard the rest :) lol

Anonymous

Oh if it was a Drakkar warlord he could have a really cool sword utilising some sort of laser pulse tech. Which would constantly switch on and off so fast you couldn't see it flickering and that it would have a length between a 1-2 metres...wait that sounds very similar to a lightsaber... see what I did there ;-p lol

Anonymous

Although I can't remember what type of tech the Drakkar used. Hmmm seems I'm due for a full re-read lol

Jedi Khan

Here's a thought: start an in-universe fan club for John, with the ring leader being some schmuck named Hefler writing "fictional" tales of John's exploits, then you can come up with some sort of name for that fan club and it'd basically be us.

Jedi Khan

You might need another poll to pick the final name for the fan club. :D

Anonymous

Maybe naming ships after people with higher tier pledges could be a good idea? Then the more outlandish names could still be private freighters, and no one would have to give away any real details that they didn't want to?

Anonymous

This is a neat idea.. I've been pledging 3 since the beginning, but I'll throw in a couple more. :)

Hinterlands Man

John F Lewis, I think Blake was named after me. I don't have any ideas yet but I'll think on it.

Anonymous

I also upped my pledge as a result, and I have enjoyed your work from the start. I might not recommend raising the rates much further because it might restrict your fan base as you have predicted. If you need to raise more funds, I suggest limiting your chapter lengths, which might provide more regular content. Hopefully, this will not impinge on your creativity or quality. Most importantly, I would not want this series to stop or fade away.

Brent

I know if there are new tiers Ill up mine

Anonymous

I'm replying here to the more broadly voiced theme of helping Tefler get more Patrons. I think it may behoove Tefler to explore LinkedIn's communities a bit. I'm willing to wager that there are both writing/publishing groups over there, and even some where NSFW content is discussed. I have a professional group up over there for over 6 years already with 5000+ members. LinkedIn also has daily blog features, so discussing Tefler's stuff over there would certainly expand the pool of potential Patrons. - Just a thought for one and all to noddle over a bit.

Anonymous

I think a good easy way to reward those pledging at the higher levels would be to grant them a free copy of the completed book if/when you publish it on amazon or some other way.

Anthony Kester

Upped my contribution. More than happy to help Tefler.

Servo1969

Aww, crap, I can't afford $10 a chapter. $5 apiece is all I can swing. Trust me, though. Your work is definitely worth $10 each!

Jedi Khan

So Tef, have you given any thought to how you're going to resign from your day job and what you'll say? If not, I suggest you get started. We'll get you up to the goal soon enough. And make it creative, we'll want to hear all about it. ;-)

Tefler

There are tons of really great ideas here, thanks for the feedback! Sorry I haven't been able to reply much today, I've been blitzing chapter 70, and it's nearly done! A big thanks to everyone who upped their pledges in the last few days, I've been stunned by the sudden surge in support! I don't think I'll use Patron's nicknames for characters, but I was thinking more along the lines of people making up the first name/last name/character traits for Terran ship captains (or other species). I've got some big fleet battles coming up in a while, and it might be fun to prepare a bunch of character names for heroic/cowardly officers to fight valiant last stands, help save the day, or just get blown to bits! I'll give it some more thought over the next week or so, and try and come up with something interesting for each tier. I can't find the comment now, but someone asked about how much I'd charge for the book. I've been thinking about breaking it up into roughly 150k word chunks, and releasing it as a long series of ebooks. For the big pledgers (and a few of the major comment contributors), I was planning on gifting you a free copy when I put it on amazon. Hopefully you'll leave me a nice review in return! :-)

Tefler

Yeah, that's going to be an interesting conversation! :-)

Anonymous

Not sure what you might be able to do with "GrandPaM" as a name though - if you want to discuss - ping me via Lit feedback (same name there as here).

Anonymous

It would be awesome to see a couple ships named after my old commands in the navy... 2 to be exact...

DCM

I came across a web site this evening that sells self published books as ebooks, smashup.com. I don't know anything other than I have a couiple of their books to read.

Jedi Khan

Another brilliant author that got his start on Lit moved into self-publishing as well. He first published on a site called smashwords, then published to Amazon as well. He's pretty much given up smashwords for some reason, but he's doing pretty well on Amazon. In fact, Amazon's in-house publisher has picked up a couple of the guy's stories for printing, and he's even had audio books made. Sadly, he's all but forgotten about Lit I think. He still has a couple of stories on there that he hasn't published, but they are side projects/doodles in comparison to his published stories and seem to be forgotten.

Anonymous

IMO,, 200 to 300k words per book. Then to do it as a multi volume set is one thing but to do it as multiple books is another writing style. I hate to play the bad guy here but it still needs a pretty good polish before a hard print. Get thru it first as you planned Tef and then put the spit shine on it. Why increase pledge amounts when your better served in the long run to increase the fan base. You might have run out of techy scifi perverts from Lit and SOL. Find a good concept artist and make a couple of killer posters. One like that was mentioned after the lion medal ceremony and then another that is like "Band of Brothers" with the crew in full battle rattle but with helmets off. Maybe even another with John looking 007ish with the girls looking sexy as hell. Then find a Cosplay convention, set you up a booth/table/stand and sell posters and talk to people. The Cosplay people are kinky already and will fall head over heels for 3SM. Maybe give away the first book on a flash drive and sell a DVD/CD with the whole story in ebook format. At least pass out a flyer with this sites address. If you do good and come back to the same convention the next year I wonder how many Jades and Irilliths you would see. Now I have 2 minor Cosplay conventions within an hour and one of the largest in the Midwest 2 hours away. So I would be up to helping you out on that. Then another route would be some of the sci-fi fanzine sites like File 770. To also boost your credibility you could join the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA.org). I think you may qualify. Plus these are the people that pass out the Nebula Awards and you might get some industry inside scoop off their forums. The British counterpart is the BSFA which hands out the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The only problem these are the hardcore scifi geeks so be ready. And all of those guys vote on the Hugos.

Jedi Khan

He basically needs to do the encyclopedia method. The Encyclopedia Britannica (if that's still a thing, it's been awhile since I needed to reference a real encyclopedia) is technically all one book, but it's so absolutely massive that it has to be broken up into dozens of physical books known as volumes when printed. As for the polish when he's done, hopefully there won't be much that needs to be done by then. The early chapters could probably use a good going over, but they shouldn't change a whole lot. Part of the novelty of this story is that we get to see Tefler's skill develop over the course of the many talents, with chapter 1 being his first foray ever into writing. To have him go back and do rewrites or heavy edits would undermine that.

Anonymous

So when/if these tiers come into play will we need to repledge? Currently I'm just doing $15 a month instead of per chapter, so that probably equals out to $7.50 a chapter

Jedi Khan

Patreon will treat it as sort of a repledge, but all you're doing is selecting a reward tier.

Hinterlands Man

Honestly I like the freewheeling brainstorming but when it comes to the kind of product you produce, I'd get advice from an author who has done what you intend to do.

Anonymous

Instead of working the convention I would look for the boards and post a link to the story. If you could get a couple fans that dress up then go to the convention you would not need to pay for a both just a couple fans dressed up as Jade, Faye, or any other charters would help some.

Anonymous

That would be like when Eidos brought in the model playing Lara Croft at E3 for the Tomb Raider games. Still a major way to increase traffic is with "Booth Babes". Why talk to a old salesman when there is a big busted blond showing off a whole lot of cleavage in the next booth. I've only worked a few trade shows as a rep but been to many. With the trade shows they kinda frown on someone that is obviously working the floor that doesn't have a booth. I've never really been to a Sci-fi or Cosplay one. That is why I came up with the pass the card and tell them to read it and send feedback. If you went about it as "look at my site and subscribe" then it would look more as a sell (sales pitch). Pretty much the same with the Cosplay sites. It would be better to approach with a "I need help with,,," then a "Go read this and subscribe" which makes you just a breath above a spammer and to be totally ignored. I just looked up one of the close major cosplay events and they are having a martial arts expert coming in to teach classes on sword play. If a person was to bring up fighting styles with a Ōdachi or twin Ninjatō would that spark the interest of some ninja wannabees?

Jim lynch

I'm currently up for a knitark dragon name how will you get info you need buddy or is it just the name on this site ?

Tefler

Hey Jim. It's just a pledge title name, as the Patreon site recommended making something interesting. I'll add more information to the site when I decided on the details of the pledge tiers, and I'll send you individual emails to discuss character names if I decide to go down that route.

Anonymous

it's OK for folks to pay different amounts for the same stuff. This is more the busker economic model than the book store. Poor folks who like it a bit pay a bit. Rich folks who like it a lot will pay a lot. Folks, honor system, are encouraged to pay what they think it is worth to them. For folks who are getting into the plot, a forum where you ask questions and probe plot options might be interesting/engaging...but I'd certainly not take the 'mystery' out by promising to do what folks suggest. All you are doing now to recruit patrons is early releases...there might be another discussion there (that patreon might be interested in) ...a bit of a discussion of the strategies to get leeches (like me) to convert to patrons (like I just did).

Tefler

Hey Peter, Thanks for leaving the interesting message! I try to be deliberately cagey when responding to discussions about plot and story points, so as to avoid ruining any surprises, but sometimes I let a few things slip. I'd love to hear any suggestions from people on more ways to convert readers from the free sites into Patrons. I think the growing content here has helped, as well as getting access to early releases, but you're right, there must be some more ways to draw people in! Was there anything in particular that made you decided to become a Patron?

Kim Biel-Nielsen

My reason for pledging $10 is primarely based on two things: (1) early access and (2) a genuine whish to support the project. I really enjoy the the story - how it expands and all the awesome technology. Then I am a fan of space opera.

Tefler

Thanks very much for your support, it's much appreciated! I really enjoy space opera too, which was one of the reasons I started writing this in the first place. :-)

Wookey

I only stumbled upon the story in early January. Given the vast amount of effort you put in and enjoyment I received it was the least I can do. Have pledged $5 per new Chapter/episode, which on reflection is too low given that have enjoyed 70 chapters previously. So, how do I upgrade?

Tefler

Thanks very much for your generosity! Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I had my email turned off while I got stuck into chapter 72! :-)

Wookey

More important to complete Ch 72 than respond to a fan. thanks anyway. Keep up the amazing work.