Update, Commissions Needed, State of the Writer, etc. (Patreon)

Hey everyone. Just wanted to give a bit more information on how things are going here and with me for those who are interested. 

When I set out to become a full-time writer of gender transformation erotica, I knew it was going to be hard, at first, to work up a recurring income that was high enough to cover all my expenses. I started with a lot of money in savings and lowered all my expenditures to their lowest possible survivable levels, or about 950.00 a month (USD) [100 or so dollars higher during the prime Air Conditioning months], plus between $100-200 in groceries, to try and extend the amount of time that I could keep ~doing this~ before I ran into a wall. Things were going really great at first, until the pandemic-related financial crash. Sales cratered really hard in March and April and although I have slowly but steadily continued to rebuild my income through increasing the number of titles I have available on Amazon, there are still indications that the erotica ebook market on Amazon has not fully recovered (for example: this year's Black Friday I made only 30 dollars. Last year it was much more.) 

Where does this leave me? Well... right now, I'm right on the edge between being able to viably support myself with writing and not. At the end of October I received 900.00 in e-book sales, and about 60.00 from Patreon, plus one commission fee, which collectively gave me about 1150.00, or enough money to pay all the bills and buy groceries this month. But sales have slumped a bit since then, and going into December I'm looking at just over 800.00 in total income (from both e-book sales and Patreon), and the two commission fees which I had counted on being paid to me during November were not paid (one was cancelled, one is indefinitely delayed), which leaves me with about 150.00 dollars in the hole for major bills, even before considering whether or not I can afford to eat in December. January is looking even worse.

There is good news on the horizon. As of today, with a day and a half left to go in this month, I am only $65.00 in sales short of hitting $1000.00 for the month. This would be the first time since the pandemic crash that I will have hit that marker, and it's really exciting. (Hint Hint: if you've been holding off on buying that one story, now's great time! ;-) ). That means that (due to the way book royalties are paid--a 60 day delay), in February I should have about $1050.00 in guaranteed income, or hopefully enough to cover everything. Normally sales go up for a couple months in a row, so I'm hoping that I do even better in the next month or two. $1100 a month (before commissions) is livable for me. I'm very close. 

But, I have to get through December and January first. 

Hehehe. Hopefully this injects a bit of levity... (Disclaimer: I am not associated with Bernie, of course, this is just me poking fun at my continued financial difficulties.)

I need at least one new commission arranged and paid for going into December, or for someone with an outstanding commission fee to pay it so that I can continue with their story. Two would be better, but one ought to be 'enough.'  By the time January gets really underway, I will need at least three more. There's always a chance that the U.S. Senate will get its act together and send out one more round of financial relief for those still financially impacted by Covid (thus far I have been able to keep paying my rent, at least, while many others have fallen behind, although in January, without commissions, I will not be able to.) But failing that, I will definitely need to take on a few more commissions. If I'm unable to pay all my bills in December and January, I will have to stop writing full time until at least the market rebounds enough for sales to get back to their normal levels. If ever. 

I'm rolling out a slightly modified commission fee/story-length arrangement going forward, to hopefully incentivize a few people who have been tentatively interested in a commission but have not yet followed through on placing one: 

Going forward, for new commissions only, I will write a minimum 30,000 word single-installment story for $225 (same price) for any simple, uncomplicated single act scenarios that people are interested in seeing written (as in Under Her Spell.) Ever fantasized about being alone one night with your best friend when one of you realizes that one of your sisters left some original Aphrodite pills lying around? Want just a very detailed Werewoman transformation and immediate aftermath? A snippet from a regular gender-bender's weekend routine? This is a great choice for you. 

If you have an idea that's a bit more complex, with lots of characters interacting with one another, significant character development, some plot to get through beyond a single transformation/dress-up-sequence/sex scene arc, then, for $450 I will write you a minimum 100,000 word novel-length story, in three parts. (ala The Werewoman Experience). It's just basically two commission fees for three stories. Essentially that means you get the third installment free, and you can split the payment in half if you want to do one the first month and one the next, but I will need at least the first payment one upfront at the time of the order. I've let a lot of people make fuzzy arrangements for delayed payments in the past, and that's part of the reason I'm looking at the present hole in my budget. So: going forward, payment for the first 30,000 words has to be made up-front.

Any commissions made going forward will be completed (first installment, anyway) within six weeks (to the best of my abilities), and any follow-up installments will completed as quick as I am able to get through them. This means that if you commission a story now, I will hopefully be able to get it to you by mid-January (which is when I expect the first round of commissions to be mostly completed). If you commission one in mid-December, you should get it by the beginning of February, etc.

As always, I really dislike having to ask for support like this, and I know I'm far from the only one going through tough financial times right now, but I'm hoping that if people who have been considering commissions can find room in their budget to place an order now (and pay for it) then I can keep churning out stories for you all to consume going into the Holiday season and the New Year, when hopefully life will start getting more bearable for all of us. If you cant afford a commission, or don't have any story ideas, but have some extra cash you'd be willing to offer to help get me through the end of the winter, I would be very grateful for that as well. Any little bit helps.

Thanks again.

You guys are why I keep doing this! 

Zoe