Workload, Projects and Patreon! (Patreon)

For some time now I’ve been more than happy with how much progress and improvement I've been making with my maps. I've been especially lucky to have the support of all my amazing patrons that allows me to actually continue doing this full time. I feel like the people that give me money each month are my fans, supporters and investors in my mapmaking and future and I want to keep you all as up to date with what I’m thinking, doing and working on as much as possible. 

Today's post is going to lay out some of my thoughts going forwards and some changes to my patreon and how I do things in order to balance my workload and temper people's expectations. There are a few topics to cover so this might end up being a long one.

Patreon Expectations

When I first started doing this, I thought that my patreon would be a small side endeavour, something a few people might be interested in but I would mainly be making a living from small or large projects. Companies or writers would hire me because they needed multiple maps for adventures or campaigns or books or board games. 

But that things haven't really worked out like that. 

My patreon has continued to grow, month by month with more people supporting me at lower and higher tiers and instead of large or small projects, I mostly get commissions from individuals that help top up my monthly income. Patreon is still the largest lump sum that contributes to my income each month. This is actually really cool and since I give all maps away for free, patrons are basically allowing me to keep doing this and crowdfunding my mapmaking into the future. 

That being said… 

There are a few things I need to consider:

How long does it takes me to make a map?

Roughly speaking maps take anywhere between 10-150 hours to finish and I might sometimes work on a map for 10 hours a day. This is based on size and complexity and that number has been growing each month as I put more detail into maps and try to improve. Even something drawn or inked on stream has had many hours put into beforehand to get things sketched out and at a basic level in order to work on it. 

I will also point out that as I make money from doing this, I need to consider other things during the day, like talking to and emailing people, marketing (social media) taxes, legal stuff, website things and that's not even considering real life things that everyone needs to do. I wear many hats. 

How much is a map worth and how much does it cost to make it? 

This is a tricky one, a piece of art is usually however much someone is willing to pay for it but for me, making these maps, I simply want to be able to make them to be used and hopefully be paid by people that can afford it. Patrons supporting on patreon means everyone sort of crowd funds the process and bring overall prices down. My commission prices were based on arbitrary numbers that thought people would be willing to pay for and not much else. They were $100 dollars for an A4 map and $220 for an A3 map. If we actually do this by hours worked, then these prices should be much higher but more on this later.

My maps also have a cost in ink, pen nibs, paper etc. (which isn't much per map really, but it is something) I also need to think about equipment for colouring like my PC, drawing tablet etc.

How does this affect my current patreon reward system? 

The way things stand at the moment, if you support me at a certain higher tier, $4, $6 or $12 you have the ability to request a map or token at a certain size. After eight months you can request another map or token. 

Requests are just that, patrons supporting me at a higher tier can ask me to make a map for them and I create that map as a thank you for being awesome, supporting me and helping everyone get free maps. This is different to a commission in my eyes. Commissions are done on schedule, they are paid content, for a project drawn to specification and worked on before patron requests. I see it that way because even though you might give me money each month, $4, $6, or even $12 is not enough for me to survive on and justify the hours worked. If I was earning a massive $2000 dollars from patreon (Probably the amount I would need) I would change this, stop taking commissions and just do patron requests but I simply can't do that yet.

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Workload

I now have a waiting list for commissions and a huge amount of patron maps that I need to work on. The good news is, so far my workload has been just about manageable, in the sense that I know I have a lot to do, but I can chip away at it. 

But I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about the future.

I don't want to get to a point where I feel totally overwhelmed. This feeling is basically the underlying reason why I'm making some changes and writing this post. 

I have also been ill more times in the last year than I have in the past 10 years so I'm very aware that my work flow can sometimes be disrupted. Not an ideal situation but real life things sometimes take a toll. 

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Patreon Changes

The biggest change to my patreon moving forwards, is that supporting at a higher tier only gives you a single, one time only, map request that puts you on the waiting list. There is not a time period when this map will be completed but I do work on them in order. (roughly)

If you are already a patron now and wanted another map request, dont worry! The previous deal still stands somewhat. After eight months you can request one more map. 

I fully realize for some people that after this period you might not see the point in supporting me at a higher tier anymore. Or even that this post and these changes are disappointing and frustrating and you don't want to support me at all moving forwards. If that is the case and you currently have an outstanding map request It will still be drawn regardless. 

A pretty big question might be, do the rewards for the higher tiers justify giving you $4, $6, $12 every month. I would say yes. (I’m biased of course) But if you match the reward tiers along side with even the old commission prices you get a map for quite alot less over a long period of time. 

$6 a month takes 16 months to reach $96. $100 was the old price for a A4 commission map. 

$12 a month takes 18 months to reach $216. $220 was the old price for a A3 commission map.

Commision Changes

Simply put commision prices are going up and you can no longer commission a token from me. (You can ask and work something out but it's easier not to put them on there anymore) 

General Changes

I am going to make sure everything is as clear as possible moving forwards. Which means rewriting the patreon front page which will start happening after this post. I’m also considering making the “list public” so all patrons can see what I'm working on.

Thank you

I sometimes find it hard to actually articulate how much I’m blown away with the support, love and feelings of joy people give me when I make new maps and upon finding my now growing little collection. But I really do absolutely, love you all. So thank you all very much for reading this and understanding why I had to make these changes. <3

TLDR:

New patrons can only make one map request. If you are already a patron you get two requests and that's it. Commissions are going up as well. Sorry if this is sad/frustrating news, I love you all for supporting me but have to consider things moving forwards <3