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Patreon Revamp & Commissions (Patreon)

Published:
2019-03-22 20:13:48
Edited:
2019-03-23 12:53:45
Imported:
2022-01

Content

The long awaited (At least to me) patreon revamp is here! Over the coming hours and days there are a bunch of things that are going to be updated including the various tiers and commission details. This has been a long time coming but to start I want to quickly give a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me through Patreon thus far. I’ll elaborate a bit more later in this post but if it wasn’t for all your support, enthusiasm and patience we never would have made it this far. <3 So thank you!

Commissions

First of all, let's talk commissions. My commissions have been closed for a long time. I’ve been trying to clear a backlog on patreon for over a year now, but when I have taken commissions it was on the lower end of the scale. I was somewhat surprised to see a video by Nate from WASD20 talking about how to make money from cartography and that on average, $30 an hour was his recommended starting point. You can see Nate talking about this in the video below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_HI-Cq3aw4

Considering the demand for my maps, this is probably about right or perhaps higher but either way I will be charging more from now on and I will have a dedicated page on my website with details on average prices and things you need to do to get a map from me in the future.

Another major change is only patrons at my highest tier will be able to commission me in the first place. Each person at this higher tier will be able to put their name on a list (one map at a time) and then I will contact them when I can do the commission in the order on the list. We will talk details and payment and then I will do the map in my own time.This does NOT mean I will be doing commissions each month or any other kind of timeframe. I will do commissions when I have free time. I am making this very clear so that people on the list do not think they will be able to get a map for a game in a few months. It might take years to get a map made by me. 

This has been a difficult choice for me to make, I don't particularly like saying it this way and it may upset people, but the amount of requests I have been getting, numbers in the hundreds. The demand has grown immensely over the past year and is no longer limited to one or two people at a time… I am so incredibly thankful for this but I also have to manage my time and sanity so that I’m free to be creative and inspired and not stressed and worried about keeping up with the demand. 

Below is the rough guide to my upcoming prices based on an hourly rate in pounds.

Commission Details

£20 an hour for patrons

£25 an hour for companies

A4 Black & White - Average 10 hours £200 - £250

A4 Full Colour - Average 20 hours £400 - £500

A3 Black & White - Average 25 hours £500 - £625

A3 Full Colour - Average 50 hours £900 - £1250

Patreon

Next up is the patreon changes. This is going to be a big change for me for a number of reasons but basically without going into a huge amount of detail.. I will be changing how I think about my cartography. In many ways ever since I started I’ve been treating this job as more of a hobby and less of a career. I would like to change that. I want to continue to make maps and tokens and make money from doing so for the foreseeable future, but I also want to do this without impacting my mental health.

Does this mean I will now charge people $15 a map?!

No :) 

I still want to stick to my principals on this and produce content for free so that the cost of this very expensive hobby is a little more bearable for people without the income to spend on my higher patreon tiers. But it does mean some of the things I previously had for free will be added to tiers instead and this will hopefully make these tiers more appealing and worthwhile to the people that can afford it.

Below I’m going to briefly outline what each tier will now include and what it means. I can always update and tweak the descriptions to make them more clear later on!

Patreon Details

Tier 0:  Free

Free Battlemaps

Free maps! This should be an easy one, I want to keep producing free content that people can use in TTRPG games! I still need to find a healthy balance in terms of numbers but I’ll figure it out :) 

Tier 1: Scribe - $1

Thank You!

Patreon Polls

Sneak Peeks

This has not changed one bit. This tier is for people that use the free content to say thank you and give some support. The only change to this is that sneak peeks will now talk about other upcoming projects and not just the next map! 

Tier 2: Veteran - $3

Half the tokens

Different Map Versions

This tier is now for people that love the free battlemaps but want them in extra colours for more variety and usability! Also this tier will include half of any tokens that I make at the end of the month which may be one or two or more!

Tier 3: Dragon - $8

All the tokens

Commercial License

Bonus Item

All tokens that I make in the future will be available at this tier! Additionally my small commercial licence now applies to anyone at this tier and covers them for creating content such as adventures on the DM’s Guild and using my maps. This license change will apply to all new maps going forwards and if you do not support me at this tier than you can only use my maps from this point onwards for personal use. 

Plus at this tier, you receive a useful bonus item from one of the packs, such as one of the handouts, an asset or snippet of extra detail on the lore behind the battlemaps!

Tier 4: Hero - $15

Exclusive Battlemaps, Village/Town/City Maps

Encounters Packs

Handouts

Map Assets

Commissions List

The most exciting change is the highest tier on my patreon. I’ve been trying to do this for some time but I’m going to be making packs containing my maps and tokens as a base and writing encounters for them. This will mean anyone can grab a pack and insert it into a game without much effort. This might mean using one or two battlemaps of the same theme, with a an extra village or town map with tokens that also fit that theme with a description and some lore and how to use it in a game. This pack will also include player handouts such as wanted posters, ancients scrolls, writs of nobility or land ownership and puzzle clues. Some useful assets that I make will also be going in these packs, roaring fires, vehicles, boats etc that you may want to move around and use dynamically. 

This means I can create a pack around the plane of fire or the feywild, or in royal palace or a swamp goblins camp. You will get the map for free but all the other useful bits will be all be available at this tier.The ideas are pretty much endless but it allows me to create more concentrated encounters that can be used on their own rather than a dungeon master constantly looking around the internet for different elements to create an encounter themselves from scratch. 

Benefits & Criticism

While I hope many people will love these changes… it is still a change and with that may cause some discontent. But I believe these adjustments will allow me to make more content and even more useful content at that. My goal is never to upset people and I try to take into consideration everyone's feelings, ideas and opinions… but these changes are much better for me in the long term. At the moment I just about make enough to afford rent each month + bills and food etc. In the future I hope I can make more money from doing this in order to buy new equipment (A fancy tablet and a better computer), save up a little and be able to live comfortably while still producing art for you guys. That's the dream!

Outstanding Requests

If you are a patron of mine right now and have a request from the old system for a map or token. No worries! I will still be making those for you but I’m afraid they will come under “They will be done when they are done”. Get in contact with me whenever you like, thankfully patreon remembers all this stuff.

Love

Finally I want to say thank you again, and I feel like I don't say it enough. But everyone that supports me on patreon is an absolute hero and without you guys Blue Sword wouldn’t exist... you have and always will have my everlasting appreciation along with as many inspiration dice as I can give!

Thank you all for reading and all my love,

Mark

Edit: Changed some names of the tiers and fixed typo's!

Comments

Derek Burge

Very reasonable, I'd say. Your pricing on commissions is steep, certainly, but the quality definitely warrants the price tag. If I had a grand of disposal income, I'd almost certainly throw it your way for a full color commission!

Chris Skuller

I do think your tiers need some revamp, but setting the price point at $15 for everything is really high. I back numerous other map makers on Patreon and that out-prices all of them. For a point of reference, Heroic Maps charges $8 for 5 full color maps (one of them a sci-fi map) and a write up and handouts. Dynamic Dungeons charges $5 for an animated CGI map. Zovya charges $4. A bunch of others charges only a couple bucks (Elven Tower, Neutral Party, S.Mitchell, MapHammer). In comparison, $15 to get all the content feels excessive from that perspective. Usually the higher tiers are for things like Photoshop access, ultra-high res files, access to previously released maps. Things like that. Just my two cents.

bewby

Just to clarify... are there going to be map rewards for the $15 dollar level that no other level gets? Cause I really have no use for tokens and icons and whatnot really, I'm here for your maps. And I don't see any reason to back the 15 dollar reward tier to pay for all the extra stuff I'm not going to use... just for the extra maps. Basically I just want to make sure I'm not going to miss out on maps by shifting to the $3 tier and if I am... I hope you intend to include a different tier for someone like me who just wants all the maps.

Anonymous

Your hourly prices on your maps aren't steep - they are professional rates, and as a professional you gotta charge em. Your work is 1000% worth it. I think the changes are great, and I hope it ends up being less of a burden on you! You give more than a lot already ❤️

caeora
>>21058096

$15 is for all the extra effort I put in in order to clomp everthing together and maybe add a city/town or village map so an encounter turns into a useful starting point for people. There will still be free maps all the time :)

caeora
>>21058255

Sometimes! Not that often, but if I do, for example, the City of Brass from the plane of fire that will be at the $15 tier, most battlemaps will be free.

caeora
>>21057628

I previously sort of winged it on prices and these prices do seem high but there is a demand for it and my time is precious, but thank you for the support! :D

Marianne Rogers

So 'build your own' packs (like the castle asset packs <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/forts-castles-1-15330411)">https://www.patreon.com/posts/forts-castles-1-15330411)</a> will be available at the $15 level?

Chris Skuller
>>21058096

I understand that. My point was that other very successful Pateron's do that effort as well and somehow pull it off much cheaper than what you're asking. Well, best of luck to you. I hope it works out. My prediction, basing it on what I've seen on other Patreons, is that not enough people will back at the $15 level to make generating content for it worthwhile.

caeora
>>21058910

Those kind of packs come along quite rarely but I'll probably give some away for free and then the rest to patrons. I still need to make the call of the specifics :)

bewby
>>21058255

Yeah, I'd really want a tier that gives me all the maps always without all the extra bundled stuff if that's the case. I want all the battle maps and town maps of any given release without the tokens, without the adventure docs, without any lore. It feels really weird that youre gonna gate maps behind the top tier reward.

Henry McDonald

Good for you man! This will probably stir some things up a bit, and might make some people upset, but things will settle out. Don't get burned out, and if you can't keep up with commissions, you aren't charging enough!

Neale Genereux

First of all: You are awesome, your maps are awesome, and I don't have any issue with you charging a fair and well-deserved rate for your work. Keep it up and make sure you take care of yourself while you're making all this awesome stuff. The new tiers also give me a reason to jump from Scribe to Guru (I like different map versions), so that's all great too! I do have one question/concern about the commercial license at the Sage tier. This isn't something I plan on using, but something I found confusing while reading this post. Let's say I back you at that tier for a month and get "Awesome New Map" during that month. I decide to make an adventure with that map and take advantage of the commercial license. Do I have to continue backing you at the Sage tier for as long as my adventure is available, or does the fact that I was a Sage backer that month grant me a permanent commercial license for that map?

caeora
>>21069460

I'll make sure I make it clear that if you back during a month and get a map and then leave you can still use that map with the small commercial licence. I wont be able to keep track of it too much but it hopefully encourages people to use that tier for that purpose. I mean it would be nice if people making money using my maps then gave back a little by backing at the sage tier for as long as they can but I understand sometimes that is not an option. Oh and thank you! &lt;3

Anonymous

You do fantastic work and deserve to be compensated fairly for it. Hope this keeps things on a sustainable level for you!

Anonymous

Shattered just became paragon...

Henry McDonald

I was thinking about something yesterday. What is the intent of the $15 tier? I know that you stated that if people want to commission a work, they need to be in the $15 tier. If the intent is that it is meant to cut down on commissions, then ignore the rest of this message. If the intent is to put money in your pocket, then I think you should lower the cost to maybe $10. Jumping from $8 to $15 will make people think, "That's almost double the cost," and I think not many will do it. However, if you make a $10 tier, I think you'll get a much higher conversion rate. "It's only a couple more bucks." You could still keep the $15 tier to gate the commission work as well. The problem, of course, is figuring out how to maximize your income. Selling a lot of stuff at a low cost may be better than a little at a high cost. Your goal is to make the higher price tiers look like a bargain, not a premium. McDonald's, Starbucks, and many others do this. A small meal or drink is $5. You can get a medium for $1 more. You can get a large for just another $0.50 You can get a super size for $0.25 more. From the buyers perspective, McDonald's is crazy to sell me three times the French fries and drink for $1.75. But it doesn't cost McDonald's much of anything for them to make the fries or soda. They're already paying the workers, the building, electricity, etc. The cost of the fries and drink is virtually nothing, so they're making a killing. You're already doing the work, you owe it to yourself to figure out how to entice people to the higher tiers.

caeora
>>21089188

Thats not a problem, your map would be an outstanding request under the old system, so I will do it at some point :)

caeora
>>21100172

Hmmmm... I will think about this. I like the idea and I think it makes sense. However I need to figure out how I can keep the number of people asking for commissions low.

Anonymous

Good for you! You're a pro, you should build a business as a pro! I do have one question though...what happens to those of us who have been around for a while at the $6 Sage tier? That's not a thing any more, so what do we need to do? Thanks!

caeora
>>21117678

If you want to keep supporting at that amount then you get the rewards from the $3 tier, you could drop down if you are happy with that deal :) Or you could bump it up to $8 to get those rewards instead :)

Anonymous
>>21100172

In regard to that I was wondering what the rates are for the commission once you're on the list and what kind of wait it's looking like? I certainly don't mind going to the hero tier to be considered for a commission just wondering how the process works so I can determine if it's even something I'm able to do.