July 2023 Update (Patreon)

Hello folks! It looks like the numbers have settled for the monthly transition, and while the latest chapters of FoF took a bit longer than expected I am fairly happy to get them out to you. So let's talk Updates!

June Recap

The final Patron count for June was 512! That means we've passed the Butts Goal. For those new to the Patreon, we've got a few Patron Goals running and crossing 500 patrons at the end of a month means I'm going to work with Bayushi to start adding Butts to the current character art commissions. This month, along with adding a butt to the lady of AMA who wins the poll, we'll also look to get Cassidy and Cattie some butt artwork, and next month we'll do Becca and Wanda.

Beyond the goal achievement, I haven't stated it outright in an update so I'll say it now - I've moved from a 'schedule' of releases to a rotation. This has taken a lot of mental stress off of me and has made it feel a lot easier to get content out, and also means I can plan spaces for some of the commissions that folks are asking for. So far it's been working OK, and I'm finding little adjustments to help keep things moving.

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, I've finally been able to start pushing out the compiled bundles of OFG chapters. Right now we've got 3 bundles, totaling over 150,000 words that I edited and structured along with the releases this month. It takes a significant time investment to do each bundle, which slowed me down a bit, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I also finally buckled down and learned the Posting stuff over on StoriesOnline, and have started to release chapters of AMA and OFG over there daily. The readership isn't as large so far as other sites, but I'm seeing the numbers slowly climb and as I start porting more of the series over there I hope we'll see some growth.

I've also started to try to use Twitter more (and, I mean, great timing for that with all the weird crap going on over there, amirite?). If any of you folks have NSFW-friendly accounts and want to give me a follow, I'm @BreaktheBarLit. I'm mostly using it to randomly tweet about releases, do art reveals that have already seen the light of day here, and interact with artists.

On the personal side of things, I think it's kind of ironic that I kicked off June by mentioning that the regularity and stability of this Patreon has lifted weight off my shoulders and then later that month I got kicked in the teeth by my car giving out on me. "I'm surprised you even got it here" was said by the mechanic. So, the bad news is that I had to dump the majority of my savings into a new (to me) car, but the GOOD news is that I could do that thanks to the ongoing support of this community without feeling like I was digging myself a big hole. All is well in Break-land!

EDIT: I FORGOT ONE THING

In June I also happened to pass TWO milestones when it comes to content. Over on CHYOA I passed 25,000 likes on my individual chapters, which is a pretty cool number. And on Literotica I passed 6,000 followers, which also happened to coincide with me finally breaking into the Top 50 Most Followed authors over there. Those were a couple of bright little moments for me in a month of stress!

Plans for July

- Regular releases of the series, along with commission chapters of both Le Francais and the OFG non-cannon events, will be continuing.

- Cassidy and Cattie Butts commissioned from Bayushi6, along with the character reference for whomever wins the current Poll (1 day left on that, and Terra and Ami are in a close race!)

- I'm also talking with an artist who does a cool retro style to work on a new Avatar image for various sites and possibly a new banner for the Patreon, along with a pinup or two.

- I want to get another two compiled bundles of chapters for OFG out this month, and then catch up with the next AMA one. If that all happens, I'll throw up a quick poll to see if y'all want me to edit and bundle FoF or QT:NW next.

- I'm also going on a writing retreat this month! And by that I mean I go to a cottage alone for a week with no running water, write and read during the day and usually watch a movie in the evening. It's cheap as hell for a 'vacation' but I've been going there since I was a kid and I love it. I'm going to run a poll starting tomorrow about what I should write - a couple of erotica one-shots, or something more mainstream. Either way the content will end up here, but I think it will be fun to take a week off of the regular content and do something different.

- Lastly, I also want to find more places to start 'advertising' the stories. Whether that is more places to post them or subreddits to talk about them or whatever. If you folks have ideas of where I can spread the word, let me know!

A Mini Rant About Reddit

So, part of the reason the latest chapters of FoF were a little more delayed than I thought is because, with the start of the month, I decided to take the plunge and post to a couple of Reddit communities I thought fit the bill in terms of wanting to hear about the content. I started with r/haremfantasynovels and talking about AMA: The Boyfriend since I was able to link to the compiled chapters.

Well, let me tell you, it was a ride and a half.

First I had to discuss with the Mod, a nice guy overall, about the fact that Cassidy kicks off the story being a cheater. I thought I was pretty comprehensive in giving my fair warnings in the post, but it still required a conversation and the post got blocked and unblocked in the first couple of hours. Then, for the next 16 hours or so, it was a battle. There were a vocal minority of folks there who REALLY didn't like the idea of Cassidy and her cheating in the past. Totally understandable, and plenty of people were fine about voicing their opinion appropriately, but a few people really decided to drag me. Then, after I gave a lot of understanding replies, I was interrogated about the content in the story and I mentioned that there was a MFM threesome deep in the story that had no connection to the romantic interests but was an important moment for some plots. Well, that set off a bomb that ended with my entire post, AND a review post for the story that another person had made, removed.

All of this is to say - apparently AMA: The Boyfriend isn't a Harem story based on the gatekeeping rules of the main Harem romance/erotica board on Reddit. And While the story got a LOT of views over here on Patreon (the last two days have seen a ton of traffic to the AMA compiled posts), and hopefully some of the new folks who joined us in the past couple days are joining us from there (Hello, People!), I don't know if the struggle is worth the squeeze. Based on their rules, FoF is also not a viable Harem story. QT:NW is still something I could promote there, but after the minor comments about concerns over the AMA 'mind control' I don't even know if it would be worth it. Then again, it's free publicity, and I can always still turn to other subreddits.

Anyways, that's my mini rant of the month. I got pretty discouraged about the gatekeeping, but also had a couple of good discussions with folks. 2 out of 5 stars, will probably end up doing it again even if I don't want to.

All For One Anthology News

Nothing big to report on this front, just making sure I mention it. To those who missed the announcement a couple of months ago, I am putting together a Harem Anthology of original stories from a bunch of CHYOA and Literotica authors. We've got some really great folks involved, and they've been working away on their stories! The Anthology will release later this year through a crowdfunding campaign, and more info on that will be coming out in the coming months!

Alright, this post has gone on MORE than long enough, so that's all for now!

Cheers,
~Break.