Lessons Learned (Patreon)

So, in the last couple months I've been hanging out in some author-centric discords and I've learned a lot of things that have helped current stories and will help future stories. Things like Ads and shoutouts have really moved the needle on some of my existing stories. Tenebroum is closing in on 2200 followers, but even Letter of the Law has benefited. It might break 100 before I finish writing it, and after spending six months without growing at all, that shocks me a little. 

Beyond commercializing/advertising, I've learned two main things, the first is that my structure isn't fast enough for web novels (it doesn't hook readers), which is probably true, and the second one is that I'm a failure. No really, a failure. (I disagree, obviously.)

I've seen several conversations like this recently, but the most recent one, where writer A told writer B, "Look, your story only has 50 patrons. Wrap it up and throw it on Amazon and try something else." This conversation really bugged me. This isn't because I have less than 50 patrons (though I do,) but because of how clearly so many of these people are in the story telling business simply to cash in. Don't get me wrong - I'd love it if one day my writing made enough that I could do this as a full-time thing, but not on these terms. 

The idea that people just crank out stories for thirty chapters and toss 'em when they aren't wild commercial successes, all so they can write something popular and then drag that out indefinitely? That's a little sad. 

I hate to break it to you guys, but all my stories will eventually end. Letter of the Law will end in October, Golemancer will end in January, and the current volume of Death After Death will end at the end of the year (though there will a new volume that follows in that case.) Even Tenebroum will end one day... in, I don't know. 2025? It's harder to say there. It was supposed to be a short that ended where act 1 ended, and well - when you read the end of act 2 you will understand why it has some longevity to it.  

This chapter in my life - where I can write as much as I want because I'm in school is a short one. In a year or two I will have to cut my writing time way back, and I've got a ton of stories I want to write, so old ones must finish to make way for new ones, and those will be finished in turn, even if they never get popular because a shelf full of unfinished stories is the saddest thing I can think of. 

I will however be making more efforts to promote my Patron in the near future, because I feel like I could be doing more there, but I don't see spending too much time focusing on the writing as a negative honestly. I will eventually make something like this for all my stories on RR and post them now and then. I haven't decided how to handle this for SH yet. We will see. Feedback welcome!