CALENDARS! and MERCH! (Patreon)

HELLO! I am excited to announce that both my 2023 calendars AND a line of new apparel are available for pre-order at my new shop! 

In the past, I have offered both shop discounts and free calendars as rewards for various Patreon tiers. I wanted to clarify this so nobody is confused! Unfortunately I am not offering shop discounts to Patrons or free calendars to Di-ety Patrons this year. This is for a few reasons.

• Lots more people are taking bites of this pie now. In the past, my income from merch has been a simple equation: The price you pay, minus the cost of the item, minus any payment processing fees. These days, it's much more complicated. I am now working through a different platform, with fees going to both my merchandise management company (who stores, packs, and ships merch) and my agency. Money has to go to designers, artists, and in the case of this new calendar, I used photographers for the first time, which is also a big investment.
• There are lots more of you! At this point, with a much-grown Di-ety tier, the number of free calendars I would be shipping out would be significantly higher than previous years. And considering that Patreon takes fees, shipping is more expensive than ever, AND I am still sending out other Di-ety tier rewards, the cost of the pledge tier does not cover that expense.
• It's already quite complicated. Now that merch is being sold through one company, that money is being sent to my agency, my agency is taking their cut and then sending money to me, and then I am sending money to my collaborators, the situation has become much more complex. By giving out discounts and free stuff, I am now impacting not just my income, but the income of at least 6 other people. Phew!

I know I don't have to justify any of these choices, but I also know that many of you are curious about how I run my business, and I think transparency is good for everybody! Hopefully this helps explain why we aren't doing those things this year. Maybe next year, depending on how sales go this year and what the final numbers look like, I'll be more confident in being able to offer a Patron-specific bonus for the calendar.

Anyway! HAPPY SHOPPING!! Sorry about shipping prices, I wish I could control them!