Writing Update: 21-04-25 and coming changes

Hey, happy Easter monday, everyone!

So, last week I -did- enjoy some time off of work, which gave me a much needed chance to catch up on sleep. However, I more or less failed in my plan to take a holiday from writing/this Patreon.

Instead, I revised and posted Who Made the Lamb to the usual sites, where it landed with varying success. Some interesting feedback over on FM (the first two reviews accuse my story of being too political), and some really lovely and considerate comments on Scribblehub, which really gave me an encouraging boost to morale. It also motivated me to finish chapter four, which went out earlier today. With that done, tomorrow I'll return to Constant and start writing the bridge between Darius and the 'Sweet/Sentimental' arc.

I also revisited Canva and started working on a series of covers for Constant. Lacking any sort of digital design skills, I've managed to mock up something that I hope looks half decent, keeping it simple but using Fraylim's wonderful artwork as the focal point. I've attached one of these efforts up top.

Finally, I've started trimming the Patreon back. There were hundreds of posts running back to 2023, and making it difficult for members to find desired content. It hurt, a little, deleting some of those posts - there were lovely comments attached to some of them - but the odds of anyone revisiting a sneak peek or update from two years ago seemed slim. So those are gone now, sadly, and I'll keep tidying up until all available content is easily accessible.

Alongside that, I'm looking at creating ePub versions of Books 1-5 of Constant. Um--any suggestions for free/cheap software for doing this? I've messed around with Calibre; any others worth checking out? I could go the Adobe inDesign route, but wow, it ain't cheap!

So, all in all, a decently productive week away. However, not having to update the Patreon did free up some mental space, and had me thinking about how I'm running the thing. In other words, enjoying not updating the Patreon three or more times a week had me realize that I'm possibly putting way too much time and effort into updating this thing.

One thing I've discovered from following a bunch of other writers is that it seems far more common to push something out maybe once a week, tops? And for me, anyways, trying to put out different content at two or three different tiers was getting exhausting. Especially now that I've got more than one story on the go.

So, this is what I'm considering:

Nothing changes for the Helpful/Very Helpful £1/2 tiers.

Freezing/Unpublishing the current 'Constant' £3 tier as a sort of legacy tier - everyone currently on it stays on it with full access to everything, but no new members.

Create a new £4 tier, that also includes everything and anything I publish here.

The 'Patron' £5 tier stays as it is as a sort of extra-generous supporter tier. There should be more at this level, but I'm not really sure what to offer - maybe slightly earlier access? Voting rights on - something?

That way, I can reduce my posting to just once or twice a week. Once, for the usual weekly update, because that's as much for me as it is for patrons. I need that weekly target, the numerical reminder that I'm making progress. Most weeks, a second post to publish the most recent content, either a sneak peek/draft-in-progress, or a new chapter. And obviously, the occasional rambling post about - stuff.

Any thoughts? Otherwise, I'll roll out these changes at the end of the week.