New Fees for Patrons

I’ve already cut back drastically on the Patreons I backed, whittling it down to 3. Hopefully I won’t see much of an uptick

Michael

I'm fairly new to Patreon having only pledged for the last two months. The reason I chose to do so goes beyond the awesome content that you and other artists provide. I want to see artists such as yourself who are doing great things for this hobby rewarded for the work you all do. Whatever the changes, I'm in it for the long haul. I just hope that most people feel the same, and you and others don't lose too many supporters. I wish you the best of luck.

Well.. Of course Patreon is finding a way to nickel and dime a little cash grab, and I don’t like that they are scooping from the low tiers so disproportionately. The 0.35 is a big jump at that level and doesn’t balance your cut, as everyone is pointing out. So - it is really wonderful that you are being so conscientious… But I don’t think you should ever worry about the value! It’s always so high! It’s pretty clear that your motivation has always been supporting games rather than selling subscriptions and you can see the result in your number of patrons. What we get for the cost is and will remain so incredibly reasonable. At all the tiers! A small bump won’t change that, even if its motivations are dubious. Anyways, if my math is right this new fee looks like it’ll be an extra 0.50 for $5 tier, and the result is you’ll get an extra 0.50 in pocket? I’m more than ok w paying that :)

Kevin Murphy

Well if it helps, one of the things that attracted me to your project is that it's related to the current D&D storyline. I am a DM in the Adventures League and it's impossible to try and keep up with minis. Not to mention that I play at a game store so I have to haul all my stuff around. This is making it much easier for me, so thank you. My suggestion would be to keep offering things that could be used in the current storylines of the Adventures League and/or the Pathfinder Society.

Dodge Howell

I'm okay paying a bit more. It's not an insurmountable increase. +.38 cents? I think I'll be okay. LoL. Love your maps.

Matthew Shaker

I really appreciate that. Since the announcement I've been spending a lot of time trying to brainstorm ways that I can be more efficient and provide better service/content to ensure all of my patrons feel it's worth it.

PrintableHeroes

From what I've seen the content that you provide would really be acceptable to any increase that is passed along. You provide a regular and valuable (to me) service. For those that I support that provide irregular content or have gone months without any updates... Well, I may have to reconsider my pledges.

Dodge Howell

Yeah, I'm planning to wait until the dust settles a bit. The more responses I hear from the Patreon team the more it sounds like they really thought they were resolving two of the biggest issues Creators were requesting fixes for (high fees, and being able to charge up front to avoid dine-and-dashers) and just radically under appreciated the negative effects of their solution.

PrintableHeroes

Thanks for letting us know, and keep us posted if you need to change platforms

Jamie Easthom

I'm all for creators taking home a bigger cut of the overall pie! Ultimately the creators are the REASON Patreon exists. However, when you look at how they're structuring this, the "drives more traffic" to the site argument is a crummy coverup. This change is driven by the desire to put more money in Patreon's pocket and discourages patrons from supporting multiple creators. They realize that the large majority or patrons are pledging small amounts ($1-$5 dollars) and that a large number of creators make awesome rewards even for small pledges (PrintableHeroes is the perfect example of this!). But if this were really about helping drive more to the site it would keep the numbers relatively consistent. Instead, the math works out that Patreon is netting an additional 5% (or more in some cases) compared to the "old" method. Just running Printable's figures alone... this change will mean that Patreon nets 20% of pledges monthly, compared to the 15% cut they used to take.

Yeah, I'm hopeful the PR nightmare this has caused for 'em will help them to reconsider and seek alternative solutions that don't punish small creators and pledges.

PrintableHeroes

Ha, yeah, regardless i'll keep makin' this stuff, just might have to restructure things to make sure it's still always worth it to people.

PrintableHeroes

Yeah I got that email about the changes as a former creator. What a load of crap. Seems like they feel they don't make enough already? I may simply pause all of my patreon payments for a month or so until they get their collective heads out their asses.

Christophor Rick

Wait? What? You're still making bank. Just charge your rate and the fees at-cost. Is it worth moving to another platform? Lol, but if you do, let us know. I got campaigns to run bruh.

What bothers me the most is that disproportionately places the weight of this fee change on lower pledges, i.e. at $1 it's 38% more, at $2 it's ~20% more, at $3 ~15% more, etc. Seems to discourage people pledging small amounts and especially punishes patrons giving a little to a lot of different creators. While it may make larger pledges more attractive by comparison I fear it does so by making creator's lower pledge content less accessible. A change that can't but hurt new creators still trying to build their audience/community because the new fees encouraging patrons to be more far more selective with their patronage.

PrintableHeroes

because of 10% more ? thats strange

Benjamin_D

I just dropped the other 3 creators I supported via Patreon, and will look for other platforms to support them. :(

Matthew Everhart

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate all of the expressions of support. I'm still processing the change myself and I'll be spending a lot of time trying to brainstorm how I can adapt and ensure my content always feels worth the pledge and remains as accessible to as many people as possible.

PrintableHeroes

If Patreon is charging patrons a percentage fee, I don't think it's right that they again charge an additional percentage fee on the funds you collect. I get that there's operating costs, and that credit cards charge their own percentage per transaction to the retailer, and that every middleman between the patron and the artist has a fiduciary responsibility to turn a profit. Splitting the percentages in fees this way allows them to raise both incrementally over time, and it would lend the illusion that it's less dramatic when they do. (It's an old business trick.)

David Brideau

Your work is worth the additional fee. Keep it up!

Thanks so much for the heads up. I do worry what might be the fallout to this change as I know that for me it will probs make me have to take a step down in my pledge due to how carefully I've had to ballance all my pledges to not strain my account. I do hope that I am in the minority with this though as I love the content I support (which is really only you and one other person atm).

Karl Raams

Thank you for the heartfelt post. If you are truly worried, perhaps a slight decrease in pledge level requirements would not go amiss. Since you're paying 10% less, a price reduction of 10% I imagine would go down well. With that in mind, I honestly don't think this community at least will be up heaved. It's pretty clear we're already getting serious value for our money. Full disclosure - I edited this post and opinion 4 times due to bad maths and predictive text.

Fret not, sir! You produce fantastic assets that are amazing value for the contribution. I happily accept paying a bit more each month if it means you can continue to develop your skills and produce great minis.

Brett Lee

I Patronize between $20 & $40 / month across lots of projects. I am happy to be put a little extra on the table in exchange for you keeping 10% more.

Gaëtan Perrault

Not going anywhere! Appreciate the reference.

Stephen Hart

I'm OK with paying a couple dollars more than what I'm already paying...

Angelus

Welp I ruined and deleted my long comment by accident cuz the mobile app is garbage. Suffice it to say I agree with you. And hopefully patreon and their analysts are correct in assuming it will increase traffic and support instead of what we fear might actually happen

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