Second milestone here...or not....

Hello there. I’m more vocal than usual, am I not? That’s because there are interesting things happening with this Patreon.

Theoretically, we have breached the second milestone. Technically, we are 600$ short if you take into account the declined pledges. I’m pretty sure you care more for my content and less for my financial situation, so I’ll cut straight to the point. I cannot, in good faith, offer the rewards for the second milestone. I can work around the first milestone, which involves the story sequel, since we’re much closer to it, but the second milestone involves spending funds that are simply not available.

This Patreon is my lifeblood. The money I get from here is not spent on luxury goods or anything. It goes to pay the bills, if that. I still have to take commissions, outside of Patreon, to even make ends meet with other taxes, like my Master’s Degree’s tuition, paying utilities, electricity and the like, not to mention food. Luckily, I still live with my parents. That eliminates the need to pay rent, which would have been ugly, to say the least.

A year ago, I quit my part time job as a translator to invest more time into writing. I won’t lie to you, that job sucked. Poor pay, horrible deadlines(the sort that you had to work 16 hours a day during weekends to meet) and a lot of stress. Since then, I dedicated my time to polishing my craft and deliver quite a lot of content to you guys. Two to three stories, plus a novel chapter, is quite a commitment, and it takes time to produce it. For most writers, writing 50.000 words a month is a challenge, but to me, it’s a constant, and I love it. There is work involved, but there is also pleasure, and there is also you! I simply love sharing my art with people, and that makes me happy and fulfilled in life.

This is why the second milestone is a very beautiful thing for all of us. As the message states, I really want to use some of that money to bring to life memorable moments from my “Where Snow Never Melts” novel, as well as some other stories. However, I cannot use that which is not there, so I hope you understand the importance of keeping committed to your pledge.

If you keep committed to your pledge and vouch to pay the amount pledged monthly, not only do you get the content your tier offers, but you contribute to everybody else’s happiness by breaching milestones. Pledging a relatively high amount, then have it declined and not respond to my messages, is demoralizing for me, to say the least, and confusing to the rest of your fellow patrons. We get situations similar to this one, where we sit in top of the second milestone, but in truth, I am 600$ short.

Isn’t this odd to you as well? I think the best course of action is to simply wait for a month to end, evaluate the funds that made it through, and send out the rewards based on it. This is what I am trying to accomplish, and this is the main purpose of this journal: To let you know that, in spite of what Patreon advertises(1.000$ per month), that is a far shot from what I actually received during september(was supposed to get 850$, got 400$ instead). This is why I can’t jump to conclusions about the second milestone being reached, and why I can’t celebrate prematurely. Only the end of the month can show the real results.