I launched my Patreon last month. The British may call the effort “willy nilly.” I prefer to think of it as the dam finally bursting. I kept putting this off. The time had come, it was Halloween, and I thought, screw it let’s do this.
It’s not like I jumped into it with nothing ready. I had 4 pages ready to share. I put the first two pages up for free, and then started sending exclusives to my patrons. And for not promoting this other than through my blog and email list, it’s been going well.
Some of you may be asking: what is a Patreon? Patreon is an app that lets you and I communicate directly, without algorithms. You get exclusive access to what I’m working on before anyone else sees it, including work no one else has seen anywhere. It’s a community for fans. And it’s a direct line for artists to share their work with them. You can become a member of my Patreon for various levels of rewards.
The first level is the $3 monthly tier, where you get exclusive access to my new graphic novel See You In Hell as I finish pages, before anyone else sees them. At this level you are getting a new page a week.
The second level is $5 monthly, and you get the early access to See You In Hell, and you also get pinups, bonus comics, and access to older comics that aren’t available anywhere else. At this level you are getting a couple of updates a week.
And the final level is the $10 a month Process Junkie level. This has all of the above, plus behind the scenes content and videos. I send out vlogs weekly talking about specific areas of my process. At this level, you are getting about 5 updates a week. This has been the most fun for me to update. I’m dipping my toes into vlogging for the first time and the response so far has been fantastic from you all.
If you’ve ever wanted to see what I’m working on, and to join other fans, this is the best opportunity to do so. And you are paying me directly for my work. Not through ads, or a publisher. It all goes straight to me. Anything I work on goes straight to you. I am having a blast doing this so far. Like I said, at the $10 level, you are hearing from me every day during the week. I’ve never felt more connected to fans before. It’s almost like a digital convention.
