The State Of The Author · 3:22pm Dec 29th, 2014
To those of you who follow me, you already know some of this; I am, however, forced to make a post specifically for those that follow my recently updated "Lyra Is Crazy: Many Months Of Mommy Madness" fic. Apologies for the spam.
At some point in the nearish future, I will be effectively evicted from my home. This isn't due to debt or anything, the family is just getting too big. Unfortunately I don't have any stable income; my only money comes from Patreon, a virtual tip-jar for artists. Long story short, for every chapter I publish a month I get about fifty dollars from WILLING DONORS. Of which I have only three.
Now, I am trying to find other sources of income. I'm not going to deny that. But the deadline for my moveout is growing steadily closer and that, in turn, makes my stress levels rise and my writing productivity suffer. Furthermore, due to my financial situation I have had to put all my EPIC stories on indefinite standby in order to write shorter chapters I can publish every month. At the moment, I am making enough to pay for my own groceries; I need to make at least quadruple that to pay for an apartment and internet access, which means either tripling my output--and producing low-quality stress induced stories as a result--or tripling my income, preferably by gaining more donors. Or a mix of the two options.
That is where you all come in. Three donors together are paying enough for me to eat, but the more donors I get, the less pressure is put on me to find what I need and the more I can focus on writing. Understand, I am NOT going to simply stop writing because I'm not getting enough money; you'll get your stories without needing to pay. However, if I can't support myself, there's going to be a cutoff sometime next year, where I simply won't be able to access FiMfiction because I can't pay for the internet, food, and shelter all at once.
I'm sorry to have to drop this all on you during such a festive time of the year, but I do sincerely need some help here. Since my first State Of The Author post, I have gotten a minor increase from one of my patreon supporters--Thank you very much!--and a tip for looking into paid writing submissions. I hope that some of this will help me out in the long run, but, again, I may not have the luxury of thinking long term...
You have 787 followers. All you really need, it sounds like, is about a dollar from each of us.
2685636
You'd be surprised how few of them pay.
2685763 Myself being one of the ones that don't. Not because I don't wan't to, but rather because my own financial situation isn't much better than yours.
What of a job situation? Please let us know.
If you have a laptop you can often get free wi-fi at places like McDonalds, at least in the US. Also they sometimes have free computer use at libraries.
2685763
Because most of us follow many authors here and on other sites, and blogs on tumblr and whatnot. And the majority of them have patreons and upcoming deadlines and desperately need money for operations. Some of us have the disposable income to be charitable and generous to all of them. Some of us have enough only for our favorites. Some of us withhold money simply because we're not here to get involved in the lives of others. Others still don't want to start giving money because they can't help everyone and can't choose who to help.
Then there's the majority, like myself, who are barely keeping the lights and net on, surviving on donated bread and faucet water. Make no mistake, there are a lot of people who feel bad for you, those who don't know if they can or should assist you alone, and those who are in the same boat or worse off. Speaking for those of us who care and know what you're going through, we wish you the best in seeking additional income and hope that you can get back to a stable lifestyle without much stress and worry. Please be as well as you can in the interim.
2686359
I apologize if that sounded snippy. It was meant as a reply to somebody who suggested all my followers could pay regularly...
2686359 I was going to say something like this, but I guess I don't like confrontation.
Is there anything he can do if he is evicted and cannot find a job? I have no experience in this stuff. I live with my folks and still have no job XD, but I feel bad and want to help him some how.
Why don't you add more options for donations on your patron like 1 ,5 and 20, 30 dollar options? You could give the ability to chose which story gets an update next for the higher reward.