The State Of The Author

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 "Ancient Loss" fic. Apologies for the spam. Changes in this version include update on Patreon payments and employment search progression.

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, and I received a small amount of new patrons after my last few posts. Thank you very much! Acting on a tip for looking into paid writing submissions, I have located a website that will be useful in finding a job come the new year. 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... Still, with all this support, I'm actually a bit hopeful. Still in dire straits, but I can see a very faint gleam at the end of the tunnel.