Some Pocket Sketches (and many thoughts on changing the way the Patreon/Sticker Club works next year)

hey pals! I've been filling up lots of pages of my little pocket sketchbook, and I wanted to share some of my favorite pages with y'all and write out a bunch of ideas I've been kicking around about changing the Patreon in the new year. Big wall of text coming so scroll to the bottom for the TLDR!

I've realized recently that the way that the Patreon currently works is pretty out of line with where my creative projects want to go. I've found myself super absorbed in projects that don't fit very well into the sticker club model. For the last year, I've been doing my best to create sticker sets from smaller projects every month while balancing time with my larger indie projects, client work, and working part time, and it's getting to the point that I think the quality of my client work and some of my work for the sticker club has suffered for the lack of time for everything on my plate.

On top of that, the sticker club feels much less economical now than it did in the previous 2 years. It would only make sense that the demand for a monthly sticker club is way down from where it was a year ago. And I can't acknowledge that without taking a second to thank you all so so much for continuing to support my Patreon through this last year despite the cost-of-living in general going way up. I've been reluctant to raise my prices because it never felt right to charge more for my sticker club when I was already getting messages from apologetic members who had to cancel their pledge or ask for refunds to help make ends meet. You've all been so kind and supportive. Please never feel the need to apologize to me for saving your money. I appreciate you all endlessly.

I've been taking on more client work in the last year to support myself and Meg, but at a time when our economy is so backwards that my tax dollars are being used to subsidize AI tech companies hell bent on taking every tax payer's job-

-it's unsurprising that at least 80% of the emails I've received this year were from AI Tech Companies asking me to promote some AI slop generators to manufacture community consent for this careless, irresponsible, offensive snake oil that defeats the whole purpose of what I love doing.

I'm sure these emails are mostly automated, just spamming anybody with a following in the niche, but the money behind these companies is real, and I'm sure they wouldn't think twice to pay thousands of dollars to have me pretend this technology isn't an absolute slap in the face to everyone who has ever supported my art. I just can't wait for this bubble to pop, and I hope these "AI - Art" companies will realize how backwards it is to believe you can create something that people will care about without caring enough to create it yourself.

I'm lucky to have had the legit client work I've been able to find in the last couple years working with folks like Aggro Crab, but I've also had to turn down a couple great opportunities for lack of time.

So in acknowledging where my creativity wants to go, knowing that the demand for the sticker club and my ability to continue creating monthly sticker sets isn't what it used to be, and in hoping I can make a bit more time for proper client work next year, here's my pitch for the Patreon changes in the coming year:

The sticker club will transition from a monthly tier system to an all-time support system.

I've been running the sticker club for several years now, and some of you have supported me from the very beginning, and I want to thank you all for sticking around! And it just doesn't feel right charging you all sometimes $15 a month for all my stickers when some of you have supported me for over 3 years. So instead, I'd like to have a flat rate of $3 a month, and every 4 months (rather than every single month) I'll mail a set of physical rewards out to anyone in that tier (even if you weren't subscribed in the preceding months). Of course I'll have some higher tiers to support if you'd like, but I really hate the idea of my biggest supporters being left out of the sticker club when money is tight.

The rewards you receive will be based on the all time amount you've supported in the past, rather than whatever amount you supported in the current month. I still have a lot of thinking to do on it, but right now I'm thinking

if you've supported

$3 all-time, you'll get a freebie sticker club badge
+$9 all-time, you'll get a sticker sheet,
+$25 all-time gets the sticker sheet + bonus sticker
+$100 all-time gets 2 sticker sheets, 1 bonus sticker, 1 postcard, and so on.

I want to create some other awesome rewards for the folks who have supported well over $100 all time, so switching the sticker club to a less frequent schedule should give me more time to create awesome stuff for it! (right now I'm thinking extra exclusive secret sticker sheets, original sticky note doodles, custom art/trading cards, and some freebies from the web shop!)

I've also never offered annual pledges because I always needed a break from running the sticker club every now and then (this last year I took May, October, and December off). But with this tri-annual model, it makes a lot more sense to offer yearly subscriptions at a discount for folks who want to go ahead and sign up for the Patreon for the entire year and save a little money compared to a monthly plan!

Currently, Patreon's site doesn't seem to let users see their all time support for a creator, and I don't expect you all to just scroll through years of charges to tally up your support, so I'm working on building a site that lets you keep track of how much you've supported and build in some fun things on the site to play around with as well!

The idea behind this change is that as long as you're able to join the sticker club to pay for the shipping of your envelope (~$3), I'm more than happy to send you some physical goods as thanks for your support in the past, even if you cancel your pledge right after joining.

And by changing the sticker club from a monthly schedule to three times a year, I'll be able to give a bit more of my attention to other means of sending out stuff I'm making like my shop drops! I've been meaning to run another shop drop for almost 2 years now, and I just have not been able to make the time while balancing all my projects and responsibilities. Ideally in the new year, I'll be able to run a consistent online shop so you can snag some stickers whenever the time is right. And for the folks supporting the Patreon, I'll be sure to send some discount codes for the shop when I'm putting up new items!

I'm still working out all the details, but I wanted to share the plan so far with you all to ask for your thoughts! Is there anything about the current model that you really like, really don't like, would you implement different changes? I'm all ears! I know it'll come with some rocky adjustments, but ultimately I want to change the sticker club in a way that makes it less expensive month-to-month, shows extra appreciation for the folks who have stuck around, and allows me to give the time to my projects that take the time (like my indie games, youtube videos/tutorials, shop drops and all that)!

Thanks pals, I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts and any questions on these potential changes!

If you read this whole post, thanks so much for keeping up with me and for supporting! Sorry for the huge wall of text! If you didn't read it thennnn...

TLDR; I am planning on changing the sticker club from a monthly tier system to a three-times-a-year all time support system. It will cost $3 to join the sticker club, and the rewards you receive will be based on how much you've supported the Patreon all-time in the past. This will hopefully make the sticker club less expensive month-to-month, especially for the members who have supported the sticker club the longest, while letting me dedicate more time to my indie game developments, long form videos, online shop drops, and freelance client work in between sticker club drops!