I’m formally changing the frequency of posting for my newsletter and my column on cool finds in the files from weekly to three times per month. That seems to be about what I’ve been able to sustain so far in the since launching this Patreon in June.
There seems to be at least one week every month that has some major disruption to routine — so far all wonderful things like a family wedding, Capclave, the Paddle for the Cure, the first July 4th family reunion I was able to attend since the start of the pandemic. Looking ahead at Thanksgiving and the Nutcracker season, I can see that even if only good things were to happen, there would still be a whole week out of most months when posting at all would be very difficult.
When I was researching how to do Patreon, I saw a lot of creators’ descriptions of toxic guilt over feeling that they had overpromised and underperformed, and how that began to color not only what they posted and their connections with their supporters, but also how they felt about the art their supporters had come to help them keep doing in the first place. The ones who had stayed on Patreon had mostly handled this kind of problem by announcing changes to what they offered.
So that’s what I’m doing. And better to figure this out now, while every one of my supporters is also a person I have known for years in person, than to have to do it in some hypothetical future in which I have supporters I don’t know.
Thank you all so much for being here with me. Knowing that you are rooting for me makes a bigger difference than you can possibly know.
