[Update] We're back, baby!

As promised, I’m back with a more in-depth update on the state of the comics and the Patreon revamp. I make these posts to inform you of major developments regarding my work because you’re kind enough to support me financially. It seems only fair that I provide updates on how your funding is used. I like to think of them as lil shareholder newsletters!

If you’d like a TL;DR of the post, the main takeaways you should know are:

I talk about my experience with burnout and what I learned from it all.

The Patreon page is ‘relaunching’ and returning to previous perks and pricing tiers ($3, $5, $10) starting this month, August 2024. 

Perks are largely staying the same, but I’m adding a couple of new perks based on input from the feedback surveys.

I’m introducing new and very special milestones to celebrate

The nitty gritty details can be found below in the larger update. Let’s go!

Just so everyone is up to speed: I burned out. 

Did I ever tell you that? No? 

Toward the end of 2022 I stopped all ongoing and pending projects, then stepped away from my art for over a year. It was devastating. I’ve considered going into detail on just how bad things were, but I think we all understand or can imagine how much stress can impact a person’s mental and physical health.

So let’s just say it was bad, alright?

While certain factors exacerbated the burnout, the root cause was this: I was doing wayyyyy way too much at an unsustainable level. Had been for years.

So first, I took time to physically recover. Then, I spent hundreds of hours in therapy working to ensure that if/when I returned, this would never happen again. Now, I’m sharing what I learned and how I’m applying that knowledge to my work.

KEY TAKEAWAY 1: Narrow the focus

The promise I made myself upon returning was to keep things simple. For now, that means focusing on reestablishing a regular comic schedule and maintaining the Patreon page. Everything else (like my online store and freelance projects) is no longer a priority and is staying paused for now. 

Eventually, I’ll want to focus on other things for a bit. When that happens, it’ll be in a limited capacity to avoid overloading myself again (i.e. limited shop openings etc).  

KEY TAKEAWAY 2: From lazy river to water slide

Making short-form webcomics is weird. There’s no real start or stop to making them. You just keep going forever until you give up or die. Humans don’t function well like that. At least, this human doesn’t. I realized I’m happiest and have higher satisfaction with my work when I have a defined project with a start, middle, and end.

Instead of taking on all aspects of various jobs in my creative work forever and always, I’ve decided it’s best to operate with a project mindset. For now, my project and goal is to grow the Patreon page for the next six months.

During my hiatus, I was fortunate to sustain myself through freelance work. However, that isn’t where my heart lies. I’d love to focus full-time on my comics and art again. To do that, I need to create a more stable monthly income. So my first project is revamping and promoting the Patreon so it grows as much as possible in the next six months. 

From a current patron’s perspective, nothing changes except for me posting comics and patron perks again. From an outside perspective, I’m refreshing outdated elements of the page and will be promoting the Patreon much more heavily.

Note: Pricing will revert to what it used to be ($3, $5, $10) instead of the $1 it was temporarily at. Patrons will most likely receive an automated email from Patreon regarding this change and have a 30-day grace period to edit your pledge if you decide it’s not right for you. 

Thanks again to everyone who submitted feedback through the survey! It had a quick turnaround time, but the responses were extremely helpful in understanding what I can do to improve the page.

There was a lot of interest in a few new perk options. In particular, people seem most interested in bonus panels for comics, interactive content, exclusive digital goods, and a physical merch club.

To start, I’ll be adding bonus panels to comics! This will be a new perk added to the $5 tier to help beef it up a bit more.

Later I’d like to test interactive content and exclusive digital goods. To prevent overwhelm, these will likely be viewed as ‘drops’ vs ongoing perks.

Eventually, I’d also like to test the physical merch tier for a limited time (stickers, mini print). This type of tier seems like a lot of fun, but will work best when the page has grown a bit more. If the test period is successful and I'm able to manage it, then it will remain as a permanent tier.

Finally, it seems the occasional exclusive mini prints were a very popular perk. That’s amazing because I intend to have another mini-print available VERY soon! If you’d like to suggest any kind of theme for the next or future mini-prints, please let me know.

Finally, I’m bringing back Milestones to celebrate growth on Patreon from now through January!

The plan is to celebrate with a mix of digital and physical rewards. Starting with the first milestone goal and reward:  At 150 patrons, every patron will receive a golden Good Boye Guild membership sticker!

Once I’ve got the design finalized I’ll be sure to share it with you. The stickers will be handled like the mini-prints: any $3+ patrons who join the same month the milestone is reached will be eligible for the reward. ( Just make sure you have your shipping information added and up-to-date on your profile!)

That’s it for me! Give yourself a pat on the back if you made it to the end of this update! It was a chunky one, but I wanted to cover a lot of topics before moving into the next Patreon iteration. It's all cuteness and goofs from here on out!

As always, please feel free to reach out if you ever have questions or suggestions. I enjoy hearing from you forever and always. Now I’m off to get started on some new comics and content for you! Peace out!