TL;DR: Are you interested in donating each month to see Order of the Black Dog update a little faster?
Actual content: So, i asked people for their opinions on Patreon a few weeks ago and I've taken some time to digest the input.
First off, if you don't know, Patreon is basically a subscription-based donation service with which you support an artist's project with small monthly donations. The idea is that a lot of people paying a little bit each month will add up to a lot of support so that artists can do more of what they want to do, which is usually good for art.
There are usually rewards offered for donating a certain amount, there is often exclusive content shown only to donators, and there almost always seems to be unlockable tiers like there are in Kickstarter.
If you're an older fan of mine, you may remember me doing something like this for Ballerina Mafia. I'd have a donation bar on the side of my site, and if people donated enough each week, I'd draw a second comic that week, or perhaps a new background or something.
The philosophy of this sort of thing is that doing things like comics for free takes a lot of time that could normally be used to, for example, drawing commissions and making income. Ads and online stores do not really add up to much, and so webcomic artists are basically doing their pages for free.
What Patron is not is a way to buy commissions or products. The purpose of Patreon is to donate to an artist, support the craft that you want to see more of, and a patron of their art.
Lots of people talk about seeing this being abused, and I guess I can see that - but that's not really a reason to totally discount the service, and honestly, some people who think they see people doing it wrong don't seem to totally get what Patreon is for.
Okay, that being said...
Some of you read my current webcomic, The Order of the Black Dog. It's basically my passion these days and I put a lot of time into it.
It is a story-driven comic that I've been updating once a week, and that's been kind of a problem. Issues are typically 20-25 pages long, and the next story takes up two whole issues, meaning it'll take upwards of an entire year to tell that part of the story. That's too slow, both for me and interested readers!
So, my idea is to have a general Patreon for my art. The main focus will be webcomics: if enough people donate per month, I'll be able to draw more than just one page a week, so I can get through what I think to be an awesome story even faster. Keep in mind that drawing a page of Black Dogs often takes an entire day, even when people help with coloring. That's an entire day that could go towards commissions.
So, I really want your input. Who's interested enough in my silly sci-fi horror webcomic that they might donate some money per month to get through the story faster? What sort of rewards would you be interested in seeing?
Depending on how well it goes, the Patreon could also be used for other things - some nice porn for my gallery, extra BM updates, etc.
If your only input is going to be "Patreon is dumb", then please don't waste my time with comments.
Heres the problem i see. At what point would you consider it is worth your time to produce one page per day of this comic
As you say a little given by alot is alot. and can well exceed . is there a point at wich you will say enough...
if everyone is donating monthly to see more of this comic and it takes off will you only do this comic to the exclusion of all other comishens and pleasure art. and at what donation level would you do so.
i mean just as an example if you have 430 people giving you $5 a month would you exclusivly devote yourself to the proliferation of comic pages.
That is just an example btw it would = 2300 USD a month i just pulled the # out at random
PAtreon is fine as long as you live up to your end of things. but at what point would "You" say stop.
Heres the problem i see. At what point would you consider it is worth your time to produce one page
I don't have exact numbers, but the tier system of Patreon would take care of that. There would be a final tier to be unlocked upon enough donations and simply nothing beyond that. Nothing will stop people from donating further. I mean, that's what donations are. There doesn't need to be a direct reward.
I don't have exact numbers, but the tier system of Patreon would take care of that. There would be a
