It’s pretty static at the moment, with the trend down over the last year. Judging from the exit surveys, that’s primarily because of the economy, but it’s still a bit of a problem. The Patreon does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to generating cash to publish the books, so I still need to do something about the situation.
The trick is figuring out what. I’m highly reluctant to slap on tiers besides the $1 one, and the current situation of weekly microfiction and monthly short stories / gaming material is certainly sustainable on my end. I just don’t really know what else I can do. Thoughts welcome.
Watch parties? Discord? Commentary on geeky/nerdy/entertainment topics? Start a podcast? Stream some gaming?
Patreon is for people who are already convinced that they like your stuff, and are willing to pay for more of it. The losses you’re seeing there are not as a result of lack of product on your part – they’re lack of money on the part of the customer base. Adding more content to your Patreon… probably isn’t going to do the trick? It’s fixing the wrong problem. The way to get more out of Patreon is to increase the pool of people who like you and want to give you money, and will happily enjoy the offerings you already have there as a reward for that virtuous act.
How to do *that* one? I’ve got no clue.
Actually… I do have one thought. Might be a bit slow, though.
I know that it’s currently possible to temporarily check out ebooks from the local library system. I don’t particularly know much more detail than that, but it occurs to me that if you were to pick a few of your books (like, say, Frozen Dreams) to donate in digital format to various public libraries in an appropriate number of copies, that might get you some more exposure. You’d probably want to talk to someone who was actually a librarian to find out how to do that effectively and efficiently, but I suspect you know more people like that than I do.