January newsletter (Patreon)

Happy new year. Here's the update from your favorite talking cat.

🔮  Hello!

In December, 2019, 20 of you joined us - hello and thank you! Be sure to take a look back through the posts; it's not all passwords. There's some sketchy erotica too. 

Also, if you are new and haven't already: If you would like to be credited with a name other than the one associated with your Patreon account, please DM me. 

Additionally, remember that if you're looking for a more succinct place to find details about chapters, Patron links, etc, the page you're looking for is probably this one:

 https://familiar.soushiyo.com/familiar-chapter-list/ 

Here you'll find the production and publication schedule, links to the Influencer polls when they go up, and information about which chapter you'll see your credits on based on when you were a Patron.

🔮  Chapter 07 "Gift" completed!

With the holidays, family coming in from out of town, etc, I had some concerns I wasn't going to be able to finish this chapter on time... but I did it! Right under the wire. I finished the final page 27 - the one you folx voted on for the December poll - yesterday on New Year's Eve. (So much for keeping it short this time)

And thusly: I've added the publication dates to the chapter listing on the website. We're looking at April, 2020, which also coincides more or less with the 2nd anniversary of Soushiyo.

🔮  Chapter 08 "Firebird" Update

...which brings me to the exciting news that in January 2020, I'll be starting on Chapter 08. Chapter 08 is remarkable because it introduces - finally - the third of the four main characters of Familiar. HOORAY.

Another thing: it's got mlm action. So uh... I hope y'all knew that was coming.

🔮 First filler chapter added; 2020 plans

If you've got eagle eyes you've probably noticed I added a listing for the first filler chapter. It will fall after Chapter 08, FIREBIRD. More about this later, but the main thing to consider is: Since filler chapters are 10 pages shorter than story chapters, if I can completed the chapter in one month (instead of two), I will be strongly considering moving the publication timeline for all unpublished chapters up a month. Yeah. That means instead of 07 coming in April, it comes in March, etc. 

This has been my production plan/strategy for a while, but I had a lot of introduction plot to get through with the pilot, establishing Jack and Diana's relationship, etc. In 2020 we'll be looking at more frequent filler chapters in between story chapters -- and thanks to that, we might start seeing a shorter publication time. No promises, but let's see how it goes.

🔮  $300/month goal added: Pinup wallpapers

I really wanted to scale the perks of this Patreon relative to its success, so for starters I"ve added a new goal which you probably have seen if you've visited the homepage recently. For every month during which you all contribute a combined $300 or more, I'm going to produce a Patreon-exclusive pinup calendar wallpaper. These wallpapers will come in landscape and portrait orientations, and will come in a SFW version and a NSFW version. (imagine SFW for your lock screen, NSFW for your homescreen. Yeah, you get me)

We're almost there and I imagine we'll reach this goal in January, so I've already started sketching. (It's Diana. Surprise)

🔮  Society 6 Store!

Some people have asked about merchandise, so I've been exploring various print on demand vendors and Society 6 had the items and quality that most closely matched the kind of merchandise I was interested in producing. Right now I'm focusing on stationary, stickers, and coffee mugs, but there's a potential to grow into prints. (I would want to draw something specifically for wall art before I get into prints)

 https://society6.com/soushiyo 

The only thing I don't love about Society 6 is that I can't make any promo codes to offer Patrons. The sorting/filtering of items is also really clunky. Anyway, if you're looking for a mug with Jack's face on it, there is one of those. Eventually I hope to take some nicer product photography and promote the items directly, since browsing is extremely difficult.

If anyone has had any great experiences with other print on demand vendors, please share your experiences in the comments. I'm totally open to changing or adding a vendor if there's interest.

So yup. That's that.

What else can we do that's fun on Patreon? Patreon keeps telling me to refresh my tiers, but I don't want to add perks that no one cares about. Got ideas? Tell me. I'm open.

Until next time.

Jude