I'm back in February with some changes (Patreon)

Hi! I missed you! Hope this finds you well. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that your 2023 is off to a great start.

Billing is resuming on January 30th, next Monday. If you're still subscribed after that date, you will be charged. New content arrives on February 3rd. For $10 patrons, December's patron request has been moved to February. Most existing suggestions are holiday themed, so feel free to submit new ones before the 4th.

-

I got some much-needed rest during my break. I also spent time thinking about my Patreon structure. My current rhythm is not sustainable. Literally, I cannot sustain it. With the way my work has evolved, one week per sequence is not enough. I'm stuck in a cycle of burning out, taking a break, building a buffer, coming back, and chasing after deadlines until I burn out again.

While I'm proud of my work from 2022, I didn't take commissions at all and wasn't able to work on larger projects (like games), either. I put a lot of effort into patron request pieces which have significantly increased in complexity. Every request last year featured a minimum of 5 steps, with several going way above that, to 8, 10 and even 16 (my longest ever!)

Patron requests are fun! I enjoy the longer sequences too. They allow me to tell new, more complex stories. But I need to find a rhythm where they don't take longer to make than to post. Otherwise, I'm always falling behind. When working at my regular pace, I should be able to fulfill my Patreon commitments, grow my buffer, and have time to explore larger projects, while still making content that deserves your hard-earned membership fees.

With that in mind, I'll be making some changes. Going forward, I'll be aiming for three new content posts plus one sketch post per month. I'll still be posting every Friday but not always full sequences. Instead of including my sketches with my finished work, I'll group them into a separate monthly post. I'll spread out some of my sequences by posting a couple steps per week. Some weeks I'll share bonus epilogues like this.

We'll still have monthly patron request polls, but I'm no longer forcing myself to complete them within the same month. I'm even considering tackling several months' requests at the same time. So, for example, February, March and April's requests would all go live during the second, third and last weeks of April. This will help me manage my workload and work on larger projects without interrupting my flow every month to focus on the request.

I hope you understand I'm not doing this to be lazy. Even though I'll be releasing less content, I won't be working any less. I want to make content that's worth your membership fees. I want to focus on long, sexy stories (like Police Officer Corrupted) instead of short, filler sequences (like Pinch to Edit or Punk Fairy Bimbofied). I'm also aiming to keep a constant release schedule instead of disappearing twice a year for a few months. Obviously, this will be an evolving process. If you're unsatisfied with my output, I'm sure you'll vote with your wallets. I'm very excited to share Roommate Bimbo Quarantine with you, as an example of my goals.

Finally, there is a possibility I'll be dealing with a major life change later this year which will drastically reduce the time I have for drawing. It's not 100% sure yet but I'm letting you know in advance and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Thanks for reading! I'm excited to share my work again! Thank you so much for your support. You all make this possible.

❤ Sortimid

-

Edit: A comment reminded me of another reason I've been pursuing a more sustainable pace.

I switched to subscription billing last fall. This means that new patrons get charged on the day they join and again every month on that same date. Makes sense, no? The old system was monthly charge upfront: new patrons got charged on the day they joined and again on the first of every month after that.

I made the switch to avoid double charging people who subscribe at the end of the month. I've since regretted it. A side-effect I hadn't considered is that now, when I go on hiatus, payments are completely disabled. Before, people could still join and access my content archive while I was paused. These two months I was away nobody could subscribe to my Patreon at all. People who wanted to give me money and play my games just... couldn't. I had zero income. Unfortunately, the switch to subscription billing is irreversible. Going on vacation has become much more expensive...!