Giving Writing a Serious Go - One Week on Patreon

Since I started writing my first novel about 20 years ago, I've always been a hobbyist author, picking it up and putting it down as I felt like it. During the 2023 November Writathon, I started a story and exceeded the goal, ending up with over 70k words during the month. I lost interest after that and went dark.

At the beginning of September this year, I decided I wanted to commit to giving writing a serious chance. Here's my current plan:

Step 1: Build a backlog. Got to 30 chapters by the end of September, writing over 110k for the month. That was a bit of a challenge.

Step 2: Get to 100 chapters and start advertising. Completed that yesterday. Posted on the litrpg subreddit today and started an ad. Will post on the success or failure of this endeavor once I have more info.

Step 3: Profit. A week ago, I officially launched my Patreon with three tiers: $1 for 2c, $5 for 10c, and $10 for 20c.

The results exceeded my expectations. First day - 8 signups, Second day - 14 signups, Third day - 8 signups, Fourth day - 3 signups, Fifth day - 7 signups, Sixth day - 8 signups, Seventh day - 16 signups. 67 (including 3 today) total for a payout of $528.64.

That's about 4% of my followers, which seems like a pretty good percentage.

Step 4: Write 5 chapter/week for a year, targeting end of October 2025.

Step 5: Evaluate whether or not writing for a second income works for me.

Writing for fun and being able to quit whenever I want is a lot different from making a serious commitment. The latter requires writing many times when I don't want to and forcing words out. It's not always a pleasant experience.

Of course, money isn't the only thing that motivates me. I started writing because I've always loved reading. The idea of being able to provide enjoyment to others like I've experienced is really cool. Having readers figuratively frothing at the mouth in anticipation of me dropping my next chapter is fun.

At the end of the day, though, writing takes away from time that could be used for other activities, so I had to decide - what would make it worth the time I'm putting in?

I'm at a later stage of my life with a family. Things like college and retirement funds are high on my list of priorities. I seriously doubt there's any scenario where writing could replace the income from my day job. On the other hand, I think it's possible for it to provide a decent second salary that would really help out financially.

I decided on a sum of $2500 pre-tax per month. If I can make that on a regular basis, the commitment will be worth continuing. Note that I don't expect to be at that level at the end of the year; I just need to see enough progress to see the potential of reaching that goal.

For the moment, I'm cautiously optimistic. If the Patreon had gotten no response, I would have honestly been pretty discouraged. As it is, the response greatly exceeded my expectations. I was hoping to be at the 40-50 subscriber mark by the end of this calendar year. Instead, I blew past that in a week.

There is one big question still on my mind, though. How many people will cancel by the end of the first month and will they be replaced?

Anyway, if anyone is interested, I'll continue to share my journey with you.

Thanks.

Brian