Senpai Oshiete~ how to set up a Patreon as an Author?

[KaraKuriKurari]

As the title says, Senpai please teach me how to set up a Patreon for your story, and all the do's and don't.

 

[Tim_Saian]

First things first. Get your audience, Patreon itself will tell you this, it's the best advice really. When you've got an audience determine the reward for your tiers and ensure you can pull through, if you reward a $3 patron with 2adv chaps every week, be consistent. Lastly, imo anyway, interact with your audience. I'm sure this is a no-brainer but it needs to be said. Maybe you've got a large following and can't reply to every comment you should set up a discord then, so the readers can feel your presence somewhat.
That's all I guess, goodluck.

 

[Saileri]

Take a peek at other authors' Patreons and try to create something similar, but with your own personal touch and having in mind your own writing pace, the number of novels, length, etc. If we talking about the number of advanced chapters per tier, try to not overstretch yourself. Set them at the level where you feel comfortable. It's always better to later change the tiers and increase the rewards than decrease them. You can start with less and add more, that was my strategy.

As for prices, there isn't really some magical sweet spot. It's the same as above, think about how much you write and how much you value your work/time. Usually, people go for things like 1-5-10$ or something, for the main Tiers, with around 1-5-10 chapters ahead. But that's just the norm, I personally went with 1-5-All, and made all Tiers above 10$ as just bonus ones if someone would feel like being generous.

If you are asking about technicalities, they have pretty decent info on the site and the Internet is full of guides too. For rewards ideas, go through other artists' accounts and see if there's anything you might be able to add. Remember, your story is the main selling point and the main reason people will sub. Most of the time, all other rewards are just bonus and people tend to not even care for them.

So, from me, to sum up, research, think, introduce. Better to start with less and add with time. I set up my Patreon and Discord even before starting publishing because I love to be prepared. It took around two weeks for someone to appear there so don't get discouraged, people don't usually flock in crowds but more like drip slowly.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Listen mate if you gonna be a lazy cunt about it, dont even bother with Patreon. You have to be dedicated to getting out chapters, and before that you need to build up a fair amount of readers. For that I would suggest really advertising it. Post it to webnovel, maybe, since that place has like twice the traffic RRL does in my experience.

If you arent going to be writing like crazy, just get a paypal that way peope can just donate whenever they want and you dont feel so pressured to get out more chapters in a specific amount of time

 

[KaraKuriKurari]

Listen mate if you gonna be a lazy cunt about it, dont even bother with Patreon. You have to be dedicated to getting out chapters, and before that you need to build up a fair amount of readers. For that I would suggest really advertising it. Post it to webnovel, maybe, since that place has like twice the traffic RRL does in my experience.

If you arent going to be writing like crazy, just get a paypal that way peope can just donate whenever they want and you dont feel so pressured to get out more chapters in a specific amount of time

Someone actually said that Webnovel readers don't really care about the authors, just the story they're writing and they actually won't go and support them to Patreon. Is this right?

 

[Ace_Arriande]

Listen mate if you gonna be a lazy cunt about it, dont even bother with Patreon. You have to be dedicated to getting out chapters, and before that you need to build up a fair amount of readers. For that I would suggest really advertising it. Post it to webnovel, maybe, since that place has like twice the traffic RRL does in my experience.

If you arent going to be writing like crazy, just get a paypal that way peope can just donate whenever they want and you dont feel so pressured to get out more chapters in a specific amount of time

While generally true, there are authors who put the bare minimum amount of effort into their pages, have extremely infrequent posting schedules, and who don't even bother typing more than a couple of words for their tiers, and I've seen them make $500+ a month. Not much if you're in America, but still a considerable amount for some people. As long as you're writing something that people want to read and offering them some advance chapters, you can be as lazy as fucking possible with Patreon and you'll still get patrons.

Someone actually said that Webnovel readers don't really care about the authors, just the story they're writing and they actually won't go and support them to Patreon. Is this right?

It's usually me who says that to people. Now, all I'm saying is this. I've seen stories on there that supposedly have 20+ million views and thousands and thousands of readers and, if they had Patreon accounts, they'd usually only be making a few hundred dollars a month as the most popular original stories on the site. If somebody were to get even a fraction of those numbers on RR, they'd be making significantly more. And despite getting about 3k readers total during my time on there, I only got two new patrons. 3k readers on RR translates to at least 80 new patrons (or about $800) over on RR or more from my experience and what I've observed with other series, and that's really being conservative with the estimate.

And the few authors who posted to Webnovel who did have successful Patreon pages? They also had huge audiences on Royal Road which is where I'd bet money that most of their patrons came from. You can research and check out the numbers yourself by comparing the Patreons of top WN authors to the Patreons of top RR authors.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Someone actually said that Webnovel readers don't really care about the authors, just the story they're writing and they actually won't go and support them to Patreon. Is this right?

That's no more or less true there than anywhere else, so what's their point? All I know is that you are more likely to build a good reader base there than most other places simply for the fact of how much traffic they get. Besides, before you worry about whether they are more or less willing to support you there compared to someplace else you gotta build a solid foundation of readers.

Pro tip? When you make the tags, first put the tag in the search bar to the webaite and see how many novels use it.

Example, using the harem tag and you may be swamped with results.

Use the forbidden love tag and you get a lot fewer. Personally I think there I'm one of the only ones using it there at webnovel, least last I checked, which is why at one point my ranking went up to 66 which Is pretty damn good.

So calculate how many people may search for a certain tag. You need one that is slightly specific, which still applies to your story, that may not get as much traffic as other tags but will still be searched for. This way people are more likely to find YOUR work over someone else's. As there simply wont be so damn many people with that particular tag. They'd find you quicker.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

While generally true, there are authors who put the bare minimum amount of effort into their pages, have extremely infrequent posting schedules, and who don't even bother typing more than a couple of words for their tiers, and I've seen them make $500+ a month. Not much if you're in America, but still a considerable amount for some people. As long as you're writing something that people want to read and offering them some advance chapters, you can be as lazy as fucking possible with Patreon and you'll still get patrons.


It's usually me who says that to people. Now, all I'm saying is this. I've seen stories on there that supposedly have 20+ million views and thousands and thousands of readers and, if they had Patreon accounts, they'd usually only be making a few hundred dollars a month as the most popular original stories on the site. If somebody were to get even a fraction of those numbers on RR, they'd be making significantly more. And despite getting about 3k readers total during my time on there, I only got two new patrons. 3k readers on RR translates to at least 80 new patrons (or about $800) over on RR or more from my experience and what I've observed with other series, and that's really being conservative with the estimate.

And the few authors who posted to Webnovel who did have successful Patreon pages? They also had huge audiences on Royal Road which is where I'd bet money that most of their patrons came from. You can research and check out the numbers yourself by comparing the Patreons of top WN authors to the Patreons of top RR authors.

Pfft. Yeah but those are more exceptions than a rule, my dude. While It works if you have a story that people REALLY enjoy, or is more unique compared to others, that's not reliable. Churning out chapters is, in most cases. You just need a decently well written story, and as long as you keep with the updates people will be more likely to support you.

Of course other factors are in play there. Like advertising your story well. But still.

Moat people start out writing shit done a thousand times before. While that's not bad, there usually isnt anything unique to set it apart. Or its not write well enough to engross you despite its generic theme.

If your story if like that, it might be enough for people to enjoy but it wont be enough to get any supporters especially if you dont update it often.

So I like to tell peope to get a good reader base built up first. That determines everything else.

Personally I would say you need at least get like 10k viewers if I judge from my own stories...which I dont update often and kinda neglect

100k if I judge from my main story that has millions of views in other places.

I dont read any novels here or in RRL for example. Dont even look for anything to read either. But if despite that I see your story updated enough that I take notice of them, then maybe that means you did a good job of getting it out there. Get it known. And then that's when I would tell you, "bro, get yourself a patreon" cuz they got the first step down pat.

But I dunno.

What would you say is enough to start with the second phase, like putting up patrons and PayPal for the story?

 

[KaraKuriKurari]

While generally true, there are authors who put the bare minimum amount of effort into their pages, have extremely infrequent posting schedules, and who don't even bother typing more than a couple of words for their tiers, and I've seen them make $500+ a month. Not much if you're in America, but still a considerable amount for some people. As long as you're writing something that people want to read and offering them some advance chapters, you can be as lazy as fucking possible with Patreon and you'll still get patrons.


It's usually me who says that to people. Now, all I'm saying is this. I've seen stories on there that supposedly have 20+ million views and thousands and thousands of readers and, if they had Patreon accounts, they'd usually only be making a few hundred dollars a month as the most popular original stories on the site. If somebody were to get even a fraction of those numbers on RR, they'd be making significantly more. And despite getting about 3k readers total during my time on there, I only got two new patrons. 3k readers on RR translates to at least 80 new patrons (or about $800) over on RR or more from my experience and what I've observed with other series, and that's really being conservative with the estimate.

And the few authors who posted to Webnovel who did have successful Patreon pages? They also had huge audiences on Royal Road which is where I'd bet money that most of their patrons came from. You can research and check out the numbers yourself by comparing the Patreons of top WN authors to the Patreons of top RR authors.

I actually went to Royal road and searched for the top rankings to look up their patreon. I gotta admit that the ones that are there long enough have a good amount of patreons. Comparing when you upload your story to webnovel.

 

[Chaaruzu_Corner]

I don't mean to sound rude but I don't really write novels for money, just a hobby and stuff. I guess I'm 16 and you can say I'm immature but I don't really like having obligations like that.

But anyways if I do even make a Patreon it would solely be a donation box and nothing else. I'm inconsistent so I can't give advance chapters, plus this is from personal experience but I don't feel it's fair certain readers can read and enjoy the story more than others just because you've paid for them, I've read and commented and supported the story the best I can but now I'm locked from 5 even 10 worths of chapters because you need to pay for it? How is that fair? Just my personal experience of being locked out of new chapters in a translation in the past.

But anyways I would have chosen a PayPal account rather than patreon but if it is patreon it will be bare bones and solely there as a donation box. I will fully be relying on the readers goodwill if they give me money, I will be grateful of course but I'm sorry if I can't give you any benefits, just my personal take on the whole thing :P

 

[Kuropon]

Okay, I have a fairly successful Patreon so I think I can speak out about this.

1.Multiple sites
I have my story on 2-3 sites, SH and RR bring in the most views in my opinion, 70% are from RR though. I did put my story on Webnovel but I had like 1 patron from it so it's the least lucrative site. They give you a lot of views but they censor Patreon links and the readers mostly read through phones so they probably won't bother unless they have a clickable link.

2. Consistency
You gotta have a schedule that you can keep up with. I had many readers thanking me that I release regular updates. Readers need to see that if they invest money into you that they will get something back.

3. Setup your Tiers and have something for them.
This is one mistake I made, when I made my patreon I didn't have any ahead chapters from the free release date. Have at least 5 chapters ready for release ahead of the free release when starting, then slowly increase or just prepare 15-20 and go from there. This is up to you, I have 4 tiers at 1$,3$,5$,10$ surprisingly most people will go for the higher tiers and not the cheap ones as they do want to read those chapters.

4. Make sure you set up your Patreon to charge the moment someone pledges to you. I've had people pledging and reading for almost a month then canceling before Patreon charged them at the start of the month. Some people will try to do that and you will lose some money. They get access to all your chapters instantly depending on the tier, so charging instantly is the right thing to do in my opinion.

5. Taxes
Depending on your country the taxes can be treated differently, some countries take it as income tax some as donation tax that doesn't activate until it reaches a threshold, you'll need to do your research.

6. Donations instead of Patreon?
From my experience, people won't donate much unless there is something there for them. Had PayPal donation set up and think I got one donation in the spawn of 4 months, then made Patreon and earned 70 euro the first month.