A question for patrons, on goals.

Hello all!  I hope this post finds you well. I’ll keep try to keep this short and to the point - I don’t want to take up too much of anybody’s time.

I have a question for all my current patrons, about goals, chapter lengths, and chapter frequency. 

When I wrote the current milestone goals on Patreon - $200 dollars a month for the promise of a month or two of 2 chapters per week - Katalepsis was in a very different place: chapters were shorter, closer to 4-5k words. Current chapters are very rarely less than 6k and the most recent broke 8 thousand words (!!!), which was supposed to be my upper limit and took a mammoth 10 hours to edit. But the story itself demanded that climax and cliffhanger.

I almost never expected to reach that $200 goal, but now that my Patreon is less than $50 away from that, I am forced to ask the question: did you subscribe for the promise of 2 chapters per week?

To be blunt, 2 chapters per week at the current size and complexity of each chapter is probably not possible for me right now. At 2 per week, chapters would need to be shorter, I’d need some run-up time, and they would likely cut off at artificial points rather than cliffhangers or natural scene ends - but, if that is why patrons have subscribed, I will absolutely do my best to achieve that. I don’t want to disappoint you all if that’s why you decided to pledge. My primary aim is narrative satisfaction for you readers, not just sheer weight of words.

On the other hand, if I don’t switch to 2 chapters per week, I want switch away from goals to instead give patrons benefits for their support right away.

Specifically, I’m looking at either next weekend or the following (April 25th or May 2nd), giving patrons access to one chapter ahead.

This wouldn’t be a bonus chapter, but a chapter in advance of what I publish on the site. For example, while everyone else is reading chapter 8.2, you’ll have access to 8.3, which would go up on the public site a week later. A permanent bonus for subscribing.

If this works, if this is popular, I could even try to give patrons two chapters ahead, perhaps tiered, I don’t know yet. I could publish chapters ahead as a bonus, as and when I complete them. An experiment!

You can probably tell that I’d prefer the second option. The plan is in place, and I’m ready to begin. But this is why I’m asking, I don’t want to break a promise, even an implicit one.

Two chapters per week, shorter and less full - or one chapter ahead now, and possible acceleration in the future? Dear reader, I seek your input.