Important Updates to Release Schedule and Priorities

Hey everyone! First, let me clear a couple of things up right away:

• No, I'm not sick this time

• No, I'm not announcing a Hiatus

• No, I'm not announcing that Maze is being published (that will hopefully come later this year)

If you want to hear the full story, keep reading. If not, scroll down to the bold section about what's changing.

You still here? Okay then, grab a cup of coffee or some hot cocoa and sit by the fireplace while this bald old man starts to ramble.

I think one of the things I've been saying most in these announcements is that I'm running on fumes. That I'm feeling very close to burning out but not quite there yet. That's still very much true. I've been able to avoid burnout, but it's always been a struggle.

Then came these past couple of months. A lot of things happened, both good and bad. In the end, we went into the red for the month and had to dip too deep into our savings to make ends meet.

Here's the thing: Patreon is my main source of income. I sometimes manage to get a side gig here and there, but usually I just have Patreon. Now, because I live in Brazil, the small amount of money I get from Patreon goes a long way. But it's still far from being a significant amount, which forces me to look for work and try to get money in other ways.

That's why these past few days have been very hectic for Patreon. I was prioritizing a gig that would get us enough money to get by for a little while. But honestly, I don't like this. I keep saying I'm trying to make it work, but I really don't like the way things are unfolding. I wish my Patreon was more successful. I wish I had more readers for MAZE and Energy Eater. I wish things weren't as expensive. But that's not the reality.

So today, while I was talking to someone I consider a good friend, something fell into place. He helped me realize that while I'm right to keep chasing this dream, I'm not right in putting the readers first every single time. Not that I shouldn't take you all into account, but I need to be a bit selfish and put what I need first.

While we were having this conversation, I also got hired for a job. It's going to be a fun job related to games, which was my dream before writing became my dream, so I'm really happy about it. But this also means I'll have a lot less free time to write.

This works out well because I was already thinking about making some changes. These changes don't come from a place of anger or as a way to punish people for not joining my Patreon. They come from a place of "I need to do this if I want to have a real shot at making this financially viable." I hope everybody understands that the changes I'm implementing are not being taken lightly, and I'm only doing them because I realized I had my priorities in the wrong place. I need to focus on what's more likely to make me a full-time writer with an actual decent salary.

I always acted as if my priority was the free chapters, even when I told myself that wasn't the case. The people who read on Royal Road and other websites were the ones I always made sure not to let down, and I always acted as if the Patreon supporters would be more understanding if I had to skip a chapter or two. That's wrong, and I'm flipping it starting today.

Now I'm going to do my best to take care of the Patreons first, and only then will the free readers get their content. This doesn't mean I'm going to abandon the people who comment on my stories and read them on Royal Road, Tapas, Webnovel, or Scribblehub. I'm not going to treat them badly, but Patreon is the priority.

What's Changing

Starting this week, I'm going to pull back the release schedule for both Maze and Energy Eater until both stories are around 30 chapters ahead on Patreon.

I'm not going to completely stop posting on Royal Road, Webnovel, Tapas, and Scribble Hub, but instead of three chapters a week, you'll get one, maybe two. This will last for roughly a month (maybe a bit more), and then I'll return to the regular schedule.

Additionally: If I miss a chapter on Patreon because I was sick, couldn't finish it, or for any reason, I'm going to skip that chapter on the free release as well. This way, there will never be a situation where I'm reducing the gap between Patreon and free readers.

Patreon Tier Changes

Gold tier and above remain the default. They'll receive chapters on schedule every day with a proper schedule, and access to all chapters plus extra content. 

Explorer tier will have access to content that Gold tier and above have two weeks later and the schedule will be more loose. 

This isn't something I'm doing out of spite. It's because Patreon doesn't allow me to schedule changes to posts. If I want to open a post that was just for a specific tier to more tiers, I need to do it manually. That's why the Explorer tier will have this more fluid schedule. They'll receive chapters once I have a chance to change the settings myself.

Considering that my new job shift starts when chapters are usually posted, there's a good chance that Explorer tier will get chapters a bit earlier than 10:00 AM my time. Maybe an hour or two earlier. But on weekends and holidays, expect to receive them later since I'm old and want to sleep.

We have more possible changes coming in the near future. I'm toying with the idea of relaunching Maze, and I still don't know exactly how that's going to look, so there might be other changes ahead.

Also, since I'm starting a job at the end of next week, there's a good chance I'll struggle to keep up for the first month or so, just until I get used to the schedule, or until I learn how to type on the train, since the job is an hour and a half from my home.

Thank you again for all the love you show my stories. I cannot express how much this means to me, and thank you for keeping up with such a madness of changes that's happening. Who knows? Maybe with all these changes and the rewrite of Book 1, Patreon will blow up and I'll be able to go back to full-time writing in a few months.

But that's about it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.