Dear reader,
I’ve opened up a Patreon!
See my Patreon page right here.
Now, I imagine you might have had a reaction to this announcement, somewhere in the range of, “Yay!” and “Huh?” You might have encountered author Patreon accounts before, you might even be supporting some of your favorite writers on the platform, or this might be the first time you’re hearing about it.
I’m here for you no matter where you’re at right now.
I attempted to address some questions below - questions I think will be the most common among my readers. If I’ve missed something, let me know and I’ll add it to the list. Scroll through the list to see if any of your worries have been answer already!
What is Patreon and how does it work?
Patreon is a membership platform that allows creators (ie, authors) to run a subscription service. When you sign up, you offer to pay a monthly fee to the author in exchange for the benefits listed in the subscription tier you chose.
What do I get in your Patreon?
Currently, I’ve set up two tiers:
The first, called Sweetheart, is for readers who prefer to read the books I write on Amazon (I will continue publishing my novels there as usual!) but still want to support me. You get:
- a monthly Patreon newsletter
- a chance to vote on character names and such when I’m setting up a new story
The second, called Little Mate, is the main tier for benefits, and you get:
- everything in the Sweetheart tier
- all my novels in advance copy form, meaning you’ll get them several weeks ahead of their publication on Amazon
- a monthly bonus short story, 2000-3000 words approximately, which you get to vote on the first week of the month. This means you could nominate stuff like “an autumn equinox scene for Poppy and Steagor from Her Orc Guardian” OR “write something with tentacles, Zoe!”
- a demon smut short story called The Demon in My Room - this does not have a happy ending and is simply a really hot one-night-stand type of thing between a human heroine & a demon hero!
How often will I get stuff from you?
In the Sweetheart tier, you’ll get a monthly newsletter and a post whenever I’m setting up new characters or worldbuilding. You’ll see all cover reveals and blurbs first and get fresh info on my upcoming projects. I’ll also be sharing snippets from my books - which you know I don’t do often in my newsletter or Facebook group unless it’s right before release day.
In the Little Mate tier, you’ll get all of the above plus a monthly bonus scene. Then about once a quarter (depending on how packed my schedule is), you’ll receive the advance copies of my novels several weeks ahead of their Amazon release dates. Also, you get the demon short, The Demon in My Room, at signup.
How does the voting for the bonus scenes work?
The first week of every month, I’ll put up a post for you to nominate your scene ideas in the comments. You’ll get to comment on each others’ comments also, favoriting any ideas you particularly like. From those, I’ll chose about three options during the second week, and you’ll then have a poll to choose from - then I’ll write the winner and deliver the short story during the second half of the month. We might take a while to get to a good process with this, but this is your chance to get more of your favorite characters!
You can also request a completely new thing from me, like “something with tentacles” or “aliens with two dicks” if you’d like. Just remember that these will be short, so you’ll get a quick scene, not a full story!
A reminder: you don’t need to nominate/vote for smut. Haha! You can nominate a sweet scene or babies or whatever you’d like. Then the majority will decide!
I’m putting in a warning that I won’t write anything I’m not comfortable with (like dark stuff, non-con, anything taboo). I won’t write couples/pairings merging (like an orgy between all my orc couples, for example), because that might be understood as cheating by some. That’s just not what I want to do - nor what this option is for. Also, I won’t write the same couple/pairing two months in a row just to give everyone a break!
How do I pay?
When you sign up to Patreon, you’ll be billed for the tier signup, then every month after, you’ll be billed the same amount on the first of the month.
Why are you doing this?
I want to give my fans closer access to my writing process. This means you’ll get advance reader copies before they’re published on Amazon and the bonus scenes, either of your favorite characters from my books, or something new just for fun. I’ll let you in my worldbuilding process, too, so if you’ve always wanted to name an orc or a small town in my upcoming books, this is the place to do it!
From another perspective, I’d love to build a more sustainable career for myself. While I respect Amazon for it’s incomparable reach and connections it has allowed me to make with all my readers, I am also aware that Amazon is primarily concerned with, well, Amazon, and not me as a small creator. So if you’d like to support me directlt as a small business by getting my books from me instead, this is an excellent option.
I don’t want to read anywhere but on Amazon. Will you quit publishing there?
Not at all. All my novels will still be going on Amazon and into Kindle Unlimited for the foreseeable future. The advance copies will only be available on Patreon until the release date on Amazon (because of Amazon’ s rules). This means you can safely opt out of my Patreon and still receive them as usual. I very likely won’t be publishing the bonus scenes content on Amazon, though, mostly because they’ll be short pieces of 2000-3000 words and wouldn’t work well on the platform.
I hope this explains things well enough! If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to write to me at zoe@zoeashwoo.com, and I'll do my best to answer you as well as add pertinent questions to this post for others to read.
You can sign up for my Patreon here! I can't wait to see you there. We'll create so many awesome things together.
Have a lovely day!
xo, Zoe
