nickscipio
patreon
Changes Coming, August 1
🕑 Added 2019-07-12 22:35:03 +0000 UTCLet's start with the TL;DR... if you're caught up with the story and don't care about older chapters, the changes won't affect you. You can skip the rest of this announcement and you won't miss a thing.
Okay, if you're still reading, what's going to change?
Starting August 1, I'm going to end access to older parts of the story.
If you want to save Chapters 13-23 to your local machine, you need to do it now. To help with that, here's a link to the most recent index, which has links to the individual chapters (and ePubs).*
This is the same thing I did back in January, and for the same reasons. It isn't fair to you (or me) that new members get the whole story for a few dollars when you've been here the whole time and paid for the privilege.
So, people who join after this month will only have access to Chapters 24-30 and new ones. They'll need to either buy the earlier books (from their favorite eBook seller) or join as a Catch-up/VIP member.
The Catch-up/VIP Pass will change as well. The (one-time) cost will increase to $25, and the rewards will include eBook copies of SC: Christy, Volumes 1-4 plus a month of VIP access. That's a $45 value for $25, so I think it's a pretty good deal.
(It's also a pretty good deal if you want eBook versions now, instead of waiting until I offer them in the future.)
Anyway, those are the changes, and they won't go into effect until August 1. So you still have time to download the older chapters and create your own eBooks (or whatever).
- Nick
* Sorry, I'm not going to post omnibus eBooks like I did in the past. I'll probably offer them as special incentives in the future, but I don't know when.
Comments
Nick Scipio
I <em>may</em> sell the whole story as a seven-book set, however. For a discount, of course, since it's a box sex. But it'll still be priced closer to similar sets. Fortunately, I need to finish the story first, so I can worry about that later.
Nick Scipio
Yeah, no. That's never going to happen. I don't plan to undo 2+ years of work in trying to convince readers that <em>Christy</em> ISN'T A SINGLE BOOK. Let me repeat that, in case the shouting didn't make it clear enough. I know, let's add bold this time and put it on a line by itself: <strong>CHRISTY IS NOT A <u>SINGLE</u> BOOK!</strong> <strong>IT'S <u>SEVEN</u> BOOKS! NOT ONE!</strong> Okay... deep breath. Back to mostly-sane Nick. Giving you (or anyone) a single eBook file completely undermines everything I've been doing for several years.
Big Ed Magusson
Oh, I and Nick understand the challenge of balancing relationships and earnings. Patreon really needs a straightforward way to identify long term patrons and, in the creator forums, folks have asked for it several times. Maybe some day.
Robisan
No reading between the lines - it's explicit in the tl:dr of my OP, which BTW does *not* say Nick "owes" it for free. If there are no plans to produce a single ebook edition of the completed Christy that is unfortunate, as the value and convenience of having the entire work bound together in one reading ebook is self-evident. I understand Nick needs a business model that makes this work for him and that there are limitations/problems with Patreon as the marketplace (particularly w/r/t late comers joining). But as a note of constructive criticism I'd suggest reevaluating the balance of hyper-commodification to maximize new revenue with the equities, value and revenue stability of long time, loyal patrons. Seemingly, the former is ever more important than the latter, which IMO is short-sighted and unfortunate, since the latter is what you want every newcomer to become.
Robisan
A couple of addendums. 1) I see the VIP catch up will be $25. The $40 level may be my error in searching the download tag for the most recent available omnibus Epub. My point above stands - $25 on top of $36/yr is not appropriate. 2) Honestly Nick, I think you need look at this from another perspective. This announcement says 'even though you, my loyal readers, have paid $36/yr to support my writing, effective August 1st you may no longer have access to what you paid for." Perhaps the number of Catch-up purchases makes it worthwhile, but imho you need to rethink the equities 'cutting the noses to spite the faces' of your loyal patrons because a few late stragglers might be 'getting over.'
Robisan
Ok, I'm late to this as usual. Frankly, I'm a little perturbed. Before getting to a longer explanation here's my tl:dr question: Will loyal, long time $3/mth patrons get an omnibus Epub when the Christy is complete, either free or for a *very* nominal fee? // Longer: I started pretty close to your Patreon beginning at $5/mth because of Epub. In practice I found chapter by chapter Epub wasn't useful for reading updates and switched to $3/mth after you closed Volume 1 (at the time it was after Ch12). So this announcement comes along and I now find that after spending at a rate of $36/yr supporting your writing I must pay an additional $40(!) to get an omnibus Epub update. Imho this is just not reasonable or appropriate. Most hard bound, printed books sell for less than $36 and your loyal $3/mth patrons will have spent much more than that by the time Christy is complete. So I hope you will provide long time, loyal patrons a full Epub/Kindle version when completed. Please advise. Thanks.
Jeff O
Thanks from me, as well! And thanks very much for the heads up. I’ll go put on my downloading gloves and goggles.
Nick Scipio
Thanks, Michael. And thanks for reading.
Thanks, Nick. I just saw the request fro the volume list, was about to respond, then, I refreshed the screen. You had responded to the request. So, thanks for the list. I've been reading Summer Camp since the free story days, now on Patreon and enjoying the hell out of it. You are one hell of a writer and I'm definitely enjoying where this trip is taking us. Keep on writing. Thanks.
Nick Scipio
Okay, at least two people have asked, so my 5% rule kicks in (that's probably 40 people who want it but haven't said anything). Volume 1 = Ch1-6 Volume 2 = Ch7-12 Volume 3 = Ch13-18 Volume 4 = Ch19-23 Volume 5 = Ch24-28 Volume 6 = Ch29-33 (estimated) Volume 7 = Ch34-39/40 (estimated)
Nick Scipio
Thanks, Matthew. I work really hard to A) write a good story, and B) give you lots of extras here. You're paying good money for it, after all. It should be worth your time as well. I know how valuable my time is, and I try to treat you like yours is just as valuable. Besides, it's just good karma. As far as the chapter-to-volume list, that's a really good idea. I'll add that to the next index. I'm also planning to revamp the front page here at Patreon (to make it easier to find things). I'll add it there as well. Thanks!
First, I want to say thank you for all the work you do on this Patreon. I'm a member of several other Patreon pages, as well as other private-creator-funding groups, all at about the $3/month level, and no other group comes near the amount of content , community, and organization that you do. Given that you will not be posting Omnibus copies, can I make a suggestion? I honestly cannot keep track of the volume and book division changes that have happened; can you post a definitive book-to-volume-to-chapter list? That is, when you say B5, Chapter 13, what volume is that? Or when you say Christy volume 4, what chapters does that include? I have the ability to merge my own ePub copies, and I'd like to keep them consistent.
