Subscriber Benefits

Free Newsletter

I aim to send out a newsletter once or twice a month, and it normally contains any and all of:

• updates on what I’m working on
• new works published on this site – short stories, essays, etc
• new books for sale, whether new eBooks or paperback editions, etc
• inclusions of my work in anthologies or releases from other presses
• events and appearances, like conventions and markets
• giveaways and raffles and that sort of thing

It’s normally presented in a casual format and I tend to separate it out to make it easy to scroll – as well as links to or updates about other things, I might talk a bit about what I’m up to at the moment, and this normally includes recommendations or chatter about TV or film, LEGO, or talk about rescuing cats and such.

Most of the works I share in my newsletter will be either subscription-locked on this site, Patreon, or Medium, but I will also publish free pieces from time to time.

As you can see, there aren’t additional benefits for paying at a higher rate – it’s all about what you feel comfortable spending. More money is more support for me – more money makes my life easier.

Writing is my full-time profession, and subscription dues give me a great deal of stability compared to my royalty payments on various sites, and the bulk of my income comes from Patreon, although I’m hoping to transition to my own site as my dominant platform.

I don’t make a great deal of money, but realistically, I’m chronically ill and increasingly disabled, so traditional employment just isn’t accessible for me in the way it used to be, and to be fair, was not greatly accessible to me then.

Other ways to support me include buying my eBooks or paperbacks, supporting projects I’m involved in like buying anthologies or works from other presses, buying merch from me at conventions, et cetera and so on. Apart from royalties from any of the above, I also earn money for some appearances, comedy sets, or for commissioned works.

The essentials my earnings go toward are as you’d expect: I buy groceries, cat food, pay household bills; I pay my website and other business dues and and pay my accountant; I buy tickets for conventions and travel fare; I buy in stock to sell at those conventions.

What if I can’t afford a premium subscription?

If you can’t afford it, don’t get it.

There are lots of my works available for free, and you can enjoy those to your heart’s content – I make so much of my work available for free because I don’t generally have much money, and most people feel fine about pirating from big corporations, but don’t want to pirate from a queer disabled guy they know doesn’t have much money.

Guilt begone: you don’t have to pirate anything. Loads of works are here on my website, and I also make works available on Ao3, Literotica, Tumblr, and other places.

If you want to support me but can’t do so monetarily, you can:

• review my work positively on GoodReads or TheStoryGraph or other review sites
• recommend my works to your friends or enemies or your rabbi or a fellow gay person you met on the bus or whomever else springs to mind
• post my work on your socials
• request that your local libraries stock my work
• request that local conventions / festivals reach out to me if they ask for suggestions of guests and appearances
• just read my work privately and enjoy it and think about it and hopefully that enjoyment can heal you and help you a bit to relax or chill or get off or feel affirmed or have a laugh or whatever other value it is to you, and that will be enough

I can afford it but I don’t see the point of paying you if there’s so much free stuff available.

That’s cool, too. Read the free stuff, hope you enjoy it. Best of luck to you.

What’s the difference between a subscription on your website and subscribing to you on Patreon or Medium?

Patreon is becoming increasingly particular in their random censorship of certain creators, including creators like myself who are queer and trans and include erotic content in their body of work. Part of my motivation for making my own site was because I was concerned about Patreon’s increasing censorship.

Patreon has the same tiers and benefits as here on my site, but Patreon is a lot more regularly hide my posts even though they do eventually admit they weren’t against their community guidelines.

There are other works of mine that just cannot be posted on Patreon because they are against their community guidelines, including works that explore rape and sexual abuse and its impacts in detail, but also, just works that feature hypnosis. There are works that will be published here or on Medium that are never going to be published on Patreon.

TL;DR: My work is easily censored by big sites like Patreon. Having my own site provides more security and more control in what I can post.

For Medium, I’m not really worried about censorship at all – they’re a very permissive site and very reasonable, and I’ve never had an issue with random or objectionable censorship, they moderate with a lot more common sense.

If you intend to use your Medium subscription to read from different authors and publications, then stick with Medium – your $5/month or $15/month will be spread between those creators. If you’re only interested in my work, it will be more beneficial to me to subscribe directly here on my site.