Can I get a raise?
A sincere request to you, my manager. My YoY release has been great!
Hello!
I’m coming up on four years on N.T. Lazer’s Short Stories. I’ve been releasing weekly, consistently for years. A solid release schedule with a solid, growing readership. Your comments have been kind and your reactions appreciated.
In the meantime, I have since been banned from Patreon for being too good of a writer.1
Back when I made my Three Years of Short Stories post, I suggested that I didn’t know whether I would continue writing after this fourth year. Well, I have the answer for you now. And just like any story you wanna get to the bottom of, you gotta follow the money.
This publication makes me about $8 a month. That’s great, and I sincerely appreciate you, but I can’t say that the work I put into this feels like it’s worth $8 a month. That may sound entitled, and that’s because it is. But this is also my publication, so I can say things like that. What are you gonna do, take my last $8?2
If this publication can get up to around $50/month, I will keep the short stories coming. Not only would I be significantly motivated and grateful, it would also make me feel that this is viable for the longer-term.
If not, no hard feelings! Your hard earned money should go to what you feel comfortable with. It was a good run. The page will remain as a story archive, and I still have a few more shorts to post before the end. I’ll make an announcement when it’s officially ending.
P.S. Did you know my novels are being released on Substack too? Feel free to check out that publication! That one isn’t stopping anytime soon.
The truth is that Patreon wouldn’t give me a reason as to why I was banned, even after pressing them. I sincerely don’t have a clear answer. It may have been an AI automation quirk removing me, but until I learn otherwise, I can make the claim it was because I was too good at writing and they were jealous of me.
Please, no! It’s all I have!
The $8/mo surprises me, so I decided I could give a few dollars -- I like your short stories. So I pressed upgrade, dialog box poped up, I pressed okay. Nothing happened. I tried again, nothing. Then I tried reading the dialog. Oh, I need to remember this url and then type it into a browser. Maybe that's something I'll get to later. . . . Now it makes total sense why it's only $8. Substack doesn't really want anyone to pay authors, that's why they make it hard to do.
/s
Why is the payment step designed with an obcene amount of friction?