New Year, New Model

So I launched a Patreon account a couple of days ago. You can check that out here:

www.patreon.com/hotelfred

I've been using this blog to share and promote my work for, what? 14, 15 years? I've been aware for a while that things have sort of moved on in that time but wasn't really sure how to go forward. I'm thinking that Patreon is probably the way to go for now – we'll see how it works out.

For the moment, I'll be leaving this blog up intact, although regular updates will probably be on the Patreon site from now on – the web address www.hotelfred.com will most likely start to redirect people there in the new year. Currently thinking that a basic landing page with links to the Patreon site, the blog, contact info and my online portfolio might be the best way to do it – I haven't seen a way to do a simple "links" list on the Patreon site, and I'll need to put all that stuff somewhere.

If I can find a relatively painless way to do it, the free content I post on Patreon will also be posted here for a while, so people can adjust to the new system.

A few points:

• I will continue to post sketches and other content on the Patreon site, in much the same way as I've been doing here. I'm going to continue to make some content public, so you needn't pay to see it – although (obviously) other content will require you to sign up, otherwise it'll be a bit pointless. Feeling my way through this right now, trying to strike the right balance.
• Because I will have the option to post things that aren't public, I will be sharing more work-in-progress there – stuff that a publisher will eventually get around to (or that will appear in my self-published Zoot! title) but which otherwise won't see the light of day for a while. For example, the Fred the Clown story Arizona Daisy, currently being serialised in IDW's Full Bleed anthology, is far in advance of the published version – I'll begin sharing that there in the new year.
• One of the things I want to achieve through patronage is to publish Zoot! a bit more frequently. That's likely to happen a couple of ways: buying me freedom to do more personal work, and being accountable to my patrons for a certain level of productivity. 

So there you go – new decade, new rules, I guess. It's partly the response of an old dinosaur (i.e., me) to get to grips with the world as it is right now instead of how I would like it to be. The old model – doing work-for-hire to support my "real" work – hasn't really been effective for a few years now, and I need to adapt.

I hope some of you will join me with the new arrangement – a few of you already have, for which I'm enormously grateful. Regardless, my continued thanks for your interest and support, financial or otherwise. It is truly appreciated.