Before I get into the reasons why, I have to thank everyone who made the switch with me from Patreon to Ream. This could have easily been a disaster, and it wasn’t because of you taking the time to move over. The Ream Migration Team has been a great help too. I’m happy to be on Ream and am working to make it worth it for everyone.
What is Ream?
Ream is a Patreon-like subscriber page where you can support me and get some great content in exchange before anyone else sees it. For example, Rogue: Assembly, a brand new book, is serializing right now. Over a month before anyone could see it in the completed ebook form, people were reading the first three chapters. Now it’s almost finished.
What’s next? Samurai Squadron III: Broadcast 20 will begin serializing as soon as Rogue: Assembly is finished.
Sorry, the $1.00 tier that was once on Patreon is forever gone because a lot of that gets eaten by fees and the minimum tier on Ream is $3.00. My goal is to make every tier worth your while. If you want to see the subscription levels, take a look at my main page here. If you can’t reach it, please clear your browser’s cookies. The favourite tier overall is the Library Access! level. I love the library, which has almost every book I’ve ever published. All the Spinward Fringe and Fantasy work is there along with the fresh serialized stuff and I’m working on getting older stuff in along with short stories along with other things I’m not talking about yet.
Now, for anyone who is curious, here’s why I switched from Patreon to Ream.
Patreon is a great site, I don’t want to fling anything negative in their direction. It’s just not for me anymore. After they finished a major update to their platform I saw that it’s a place more well-suited to people who produce videos and podcasts. There’s also a much more corporate feeling there, which is great for increasing confidence in the site.
Sadly, only one feature I was hoping for was implemented in the form of Collections. That definitely doesn’t meet the requirements I’ve had for years. It seems that Patreon would never be the place for me. That’s why I switched to Ream, which is designed by writers for writers.
Ream is ready for use, meaning that it has all the most important bits finished and pretty polished. The developers are busy at work, adding features and refining what they have. The customer service is far more personal and very quick, so I’m quite happy. The few road bumps I’ve run into happened mostly behind the scenes and were smoothed out rapidly. I’m enjoying it there, and, as I’ve said before, I love the library. They have an app that you can download here and that will allow you to read the serials at any subscription tier. If you’re a member of the Library Access! Tier or higher, you can also read anything in the library as well.
Why am I using a subscriber platform at all?
Well, there are two main answers at this point.
It keeps me writing at a good pace.
I love writing, and I love it as a job, but sometimes the pace of work can slow down if I get too distracted by research or developing parts of a book when I don’t necessarily have to. If I’m releasing two chapters a week most of the time, I’ll spend some of my personal time on unnecessary stuff instead of diving into a rabbit hole professionally. If I need a break, I’ll take one, but they last a few days instead of weeks like they used to. The pace is good, and I enjoy having a required number of chapters to complete every week. It keeps me focused on one project at a time too.
It promises to stabilise my income.
There have been times when I had to strain to buy medication (I have glaucoma as well as Type 2 Diabetes and no coverage for meds), and cover the bills. My subscribers have saved my butt multiple times. Book releases pay the rent at the moment, but even with good reviews very few independent authors can make what they used to, myself included. I hope that I can eventually earn enough Ream Subscribers to make publishing secondary and have a very stable income from that. Many people who use Patreon get there.
My plan is to continue releasing quality fiction that doesn’t simply reflect what you can find on television or in movies right now so you can have amazing experiences when you read my work. I’m also going to be adding support documents, like Guides that I wouldn’t publish, but exist on Ream, where they can be added to and refined over time. A Guide will be a kind of Encyclopedia that anyone can use to look up characters, places, timelines and key events. There will also be short stories and some other stuff.
I thank you for reading this far, for picking up my work and supporting me. I hope to see you on Ream, but make no mistake, I’m grateful to everyone who buys my books normally too. I like publishing too, so I won’t be stopping that anytime soon.
IMPORTANT LINKS FROM THIS POST
My Ream Site
The Ream App
More information about Rogue: Assembly
Randolph Lalonde 