4th of July & Patreon Questions for the Community
To any and all of our readers in the United States who are enjoying Fourth of July festivities this year (and I guess in Denmark? That’s a thing I’ve heard?), please celebrate the holiday responsibly and remember that no matter what anyone tells you, there’s no wrong answer to what you put on a hot dog. Unless it’s ketchup and sauerkraut.
Anyway, we have a very important QUESTION for you all!
Over the years, many readers have asked us how they might be able to support Beyond the Western Deep beyond the occasional Kickstarter or book sale. Up until recently, we were actually pretty content to keep things around that scale.
For as long as we’ve been producing this comic, Rachel and I have considered it something of a side project. But over the last year in particular, we’ve found ourselves thinking… you know, maybe there’s actually something we could do to help us (particularly Rachel, as the main series artist) focus on Western Deep in a more full-time capacity.
If we created a Western Deep Patreon, what are some things you might expect to see? What are some things that might entice you to pitch in?
Please leave a comment with your ideas below, or ping us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thewesterndeep
And just to be clear up front, anything we do would be additive to the current Western Deep experience. Weekly pages and the underlying posts would still be 100% free no matter what we decide to do.
The long and short of it is, we’d love to be able to focus more attention on Beyond the Western Deep. We’re less than six months away from our TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY and we’re barely at the halfway point in the main story. There’s so much story left to tell, saying nothing of side projects to expand the universe even further, and we want to be able to produce all of it at a more reliable rate.
We’re looking forward to hearing your ideas!
I’m gonna be honest I’m kind of a really terrible patreon patron. Like I get the emails and everything but mostly it’s a really convenient way for me to support the content creators I like on a monthly basis without having to rely on like, my memory. Would definitely support you regardless of output. Might be nice to see some of the older posts about your worldbuilding? I read through the old posts you had about it and some of that stuff really stuck with me (eg. Single layer clothes looking more like costumes), and I often find myself thinking “I should reread that”, but it’s a bit buried. Maybe some illustrative “old vs new” designs, idk. Maybe a backstory that won’t get expanded on or something. I’m just spit ballin lol
These are all wonderful ideas, Clare! Thank you so much for putting them out there! :) A lot of folks have expressed interest in a more robust behind-the-scenes look at our development process for the Patreon, so we may definitely explore that further!
Greetings.
If you were to create a patreon, I would immediately support it (and you) without any expectations of the content you post there. Please create one, or at minimum have some kind of tip jar for donations available on the site. Thank you!
Petrov.
That is incredibly kind of you to say, Petrov! The level of enthusiasm from our community has been very positive, so hopefully we can figure out a nice combination of things soon to make the best possible Patreon for our readers. We deeply appreciate everyone who’s said they would contribute regardless of pledge rewards, but I think it’s just in our nature to want to offer folks something cool in return.
I have not used Patreon before but, barring having to sign away my soul I would support a BtWD Patreon without any expectation of more content.
To echo Clare above, I’ve always liked world building and lore, even if it’s story irrelevant minutia (thank you, Mass Effect codex) but you have mentioned in previous comment sections that you prefer to reveal world details in the comic itself. Knowing that I suppose I would offer this advice: don’t offer anything you feel would undercut the impact of the comic no matter how many people ask for it. We already get a free comic every weekend and you, Rachel and the others owe us nothing.
Don’t worry, Trees! Patreon doesn’t even give us an option to ask for folks to pledge their souls–so you should be good! :)
I agree with you that I wouldn’t want to ‘spoil’ anything for Patreon patrons or undercut the comic in any way. I do like the idea of a lore codex that is periodically updated as the comic progresses though. Heck, even Mass Effect’s codex updated as you played through the game!
I’ve never been a huge Patreon user, but I can list some features that other comic artists I follow have used in the past to great effect. A few such ideas are as follows: 1) A low tier option is to receive a sketch of your own in universe character (the comic that does this also includes these in a rotation of background characters), 2) Gaining access to monthly wallpapers and the ability to vote on next months wallpaper, 3) Gaining access to behind the scenes sketches and lore, and 4) Gaining access to Discord and private art streams. A thing I wouldn’t recommend doing is giving early access to pages, as on some webcomics that I follow this had formed a split in the community and there were always some members who would leak that information to the rest of the fan base anyway. I hope this helps and have a Happy 4th of July!
Wallpapers are an interesting idea we hadn’t considered, DaCrazyCatz! We’re definitely considering art streams and Discord membership as well. We want to be careful with custom artwork requests because that could potentially eat into Rachel’s comic production time, so commissions may wind up existing separate from the Patreon. Perhaps if there was a tier where folks could vote on art stream topics and make recommendations in the stream itself? Lots of possibilities!
You’re absolutely right though–early access to pages is something we’re not considering. As you know, Western Deep has its share of twists and turns, and having a segment of the community know these in advance wouldn’t be fair to our non-Patreon readers.
Thanks for your response, and I hope you have a happy 4th as well!
Tiers I’ve considered for my own Patreon page (still in limbo).
1) Early access (1-2 days ahead)
2) Discord channel
3) Polls (for CYOA Styled comics)
4) Physical Rewards (stickers/mini prints)
5) Work file access
6) Discounts on merch
7) Downloads (Art, Demos, Etc.)
8) Live streams
9) Acknowledgement’s
10) Commissions
11) Coaching (I’m not good enough)
12) Guest stars (Add fans to comic)
13) Repping others (Paying for Ad space)
14) Timelapse Drawings (speed painting)
15) Sneak peak (future scope)
Some great ideas here, D.T. Gray! Thank you so much for listing them out. Some of these are definitely on our radar or have gained some popularity as suggestions. Specifically Discord access, art streams and art stream polls, high-res page file access, time lapse drawings, and sneak peak-related posts about future/in-dev Western Deep projects!
You should’ve drawn Janik as the drummer! ;)
Patreon reward?!?!
Hahah perhaps next year! :D
The 2 things that would make me contribute:
an additional page per week
occasional commission opportunities.
I second this! A webcomic I know does this as well (Bittersweet Candy Bowl) and it really keeps people engaged.
Much as we’d love to be able to share pages quicker, we’re probably going to have to stick to the one page per week releases for the time being, even in a post-Patreon world. Just getting one page done per week has been a periodic struggle, so one of the Patreon’s initial goals is to allow us to generate pages more consistently to hit our weekly release and also build up a buffer of pages to keep things on track!
Commission opportunities are an interesting overlap with the Patreon, though! I’m not sure we’d be offering them directly as a pledge tier (as that could create a whole backlog of commission work and detract from the comic workload) but I could see a world where Rachel has a batch of commission slots that Patreon pledgers perhaps get first dibs on. Definitely something to think about! :)
Oh my goodness. YES! Start a Patreon and I shall be there!
Thank you so much, Andy! We’re so grateful to have your support!
Tbh ive followed this series pretty loosely, but its charm has always kept it in my mind. I don’t know why updates are so unsteady, but i like to imagine having monetary compensation would help with things. Id rather see the patreon as a tip jar to help with update pacing, hell a goal could even be having 1-4 pages of buffer pages. Lore and bits of backstory would be great, but detracting from the comic would be a detriment. Ultimately, pursue what makes you most fulfilled. Glad your considering this.
Thank you for the kind words and for following along with us, Zagura!
Long story short, the unsteady updates usually stem from complications with real-world obligations. When the pandemic hit, for example, Rachel’s day job increased her hours extensively, which had a knock-on effect for how much time could be dedicated to the comic. You’re absolutely right in your assumption that the Patreon is intended to help prevent this from happening again. We’d love to be able to build up a page buffer again and keep the pages coming consistently every week.
Lore and backstory material has been an oft-requested thing, so I may have to flex my lorekeeper muscles and figure out a way to make it work as a Patreon pledge tier–all without disrupting the comic of course :)
From most artists ive followed or for comics, it seems like a delicate balance between “additional content” and “exclusivity”. Most would rather be working on their IP than “request sketches” or patron driven material (ie patron voted things). And thus balance it by giving something like 1-4 weeks exclusivity on content. Its a mixed bag, but id recommend checking other artists and weighing your positioning that way.
That said patron can also help you grow a dedicated audience, reach them consistently, and get better feed back.
I’d chip in a few bucks.
I think bonus art of the characters—maybe more fantastic or comic situations—could be delightful little perks.