Paid!
In which Bill contemplates what form(s) a paid subscriber section to this newsletter might someday take.
Someday, if I ever do decide to pull the trigger1 and add a paid subscription section to These Foolish Games, I’ll need to increase value, to make it worth your while to cough up a few bucks each month for extra content, not available to the “I like getting stuff for free” readers.
In advance of that day, it would be helpful to know what sorts of things readers might consider worthwhile and what things definitely should not be part of the paid section, assuming a paid section ever comes to pass.
So then, here is an unscientific survey on what kinds of things a reader might want and definitely wouldn’t want to see in such an undertaking.
Random sketches which are then given out to paid subscribers, decided randomly I suppose.
Giveaways of copies of books I’ve had some part in creating.
A paid commission list.
First chance at sales of previously-produced original art, including discounts for subscribers.
Art sales exclusively available to subscribers, and no one else.
Illustrated serialized prose stories.
Original comics, written by me and drawn either by me or by others.
New art not necessarily for sale, but posted just for the joy of seeing cool new art.
Original RPG tabletop game material, such as characters, locations, scenarios, with maps and illustrations.
First look progress reports on things in the works, and which are making progress.
Insider dirt. Actually, I don’t want to dish out the dirt on colleagues, even though there might be much dirt to dish — so ignore this one.
Advice, on writing, on drawing, and generally on building interesting stories. (Note that this would not be the same as a formal school in writing, art, etc. I’m no good at formal teaching, and there are many others who do that much better. This would take the form of things that occur to me, as they occur, which might prove helpful — or might be something you want to avoid.)
I didn’t number these bullet points, because voting for a number is too easy. If you’re at all inclined to weigh in below with an opinion, I want you to make an argument for why this is or is not a good idea.
Now I invite you to make those arguments, requests, cheers, and jeers. If your vote is “no” for any particular item, it would be helpful to me to know why.
By the way, nothing in any imagined paid section would mean the read-for-free section would be going away, or get trimmed back. There will always be more stuff.
Trigger warning. A trigger is mentioned.
Seeing that you are my favorite artist from the original D&D era, I would love to see more drawings like you did back then. In addition to actually having my favorite artist illustrate my character.. take my money!
Please do serialized, illustrated stories. I would love to get a new story in my inbox each week, and the serialized format means I'll read it now instead of sticking it at the back of my deep, deep, reading backlog of books. I also like the suggestions of behind the scenes stories from your past works.