#i mentioned so on patreon already but i'll try to use this couple of weeks to get at some stuff i've been actively avoiding for a while....

[franeridart]

The Housecat Philosophy - Ep 39

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Read the next four episodes on Patreon || support me on ko-fi~✨

[gurugirl]

Hey! I came across your posts in the wild and I'm thinking of writing fics on patreon for a completely unrelated fandom, and I have a few questions:

When and how did you start writing on patreon?

How were you able to grow your platform?

Did you experience any criticism due to it being a somewhat taboo in fandom?

Any general tips?

Hi! Sure I'll try to answer as best I can :)

I started writing on Patreon in November of last year. I waited until I had a certain number of followers on Tumblr (bc this is my base audience and is where my subscribers come from) before I decided to open a patreon. I also had a couple of series already ready to go plus some one shots. So I made sure that I had a few weeks of content to post for my patrons before I advertised it. My first series I posted one part per week and the same with the other series - once the first series was done I started post the new series and did one per week. I also had some one-off one-shots and made a masterlist for patreon so it makes things easier to find.

As I mentioned in point one, I waited until I had a certain number of followers here first. That is the most important thing - to have followers here bc this is where they'll be coming from (or even Wattpad!). I occasionally tease new series or one shots here to hopefully entice new subscribers. But that's it really! I just post here sometimes about Patreon and then keep the links in my bio for anyone curious.

Criticism bc getting money for fanfic is taboo? Is that what you mean? No. No one has complained that I shouldn't be getting paid for writing fic (some might complain they can't afford it - but that's normal!). ALSO - I think it's important to distinguish the difference between actual fanfiction writing and using a person's features and name as a main character like what most of us do here in the Harry fandom. For example, in traditional fanfiction, writers will typically use the worldbuilding the original author already created (like star wars, or Harry Potter or something) and use all the characters already written, use scenarios already thought of by the original author/creator, etc. For me, while I do use Harry's name and some of his features (tho I exaggerate him a bit) the written work is my own. I write and create my own worlds, my own characters - even Harry is a different person in every one of my stories. So I'm not using another author's ideas or characters as my own so writing Harry fic is a bit different than traditional fanfiction writing (if this is even what you mean - just wanted to clarify tho!).

General tips? Just be sure, again, to stack up your following here on tumblr - don't leave your followers here on tumblr high and dry once you move to Patreon - at least at first. You'll want to continue to kind of nourish the followers and hopefully gain subscribers. I had continual gain until about 2 1/2 months ago and since I've been at it for about a year I figure I've gotten to a bit of a plateau with subscribership (I'm definitely grateful for all of my paid subscribers and never imagined I'd have so many). Once you get some momentum on Patreon keep writing and stay consistent. I think 2-3 posts per week is good enough for most people to want to pay for a subscription. Also, i recommend continuing to read other fic or published novels to expand your writing chops. Sometimes we can get stuck in a rut with the way we write and it's good to see what other people enjoy reading. I'm not saying change your writing voice, it's just useful to grow as a writer. We like doing things a certain way but sometimes it's helpful to look outside of the box and consider that just bc we like our own style doesn't mean we can't make it better for our readers. AND! Try and get a thick skin quick bc you will not please everyone. You can write the best thing you've ever written and you'll get someone who cancels bc they can't stand it. Don't let the criticism get to you. I have people cancel who mark their exit surveys saying they didn't like my content - always stings but at the end of the day, it's just the way this kind of thing goes!

Hope any of this helped you hon!

xoxo

[pr]

between bisluthq and the swiftgron patreon podcast idk anyone else that has monetized their hot takes. BUT what I find really interesting is both of them starting to push the "Toe is real" narrative around the same time which makes me feel like they either got contacted or are involved with Taylor's team and are doing it on purpose. There's no room to discuss the possibility of Joe being a beard anywhere publicly anymore because people get attacked no matter which Gaylor pairing is discussed, and tbh it feels like a giant narrative/PR push from higher up than just normal fandom talk since it ramped up so suddenly. I've only been following this fandom for a few months (like 3 i think) and in that time I saw the number of people joining in slowly increase, until it skyrocketed around the Fearless announcement (specifically talking about the GaylorSwift subreddit getting new mods a couple of weeks prior to that, and then the number of followers for that sub going from 1.5k to over 2k in the month since - in fact, over 100 people have joined it in the past 5 days alone) but talks of Gaylor are getting seriously buried and suppressed from people attacking those that comment to posts and comments getting straight up deleted (and a lot of the people doing the attacking are relatively new accounts, and we know of fake accounts being used by Taylor's PR team already). Interestingly, the monetization of the first blog I mentioned also happened around the same time as all of this, while the patreon podcast had been going on since before I joined the fandom. What I'm trying to say is, everything smells way too fishy for me and it's highly suspicious.

I'm only posting this because my guy

I own the r/GaylorSwift subreddit

and we are absolutely not silencing the Toe not being real narrative lol. Like I literally just made three flairs - Toe disbelief, Toe plausibility, and Toe neutral discussion - because we are sick to death of watching each side tear at each other's throats each and every time. Everyone has a space to discuss their theories without being harassed!

Also I'm still hiring mods lol, the amount of shit we have to keep up with is shockingly insane. You should see the names we get called in Modmail just because we're doing our jobs. Ugh. So yeah that's why there's been a massive mod increase.

In addition to that, I am a public relations student and when we do social media audits, Tumblr is not a social media platform we even consider when laying out objectives and goals for our clients. Taylor's not even on here anymore (and for good reason), so why would they have any investment financially or strategically in what the like 500 of us Gaylors do? There is no way in hell anyone on here is connected to Taylor's team.

If it was gonna be anyone it would be ME, yes I am putting myself out there hi @tree-paine if you are on here, I graduate with a BA in PR in December and would love to discuss how we can monetize the Tumblr Gaylor fandom and push a Toe legitimacy campaign that increases engagement with Joe's social media profiles by 5% each month and by the end of Q4 in 2022 will completely eliminate us Unhingeds entirely, I'll send you my resume toodaloo~

[silverynight]

There are rules, important rules to keep the business going. They should never ask the semihumans any personal information and they should never touch them.

And they break all the rules when they capture that beautiful boy. Fortunately, there was another group of hunters in the boy's house and they destroyed almost everything when they got there, which made Albus and Gellert look like the good guys, at least to Newt. Because the first thing Gellert did was to ask for the boy's name and Albus was about to scold his husband for that when those green eyes met his.

Something changed then, even though neither of them wanted to admit it.

When they get home they lay him on their own bed and stare in awe at how perfect he looks there, like he belongs in that house... He's had a rough night and he'll probably ask for his family when he wakes up, but they're gone, except for the brother... Although Newt doesn't need to know that.

Albus looks at Gellert and notices the smirk on his face.

"We shouldn't..." He starts, but closes his mouth almost immediately, because he wants this as much as Gellert does.

"He's one of the few male semihumans that can have babies," the dark lord comments, knowing how it'll affect Albus.

"That's what Graves wanted," the professor reminds him. "He's willing to pay us anything we ask for him."

"If he likes him," Gellert says and it's such a dangerous thing to mention. "What if he doesn't?"

"Then we'll keep him and we'll take care of him as he deserves," Albus replies because he's a complete fool.

They both sit on the bed and forget about all the rules they have established; Gellert starts running his fingers through his reddish hair and Albus, blushing to the tip of his ears, strokes his white bunny-like ears.

When Newt wakes up, he gets startled by them, until he starts to remember what happened.

"You saved me?" He doesn't seem to remember much of it, but it's enough to make things easier for Albus and Gellert. "Where's my family?"

Albus strokes his cheek and realizes that Newt likes to be touched; the boy closes his eyes and leans into his touch.

"I'm so sorry, baby."

He sobs and allows Gellert to hold him in his arms.

"What am I gonna do now?"

"We'll find you a new home," but it hurts Albus even saying it, every inch of his body refuses to let him go.

***

Newt is good at guessing what they need and he's kind enough to give it to them; honestly, neither Albus or Gellert knew something was missing in their lives until they found Newt.

They give him his own bedroom even though they're very much tempted to invite him to theirs and finally claim him as theirs.

They buy him pretty things like they're not waiting for Graves to return from America and decide if he wants Newt or not.

Gellert purposely doesn't mention any of that and Albus decides just to forget about it and enjoy as Newt walks around their house with one of Gellert's old sweaters and the stockings Albus bought for him.

He likes to curl up on the couch next to them and nuzzle them until they kiss him on those soft curl of his.

It takes just a week for them to fall completely in love with Newt. But they still try to deny it and when Percival Graves walks in the house to see the cute bunny boy, none of them mentions out loud how much they want the man to reject Newt.

"Can I see him?" Graves asks, already not so interested in the transaction so Gellert manages to calm down a little bit.

"Baby, come down," Albus calls and Graves quirks up a brow at him when he hears the pet name.

Although he seems to forget about it when Newt gets downstairs; the boy is breathtaking and only a fool wouldn't notice that.

Sadly, Percival Graves is anything but a fool.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he grins and Newt smiles shyly at him, cheeks turning slightly pink. "My name is Percival."

"I'm Newt," he mumbles, looking away.

Graves takes a step closer and kisses Newt's hand; Gellert wants to jump at the man's throat in that moment so he stops touching his beautiful boy.

"I'm gonna take care of you from now on, Newt."

"Albus, please take Newton upstairs," Gellert tells his husband then, making the professor smile triumphantly and Newt tilt his adorable head in confusion, although he follows Albus anyway.

"What's the problem?" Graves asks, eyes looking at the spot where Newt was.

"He's not for sale," the dark lord says, plain and simple.

"Do you want more money? Because I can–"

"He's ours now," Gellert bares his teeth.

"You captured him for me," Graves snarls, body tense, ready to fight.

"I've changed my mind, now please get out of my house."

"I'll come back for him."

"I will kill you if you touch him," Gellert whispers, but it's as terrifying as if he had growled the words.

Graves nods, turns around and Gellert thinks a couple of minutes later that it was a mistake to not have killed him on the spot.

He goes upstairs only to find his two loves curled up on his bed; he lies next to Newt, a hand on his waist and the other stroking his soft, white ears.

"Is there something wrong?" Newt asks, a little bit concerned.

"Not at all, Liebling," Gellert kisses him on the cheek. "You're gonna stay with us. Albus and I are going to take care of you."

"We'll make you happy, baby," Albus nuzzles the back of his neck and Newt lets out an adorable happy sigh.

They'll be happy. Gellert will deal with Graves later.

***

Kofi

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