A question about drawings as patreon prizes

[marygold]

I know I should have more faith in humanity, but couldn't a patron right click save the image, then go to the regular fans and be like "You know I have the wallpaper right here, guys."

I doubt many people would be a piece of utter CRAP like that but is this action physically possible?

And if it is, I hope I didn't give anyone ideas. Listen, creators work their a$$es off for this. It may seem easy to you but it isn't. Don't distribute their hard work like it's nothing. That drawing is only for people who supported the creator while he or she was going through hard times and spending their time to create awesome stuff for them.

[Kayke]

It's definitely possible. But I think/hope the people who like someone's art enough to give them money wouldn't do something like that to them? And if they did it would be easy enough to find out who did it and just block them.

[marygold]

@Kaykedrawsthings oh you can block people in patreon? Great! I've been thinking that I should set up a patreon sooner or later. It's never too early right? Even with a small readership

[Kayke]

Here's a page about it if you'd like to read more on the topic!

[shazzbaa]

Sure! Easily. It would be easy to do.

Especially if it's something like a wallpaper. Like.... you're assumedly giving it to them. So they can use it. As a wallpaper. So once you're able to use it as a wallpaper, it's on your computer, as an image, that you can do whatever you want with.

Yelling at people that "Creators work their asses off, this isn't easy, don't treat it like it's nothing!!" isn't what stops people from doing that, either -- in fact, that sort of hostile posturing tends to encourage jerks. : ( I think being polite and kind and open goes a long way towards attracting people who aren't jerks to your work, and gives people few reasons to want to reach around you and go against your wishes

That doesn't mean you'll NEVER have to deal with jerks, but people will have less desire to actively distribute your stuff and make your life harder if they know you are being as reasonable and giving as you can be! And your other readers will be much less likely to want to give a jerk the time of day if they know you have been nothing but kind and the jerk is actively hurting you.

[UrMom]

I think stuff like that is the reason why most creators just publicize the patreon stuff after so many weeks, at least all the people I follow do that. They just use the bribes as a here and now exclusive that isn't accessible to the public yet.
Honestly, it's tiring crap like that which gives me more of a reason to go the Jim Sterling route. It's more practical to ask for support for what you're already putting out, and by getting that support you'll be able to put it out more quickly and efficiently.

All I can tell you is to have some faith in your followers, most of the time they just want to see more of your work. The chances of getting a douchebag who wants to steal your stuff is pretty slim, seeing as we're merely tiny specks in the vast ocean of sewage known as the internet.

[Kayke]

I personally just post behind the scenes stuff? I don't really have time to post a stuff made specifically for Patreon, so I just post my sketches and inks as a preview of the latest page. Here's an old one I use as a sample now:

I know I'd probably be able to make more if I were doing exclusive/custom stuff, but I don't wanna stress about it.

[marygold]

@shazzbaa well put -slow clapping-

[AnnaLandin]

They COULD - it's physically possible for them to do, I mean, but in my experience, people who are dedicated enough to give you money on a regular basis are unlikely to want to be that mean.

Most of them realise that pulling that kind of trick will hurt you, both in an emotional way and in terms of money.

[marygold]

I'm glad to hear that!

[arbanims]

Just remember you still have their money.

[eleoza]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if things like that happen.
There are people who just abuse patreon, I've had people sub during the beginning of the month and leave 1 day before they get charged. It's not nice, but there's nothing you can do about it. Most people are probably fair however, don't lose faith in humanity heheh ^^

[marygold]

@Lucazu yeah...see some people are popular so they have a ton of fans who would catch theives and would genuinely care about their stuff. I'm not sure how us low to middle ground people should deal with this. Our readership/fan base isn't big enough. Should I wait?

[eleoza]

Wait with patreon you mean?
I wouldn't, I think the sooner you set it up the better, if possible. People will know it's out there and maybe there's someone willing to support you even in the early stages of your comic. You never know. I enjoy your comic at least ^^

[marygold]

@Lucazu aw, thanks! I failed to convince my mom though ^ ^" she doesn't think my fan base is big enough to protect me from thieves. She gave this long speech to me and now I'm paranoid. I'm going to discuss with my art teachers soon though

[Luminosophy]

This is why I only release content no one would either want to steal or can physically steal. My current rewards are headshot sketches (custom of course) and WIPs. Though I'm dropping the former because it's too much extra work around comics with a limited time schedule.

[Luminosophy]

No, make it ASAP. Because by the time you have a large fan base you'd likely be comfortable with your set up. It's taking me a while to figure it out as I go, and I'm lucky in that it only affects one person whom I can communicate directly with as I need to change things. Always give people the option to support you where you can.

[shazzbaa]

Okay two things:

FIRST THING: if your fanbase is small, there's Literally No Reason for anyone to release your patreon content for free. If you don't have hundreds of thousands of people clamouring for your work, who would they be releasing it to? Like, if you have ten fans, nobody's gonna be like "bwahaha, I'm gonna pay a dollar a month so I can share this exclusive content on reddit against the artist's wishes" because reddit will not care.

This only happens when you have a large enough fanbase that there are tons of people who WANT the patreon content really badly, large enough that you can easily find those people on some other site. It's actually the opposite of what you're thinking -- if you're big, your fanbase is too big to police 100%; if you're small, you have what computer people call "security through obscurity." Your work is more safe when your fanbase is small.

SECOND THING: If you're scared of people pledging, looking at content for free, and then backing out like @Lucazu mentioned , patreon now has an option where you can charge patrons up front -- making it so that as soon as people pledge, they have to pay their first pledge before they can look at any of your stuff. So it's possible to set up your patreon so that people have to pay before they can see your content.

I don't think it hurts to wait on a patreon (obviously I waited a while on mine!) but I just don't see any evidence that thievery is going to be your biggest concern when you're starting out.

[marygold]

@spudfuzz @shazzbaa thank you! This was a big help, now if I can just convince my mom....

[eleoza]

Really? Patreon has that option now? O: I knew they'd do something about people trying to dodge pledges, but I can't seem to find this option? Could you tell me where it's located please? ^^