Patreon has been an awesome boost to this podcast. Thanks to the lovely folks who have come in and backed me, I’ve been able to take the hosting and domain name fees out of our household budget.

But the main advantage (and aim) of Patreon is that it allows creators to ask for their fans’ help not just in covering costs, but improving the created works themselves, allowing the creators to do do more than they could on their own.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve got some things that I want to do for and with Paid to Play this year, but that my personal budget simply won’t let me. In the meantime, I’ve put some figures together around them (and made some interesting discoveries) and can finally set a milestone for this year.

Here’s what I need your help with:

Mobile Recording: Tascam DR-40

As I mentioned last time, my netbook- which has lasted around seven years – finally bit the dust late last year. This means that, for the moment, I have no mobile recording capability.

This piece of pretty ugliness is a Tascam DR-40 portable recorder. I know a few podcasters who recommend / swear by it as a high-fidelity audio recorder. Their props have made it a tempting piece of tech, but the retail price of $300-400 has put it out of my reach (and made a tablet or some such that I can connect my existing podcast studio kit to more tempting).

However, I have recently learned that a gent in Cairns is not only in possession of one, but he’s also thinking of selling it. The gent in question is Travis Bain, the independent director who made the horror movie Throwback and is currently in pre-production on his next one, the Lovecraft-inspired Starspawn (naturally I’m keen to get him on the Podcast; we’re working times out at the moment).

Now, I haven’t fond out how much Travis wants for it, but I image it’ll be at least $200 – which, of course, I don’t have. So, I’m hoping you can help me get it, not just because it’ll restore (and even improve) my ability to do location chats, not just because it’ll give Travis some more money toward Starspawn, but also because…

Paid to Play LIVE #2: 2016

As you may well know, I got to hold a Paid to Play panel at Tropicon last year, chatting with three income iconoclasts live on stage in front of a crowd. I had so much fun doing it that I’m keen to do it again for another convention.

As I mentioned, I’m in early talks to host the panel, possibly in conjunction with another panel, at another tropical convention around the middle of the year. I don’t want to name them as we haven’t nutted all the details out yet, but it’s out of town (which should make guessing the mystery con fairly easy), so unlike last year’s, I’ll need to cover travel and accommodation.

I’ve done some rough calculations, and while I’ve been able to cadge a lift from a friendly local, which reduces travel costs from $130 for a return train ticket to chipping for petrol (and a present for the person giving me the lift), but there’s still the issue of accommodation ($300 – $400), con entry (around $40) and meals ($60 if I’m careful).

Funding Goal: $800 by June

Given that I need to be nailing down my plans and booking a hotel as far ahead of time as possible, I’d like to try and hit that goal as early as possible. As the Podacst officially kicks back off on Sunday when my chat with Jeff Saamanen of Lost Hope goes live, that gives me from the start of February to the end of May to reach this goal – which means, including my existing funding milestone of covering hosting and domain name registry fees, I’m looking for a total of $200 per month from my Patreon backers.

My current funding level is just over US$25 per month (actually US$28, but Patreon and PayPal take their cut first). Given the current favourable exchange rate, my actual monthly target, taking Patreon / PayPal’s percentage into account, would be around US$180.00.

(That can, of course, fluctuate, which is why I express my funding goals as a one-for-one with US dollars – there’s no guarantee we won’t suddenly go thundering towards parity in the near future.)

That means I need help from as many of you as can chip in. Which brings me to Patreon rewards – which I’ll discuss more in my next post.

What about ongoing?

Fair question. I’ve set this monthly target as a goal for a single convention. But I’d like to sustain it beyond that, if possible. There’s at least one other regional con I could get to this year, and if the events go well, the cons might have me back next year (and the years after).

If I get enough momentum, I might be able to organise panels at larger, capital city-based cons, with a broader variety of panelists. (Maybe I could even take the live panels international.)

And then there’s things like video editing software, outsourcing the fiddlier bits of the process, expanding my hosting requirements as I upload more audio files and the like.

What’s your play?

What goals do you have for your play in 2016?

What help, financial or otherwise, would you like for them?