Goodbye Patreon, Hello New Content!

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Hello! Raven here, of Dove, Wing and Raven LLC. Recapping books so you don’t have to.

When we embarked upon the Grand Adventure that is recapping the Sweet Valley High series, we made a few changes to the site’s output. And with those changes came promises. We promised to bring you more content: more recaps on our off-weeks, more podcasts, and more fun stuff that’s, shall we, say, Sweet-Valley-Adjacent.

To facilitate this extra material, we set up a Patreon system, with a slew of levels grating access to tiers of these extra goodies. It was a Brave New World for us, exciting as all hell, and we stepped into the light with the shiny eyes of the True Believer.

Take-up for this was great! We felt validated, and appreciated, and extremely grateful. We love our commenters, our community, and yes, our Patrons. And the cash we made was wonderful too, helping us pay the fees associated with the site, such as hosting, or domain registration, and so on.

So all was good, yeah? This is a success story?

Well… not exactly.

When we initially started this big ball rolling, we were excited. But, with hindsight, we were also naïve. In rewriting the contract we had with you, our readers, we forgot that this also involved re-writing the contract we had with ourselves. Because all this? All these recaps, and podcasts? Our willing submersion in this oily slick of terrible, terrible books?

It’s meant to be fun.

And it is! My god, it really is. Even when we hate the stories, and the characters, and the appalling messages and situations, it’s a goddamn riot all the way.

But within the Patreon framework…? Not so much.

When money because a factor, our deadlines? They became More Important. We didn’t just have readers… now we had backers. And we had a responsibility to deliver for said backers. And while delivering the content was still fun, there was a tension beneath it, an unpalatable and unspoken anxiety that detracted from our enjoyment.

We felt that we couldn’t miss any deadlines, and so when we did, we spiralled.

It became clear pretty quickly that, to paraphrase Elizabeth, Something Must Be Done.

The Patreon? We’ve ended it. And we’ve refunded everyone who backed us. Again, thank you so much for that support. You’ve no idea what it means.

The content that we created, in the Patreon, for the Patrons? It’s now available for all, for free. You can check out the recaps of Junior High in our archives, or via the links below. There’s also the Cover Calypso videos, which are great fun, and the frankly bizarre Raven Reads which I’ll admit I enjoyed creating a lot more than I expected.

We’re excited to share it with everyone, because, as with the non-Patreon stuff, it’s been a blast to create. And don’t worry! We’re going to create more, just on a more loosey-goosey schedule, without the anxiety mentioned above. So there’ll be more Cover Calypsos, more Raven Reads, more recaps, more podcasts*, more fun.

So, to conclude:

  • No more Patreon! All Patrons have been refunded.
  • All Patreon content is now available to everyone (or if it’s not, it soon will be once we update the settings).
  • All the promised extra content will still be created, just without a set deadline.
  • Less anxiety for us, extra content for you, and more fun for everyone!

Finally, if anyone still wants to show appreciation for our efforts in a fiscal capacity, feel free to buy us a coffee at our Kofi. Here’s the link. There’s absolutely no pressure for you to do so, of course. Which is pretty much whole point of this post.

As always, thanks for reading.

Raven, and Dove, and Wing.

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*(On the subject of podcasts, we’re going to rework the formula somewhat. We’ve not cemented the specifics, but in general terms we’re looking to make the podcast more of a companion piece to the site as a whole, rather than anchoring the episodes to specific recaps. I know, it’s all a bit woolly… but don’t worry, it’s going to be cool.)

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Sweet Valley Junior High #1

Sweet Valley Junior High #2