Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Serendipity and communities

My friend Claire often talks about serendipity.
Me, I’m an old statistical analysis guru, I don’t believe in serendipity. And yet…

unnamedOne of the things I have been worrying these days – and I was not the only one worrying about it, from what I heard – is what will become of Karavansara and strategie evolutive, my two blogs, now that I also have a Patreon page.

Patreon is a fantastic platform for doing what it does, but it also has a requirement – it wants me to live there, to do my things there. My patrons are hungry for contents, and I am supposed to provide them a steady flow of contents.
But what about my blogs? Continue reading


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A good, busy day

What a day!

Today I launched my Patreon Page – and already I have six (count ‘em, six) patrons. Check out the button in the sidebar.

I also did the launch for my Self-Publishing online course for the Italian market – offering both VIP and Regular access.
And I am happy to announce that the VIP Tickets were sold out in five hours – while Regular access is still available1.

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All of the above meant I spent most of today juggling Mailchimp mailing lists, DoAttend and Google Class accounts, and checking out various notifications.

It was a very good day, and I want to thank everybody!
Thank you!

Now I’ll prepare my first post for my patrons, and then I’ll complete a rewrite of my New York story, that is badly overdue.


  1. and I’d love to make this course available in English, too. 


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Storium and the Writing Game

I mentioned Storium in my previous post.
I found out about Storium when I got hooked up into it as a result of my taking part in the 7th Sea Second Edition Kickstarter.
I took a tour, and was positively impressed.

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Basically, Storium is a cross between a storytelling game, an old choose-your-own-adventure game book and a collective writing experiment. Continue reading


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I AM ON PATREON

And so my Patreon page is up.
In the end I did not do a welcome video because my system went belly-up.
But you will notice a bright red button in the sidebar, that looks like this.

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By clicking on the button, you’ll come to my Patreon page, and you’ll find out what I am preparing for you should you decide to become a patron of mine, depending on your monthly pledge.

First tier: 

Two exclusive posts per week.
Behind the scenes on my writing.
Notes, character sheets, outlines.
First drafts, deleted scenes.
And I’ll mention you in my self-published books, with my sincere thanks.

Second Tier: 

All of the above but you will also get one new story per month – a 3000-words short in various genres, various styles, delivered at the end of the month. The first one hits my Patrons between Christmas and New Year’s Eve

Third Tier:

You will get all of the above, plus every new ebook I self-publish, straight away, even before I upload it on Amazon. And next year we’d be able to write stories together using **Storium** (about which I’ll do a post later today).

I’d like to do more.
A podcast, most certainly, having the time. But that’s for future development.

And there’s a number of stretch goals – you might get extra stories, and longer stuff. Novelettes, novellas.
Or maybe gaming material.
You’ll have your say on what sort of stuff it is.

So, the Patreon button looks like this…

become_a_patron_button@2x

What about clicking it and taking a look around?
I’d love you to join my community, but really, just take a look around and think about it.
And let me know what you think! The comments are open.


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Smile for the camera

unnamedPart of this Sunday morning was spent trying to understand how to shot the presentation video for my Patreon page.
Basically I should do a 2/3 minutes shot, with my face and my voice, explaining my prospect patrons why they should feel like joining my Patreon thing.

I am no videomaker.
I had a hard time enough setting up my podcast (that is bound to return in 2018), imagine me playing with video, codecs, compression formats and the like.
Right now, I have two alternatives – using my webcam and my PC, or using my smartphone. Continue reading


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Ten Days to Patreon

unnamedSo, my Patreon page goes up in ten days flat.
I’ve spent some time discussing details with the Patreon tech assistance people – that are called Community Happiness Team, which sounds like something out of Huxley, or the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The sort of people that will beat you up with truncheons if you’re not visibly happy.
But despite their sinister – to me at least – job designation, the guys have been quite good at solving my problems, or pointing me in the right direction.

So, what will happen now?
First, I’ll be putting up a welcome message – and believe me, I’m trying to find the right balance between being informative and not being artificially cheerful.
I might even do a welcome video. Possibly.
Yes, I’m scared. Continue reading


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The price of peace of mind

OK, so I went and did it.
I’ve been on Patreon as a lurker for a while now, but last night I went and did what needed to be done, and I am about to launch my Patreon page on the 1st of December.

For the uninitiated, here’s a quick video overview.

Patreon allows fans to put down some money (as little as 1 buck per month) in order to pay their favorite writers, musicians, artists etc.
And I’ll give it a try. Let me explain why… Continue reading