New Perk Structure for Poetry Fishbowls
I've been looking over the Poetry Fishbowl donations, activity levels, and my personal energy. I think that the mid-month sessions are something I can do occasionally but not all the time. I get more worn out when they stack up. Also, the bonus fishbowls run up the number of written poems quickly, but the number of sponsored poems slowly; that cuts into your polling options, in attempt to avoid overfilling any one series. So, after considering various possibilities, here is what I've come up with for a new perk structure.
* You still get one free poem per fishbowl session, and a second freebie if there's at least one new prompter or donor.
* I'll continue to post linkback perk poems when I have them available.
* The donor perk-posts will also continue.
* $100 in a month's donations gets you a free poem in the $15 "medium-long" range. This will be a series poem if possible. If I don't have the right size currently, I may offer you series poetry in a different size or non-series poetry in the $15 size.
* $150 in a month's donations gets you a free poem in the $20 "long" range. This will be a series poem if possible. If I don't have the right size currently, I may offer you series poetry in a different size or non-series poetry in the $20 size.
* $200 in a month's donations gets you a free epic. I usually have no shortage of series poetry at this size, and it's a good way to whittle down the backlog.
* $250 is the level relating to bonus fishbowls. Reach this three times -- they don't have to be consecutive months, I'll keep a tally -- and you get a mid-month session. That will prevent overload but should still allow for several of these a year. After each bonus fishbowl, the tally will reset to zero and I'll start counting towards the next session.
* $300 in a month's donations activates a new perk. There will be a half-price sale running for one week, featuring unsold poems from a specific series. I'll try to give you a poll of at least two series with multiple unpublished poems. The Holiday Poetry Sale will still be special because it covers everything from the year's fishbowls, but this will give folks more opportunities to buy at least some things on sale and not be competing with the mainstream holiday rush. The sale will be positioned to avoid proximity with other fishbowl activities as much as possible.
I'm open to discussion of these or other perk ideas. Some of this stuff is from previous discussions with various fans. Please let me know what you think and whether this structure seems like it will work for you.
* You still get one free poem per fishbowl session, and a second freebie if there's at least one new prompter or donor.
* I'll continue to post linkback perk poems when I have them available.
* The donor perk-posts will also continue.
* $100 in a month's donations gets you a free poem in the $15 "medium-long" range. This will be a series poem if possible. If I don't have the right size currently, I may offer you series poetry in a different size or non-series poetry in the $15 size.
* $150 in a month's donations gets you a free poem in the $20 "long" range. This will be a series poem if possible. If I don't have the right size currently, I may offer you series poetry in a different size or non-series poetry in the $20 size.
* $200 in a month's donations gets you a free epic. I usually have no shortage of series poetry at this size, and it's a good way to whittle down the backlog.
* $250 is the level relating to bonus fishbowls. Reach this three times -- they don't have to be consecutive months, I'll keep a tally -- and you get a mid-month session. That will prevent overload but should still allow for several of these a year. After each bonus fishbowl, the tally will reset to zero and I'll start counting towards the next session.
* $300 in a month's donations activates a new perk. There will be a half-price sale running for one week, featuring unsold poems from a specific series. I'll try to give you a poll of at least two series with multiple unpublished poems. The Holiday Poetry Sale will still be special because it covers everything from the year's fishbowls, but this will give folks more opportunities to buy at least some things on sale and not be competing with the mainstream holiday rush. The sale will be positioned to avoid proximity with other fishbowl activities as much as possible.
I'm open to discussion of these or other perk ideas. Some of this stuff is from previous discussions with various fans. Please let me know what you think and whether this structure seems like it will work for you.