Hey Guys!!! So, I'm gonna be talking about my Patreon here. My goals, ambitions, and whatnot will be clearly laid out for y'all to see and judge for yourselves. I will also be listing out the perks I assigned to the different Patreon tiers. I would like you guys to note that despite the page being published, these perks are not finalized.

This chapter is primarily for you guys to look through the existing perks and suggest what you would like and what you don't like. Please try to be considerate of me as an author while making your requests. If you feel it's not reasonable, it most likely isn't.

Alright, as per my teacher's instructions, I will first lay out the topics spread in this chapter so you have an idea what I'm going to cover here.

i) History and Reason for Finally Starting a Patreon

ii) Ambitions and Goals for Parallel Series

a. Purchase top-tier writing tools (Grammarly and Scrinever) – $75

b. Edit and Create a Definitive Edition of Parallel Vol.1 (Patreon Exclusive(?))

c. Hire a Professional Editor and Proofreader for Parallel Vol.1 ($500)

d. Hire a Professional Graphic Artist to Design the Cover ($249)

e. Self Publish Parallel Vol.1 Online (Amazon)

f. Find a way to bring Parallel Vol.1 to Print

iii) The Patreon Tiers and their Respective Perks

a. Residents ($1)

b. Adventurers ($10)

c. Warriors ($25)

d. The High Council ($50)

HISTORY AND REASON FOR FINALLY STARTING A PATREON

So, as most of you might know, I am currently a student. I just finished my Bachelor's and am currently working on my Masters in Computer Science. Anyone who has done Computer Science can attest to the massive amount of time we spend coding and working out algorithms for our assignments. This was one of the major reasons my release schedule was so abysmal.

So, what changed recently?

I decided to take the risk and quit my part-time job! Between school and my part-time job, I barely had any time to sit down and write. Now, however, I have dedicated the nightly hours I usually spend at my part-time to fully writing. This is the major reason why I can regularly output high-quality chapters recently.

And as the past couple of weeks have shown, most of the chapters are at the very least 2500 words, which is actually among the higher chapter length numbers on average on Wattpad. Special chapters like last week's and today's can even run as high as 4000 words, so I would like to believe I have not sacrificed the integrity of my uploads for this change. You guys can be the judge of that.

Now although this is all well and good, cutting off my part-time job was a huge risk on my part. Without any extra income, a lot of plans I had for Parallel have been forcefully put on hold. Hence, I sincerely hope you find it in your heart to sponsor me going forward. Not only will it help me keep the lights on, but it will also prove to myself and my folks that this can actually be a future career path worth following. Any little you can give will be greatly welcome!

Alright, enough with the sappy stories, let's move on to the important stuff.

What the hell you gonna do with our money Ren?

AMBITIONS AND GOALS FOR PARALLEL SERIES

Alright, so I have a slightly optimistic dream of having Parallel Vol.1 published by January next year. However, after intensive research, I realized it's not as easy as giving it to a publisher and hoping for the best.

Rather than hand it over to a publisher, I'm choosing the self-publishing route. Why you may ask? Because most publishers I came in contact with, (of those who did not outright reject my work), insisted I would either have to pull down my novels from Wattpad or put up a 'sample' on Wattpad and remove the rest. I'm sure a lot of you readers have run into this on Wattpad before. You'll be enjoying a book, only to suddenly realize it's just a sample. Worse yet is when it's a novel you've been following for weeks or years, and the author suddenly pulls it because he/she is getting published.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not faulting those authors or anything. Most publishers demand this, and I understand why the authors themselves might be afraid that people will only read their work on Wattpad and not buy the book. However, I do not want to go down this route. I would have never believed in myself as a writer if it wasn't for the commenters on Wattpad. I've shared before how I almost lost confidence in myself when I dipped my toes into RoyalRoadl. This was a site I loved to death. In fact, a lot of the start of Parallel is a giant, obvious love letter to the story 'Moonlight Sculptor'. But it was that same site that all but crushed my confidence for a long while. However, this did not last long. How could it when I could always turn to awesome comment chains that spanned for dozens of comments either analyzing the story or just taking the piss.

You guys built my confidence, sustained it, and I would never betray that no matter what happens. This is why I will never paywall chapters on Wattpad. Whether you're a Patreon or not, everyone will get my chapters at the same time. I understand that this is not the most business savvy move, but it's the one thing I will not budge on. All this said, let me clearly outline my roadmap for publishing this novel:

i) Purchase top-tier writing tools (Grammarly and Scrinever) – $75

ii) Edit and Create a Definitive Edition of Parallel Vol.1 (Patreon Exclusive(?))

iii) Hire a Professional Editor and Proofreader for Parallel Vol.1 ($500)

iv) Hire a Professional Graphic Artist to Design the Cover ($249)

v) Self Publish Parallel Vol.1 Online (Amazon)

vi) Find a way to bring Parallel Vol.1 to Print (Amazon) ($1500 for 100 copies) This one is a long-term goal. We can push it to the back of our minds for now.

So, as y'all can see, taking Parallel to the next level takes money, money, and more money! If only I had Miote by me in real life, none of these would be a problem! Anyway, yeah, these are my current goals. I want you to know that every dollar you donate will go a long way to making these a reality!

Now, you guys might have noticed something called DEFINITIVE EDITION OF PARALLEL VOL. 1 and wondering what the hell that is. Well, before taking this novel to an editor or proofreader, there are lots of changes, big and small that have to be made to it. From things like the correct races to the tiers of weapons, magic systems to a major overhaul of how ki and mana are represented in the stats table.

You guys might have noticed a trend of me repeatedly differentiating between mana and ki. This is no coincidence. As those of you have been here from the beginning know, Parallel started out as a fun, light novel that was sort of a fan-fiction of Moonlight Sculptor. At the time, I didn't think I would go this far so I didn't put much thought into the game stat system and several other auxiliary but important factors like date and time, as well as weapon rarities. Some of these were easily fixed in later chapters, but some are not as easy to fix as others. A prime example of this is the ki, mana debacle.

Warriors are not meant to have the same amount of mana as mages, but at the start, because warriors also used special moves, I blindly assigned mana to them too. I soon realized that they need a separate 'power' tree, which I then decided to title ki. Ki, in warriors, will be tied to their stamina stat, much like how mana is tied to wisdom. This is a significant change I need to make right from the ground up, starting from the very first volume.

Hence, the Definitive Edition will be a daily edit of each chapter of Parallel Vol. 1 once I have purchased Grammarly and Scrinever. I initially decided to post it solely to my Patreon page, where you guys can read, criticize and join me in the editing process... However, should you so decide, I will post a delayed chapter to Wattpad. Delayed by a week should be fine.

Note that this is completely different from the Parallel Series! As previously stated, the main series (and United Front) will never be paywalled! I can guarantee you that!

Finally, let's look at the tier of Patreons and their individual benefits

THE PATREON TIERS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE PERKS

The various Patreon Tiers are as follows:

a. Residents ($1)

b. Adventurers ($10)

c. Warriors ($25)

d. The High Council ($50)

Residents

Residents donate $1. Residents and all tiers above get a shout out at the end of every chapter, and stand a good chance of having a cameo in the story itself.

Adventures

Adventurers donate $10. Adventurers and all tiers above get access to my personal drafts, private caches of character ideas pulled from the internet and random ideas floating around. Adventurers also have higher priority than Residents to have a character named after them.

Warriors

Warriors donate $25. Warriors and all tiers above can design an entire character of their choice (within the laws of the story), and this character will play a role in the story. Note that this applies to both the main Parallel Series and Parallel: UF. Also, note that the created character can end up on either the evil or good side.

High Council

The High Council can design a character of their choice (within the laws of the story) that will play a significant role in the story. An example of this is Miote. His real-life name, Usman Taki was gotten from a reader called @MohammedUsmanShafeeq. There's nothing stopping you from becoming the next Miote should you wish!

Members of the High Council are entitled to free, signed copies of all novels once they are published

Members of the High Council can also discuss, and propose mini-arcs with me. What is a mini-arc? A mini-arc is like a side quest the main character goes on. It doesn't necessarily further the overarching plot, but it's usually a nice way to have some character development, strengthen certain characters, or find an excuse to have a character find some epic loot or stumble onto something even bigger.

An example of a mini-arc would be Kashi's current search for the centaur village. It does not further the overall plot of world domination, but it's a chance to pass some time in the world, have some world-building, action-scenes and add some extra perks while we wait for the big showdown looming in the horizon. So, if you've got ideas for mini-arcs feel free to propose them. I will certainly name a prominent character after you in recognition of your contribution.

CONCLUSION

Alright, whew, this ended up almost the length of a regular chapter. I tried to touch on everything I could, but I'm only human and might have forgotten some important details. If you have any questions, feel free to ask below and I will get back to you ASAP.

That said, you guys might have noticed I don't really have too many rewards to hand right now. Please bear with me. As an unemployed student, I certainly can't afford any great rewards like other patreons hand out!

Lol.. that said, if you've read this far, Patreon or not, thank you for your patience. I really appreciate it. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and catch me on my brand new discord channel Live No Evil (Chat Room) https://discord.gg/fHRA2qj

I know Watty doesn't exactly allow copy and pasting from the books, so I will add also put the link in the comments below.

Oh, by the way, my profile name is Renoe_K#2704

Hehe, I'll be honest, I'm a fresh noob at this whole discord thing. I'm gonna spend the next couple of days reading tutorials on how to work this damn thing! What's that? Why am I reading a tutorial for discord when I refuse to read the manuals for literally every household appliance and electronics I buy?

Hehehehehehe..... Young one.

Oh, yeah here's the link to my patreon if you're so inclined: https://www.patreon.com/Renoe_K