I would like to give a little bit of information as to why I set up this Buy Me a Coffee page. It's not to try to nickel and dime people into becoming rich, it honestly isn't. I will start with the most expensive channel/project and work my way down. Please don't forget that watching and liking the videos, as well as subscribing to the channels, can be worth just as much to a creator in the early days as a donation is. You don't have to spend money to help.
THE PURGATORIANS - AUDIO DRAMA - SERENITY SOLO STUDIOS
This was the main reason this page was set up. This costs £65,000 per season, not accounting for the audio engineer, video editor, and increasing the cast to fair pay. At the moment they get between £20- £40 per episode, but I would like to increase this to £2 per line minimum if possible.
Not only do the cast need paying, who are my top priority in this project, there are also licensing and subscription costs added on top. Lick'd has a monthly subscription and, at the moment £6 per song license. There's also Epidemic Sound, editing software, Getty Images, Pond5, the official website serenitysolostudios.com, Casting Call Club, among many other subscriptions needed to make this show a reality. I also pay a thumbnail designer to create the thumbnails for the show, as well as need to hire an artist when I can afford it to make images that the show contains for the thumbnails too. Please don't email me with job offers, I simply can't afford to add anything else right now.
I am currently receiving roughly £1000 per month income, then living costs, food, rent, and bills must be taken from that before anything can be allocated to The Purgatorians. My chair is falling apart, my mattress has springs sticking out of it, but I prioritize the cast payments before any personal luxuries. All my channels need money putting into them as well.
Please be aware that The Purgatorians may contain some stories that some viewers may find upsetting or offensive. Viewer Discretion is highly advised. If you can't stomach Game of Thrones, stay well clear.
THE GAMING CHANNEL AND TWITCH - SERENITY SOLO PLAYS
This channel was set up to try to help fund the audio drama. It also costs money to create. I don't just play games and upload the VoDs to YouTube. I find that lazy. I edit all the VoDs down into episodes, adding a next episode preview collection at the end of each video. These next episode previews also get added into a collection at the end of the game.
Some of these collections can cost me £60+ for one video to license songs for, the earlier ones may be a little less due to having less previews in them. I don't only have to license the songs for the collection but for the main episode as well, so the cost doubles. A separate Lick'd subscription has to be paid for to do this as well. There are also the channel trailers that can cost £100+ to license music for them.
Then there are the games to buy too. I started off mostly with older games to help with my budget, since they are cheaper. I do hope to start bringing newer games to the channel at some point, but most newer games, not all, will be time limited Patreon exclusives. I am not adding editing software into these costs as that is factored in for the audio drama.
The videos are paused on this channel right now as I can't afford to pay for a thumbnail designer to create thumbnails for both The Purgatorians and the gaming channel. If people are happy enough without proper thumbnails, I am willing to let these go live, as there are many episodes uploaded right now, just sitting there. I will have to gain many subscribers for this though to know the videos won't be wasted with nobody watching them, as the ones already live are now. Every thumbnail costs £25 now, which will equal £75 per week, £300 per month, which I can't afford at this moment in time.
THE REACTION CHANNEL - SERENITYSOLOREACTS
This channel was originally set up to help my mental health issues, and it will continue for this reason. Since this channel can never get monetized though, due to reused content, I will also be adding my own ads in to help try to promote the other two channels. This means licensed tracks are once again required for this, and another subscription to Lick'd is paid for. That is now roughly £92 I spend per month on Lick'd subscription costs.
There are also many new shows that need purchasing on DVD/Blu-Ray. This could set me back £100+ some months too.
IN CONCLUSION
Since I have a limited budget, and a failed Kickstarter, I decided to set up this page for those who like my content but would rather give me a one off donation rather than subscribe to my Patreon. I would prefer to give the option to you, this includes none at all.
As I said at the beginning. Liking and subscribing to the YouTube channels will also help us just as much as a donation would in these early days.
Thank you everyone for reading, and I hope this post gives more context as to why this funding page was set up.
With the most heartfelt thanks
Serenity Solo.