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Exciting developments on the internet today. Not only did I unveil my brand new monthly newsletter - now with pictures and slightly more professionally set out. You
can read it here or if you want to get it delivered to your inbox then subscribe via the
newsletter page. If you’ve already subscribed and you haven’t received the email yet then check your junk. But you should always check your junk. I am checking my junk right now. It's full of spam. Special spam.
I am also planning on a special newsletter for monthly badge subscribers, that will let you know about future RHLSTP guests before anyone else and hopefully provide some exclusive funnies and maybe secret blogs (like Hollyoaks After Dark) and more. You can get those (and much more) by
paying a pound or more a month here the next monthly draw will be made as soon as April ends. I am determined to give you kind people top value for your pounds. Hopefully because of you we'll be able to do some video AIOTMs next year.
And the other development might also help with that. We’ve put together a kickstarter campaign to pay for
the video versions of RHLSTP. Each series costs us something like £27,000 to produce, film and edit and if I use the monthly badge money to pay for that it will easily use up everything we are currently taking in a year (especially as we’re doing a load more RHLSTPs in the autumn). I know a lot of you just listen to the audio and that’s not expensive to make so we’ll continue to put that out whatever happens, so we’ve decided to leave this in your hands. If we can raise £30,000 (including the kickstarter and paypal fees) we will film the next 18 interviews and if we can’t, we’ll return to audio only. There’s lots of different levels, from a tiny donation to paying for the costs of an entire episode which might suit a small business owner who wants to promote their stuff - we don’t really want to go down the route of proper corporate sponsorship, though would consider it for the right price and the right level of interference (basically zero). But I’d much rather we funded this through fans giving a little bit each. But we’re open to offers if you are a fatcat who wants to write off some money as a tax dodge or think you can harness the spending power of the 150,000 listeners to this show. You don’t have to do that via the kickstarter. Drop me an email at herring1967@gmail.com.
This video explains it all, as well as giving you a taste of what the show looks like filmed. Phoebe makes an appearance in the video as I cynically attempt to exploit her existence to make people hand over money (and it’s nice that she’s already experienced her first trolling in the comments - though to be fair it did make me laugh).
Whatever happens this means all your badge money will go towards AIOTM and we might also try and do a kickstarter for that if this one works (or maybe if it doesn’t too - I have a feeling some of you would prefer that one). Just to speed things along. And if you want something more immediately for your money,
keep your eye on the eBay page. All the money raised from this goes to funding the podcasts too.
I wasn’t too sure if people would go for the kickstarter and have resisted them in the past, but the early signs are positive. We’d got a tenth of the way to our target in the first few hours (we only get the money if we surpass out total and if we can make more than £30,000 we’ll put the rest towards filming the next series and/or other internet projects). As with most things we only need about 1000 of you to get on board to make it work out. Which is a tiny percentage of the total listenership. I don’t know if this is something that would have diminishing returns but it’d be ace if we could fund other projects this way too. We’ll see how it goes. The ball is in your court. And I like it that way. It makes more sense to me that the fans of something should be the ones who decide its fate. That way I have to keep delivering something that you enjoy, but if you enjoy it enough you occasionally have to kick something back.
I still haven’t officially booked a single guest yet, but am waiting for news on some of the bigger names who are interested before I start booking others in. It’s worth taking a chance and
booking now to avoid the rush (once the big names are announced those gigs sell very fast)- there are some very exciting names in the frame, but will try and put in some surprises and future stars as well.
With the focus that Phoebe, my scene-stealing co-star (she’s making sucking noises all the way through the thing to distract you from what I am saying), now gives me, I have to make some decisions about what I prioritise in my career. Should I keep on writing TV scripts in the hope that one of them finally makes it to air and gives me more money and exposure, should I keep plugging away with the tours and hope that the people who like me bring a friend with them next year or should I put all my eggs (I said egg) in the podcast basket and see what I can achieve outside of the mainstream? The downside with the last one is that none of that kickstarter money comes to me and the only way that the podcasts pay off financially for me is if they encourage people to come and see my stand-up shows.
And over the last few days I have been massively enjoying going for walks with my daughter, doing all the mundane domestic tasks like keeping on top of the washing up and sterilising of bottles and making meals - I made an incredible glazed gammon steak thing tonight with a grapefruit salsa. I have never massively enjoyed gammon before but this was really one of the nicest things I’ve ever eaten (certainly that I have also cooked). Maybe I can find a balance where I can get all of these things in my life, but I wonder if I should just focus on one or two. It'd be great if I could find a path through that makes me self-sufficient, earns me enough money and lets me be a part-time house-husband away from the rat race. Which sounds like a pretty good life. Maybe there’s a sitcom in that.
