Hi everyone,
I wanted to share with you how I see the future of what I do here with ‘searching for grace’ and ask for your input as to the direction I take. I find myself at a crossroads in how I can continue all I’m doing. To be honest, I work more than 40 hours a week drawing, writing, interviewing, corresponding and administrating all that I do with searching for grace, and although I love it so much, I don’t see how I can continue at this capacity without having a way to support what I’m doing financially. I don’t want donations, but I do want to create a way that offers you the opportunity to support what I do by receiving a significant piece of my work on a monthly basis.
So, I’m considering offering a subscription to Searching For Grace of $10 per month. For this you will receive a digital copy of a completed book from me each month. Yes, one new book every month! These will be a combination of comic books, non-fiction books, paraphrase and commentaries, and also fiction (finishing off my first novel at the moment!) Subscribing means you will always get an advanced copy of everything I write and create. You’ll also be helping me plan my life, pay the rent and be able to switch off my computer after 8-10 hours.
For this to be possible, I need a minimum of 150 readers to subscribe (you can see how many have currently said yes in the comments section). So, I have not set this up yet, but rather would like to ask if you are interested in being part of this to let me know by filling out the form below. I will send you an email back letting you know, if 150 readers do say they would like to subscribe, when I will send the first book and how to subscribe (most likely Paypal).
So for now I’m just asking, would you like to be part of this? It’s $10 per month. I currently don’t receive any kind of support from any organization or persons, and self-fund all that I am doing. But have come to realise I do need support in order to continue at this capacity. If you find my work of value, and are in the position to be able to subscribe, I ask that you would do so and help me continue to do what I do.
Some of the books planned include:
1. The Gospel Cannot Be Chained: Searching for grace in Paul’s prision letters. (Paraphrase)
2. Searching For Grace, The Comic #1: A halarious look at a 21st Century Church Pushed To Its Extremes. (Comic Book)
3. God’s Grace, Apart From Law: Understanding the most important truth in the New Testament. (Non-Fiction/Commentary)
4. The Kingdom Of Love Is Within You (A collection of quotes, poems and thoughts posted on Facebook over the past 2 years)
5. Pastorman: The Greatest Superpastor Of All Time, An Autobiography. (Humour)
5. God’s Grammar (Novel)
6. Jesus In Genesis. Seeing The Gospel Message In The Creation Account. (Commentary)
survey update: 23 yes/maybe. 127 to goal
i was thinking and figuring. If you charge only $10 each month and you need 150 people; then you would only receive $1,350 a month. Is that going to be enough money?
Hi Agnes, not really, but it would help to pay the rent and buy food.
Hi Mick,
.
I’m not too knowledgable about all these modern devices they have today. What is a digital copy of a book? Is that what a kindle is used for? I would very much like to buy a subscription. When i do, and if a digital copy means using a kindle, i would buy myself a kindle so i can read all your books of non-fiction, fiction, autobiographies, comic books and whatever
You wont have to buy any kind of devise Agnes. It will most likely be in a PDF format that you can read on your computer, download, or print out. It will also be readable on mobile devises if subscribers have them. Glad to hear you want to read all my books
survey update: 15 yes/maybe – 135 to goal. (goal:150 – the reason this is my goal is that to create a great book each month for subscribers and continue with all I am doing with searching for grace will require basically all my time, so I want to make sure I can commit the time before I start offering subscriptions.)
update: 19 yes/maybe – 131 to goal
Make that 16…at least. Looking forward to more of your humorous and liberating thoughts and comics. I have your book already and I’ve really enjoyed it. Not a bad investment at all. I hope you make your goal soon!
Me too!
Mick,
thanks a lot for everything you’re doing. As for paid access for the materials, I’ve not decided yet since I mostly come for interviews that you have here (good stuff!
) and I’m following your blog articles (in Google Reader) where all art is not showing for some reason by the way and you need to open the main site to see it. So I usually click when I see new interviews.
thank you and I will let you know if I’m going to be +1 soon.
Thanks for thinking about it Serghei. Although I want to keep everything I’m currently doing free on my website, such as the interviews, by subscribing you will actually be helping me organise my life so I can do everything, including the interviews. In saying that, the point everything is free on my site is so people can enjoy it freely. This subscription is just an idea at the moment to see if there are members of the community who would like to offer support and receive some extra material each month. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the interviews, and I will try to get the rss feed fixed soon
Mick- I am involved with a ministry as well. We don’t ask for anything, but rely on Daddy for all. I would encourage you to just put your needs out there without any required amount and see what Daddy provides. I for one would pay much more than $10 a month for what you offer. You may find that you are limiting what your family desires to give you by putting a dollar amount on it. Leave it open for LOVE to fill in the blank. You are worth much more than $10 a month! Just a suggestion, but definately an encouragment!
I’m just trying to find a way to support myself and family by offering products of value, that will hopefully go on to also be of value to others. I hear what you are saying. I guess I’ll just see how this survey goes and evaluate things from there. Thanks so much for your comment.
survey update: 12 yes, 138 to go (goal:150) Thanks everyone for your emails and comments so far.
Mick- I think its a good move and I know you will be surprised how God steps in and makes this work, fully supported. I know how it makes people feel to ask for money or raise funds. However, for a “digital copy of a completed book each month, comic books, non-fiction books, paraphrase and commentaries,fiction, and an advanced copy of everything” is absolutely worth 10 bucks a month!
Musicians charge $1 a song, bigfishgames charges $6.99 for a monthly membership fee that includes a terrible game each month. Searchingforgrace.com blesses, encourages, and helps light the path ahead, in an amusing, and thought provoking manner! That’s not support, this is your full time job, so its only fair the subscribers would dish out monthly the cost of 2 frappacino’s from Starbucks, a month, to continue benefitting. Win win.
Thanks Shanny, I do hope it all works out well. I love the gospel, and all the creative skills God has given me in order to share, but as you said, I hope others can see the value in what I’m offering. I don’t want a hand out, just the opportunity to provide a great book each month, and with that the freedom to share the gospel in other ways freely through my website and so on. Thanks for the encouragement. I really appreciate it.
Will be sorry not to see you . but understand the economic thing.Bertie
You’ll still see me Bertie. I’m only looking for a small part of the community to subscribe, and I will give them a completed book for the month as part of the subscription. I don’t want donations; I want to offer a monthly book that is of value. I want to be productive and share my creative work.
That is the point of the subscription, if a small part of the community can support my through subscribing, then the rest can receive what I am currently doing through my blog freely.
Mick, your work inspires me, makes me laugh, and reminds me daily that I am loved by an amazing God. You have supported me in my walk with Christ…I look forward to offering a bit of support to you
Thanks for such encouraging words Erika. And thank you for being open to being part of the community that wants to subscribe. I really appreciate it, and looking forward to organising all my work into beautifully created books for you to receive hopefully soon!
Survey update: 9 interested. 141 to go (goal: 150 subscribers)
10 yes, 140 still to come
I would be interested, Mick. How will it work for us overseas folks?
Hi Theresa, great to hear you are interested. If enough people join in and I can start producing a book a month for subscribers, then I will organize a way for subscribers to use paypal in the currency of their country. If paypal doesn’t work for you, I’m sure we can find another option. Thanks so much for being interested to start with. I will send you more info as things progress.
Mick, you need to add a PayPal, right. They accept major credit cards now. So a subscriber opens a window to pay and they see a secure delivered PayPal form. They fill and this is it. This is how many sites are working. If done right, users don’t need to fill the data on your site. But they basically see a window from PayPal and this is very secure.
Yes, that is what I will do Serghei. It will all be super secure.
updated survey results: 6 interested. 144 to go (goal:150 subscribers). Thanks to all who have already expressed your interest in subscribing!
7 interested, 143 to go, woohooo!
5 ‘yes’, 145 to go
Survey results so far: 2 “yes”, and 1 “maybe”.
147 needed to reach the goal.
another yes
146 to the goal.
Feel free to give feedback here in the comments section if you like.