Taking the Plunge

I'm going to take the plunge on go on Patreon. Right now, today, typing this sentence I'm not asking whether I should do it. I've already made that decision by reading tons of articles saying either that I'm clever for using this service to continue to fund my creativity, or I'm a panhandler that should never ask to be paid for my writing, because if you love it, you shouldn't expect to be paid for it. Yeah, I'm gonna try that line the next time I take my car to a mechanic--because I just know they do oil changes solely for the love of doing it. Uh-huh.

What I am asking is what type of perks do most patrons expect from a writer? I know that when I had more money and was considering supporting other creatives, I was looking mainly at comic book/graphic novel artists. They can do everything from posting exclusively artwork to sending out postcards, creating custom drawings for individual patrons, etc. Writers are, as always, a little bit different.

I've been studying writer pages on the site (all of the featured ones are making at least $3k a month--insanely awesome, but I'm assuming not typical) and have found quite a few common perks: general updates on the progress of current projects, digital access to exclusives (blog posts, short stories, poems, chapters of upcoming books, photos, cover reveals), print copies, general and bookish swag, video Q&A's. But is there something missing? Is there something a little more unique or a little more desirable that patrons would want from a writer?

And the other key question--do these perks need to focus solely on the reader, or do some patrons also want the business side of writing when it comes to the structure of a perk? I noticed that many higher tiers on any given page focus more on things interesting to fellow writers, rather than just readers--which is weird to me, because wouldn't someone looking for writing advice also be an underpaid, underappreciated writer? I guess not all of us are underpaid...

These are all the things I'm still working out, and any input would be helpful. I don't want to provide someone with something they don't believe is worth the money. I want to choose these perks carefully so that the creative/patron relationship is pretty balanced.