I've been spending time on finishing up design on the site: I'm happy that I've laid all the bones of the design down, and you'll see that I've been able to flip the blog design so it has black background and white text. That seemed like an undertaking and a half, but it got there. At the same time, I've been working on promoting the Twitter and slowly, slowly bringing an Instagram account to life. Things are picking up: I'm seeing follower count on both the site and Twitter tick upwards, but more importantly, engagement is starting to build. If you'd like to follow this website on Twitter you can find it here.
Submissions News
I haven't quite kept count of how many submissions I've had overall, but after three weeks I've had to close the submissions early due to a higher-than-expected volume. There's been a great mix of poetry and prose, and I've also acquired cover art. Originally, I had settled on ten pieces of work, but I've since accepted a total of around fifteen or sixteen.
I've been advertising this on Twitter, but it's worth repeating here: submissions close now on Friday, 5th April.
Today on the Patreon, I've posted the first of four poems from Linda M. Crate. You may remember the name from my first post, where I commented that some of the work sent matched really closely to what I had envisioned - Linda is one of those artists.
Patreon News
There've been no real changes to speak of lately. I haven't gained any new patrons, but have uploaded the second poem to the site.
Additional News I've talked a bit about a budget being the restriction to what I was able to buy. This is certainly in effect, but I'd also like to discuss how I've been able to procure more work. Several of the artists I've been working with have sent in poetry where I couldn't choose just one, so on the suggestion of my partner, I began offering bundles. In offering to buy two or more pieces at a slightly discounted rate, we're allowing the creator to earn an amount that we feel respects their value as the artist and at the same time, allowing me to be able to buy work from a few more artists. Our goal is for Ravens to become self-sustaining, allowing us to offer full price for any submissions we buy, and that this bundle rate is only a temporary solution while we build up the business. As a show of good faith we give the artists we work with full permission to reveal how much they were paid for their work. We at Ravens believe in being open and transparent, respecting the creators we work with, and as such will try to never deceive or mislead our audience when it comes to how much we pay for submissions. We hope that at some point we will be able to not only pay artists the full wage, but a bonus on top. Until then this is a way of making sure that everyone comes away satisfied, and we hope this is one way of earning your respect. Ravens is a business that puts artists first, and we will do everything we can to reasonably live up to this mantra.
Thank you all again for your support and believing in Ravens.
Warm regards,
Sarah Editor-In-Chief