Ream Stories?

[LeaveIt2Me]

Obviously I seen the post about abdl writers moving from patreon to ream. It’s actually a bit ironic because I was going to finally start a patreon account this week so I either dodged a bullet or totally missed out on a good thing while it lasted. 

If anyone knows how ream stories works please let me know.

Can you use a pen name?

How strict are they on content?

Price recommendations?

Can you post videos and pictures?

Do you have to have a PayPal account?

 

[PeculiarChangeling]

I'm using Ream! (Actually I might be responsible for lots of writers moving to Ream, I encouraged lots of friends and colleagues to switch after the ship caught fire.)

To answer:

Yes you can use a pen name.

They're extremely flexible on content. I've confirmed over email with their content team that ABDL is okay, dubcon is okay, etc.

Their minimum price is 3$ for a tier, which I find works for a low cost entry/lite support tier. I personally use 8$ range as my all access/exclusive content tier.

You *can* post pictures, but not as part of the stories at the moment, only in community update posts, and covers. You cannot post videos to my knowledge.

You do not need to have a Paypal account.

 

I use both Ream and SubscribeStar, and comparing both, I prefer Ream, though there are advantages and disadvantages to each.

The cons of Ream are:

Less back-end metrics than I'd prefer. It's difficult in particular to see how much your monthly revenue is without manually counting subscribers. Something like Patreon's, "X per month" icon doesn't exist yet. (This is apparently a feature that's being developed and will be implemented in the future, but it's not something they currently have.)

Its fees are higher. SubscribeStar charges 7% plus credit card fees, Ream charges 10% plus credit card fees. (Credit card fees are 2.9%+30c.) 3$ out of every 100$ you make isn't a huge amount, but it adds up.

It's not built for image content - you can share pictures through community updates, but it's not an image hosting platform, it's built for writing.

In general, I've got little gripes about the content uploader. It's fine, but some greater granularity would be nice, particularly with regards to post management. (There's a very good chapter queuing system, but once you have the chapters queued, it's hard to see what's being posted when, which isn't great for my ADHD ass.) (This feature is also being worked on/improved.)

The pros of Ream are:

The user experience. It's hard for me to stress just how much better Ream is to read on than SubscribeStar. In particular, trying to go back and read a long-form story on SubscribeStar is a genuinely awful experience. On Ream, it's buttery smooth. The UI on Ream is built from the ground up for people to read stories, and it's excellent at that. This is a massive Pro.

New features are being developed and added regularly. This is only kinda-sorta a 'Pro', since it assumes that the new features will arrive and be good, but so far that seems likely to me.

They're extremely permissive of NSFW content, and their staff is very communicative. You know what I can do with Ream that I couldn't do with Patreon? Talk to a human on a timely basis!

 

In short, I'm personally sold on Ream. I maintain my SubscribeStar because some of my readers prefer using that platform, and it's not much more effort for me to just have two websites to update, but if I had to use only one, I'd use Ream.

I will quote Dan Olson of Folding Ideas here though, and add a gentle reminder that platforms - even platforms that you like a lot - aren't your friends. I am on board with Ream and like using it quite a bit, but I'm also not going to ignore the downsides or put all my eggs in their basket. My advice would be that anyone looking to start a page for paid content - Be it Ream, SubscribeStar, or something else - would be to make sure that you always have a backup plan. Download your audience contact info regularly so you can contact them if the site goes down or you get unexpectedly banned, (as with Patreon,) and diversify so you can't get screwed by a single point of failure.

 

[Elfy]

I am also on both Ream and SubscribeStar and would agree with PeculiarChangeling (who I also have to thank for informing me about it!)

They both have their pros and cons. Unfortunately a con for both is the difficulty of getting paid. Ream have an auto-payout that currently can't be turned off and I have had issues getting money through Stripe. It's taking a long time to get paid. SubscribeStar's process seems a lot smoother but paying out can take up to two weeks. It really makes me miss Patreon's instant payout!

I have found that my readers prefer SubscribeStar, I have more subscribers there, Ream has about 2/3rds of Subscribe Star in terms of raw numbers. However, Ream does seem to be new and improving whereas SubscribeStar, to me, gives off the vibe that not much is being worked on.

[BabySofia]

52 minutes ago, Elfy said:

I have more subscribers there

This may be in part due to the fact it was the first one mentioned to everyone... I haven't subscribed to anyone on Ream yet, but from my glances, it looks like a much better platform. I rejoined a bunch of those I followed on Subscribestar to try and help fairly quickly, knowing how much you all must have taken a hit there! I may switch over accounts to Ream at some point for those of you doing both. (Just not right now since everything still seems to be in a state of flux after Patreon's idiocy)

[Guilend]

I like Ream over Subscribestar from a readers perspective. The only thing I have an issue with is not really being able to comment on the chapter or a way to "like" it to show the author encouragement and support. Authors that have both, I sub to their Ream, everyone who has just Subscribestar I obviously sub there. Overall I like Ream, almost better then Patreon. 

[PeculiarChangeling]

2 hours ago, Guilend said:

I like Ream over Subscribestar from a readers perspective. The only thing I have an issue with is not really being able to comment on the chapter or a way to "like" it to show the author encouragement and support. Authors that have both, I sub to their Ream, everyone who has just Subscribestar I obviously sub there. Overall I like Ream, almost better then Patreon. 

You can actually leave comments!

 

Use the + sign on the far right and it'll bring up a menu allowing you to comment directly on that paragraph

 

[LeaveIt2Me]

I would like to thank everyone for the information! I also forgot to ask if the writers email is shown publicly or to the readers/members?

[PeculiarChangeling]

On 1/15/2024 at 4:01 AM, LeaveIt2Me said:

I would like to thank everyone for the information! I also forgot to ask if the writers email is shown publicly or to the readers/members?

I don't know for certain if your email is shown to members by default, buuuut I'd still strongly recommend creating a business email you use for your Ream and any other professional ABDL work. If you need to communicate with your subscribers, you do so by emailing them, and they respond by emailing you back. Aside from that, it's just convenient to keep everything separated.