Quick Update – New World Witchery, Patreon, and You!

Dear Readers, Listeners, Fans, & Friends.

Five years ago, we started New World Witchery as a “search for American Traditional Witchcraft.” Since then, we’ve produced more than one hundred episodes (the official count is eighty-one as of today, but including Special Episodes, one-offs, and various other entries into our feed, we’re closer to one hundred and twenty releases). We’ve got a site with nearly two hundred entries covering a dozen different branches of American folk magic, holidays, spell ingredients, book recommendations and reviews, and lots of other points of interest for fans of all things New World and witchy. More than anything, though, we’ve got you. Our fans have been the driving force behind our work, helping to guide the subjects we cover, providing folklore and personal connections to the magical stories we tell here, and even sending us love and good energy when we’ve had personal crises. Thank you all for what you’ve done.

If you’ve listened to our latest episode, you know we’re asking for your help again. For the past five years we’ve essentially run on the “tip jar” model, leaving a link up for those who want to donate to the show on the sidebar of the site, and offering a “pay-what-you-want/donations-only” email card reading service for those who wanted to help keep the show going strong. Time has meant change, though, and now we’re trying to figure out how to level up New World Witchery to make it even better. Paying for everything from the web hosting to access to research materials and technology to improve the production value of the show (and hopefully help get rid of some of the hiccups we’ve had with shows disappearing from our feed from time to time)—all of that means we need help. Sure, we can cast some prosperity spells, but it’s crucial to make sure to follow through in the mundane even if we’ve got magic on our side, right?

With that being said, we’d like to introduce you to Patreon. It’s a site that lets you—our fans—become the direct supporters of the show in a very real way. We’ve had occasional opportunities to consider bringing sponsors on, but given our size and our audience, that just didn’t seem like the way to go, because we know that not everyone who comes to our site is looking for direct-shipped health snacks or comfy underpants (well, everyone is looking for comfy undies, but that’s not our realm of expertise). What most people seem to be interested in, though, is more content from us. With Patreon, you get that. You support us directly, and we return that support as rewards directly to you. You can find all the details of our Patreon support levels and rewards at the main Patreon site, but just to give you an idea of what is available, here’s a short list:

• Individuals giving $5 per month get a signed copy of 54 Devils and an annual mailer pack with lots of New World Witchery goodies inside (including things like postcards and—if we get enough support—even tee shirts!)
• Individuals giving $10 per month get the same things as $5 subscribers plus access to live chat sessions (which will also be shared with those subscribers as a special bonus podcast)
• When we reach $250 per month in total support, we’ll add extra live chat sessions and unlock things like the annual mailer tees and digital releases of future books from Cory and/or Laine
• If we get to $500 per month in total support, we’ll even launch a second publically available podcast focused on storytelling and folklore!

See? Lots of possibilities! And we know that not everyone can support us financially, but may still want to help. If that’s you, we totally understand! Consider sharing links to our show or our Patreon page on social media or giving us a good review on iTunes! Or even just sending us an email and letting us know you like the show, that works, too!

No matter what, we’ll keep producing the main New World Witchery show and making it available to anyone who wants it. We’ve been able to keep up essentially a once-a-month schedule throughout most of our time online, and we want to maintain that going forward. And don’t worry, we won’t make a big deal out of the Patreon thing going forward–just a sentence or two at the end of each episode. As I said at the beginning of the post, we’ve been searching for American witchcraft for half a decade now. There’s still so much left to explore. We’re not anywhere near done. With your help, we can do so much more, but no matter what, we will keep up with that exploration and sharing it with you.

Thank you for getting us this far. We love you all, and can’t wait to see what comes next!

Thanks for…well, everything!

-Cory