Hello, Sword and Scale fans! Thank you for showing and interest in helping to support your favorite podcast. Please consider donating monthly and becoming an official Sword and Scale Supporter. I'd like to take a few minutes to explain to you why this is important...

What it has taken to get here

When I started this podcast in January of 2014, I wanted to create the best true-crime podcast anyone had ever heard. I spent months before that planning, getting logos designed, getting the website built and the server set up, ordering equipment & software and testing it, and sound-treating a spare room in order to get pristine audio quality. I spent thousands of dollars of my own money and an inhuman amount of time create this program, which many of you have now come to love as much as I hoped you would.

Between the show's launch and today, there have been 82 hour-long episodes. This show is very different than most podcasts. Rather than a live recording of a conversation, we strive to tell a story using immersive production techniques. Because of this, the average time to produce a single episode is much greater than your average weekly podcast, which oftentimes is recorded live with no editing.

Each of these episodes represents an average of 20-30 hours of research, fact-checking, preparing for interviews, interviewing, recording, editing, mixing, selecting artwork, writing show notes and site maintenance. That's a total of 2,010 hours, or 251 full-time days, of work. For the first two years of the show's existence, this was all accomplished while holding down a full-time job in order to pay for mortgage, car, daily expenses, etc.

Imagine working two full-time jobs for two and a half years, with no end in sight. It's been a lot of work to get to this point, but our true fans continue to make it worth it.

The Fundraiser

In September of last year, I decided to test the waters and see how much the fan base was willing to give back. I set the bar for success pretty low because I didn't want the outcome to be: "Sorry, but there's no season 3 because we didn't meet our goals." Frankly, I had no idea what percentage of listeners would actually be willing to open their pocketbooks to help support us and I didn't even know if the stats were looking at about the number of listeners was actually even accurate.

So I launched the IndieGogo fundraiser as a test. It went very well and we raised just under $30,000. However, because the perks we gave away were actual physical goods such as T-Shirts, Mugs & Caps, about $12,000 went towards the cost of those items, and another $8,000 went towards the shipping and packaging materials top get those perks to you. So in the end we were left with just under $10,000. That's before the IRS took their cut. And that doesn't even take into account other expenses like hosting, freelance writer fees, and an internet connection. However, it was a successful test because 0.5% of our fans were willing to contribute if even just a dollar for content they already got for free.

So in June of last year, after an exhausting two and a half years, I decided it was time to either make Sword and Scale my full-time gig, or get out of podcasting altogether. I launched this Patreon in the hopes that fans would contribute a little bit of cash each month to help keep us producing content. The response has been incredible! Within a month I was able to quit my day job and make Sword and Scale my only job and top priority. Thanks to our fans, we can now continue producing more and more shows and even venture into new areas such as books, tv and film. We have also been able to hire some staff to help us continue producing the content you love on a regular basis.

At the end of last year we launched a new podcast produced exclusively for Patreon Supporters. It's called Sword and Scale Plus and you can get access to the entire back catalog as well as any future episodes starting at just $5 a month.

Please Contribute

Although we have had incredible success with our Patreon, the vast majority of listeners still do not contribute anything. Our current number of supporters represents less than 1% of our listener base. Imagine how much more we could do if every listener donated at least $1 a month.

So please take a moment to think about what this podcast means to you and how many hours of content we've already produced for you. Then contribute anything you can afford, but consider some of the higher tiers if you can afford it, but even the smallest contribution is extremely helpful.

Thank you for your continuing support and we hope you enjoy Season 4!

Mike Boudet
Host & Creator of Sword and Scale