​When I first began Raythe Reign 10 years ago next month, I can honestly say that I was delusional. Yes, you heard that right! I was the writer of very niche fanfic in the Star Wars universe. I had no great following. I certainly did not have any break out hits that attracted trad pub like we hear nowadays of Wattpad writers! I think if Lucasfilm or Disney ever saw my most popular fanfic, Forbidden (Luke x Vader incest...), they likely would have demanded it be taken down and that I would be forever restricted from writing. Lucky for me, they didn't!
Basically, I was an unknown writer who had peculiar tastes and kinks and yet I thought people would actually PAY to read my stuff. Looking back at where we are now, it's easy to say that it wasn't a risk and was some clever foretelling of what was to come. But it wasn't. I had stories in me that wanted to come out and I need money to buy the art and support the infrastructure for sharing them. So Raythe Reign was born.
I invested thousands of dollars I didn't have. The credit card bills were stunning to say the least. If Raythe Reign failed, I would be paying that money off until I died. Yet I kept going. I wouldn't give up my dream. Part of it was because I had been living someone else's dream for a long time at that point as a lawyer, which ill suited me, and had just been diagnosed with cancer the year before. I felt that if I didn't do this and do it it NOW, it would never happen. And so, I put myself into debt, I convinced amazing artists to work with me, and more and more talented people found me and said, "I want to work with you. I think this Raythe Reign idea has merit."
And, of course, there's you, our members, without which, literally, none of this would have happened. You made my dream become reality and are making it grow every minute, hour, day, month, year and now decade. Some of you have literally been with me for months or years or even since the beginning, and I am beyond humbled that anyone would invest in me, in Raythe Reign, like that. And those of you who have just started with us, thank you for taking a chance on something that may have looked a little weird.
To thank you--if even a little bit--for all your support, every week, starting today, I will be giving away free stuff to Members along with deep discounts on everything we've got from free ebooks to free memberships to give away to your friends.
In the email you received today, you have a code for the shop to get Ghost Neo-Tokyo: Date Night manga, which is usually $9.95, for FREE. Go grab your copy now!
And thank you so much,
Raythe
