Possible upcoming changes
It’s been about a year since I started this newsletter, and it seems like a good time to take stock of where things are, especially as I am considering some changes.
When I started it, I did so partially because I missed having a place to talk about books in a way that went a little deeper than just the couple of sentences blurb/ shout that happens on most social media. Don’t get me wrong – I love shouting about books, even in that abbreviated form – but I wanted a place where I could go a little deeper, where I could dust off some of my academic skills and training, and maybe even have some conversations.
From that perspective, I feel like this newsletter has been successful. I enjoy writing these essays. It’s usually pretty easy for me to think of a topic for the week, and I’ve had some great conversations with some of you.
However, another reason I started this newsletter was because I was hoping for subscribers, specifically paying subscribers. For a little over a decade now, my dayjob has been freelance manuscript editing, and while I love working with writers, it’s not the most predictable source of income. I was hoping that I could put out writing that would help me pay the bills, and do so in a more regular way. To be very blunt, that hasn’t happened. I have 212 subscribers, 23 paying, and have made $890 in the past year.
I’m not saying that to make anyone feel guilty or like I’m asking for something (in fact, as you’ll see, I’m about to do the opposite.) I just want to be transparent. Look, I know that it seems like everyone has a newsletter now, and I know that things are tight for a lot of us (part of why everyone has a newsletter – we’re just all trading the $5 subscription back and forth every month). It can be impossible to keep up, just in terms of the reading, much less to offer financial support to all the writers that you might want to.
At the same time, I have to think about where my time goes. I love writing these essays, but they do take time, and particularly when I’m rereading a book in order to write them. They definitely take more time than the roughly $20 an essay that $890 a year comes out to (with the month or so I took off for Covid, and the couple of other times where I have not been able to keep to my one post a week schedule.) And yes, I’m pretty sure I could boost my numbers if I started talking about writing as well as reading – either my own process or writing advice generally, but honestly, there are already so many other writers out there doing that, I’m not at all certain I could add anything new.
I’m not planning to close this newsletter altogether. I am probably going to do a set of horror-themed posts for October, for example. But I am considering taking that one post a week pressure off of myself, which is why I wanted to send this out now – if you are someone who signed up for a yearly subscription when I started this, your subscription will be coming up for renewal soon. I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re not getting what they paid for, so if having those regular weekly posts matters to you, you may want to consider not renewing.
I’m so grateful to those of you who have subscribed, and for anyone who continues to do so.