Throwing Open the Gates
A Change in Policy Because I Want People to Read My Stuff
Hey there, everyone. How are you all doing?
I decided to post this to announce a slight change in programming. I have more than 200 subscribers at the moment, and I’m hoping that continues. I have progressively grown this number, but it is by no means exponential growth. I do have some paid subscribers, but no more than a handful in all honesty.
If you might have noticed, most of the posts I’ve been making have been free for anyone wishing to read it. Frankly, there are plenty of people creating a tremendous amount of writing and releasing it for free, even though they are receiving paid subscriptions.
For the past year or two, I’ve been archiving my older stories while keeping the newer ones for the most part free for reading. It has been something of a chore to do this on the Substack platform. Unlike some other platforms (Wordpress comes to mind), it’s relatively difficult to make bulk edits or changes to stories.
Thus, converting multiple stories from free to paid status, or vice versa, is a dragging, time-eating enterprise, and I’d frankly prefer to be using my time on something fun and creative rather than tedious and administrative.
So, I’m going to be switching things up.
How Things Will Be Now
As of right now, I would say that 95-98 percent of the posts I will make on this platform going forward will be available to everyone.
However, as I mentioned previously, many of my “paywalled” or archived stories will remain behind the paywall due to the simple reason that it is a major hassle to switch over an article from paid to free or vise versa with the current Substack dashboard, and I do not have a massive amount of faith Substack will make it a priority to make this feature more user-friendly.
If you would like to support me financially, either through a paid subscription to this blog or a one-time donation option (see the button below), it would absolutely be appreciated.
What Will You, Dear Readers, Receive for Your Paid Subscription?
I do not claim to be a master hustler when it comes to promotional things. However, I have an idea.
I think a paid subscription would be worth one major “writing wish” (Tier 1) and another minor writing wish (Tier 2). Or, I guess three Tier 2 wishes.
Tier 1:
An exclusive short story (1,000-5,000 words). Feel free to suggest a subject or premise, or let it be my choice if you want.
A review of your work (book, poetry collection, blog, etc.) cross-posted wherever you’d like and on this blog.
Beta reading any writing project.
Tier 2:
Advice on any writing project. Call it a free consultation.
A poem of no more than 20 stanzas.
Proofreading up to 50 pages of text.
Feel free to suggest any other writing or related gifts in the comments.
Dear reader, if you are a paid subscriber and you would want to collect on these wishes, all you have to do is contact me by clicking on the button below. I look forward to hearing from you. Or, if you think I’m being too cheap or too generous with these wishes, feel free to tell me that as well. Hopefully, we can have some fun.