I am not entirely sure where it began, but I have always had a strange obsession with stats and numbers. Perhaps it was because math tended to come easy to me when I was a kid. Maybe it was learning about the importance of numbers in the order of the universe. Whatever it was, it is an obsession that has stuck around into my adult life.
This may explain why I so often head to the Substack stats page to get a look at what’s what. I am certainly not doing it to stroke my own ego or vanity as my subscribers climb. It’s more about trying to determine what it is I am doing to create that effect. Are there certain themes that bring in more eyes? Did I say something to make people want to check out? For me, it’s all about a learning process and trying to find the sweet spot that will make the maximum number of people stick around and engage.
Why am I rattling on about this now, I hear you ask. Well, it all stemmed from an excellent article I read by Kimberly Ramsawak this morning. In that piece, she talks about hitting a plateau in the horror stack genre and trying to figure out why. I have not yet hit that point, but I am also aware that everything has a peak.
Within the article, she also discussed the need to understand what it is you are trying to deliver on Substack. How would you describe your offering in a single sentence? The more I thought about it, the more I found myself unable to answer that question. I have become so lost in the numbers side of the game that I have maybe lost my way in delivering a message to subscribers, as well as those who may be on the fence about subscribing to my work.
I can sit here and tell myself to get out of my own head, but I know that doing so is like turning the Titanic around to avoid the iceberg. With that in mind, I would like to put the question to you, the people who read my work. How would you describe my Substack in a single sentence.
Please be aware that this is not an expedition to fish for compliments. It is honestly my trying to figure out how to adequately explain what I do to anyone that might ask.
Jarring narratives designed to unsettle the reader in a single breath.
Modern penny dreadfuls.