The State of My Substack

It's only just begun

I can’t remember the exact date I put together my first note on here, and I am much too lazy to go back and check. By my estimation, it is somewhere in the 3–4-month range, although it sure feels shorter than that. Over the last few days, I have been thinking about what has passed on here, but perhaps more importantly, I’ve been thinking about what’s to come and WHY I am here.

At first, it was pure curiosity that brought me to the Substack table, and as I settled in, there was a definite period of not feeling good enough to be here. There is so much great work on Substack that it becomes easy for the lacking in self-confident to feel as though they should be a reader, not a writer.

Something funny happened, though, which was that I started to gain a following, receiving a lot of kind words and encouragement along the way. For an old fella pushing 60, it felt very good to be seen and understood by the cool crowd. I look at my subs now (733) and am stunned that so many of you have taken the time to follow along with what I am doing, which is where I should talk about my main purpose at this point.

My wife, as she so often does, prodded me to turn on paid subs. I would do nothing, not a damn thing, without her encouragement, and while it felt weird to take that step, Penny explained that it was logical. Now, while subs of any kind are great, I am realizing that what I really want is an audience, people to whom I can sound out my barbaric yawp (IYKYK).

Given that it eyes that I want on my words, I am going to do a couple of things. From this point forward, anyone who subscribes will receive a 30-day paid upgrade, so you can all get to see what it is I do on a daily basis. If you want to upgrade after the fact, I am going to maintain the annual subscription at $30 in perpetuity. I believe in getting paid for my art, but I also believe in setting a price on that art that most can afford.

I will be posting something here every single damn day. Some of it will suck, but every now and again, lightning will strike and I’ll deliver something you might remember for a minute. I appreciate every single one of you that has read anything of mine, even a note, and I will make sure that I will continue to crank out the words until I keel over at my laptop.

Hope to see you all here in the meantime.