So that’s been a year (thirteen months, technically) of my Substack adventures and I’d tentatively say it’s been a success. There have been a few teething problems, a fair bit of trial and error, a lot of helpful feedback, and enough subscribers to make me think this is worth continuing, so thank you all.
My original plan was to offer a paid subscription option after a year and to begin publishing two books that I think would work particularly well in serialisation, but for the moment I’m going to hold off. Around the world we are all having to tighten our belts and rethink what we spend money on. If people are cancelling their subscriptions to things like Netflix, I can’t imagine there being much of a rush to move that expense over to me. In part that is exacerbated by Substack’s pricing system. The cheapest subscription I could offer would be $5US a month (682JPY/£4.11GBP). That’s $60/Y8184/£49.32 a year. For that I’d be offering two full length books plus some other content. Two books published traditionally would set you back £20-30 at most, so that’s very clearly not a good deal from your point of view. Maybe one or two of you, out of pity perhaps, might subscribe but then I’d be self-publishing two books for an audience of two and in that case I might as well just send you a PDF and you can get me a coffee some time. So my Substack will remain free until either Substack removes their minimum pricing or I can offer more bang for your bucks.
Incidentally, they have the minimum pricing to “to encourage writers to charge more than they think they are worth.” It’s a nice idea, and in all honesty I think books do sell too cheaply (especially if you’re buying from Amazon, or through heavily discounted deals such as 3 for 2) but the reason publishers and book shops don’t ask £25 for a book is that few would ever pay it.
One option I considered is the “Buy me a Coffee” model, which I do quite like. I’ve used it to support some podcasts and writers whose work I enjoy (living in Japan, it’s difficult for me to set up recurring subscriptions for overseas providers from my bank or credit card - not impossible, just frustrating enough to put me off). However the whole point of Substack for me was to have everything in one place, and directing you to a different website runs against that ideal. So again, things will pretty much remain as they are.
It’s been a learning curve, but I still have many questions: What do you like? What do you not like? What would you like to see that you currently don’t? How is the timing? I did publish every Wednesday morning but I got feedback that people were waiting until the weekend to read so I moved it to Saturday morning. However, that’s Japanese time and I have subscribers in many different time zones so is that really the optimal moment? My biggest question, which I guess none of you can answer, is why people subscribe and then leave after one post? When I subscribe to another Substack I read a few of the previous posts to get a sense of what it is and decide whether I want to keep reading, so the first post emailed to me isn’t a surprise. Doesn’t everyone? So is someone going “wait, a short story? I didn’t want that. Unsubscribe now!” Or is it the timing (this is my suspicion), that a new subscriber in the UK (for example) is getting my email at 1am and is so pissed off they quit? Not much I can do about that, I guess. Anyway, if you have feedback, answers, ideas, or more questions, do let me know.
So again, thanks for continuing to follow this site. It’s been an up and down year in general, but from a creative point of view, quite successful. Substack took off, I published two books through traditional publishing routes (In the Shadow of Piper Alpha and Envy the Seasons) and my band, Red Flag Waltz, released our debut mini-album, Homesick Nomad. In 2023, I’ll publish The Japan Lights with Tippermuir Books (much more on this later, you can count on that) and I’ll be travelling around to promote it. There will be events in the UK and Japan for sure. I had to cancel a book event in Montreal because of Corona so I’m keen to reschedule that, and I’ll honestly go anywhere that will have me. Got a bookshop, library or festival? I’m in.
So to end, in Nick Hornby style, top fives:
Top Five Best Things of 2022: 1. Republishing In the Shadow of Piper Alpha 2. Publishing Envy the Seasons 3. Releasing my first ever album 4. Securing a publishing deal for The Japan Lights 5. Planning a trip to Canada to see four Pearl Jam shows, the first time I'd see them since Glasgow, 2000.
Top Five Worst Things of 2022: 1. Catching Corona and missing my wife's birthday and Christmas. 2. Cancelling my trip to Canada to see four Pearl Jam shows and do a book event in Montreal because of Japan's insane Corona rules. 3. Ticketmaster doing to me what the Tories have been doing to Britain for 12 years. Taylor Swift fans, I feel your pain but you got a loooooong way to go before you understand how Pearl Jam fans feel about Ticketmaster. I've now paid more than $1000 dollars to see Pearl Jam once, 22 years ago. 4. A hernia operation. (Yes, this may be recency bias but fourth seems right to me). 5. I don't know, the climate or Elon fucking Musk probably.
Other than that, I’ve no idea what 2023 has in store. It’s going to be fun finding out. Happy New Year.
Happy New Year from Perthshire. What a bummer about the Pearl Jam tickets (and Christmas and wife's birthday of course). Can I rub it in further by noting one of my top events of 2022 was the week before Christmas, seeing Glasvegas in the Barrowlannds. I was introduced to Glasvegas about 15 years ago by a fellow expat Scot, and remember the thrill of hearing them online in my home in Vientiane, the cicadas competing at volume with these young lads belting out really emotional stories in their own Glaswegian voices. Now back in Scotland, I bought the Barrowlands tickets as soon as they went on sale months ago. A huge freeze looked like stymying it but I got there. The first concert I've been to since before covid, by myself as my husband, a dedicated concert goer, died during the pandemic. We'd gone to Barrowlands together over the years. It was everything I'd hoped for, in with the crowd who knew every word. I've never before seen so many men hug each other with exhilaration and emotion as the lights came up, and we were all, wrung out by the experience, spilling out, tired and emotional as traditionally Glasgow, into the minus 8 Glasgow night.
Hope you get to Pearl Jam. Sorry, that all just spilled out.