I decided to stop looking at stats. There could be a number of reasons why people unsubscribe. Some do it because they've too many emails and want to clean house, they want the free stuff, and or they don't remember subscribing and so they unsubscribe...etc. I do that too. When I started subscribing to Substack writers, my inbox was just too much to look at it. So, I switched from emails to notifications on the Substack app only. I find that it's been tolerable to do it that way for me. As for my own Substack, I just focus on writing and finding other platforms to get new readers.
As someone hoping to release a long-long form novel on Substack (220K), I’ve been thinking about your post all morning. It fits with observations I am making about my own reading habits, which concern me for long-form/serialized fiction.
Note, these are my behaviors as a new Substack subscriber to fiction, not everyone else’s, but I’ll take a stab at describing them.
• I have one designated time in the day for fiction—at night, before falling asleep. The rest of the day, it’s micro-micro hits or I can’t. I just can’t. No matter how badly I want to. Day Job, life responsibilities, my own writing, three critique groups, yada, yada.
• All these great stories flowing into my inbox—All. Day. Long.
• At night, I want to sink into something and read until I can’t read anymore.
• I don’t want to try to find the beginning of something from an email I saw that morning, or three days ago (now buried and forgotten).
• I don’t want to start in the middle.
• I want to start at the beginning.
• I don’t want to have to click around to find the earlier episodes when I have an 18” tall TBR stack of physical books sitting at my bedside. Or too many kindle downloads unread.
• But, I really want to read some of the fiction on this platform.
Here’s my plan: I have an old iPad. Once I finish reading the physical novel I’m working through, I’m going to set that iPad up like a dedicated Substack fiction reader, find a long-form story I want to read, and read it from the beginning, like a book. I’m not sure whose story I will start with. And I probably won’t say until I’m finished, in case I DNF something.
So, as a writer hoping to release long fiction here on Substack… I dunno. I just dunno. Observing my own behavior is causing me the most doubt.
All this is to say: It’s not the writing, Ben. It's the reading.
I'm not sure that looking at the stats is very healthy. Mind you, I do it too! And it upsets me when I lose a subscriber (they're all free subs) and it takes me 2 weeks to get a new one... but I tell myself: slow and easy, keep at it. Ben, I have to be honest, I have stopped reading the Locksley serial, part of it is that each episode is very long. I read a lot of "stacks" and I try to comment on them too. So it takes time. When I see a very long one, I think: "I'll read it later". In the case of the serial, I've lost the thread and I'm not involved enough with the characters to go back and catch up. I'm just too busy reading stories (I'm about to start a guest editing spot for a mag and expect a boatload of submissions). Writer friends send me stuff, I'm up to my nose proofreading my collection, etc.. etc.. Small bites are my thing right now! But I won't un-subscribe, I love your writing!
I decided to stop looking at stats. There could be a number of reasons why people unsubscribe. Some do it because they've too many emails and want to clean house, they want the free stuff, and or they don't remember subscribing and so they unsubscribe...etc. I do that too. When I started subscribing to Substack writers, my inbox was just too much to look at it. So, I switched from emails to notifications on the Substack app only. I find that it's been tolerable to do it that way for me. As for my own Substack, I just focus on writing and finding other platforms to get new readers.
I love long-form fiction.
As someone hoping to release a long-long form novel on Substack (220K), I’ve been thinking about your post all morning. It fits with observations I am making about my own reading habits, which concern me for long-form/serialized fiction.
Note, these are my behaviors as a new Substack subscriber to fiction, not everyone else’s, but I’ll take a stab at describing them.
• I have one designated time in the day for fiction—at night, before falling asleep. The rest of the day, it’s micro-micro hits or I can’t. I just can’t. No matter how badly I want to. Day Job, life responsibilities, my own writing, three critique groups, yada, yada.
• All these great stories flowing into my inbox—All. Day. Long.
• At night, I want to sink into something and read until I can’t read anymore.
• I don’t want to try to find the beginning of something from an email I saw that morning, or three days ago (now buried and forgotten).
• I don’t want to start in the middle.
• I want to start at the beginning.
• I don’t want to have to click around to find the earlier episodes when I have an 18” tall TBR stack of physical books sitting at my bedside. Or too many kindle downloads unread.
• But, I really want to read some of the fiction on this platform.
Here’s my plan: I have an old iPad. Once I finish reading the physical novel I’m working through, I’m going to set that iPad up like a dedicated Substack fiction reader, find a long-form story I want to read, and read it from the beginning, like a book. I’m not sure whose story I will start with. And I probably won’t say until I’m finished, in case I DNF something.
So, as a writer hoping to release long fiction here on Substack… I dunno. I just dunno. Observing my own behavior is causing me the most doubt.
All this is to say: It’s not the writing, Ben. It's the reading.
I'm not sure that looking at the stats is very healthy. Mind you, I do it too! And it upsets me when I lose a subscriber (they're all free subs) and it takes me 2 weeks to get a new one... but I tell myself: slow and easy, keep at it. Ben, I have to be honest, I have stopped reading the Locksley serial, part of it is that each episode is very long. I read a lot of "stacks" and I try to comment on them too. So it takes time. When I see a very long one, I think: "I'll read it later". In the case of the serial, I've lost the thread and I'm not involved enough with the characters to go back and catch up. I'm just too busy reading stories (I'm about to start a guest editing spot for a mag and expect a boatload of submissions). Writer friends send me stuff, I'm up to my nose proofreading my collection, etc.. etc.. Small bites are my thing right now! But I won't un-subscribe, I love your writing!