SCRIBBLES

a brief note of explanation

Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash

and now for something completely different…

As some of you may know—or maybe you don’t—I put up my paywall with the intention of throwing my serial novels behind it. But who am I fooling? I only have 7 PAID subscribers—that’s right, SEVEN—and I’m grateful for every one of them. The first three subscribed because they wanted to support me as a writer, and I suppose, they felt that reaching out and donating to my page was a great way to do it. Another one was gifted, but that had to do with when I was on the Vocal platform. Another one is my brother. The last two are exactly what I’m looking for. The last two bought a subscription because they liked what they read. They wanted to encourage me to go on, and bought their subscriptions when I didn’t have anything else to offer but my new serial novel.

The problem I find, is that I believe some people feel they’re being pressured into going behind the paywall. That’s on me. It also couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sure, I’m retired now. And yes, I’m also on a limited income, but big fuckin’ deal; that means nothing. I have a friend who can’t afford the $5/month for a paid subscription. I’m confident there are plenty more like her about.

The paywall shouldn’t, (in my opinion), be for an elite group of people who get special perks—like my serial novel. The paywall should be for those who feel they want to support me because they LIKE my writing. They should be donating because they feel I deserve a little boost to encourage me.

I’m planning to be here for a long time. I mean, I just started this back in June of last year. So, what’s that? Ten months. I’ve got 151 subscritions. That averages 15/month. I’d like better numbers; I’d like more comments; I’d like more SHARES. I’m sure all of that will come in time. I’m not changing the format. It’s still going to be SHORT STORIES AFTER 8 on Sunday night, and my serial on Wednesdays.

For those of you—which is pretty well all of you (except for 7)—not familiar with my story—sorry, book—I can’t say much about it. It’s a story that takes place in the days of King Arthur. It doesn’t have a lot to do with the Arthur story—you know, the Launcelot and Guinevere betrayal. That’s where this one differs from all the other ones. It’s the story of a young knight on his way to Camelot who gets mixed up in different plots and conspiracies. There’s sex; swearing; violence. It’s a grown-up King Arthur story. There’s nothing like it out there that I know of—not like the story I have in my mind’s eye. That’s why it was always so hard for me to lock it away. (Especially when you consider that I only have 7 people reading it.)

So the paywall is more of a donation page.

You can buy a year’s subscription for $50, or just go the $5/month thing. Just pretend we’re having a cup of coffee and shooting the shit.