The Grasshopper Issue #93: Readers!
January was a good month over here
The first month of the year is not always my favorite, with its dark gray days and unpredictable weather. Haven’t seen the sun here in a long time. But I made some changes to The Grasshopper and The Witness Chronicles, two newsletters who share the same subscriber list.
Basically, I started publishing articles to The Witness Chronicles more frequently rather than once a week because they deal with topical subjects, particularly the US elections. I’ve seen a noticeable uptick in reads and reader engagement, which is fantastic, so thank you. It tells me that I’m not alone in my concerns and observations.
Substack runs a comment thread for publishers to exchange experiences once a week. It’s mostly newbies and I love to see the enthusiasm when a writer reaches a basic milestone like signing up their first 100 subscribers. It’s a big deal to have 100 people choose to let you send stuff into our in boxes.
I’ve been past that milestone for quite awhile now, in part because I had a good following on Medium and was able to leverage it. But for a new writer to jump in without a base, finding that first one hundred can be a frustrating process.
I didn’t actually start out by asking my friends and family to read this and have not since. Some find it but I wanted to see if previous readers would follow me here. This January saw more upgrades to paid and an increase in Medium followers after a few months of slow growth. And especially, more readers buying me a coffee or three, which is always fun.
Not getting rich, but feeling the love, or like.
The variety of subjects covered in this newsletter revolution is startling, as is how well some really obscure topics do. Unfortunately including Nazi and other hate groups that the Substack founders have been accused of enabling. They handled that issue poorly because they appeared to be letting them violate the terms and conditions of publishing here, all in the name of free speech.
That storm seems to have blown over but it will return. I’m glad I’m not them because the issue is a tough one: be an agnostic platform, the Wild West, or impose limits. There are some very strange ideas about what freedom of speech means, led by the increasingly wack Elon Musk. It’s the ‘crying fire in a crowded theater’ conundrum. In a decent society you can’t do that for very good reasons.
But sometimes when you tell certain people they cannot reasonably do something, it just makes them want to do it more.
Once we put our stuff out in public, we no longer get to choose our readers, and that is something that can be a shock when you run into a hater. Despite writing about very controversial subjects, I have been fortunate to only run into a few obviously messed up readers. Not messed up because they disagree with me, just disturbed. I block them and move on. This is not a forum for hate.
But this January has brought out a streak of optimism in me after a few years of seriously worrying about the state of things. I’m not sure the logic is sound but I have to go with it. I hope it turns out to be justified.
You hear a lot of advice about writing from the heart, especially in a place as strangely intimate as a newsletter in an email. It’s so one on one, which is why it’s called a newsletter. I’m old enough to remember when people wrote letters to others, though I do not remember doing so myself.
My 92 year old mother still hand writes letters and people love getting them.
Letter writing was an art form in the days when people wrote back and forth daily and mail in big cities was delivered multiple times a day. And for many famous personages of their time, those letters are their legacy, the writing that reveals to person in real time, from day to day.
Some newsletter writers do choose to publish daily and this month I moved a little closer to that frequency. Right now The Grasshopper is weekly, Witness is 3-4 times a week, and my other letter, The Remarkable, is weekly more or less. And my publishing on Medium is 4-5 pieces a week as the times dictate.
If that sounds a little nuts, it is, but I repurpose the Medium writing on The Witness Chronicles, so it’s not quite as crazy as it might seem. To be honest, I love it and I love not always being sure what will resonate. Sometimes you’re surprised by what people relate to.
I’m less of a reader than I used to be, but almost no one was as an avid reader as I once was. I’m hesitant to buy books because they pile up and my apartment is full of them. And I don’t care to read ebooks though I’m coming around with that.
I think a lot of that change is driven by streaming and the sheer quantity of content I can access on my TV. This month I have been sucked in by True Detective, Night Country, the limited series starring Jody Foster, indigenous actor Kali Reis, and a fantastic cast of characters set in the far north of Alaska. It’s a murder mystery with shades of X-files, and a bit of David Lynch.
The amount of work and imagination that goes into any of these productions is mind boggling, even with the ones that fall flat. Writing for screens is definitely the dominant kind of writing these days, like it or not. I do, but I do because it still requires all the elements a good novel requires. Story, character, setting, voice, etc.
And style, perhaps more than ever. Writers tend to get the short shift in Hollywood, which always mystified me because with no words, and no story, you’ve got nothing, except possibly a formula. But we are seeing less formulaic writing on screen these days, excepting the network cop shows and sitcoms which repeat formulas endlessly.
Personally, I go with the flow on all of this. Storytelling can cross a lot of different ways to reach people. Books, songs, theater, your tv or phone; it’s all legitimate expression. And as a writer, we all have many more opportunities to get our work out there.
There are eight billion potential readers out there and we only have to reach a handful to call ourselves writers. And reaching your handful is getting easier, even if the money is not great. So keep those coffees and subscriptions coming!
I just used an exclamation point, something I rarely do. I can’t stand writing where the writer seems to think their every sentence deserves or needs exaggerated emphasis. When you overdo these things you get the equivalent of artificial perkiness, which can be incredibly annoying. Think twice and use sparingly.
Although I mentioned my optimistic tone these days, it doesn’t mean I need to shout it to the rooftops with lots of !!!. Tone is a vibe that underlies your voice and it can only be natural. If you fake it, your readers will know.
Have you written today?
Martin Edic
1325 words
~ I write The Grasshopper, a letter for creatives, The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate, and The Remarkable, a recovery letter, about my addiction and reentry experience. All are weekly and free, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your upgrade to a paid subscription helps make that happen.
If you want to show support but don’t want to commit to a subscription, you can always buy me a coffee!
Believe me, it makes my day. M
Martin, I always read your stuff because your writing resonates so much with me. For some reason, I tend to notice unimportant details, so I just wanted to point out that this tiny misspelling snuck past your copy editor: "Writers tend to get the short shift in Hollywood". (shrift) ;-)
Keep up the good work I read everything you write as do most of my students. I have a couple that are dealing with addiction issues and you have been very helpful for them--in fact for all of us. I think you have hit many nails on the head and hopefully, some minds will declutter them selves from the Trump cult. Thank you, Martin!