I’ve gained some clarity on what I want this Substack to eventually be, so I’m writing it all down as a way of holding myself accountable.
To start: my goal is to be writing novels. I have one that’s almost ready to share, and two others that are underway, both of which will be given more attention once I get this first one out the door to some friends.
I’d like to eventually live a life where I’m supporting myself entirely on my writing. I don’t know if that’s possible, and if it is, how likely.
The ‘traditional’ ways of doing this don’t much appeal to me. And by the traditional way, I mean teaching.
University positions have become the default path for writers who take their work serious enough to know it won’t be a best-seller. I say ‘positions’ because for many writers, the academic route is essentially one short-term fellowship after another, with the hopes that they one day end up at some school they have no connection to in a town they would never otherwise live in, teaching composition to Econ majors in sweats.
This is not my dream. And I’ve seen enough of how the academic sausage gets made to know that I’d rather risk it out along the frontier of entrepreneurship than settle for the cattle house of an English department.
My thoughts on traditional publishing are more mixed. I’d like to have novels that come out with established publishers because I want to hold a physical book in my hands. However, I again reject the quote-unquote established method of publishing via a press and then trying to support your book through endless, half-attended ‘readings’ and interviews with unread magazines. I’ve seen and known too many writers who, having written a fine debut novel, then get sucked into the petty matrix of the academic/small press/book ‘conferences’ world, where they inevitably end up caring less about their craft because they’re too busy playing dumber popularity games.
I want to write. I need time to write. Time I have to spend making money so I can write is time I’m not getting to write. That is the essence of my motivation.
Where does this Substack come in? For one, it’s just fun. I like writing in a variety of styles and mediums, and this can be a place where I share everything. Poems, jottings, mini-essays and aphorisms. Photos, short stories, chapter drafts, etc.
The more ambitious personal moonshot would be to get a first book published with a real adult press, and then use whatever little attention I get from that to funnel people to this publication. Then rinse, repeat. Grow a little personal media thing. Maybe even sell some self-published novellas along the way.
I can’t imagine building an audience the ‘slow and steady way,’ despite, or because, of my day job in media. (I loathe the of making content that’s optimized for SEO.) Hence, I’m aware that if people are going to find their way to this blog, it’s going to be in lumps, and it starts with writing books.
That’s basically the plan, if it can be considered a plan. I have more ideas about how self-publishing and the creator space could eventually upend traditional publishing, but for now, taking the time to articulate those thoughts would just be procrastination and cope. The reality is none of this matters if I don’t write the books I want to write, and have them matter to at least a small group of people. So as fun as it is to daydream, that will remain the main focus for now.
I’ll continue to try and send some updates here once a month or so, with links to anything I’ve published to the site. I’ve only posted a few things the last couple of weeks: belated New Year’s reflections, an old poem of mine, and some jottings on faith I plan to continually update and refresh.
More to come in March. Thanks for reading, and be well.