I have been thinking about adding a subscription option to this newsletter; however, regardless of what I do, I will not ever charge you, my current subscribers. For you, this will always be free.
Please tell me if there is something you would like me to offer subscribers. I have been thinking about offering things like sample chapters, details from my research, and possibly even a query-letter review feature. I’ll be honest: writing query letters is difficult, and I have not been successful yet in acquiring an agent, but I do have a good proofreading eye and can spot errors in sentence structure and grammar. Again, please send me or post your suggestions for features I might add.
I did just enable the “pledge” feature on this newsletter. According to Substack, “If you haven't turned on paid subscriptions for your Substack, Pledges are a tool for your audience to show you they believe your work is valuable. This feature allows your subscribers to pledge to become a paid subscriber if and when you turn on paid subscriptions.”
Here is what I set up:
I wanted to suggest $2 for the monthly pledge, but as you see, Substack requires $5. Again, these are just pledges, not subscription fees.
Please help me out by by sharing, forwarding, restacking, etc. my newsletter. I will continue to post information about my research and writing. In my next post, I’ll include everything about how my querying is going, including my latest version of my query letter and the list of agents I’ve contacted.
Now, I thought I should add at least a tidbit of history from one of my sources:
Florida Frontiers “Did the Ancient Maya Visit Florida?”
A big part of the plot of my novel Shame of Kings involves my main character, Prince Sinapa of the Calusa tribe, traveling by open boat across the Gulf of Mexico to reach the Aztec Empire. The Calusas never made this journey, but they did live on the coast and their diet was largely fish and shellfish. Still, I wanted my plot to be plausible and looked for evidence of early sea travel across the Gulf.
I found the article linked here: Florida Frontiers “Did the Ancient Maya Visit Florida?” It discusses the possibility that such travel took place. As my story is historical fiction, this plausibility was good enough for me. Check out the article if you are interested early sea travel and the Mayans. Here is a picture I found of a Mayan boat:
I've had this post up in one of my tabs for several days. Sorry it has taken this long to comment. I am pondering the same questions about subscriptions, etc. I haven't turned mine on and think that, when I do, I'll keep everything free but invite contributions. I think it all depends on your goals for your newsletter. I see mine as a way to meet others with similar interests, to introduce them to the fiction I am working on, encourage and learn from each other, iron sharpening iron along the way. I don't see how I can produce additional material that would justify a paywall. I'm painfully aware that every hour spent on my newsletter essays, articles, etc. is precious time taken from my long-form fiction. My fiction progress is paying a real cost here. My Substack newsletters are short but take between 3 and 5 hours to write and edit. That's a lot of important hours lost on the fiction every week. Last week I was considering reducing my newsletters/posts from one per week to once every two weeks. And yet, without our newsletters, etc. we toil away alone--neither smart, nor healthy. I wish someone had answers for us, but we're all finding our way. I'm wishing you well in your adventure here!