Reorganizing – and Substack

I’m always reorganizing. It’s kind of a habit. Part of it is that putting the details in order helps me to make plans. It works for my knitting and sewing stashes; it works for my research books and my office; it works for writing and publishing, too.

I used to post a lot about writing and publishing, about the business of making a living with creative work. I haven’t done that as much lately, but not because I’ve stopped thinking about those things. I thought that having posts like that here on the blog about my books, on the website featuring my books, would muck up the search engines. As a result, of late, my posts on my website blogs have been all about my books.

I’ve still been writing those little essays about the publishing world, and about fostering creativity, but haven’t been publishing them. That all changes this week. After a few months of test-driving, I’ve decided to put those posts on Substack. They’ll be behind the new paywall. I expect them to be of interest to writers like myself, maybe career writers. Only subscribers will be able to comment on the posts.

My first new post there went live yesterday, and it’s about the marketing strategy of free books.

The End of Free? some thoughts from Deborah Cooke at Substack

It’s entirely possible that I’ll end up having conversations with myself 🙂 but that’s okay. Writing these essays helps me make sense of the world and changes in it. By organizing my impressions, usually I end up with a better understanding of what’s happening and maybe even a plan.

I’ll also be moving a lot of my older posts on those subjects over there. Many of them have been unpublished here, so that will make them available again. The plan now is at least one new post on publishing every month (I’ll aim for the 15th), as well as the update on the first of the month that’s free to everyone.

Follow me on Substack.

Substack & Patreon

Both Substack and Patreon are where creators can post essays or serialize their fiction – and readers can follow or subscribe to a creator’s feed. Many offer both a free feed and a paid one. It’s another way for creators to find readers – or for readers to find authors – so I’m experimenting with both.

I’ve started to post a monthly update on both Patreon and Substack, including what’s in the works for the month ahead for both of my author brands. It’s kind of a newsletter update and will likely evolve over time. I just posted the first one at both Patreon and Substack (and yes, the posts are the same.) There’s also a bit more of a peek behind the scenes here than in my newsletters. It also provides everything in a single post, like an executive summary for the month ahead. While both portals allow for paid content, my feed is currently free.

If a single monthly update on me and my books sounds good to you, you can follow me on Substack right here or you can read my August update on Patreon and follow me there.