Not a Quitter

One of the things that almost stopped me a year ago…

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This is a milestone post.

I have been on Substack for one year.

I thought about starting a newsletter for my community of other romance writers for almost six months before taking the plunge. I'm not a joiner; I'm a bit of an introvert and thought this was one way to reach out to other writers and still use some of my skills as a teacher while learning myself. One of the things that kept me from doing it earlier was a fear of failure. In the case of this newsletter, I feared that I wouldn't be able to write non-fiction consistently, week after week. Where would my ideas come from? What do I know about writing a newsletter? What do I know about writing romance when I've only written three books and I’m still figuring all this out myself? Like many other things in life I’ve discovered, you learn by doing.

I want to thank you for signing up to receive the newsletter and allowing me to learn by doing. I started with twelve subscribers. By the end of the first month, it jumped to thirty-two, and we are now closing in on a hundred. However, I have anywhere between 180-400 readers from week to week who have yet to officially subscribe. If you enjoy reading What Do Romance Writers Think About? and have not subscribed, I'd appreciate it if you'd push the subscribe button and if you already subscribe and like it, please share it with an interested friend. Subscribing validates what I’m doing.

What have I learned over the past year from writing the newsletter?

• I've learned that I don't always know what makes an interesting post. Things that I don't think will get read, get shared, and get lots of views. In contrast, other articles might not get as many views but bring me more subscribers and other articles might garner more reader comments. I never know what kind of response I’ll receive from a given article, but perhaps I'll figure it out this year.

• I've learned that some subscribers are also Substack writers and a few are romance writers new to Substack. I am excited by the prospect of cross-posting or having them guest author.

• I've learned that subjects for posts can't be the same every week. Some weeks they need to be on marketing. Other weeks on craft and still others of a more personal nature.

• I've learned to have several topics going at one time; this way I'm never without something to write about and I’m not sitting at my computer Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning beating my head against the computer—not a pretty sight.

• I've learned that I get as much from the readers/writers commenting as I give, deepening my own knowledge.

My vision for What Do Romance Authors Think About? Depends on your interest. Destination and direction are invaluable, and I hope you, as readers, will provide me with content ideas. Next week I’m writing about selling books directly off your website. If anyone has experience with this, please email or drop something in the comment section.

Again, my thanks to all of you.