"But is it repeatable?" -- that is the question of the day. Exactly. Just because blogger X does something successfully does most assuredly NOT mean that no-name me can reap the same or even similar rewards from doing the same shtick. Also, your closing line about "a lot of luck, effort and refusing to let the pandas...die" is bang on. Persistence and self-belief (or at least more self belief than self doubt) will get me further than if I do nothing. Just exactly what success looks like for me in my writing life depends quite a lot on the state of the larger world, the contents of my fridge, and how recently I have seen the sun shine through my windows. By which I mean, success is fickle but my desk and my laptop are always (t)here, waiting for me to do what I enjoy: putting words together into something that I hope will be read by some reader(s) somewhere. To reach that reader/those readers, I must first write, then post. And then repeat. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...
I love the transparency you provide here. So helpful, and I wish more people/orgs were willing to do that.
I also appreciate what you said about posts that are successful but take a lot of time from you and that you don’t enjoy writing. I don’t think anything you don’t enjoy doing most of the time can be sustainable.
Thanks for continuing to put content like this out there!
For what it's worth, I subscribed to TWDWWTD first and it's my favorite between the two newsletters! I definitely subscribed because I wanted to read those helpful posts, but it's nice to have some fun and remember humanity along the way. Plus I know how hard it is to constantly feel like you need to pull new, cutting edge relevation about the industry out of your butt. The fact that you can do it sometimes is impressive to me and well worth staying subscribed for. It is interesting to consider that the audience for TWDWWTD is more leaning towards editors than just writers. I think most editors are also writers, but most writers are not necessarily editors. So the audience of writers will always be bigger than editors. But that doesn't make the audience of editors small! In my very limited experience, there's a lot more information out there for writers than for editors, especially in regards to submission platforms. So I've found all the information you've geared toward editors extremely helpful and interesting!
I'm constantly telling my writer and editor friends about Chill Subs, since it remains the most interesting, exciting, and helpful website for writers that I'm aware of. As I became enamored with it, I was more willing to support it and to hear more about how it worked behind the scenes. So hopefully everything will continue to grow :)
aw thanks so much for this comment (and for support!), Rook! this substack is our favorite haha. we think our journey is pretty damn fun and honestly can’t wait for every Thursday to share something new and it’s cool to see it resonates with people💞 otherwise we’d be just stuck laughing at our own jokes on slack and then have them disappear into the void because we’re too broke to pay for unlimited message history
"But is it repeatable?" -- that is the question of the day. Exactly. Just because blogger X does something successfully does most assuredly NOT mean that no-name me can reap the same or even similar rewards from doing the same shtick. Also, your closing line about "a lot of luck, effort and refusing to let the pandas...die" is bang on. Persistence and self-belief (or at least more self belief than self doubt) will get me further than if I do nothing. Just exactly what success looks like for me in my writing life depends quite a lot on the state of the larger world, the contents of my fridge, and how recently I have seen the sun shine through my windows. By which I mean, success is fickle but my desk and my laptop are always (t)here, waiting for me to do what I enjoy: putting words together into something that I hope will be read by some reader(s) somewhere. To reach that reader/those readers, I must first write, then post. And then repeat. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...
I love the transparency you provide here. So helpful, and I wish more people/orgs were willing to do that.
I also appreciate what you said about posts that are successful but take a lot of time from you and that you don’t enjoy writing. I don’t think anything you don’t enjoy doing most of the time can be sustainable.
Thanks for continuing to put content like this out there!
100% and I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's been on my mind a lot
For what it's worth, I subscribed to TWDWWTD first and it's my favorite between the two newsletters! I definitely subscribed because I wanted to read those helpful posts, but it's nice to have some fun and remember humanity along the way. Plus I know how hard it is to constantly feel like you need to pull new, cutting edge relevation about the industry out of your butt. The fact that you can do it sometimes is impressive to me and well worth staying subscribed for. It is interesting to consider that the audience for TWDWWTD is more leaning towards editors than just writers. I think most editors are also writers, but most writers are not necessarily editors. So the audience of writers will always be bigger than editors. But that doesn't make the audience of editors small! In my very limited experience, there's a lot more information out there for writers than for editors, especially in regards to submission platforms. So I've found all the information you've geared toward editors extremely helpful and interesting!
I'm constantly telling my writer and editor friends about Chill Subs, since it remains the most interesting, exciting, and helpful website for writers that I'm aware of. As I became enamored with it, I was more willing to support it and to hear more about how it worked behind the scenes. So hopefully everything will continue to grow :)
aw thanks so much for this comment (and for support!), Rook! this substack is our favorite haha. we think our journey is pretty damn fun and honestly can’t wait for every Thursday to share something new and it’s cool to see it resonates with people💞 otherwise we’d be just stuck laughing at our own jokes on slack and then have them disappear into the void because we’re too broke to pay for unlimited message history
Insightful and useful info. Much thanks! <333
Happy Thanksgiving if you're into that sort of thing.
You can make yourself feel better by also viewing the indigenous land you're currently occupying...
https://native-land.ca/
Thank you! And and no, I don't celebrate thanksgiving. Haven't lived in the states for over a decade. Not one of the things I miss.
Respect 🫡