MONEY, MEET MOUTH ($2.50 tier and a scary experiment)

Have another piece reacting to some, uh…current events. But it’s tricky and needs a bit more time in the oven. Friday maybe? In the meantime:

I’ve been running this for almost 3 months now, and…I like it. Thanks to everyone who is subscribing/ reading. I know it’s a lot, these days, and if you’re choosing to take this in (paid or not) that’s no small thing, and I really appreciate the support. I’m bummed that the only way to point people this way is through Instagram/ social media (and self-promotion is not my wheelhouse), which is precisely the wheel I’m trying to get off of, but. We’re all there, no?

I’ve got some tweaks: first, I’m adding a $2.50 paid tier. Of course, you can still just subscribe for free, but $5 might be hard to swing, for folks. $60/year is a big ask.

Look, I’ve always used the “one decent cup of coffee” metric with stuff like this. If you‘re getting that much time/ value out of this thing once (sometimes more) a week, for the cost of one cup of coffee a month, that seems like a fair deal. (Much more fair and equitable than, say, many of the current acceptable models for “content”, like Spotify, whose entire business model is “the person who made it gets nothing, and we will keep the rest”).

But I understand that’s doable for some folks, others not so much. And with things being what they are…you know. There should be a spot between “free” and $60 a year, so I’m making one.

If you came on at $5 and want to switch up to the lower amount, I absolutely and totally get it. Do not hesitate.

Second…the idea fills me with a Pavlovian terror, but I’m opening up comments. The terror because, you know; comments sections on the internet are irredeemably awful. I’ve got value out of them over the years, but have I ever seen one that doesn’t eventually devolve into bad juju? No. Not that I can think of, anyway.

But at the same time if I'm writing here extolling the virtues of switching things up to better, more human models for things— however small (which this is)— that’s a 2-way street. So I'm going to give it a shot.

I’m hedging my bets in that you have to be a subscriber. Is this because I don’t trust YOU? No. It’s because I don’t trust how we’re all accustomed to “dealing with each other” on the internet (I have definitely been a dick on the internet, before). And when there’s no personal investment (even if it‘s still free), things can go bad quick. Every time I hop on FB for a moment (which is rare), I’m confronted with how a lack of base-level decency and reasonableness has become the norm.

So— comments are open! One rule:

DON’T BE A DICK.

(I think we all agree there’s more than enough of that going around, right now)

And, just a quick thing about the $, in general. I’m self-employed, with a tiny print shop and whatever freelance stuff I can cook up. That’s my call (both by choice and circumstance), and I’m good with it. My lofty goal with “making a living” writing/drawing etc etc things has always been: if you are making enough to survive doing this, you’re crushing it (and you are one of the few lucky ones). To various extents over the past 35 years, I’ve been able to survive. Sometimes just barely (and sometimes better than that), but it’s still surviving. I consider myself insanely lucky, on that front.

So while getting paid subscribers is not the prime motivator at work with this newsletter…yeah. It absolutely helps. And at a certain (relatively low, really— I think about 250 subscribers) level of support, I could take care of a lot of survival-level concerns.

That’s my concern, not yours, and I have zero expectations of what anyone is in the position of doing. Particularly at this moment. But it’s not a bad thing to shoot for, in terms of sustainability, and this direct model of support is something I think is cool, beyond how it shakes out for me personally.

I hate marketing, and self-promotion, and I sort of suck at it.

Free is awesome. Kicking down a bit is extra awesome. I appreciate all of it. If you want to engage in any old-school throwing people this direction, that is also something I’d appreciate as well.

More soon. Take care.

—z