This is going to be my final weekly newsletter! (Although “weekly” is something of an exaggeration. I haven’t been publishing regularly in months!) My weekly views are down to a mere 10% of what they used to be, so it’s pretty clear to me that either interest is waning or spam filters have decided that I am someone best avoided.
Whatever reason, it’s not that surprising to me because my interest is waning, too! I’m working on a new novel and it’s all I want to be doing, so rather than stick to a commitment I made two years ago, it felt like time to announce that I’m ready to move on to the next thing.
I’ll still share stuff I think is fun when I’ve got it, but I’m dropping paid subscriptions and won’t be publishing as regularly as I once did. I’d rather keep our inboxes lean and only share when I really have something really important. For those of you who are paid subscribers, I’ll be issuing refunds. I have your emails, so I’ll be reaching out directly.
I’m not sad about this like at all. I started this newsletter as a way of giving back a little of what I know about writing and publishing and creativity and character and story, but I think the way to do that going forward is by developing more targeted courses on, say, novel-writing or book proposal development or using meditation techniques in your creative practice. More on that to come…
As I write my next book and work with my clients on developing their books, I’m tracking my process because I think that will be a really valuable tool for me and for anyone interested in publishing.
I’ve never wanted to offer these kind of “how to write a book/proposal” courses before because every client I work with is different and meeting their unique needs has required flexibility more than step-by-step systems. But I’m finally starting to take note of some major patterns and milestones in the book development journey, and it’s knowledge I’d love to share one day. That said, it’s not the kind of info that feels like it could be shared in a weekly newsletter anytime soon: I’m much too much in the middle of the experiment to see the big picture yet.
Thanks to everyone who’s read and supported the newsletter! It was my main creative outlet for a while there, it was a fun way both to experiment and to hold myself accountable to publishing regularly, and it’s helped me collect a lot of my ideas about creativity in one place. I think it will exist as a really interesting time capsule if I ever want to look back at my evolution as an artist from 2018-2020.
I also occasionally write stuff on medium so you can follow me there, but my goal for the next year is to do more pitching to publications, not simply my own newsletter and blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some exciting bylines with you in December 2021!
xoxoxo
Sarah