A really good book, a Substack tip, and a wish
Have fun storming the castle Mr. Reiner 🏰
Let me start with maybe the best part and I’ll explain why in a minute. I’m reading the book Known Order Girls, by Andrew Butters and the first thing I want to say is he’s selling it way too cheap and the second thing is just trust me and go buy it.
It’s about a young girl living in a time when the world is run by AI. Because AI knows what’s best for us, right? It’s eaten all the information there is, and now it makes all the decisions for us. The storyline is compelling and the pace is great.
Here’s why this is the best part, and the part I chose to start this weird post with.
I love supporting new writers. But the truth is, a lot of people write their first book and self-publish before it’s ready for publishing. I’ve bought at least a half dozen books I’ve seen on Substack and so far there are exactly two I will tell you to go buy. The first is Trailer Park Rules by Michelle Teheux. The second is Andrew’s Known Order Girls.
I enjoyed both of those enough that I’m going to add a books page to my Substack where I can promote really well written books by Substack writers.
I wish I could put a copy of Andrew’s book in Margaret Atwood’s hands because she’s the undisputed queen of dystopia and a word from her would put it in more hands.
If I’m being utterly honest, I don’t love the cover but I find that’s often the case with self published or indie published books and it’s a topic I’ll probably write about but it’s a non issue because the story inside — it’s an easy read and absolutely worth reading. I’m not done, but when I am, I’ll write a book review on it.
This is an odd little post, filled with random unrelated thoughts. Less storytelling and more like sitting at my kitchen table as I’m coming out of the busiest time of the year. I’ve written fourteen pieces for clients in the last ten days and that doesn’t include Substack, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and so much I want to share.
Here’s a thing I keep seeing on Notes lately and it gave me an idea that I wanted to share because maybe you’ll find it helpful.
Last week I saw a Note where someone joked that growth is working backwards for her because every time she posts, she loses subscribers. And once you see a thing, you see it everywhere so I started seeing more Notes about wild fluctuations in subscriber counts. I’ve had a lot of that, too, and it got me thinking.
Often when I’d see that, someone would comment that it’s okay, we want the people who aren’t interested to unsubscribe and I get that. But it make me think.
And I’m not entirely sure that’s what’s happening.
You know what the hardest part of Substack is? Name recognition.
People subscribe to so many Substacks there’s no way they can remember all those names and faces. The other day I got one of those “new subscriber” notifications and it said he subscribes to 676 Substacks and you know there’s no way he can remember all those people. Sometimes I think people subscribe hoping the writer will hit the “subscribe back” button in the notification email. Those, you want to delete, yes.
But how do you know which they are, you know?
Like, maybe someone subscribed hoping I’d subscribe back. But maybe they read something they really liked so they subscribed, but they don’t recognize my name.
And there’s a secondary factor a lot of writers might not now. I didn’t know.
If you go look at someone’s subscribe page, Substack often signs you up even though you didn’t actually click to subscribe. I didn’t know that happens and I don’t know why it does. But what I do know is that I was doing some research on how much the top Substacks charge so I went to a bunch of subscribe pages to check the rates and suddenly I was signed up to a bunch of them and started getting their emails.
Add those two factors together and you get a whole bunch of subscribers who aren’t actually reading and probably don’t recognize your name when they get your posts.
So here’s an experiment I’m going to do. I’m going to go into my subscriber list and filter to find the people who haven’t opened a darn thing and reach out to them.
Because Substack lets us email subscribers without posting, you know? And I think that’s a feature most of us are probably not making good or efficient use of.
You need to be careful not to mistake new readers who haven’t had a chance to read anything yet with people who’ve been subscribed for months and never read a single thing. But I think we could be using the tools we’re given better than we are.
If you’re interested in that little experiment, let me know and it might become a tutorial along with how I did it, how I filtered, what I sent them, and the results.
Just another of my crazy experiments, and let me know if you’re interested. :)
Last is a wish. I’m so sad about what happened to Rob Reiner and his wife. I loved that man’s work and what he stood for as a human being. I cannot imagine the pain their loved ones are feeling or the pain of the daughter, who found them.
And I just wish people could express their sorrow and condolences without posting what Trump said. Not because it was vile, even though it was. There’s no shortage of vile on the internet, it doesn’t surprise me anymore. Doesn’t surprise any of us.
But I wish that because this is a thing we do whether the tragedy is big or small. We always make it about the bad man. Mass shooting — we post about the shooter. Murder — we talk about the killer. We always give the airtime to the villain.
And I wish we could stop giving airtime to the villain.
I don’t want to see my feed full of screencaps of the vile thing Trump said. But I’d be over the moon to see it full of people sharing the work Mr. Reiner did that resonated with them. The Harry & Sally quotes, the Princess Bride quotes. The funny clips from the early days when he was Meathead. His love for his family. His awards.
I don’t want to see Notes full of what Trump said. I want to scroll through Notes and see all the work one man did that resonated with us. His words, his love, his art.
It’s just a little wish that doesn’t really mean much in the whole scope of things, but I wanted to say it out loud in case you feel the same way…
Couple of updates:
Thank you to everyone who signed up for my new Substack, Borked. It’s going to be about culture. Men’s issues, women’s issues, issues related to Ai and all the cultural issues that affect our lives today. First post will be up next week.
December gift for Hello Writer paid members will be out later this week. It’s the Substack setup guide I wish I’d had. Watch your email for it, okay? 💌
I agree with not publicizing the villain. They need no recognition or glory.
always love a good book recommendation! Thank you! And rest in peace, Meathead. We loved you.