I Finally Caved: Substack, I Am Ready For Liftoff

It wasn't exactly pressure, more of a realisation...

Let’s make this short and sweet, shall we?

(After 12 years of blogging, I really should have learned by now never to say that. It always results in long-winded ramblings that make me regret the “I’ll be quick, I promise” assurances. So ignore my empty declarations of brevity for now. And probably forevermore.)

After many suggestions from my blog readers (I say “many” with a pinch of salt - let’s say it was more than two, but fewer than ten), I caved… I’m on Substack.

This is the person who constantly replied with “But I’ve always promised to make my blog content free to everyone!” to the idea that she start a paid subscription option.

This is the person who, even as recently as last month, said that asking readers to subscribe to some sort of paid content just made her uncomfortable, yet she couldn’t work out why.

(Oh god now I’m talking about myself in the third person… that has to stop. I promise that keep THAT in check. More promises.)

Then two things happened.

Firstly, I paid for a Substack subscription to one of my favourite bloggers whose writings have entertained me for years: Amber Eve, AKA Forever Amber. I’ve been receiving her Substack newsletters for a while and finally thought, “You know what, I’d gladly pay to read her newsletters in full because dammit, she’s one of the best writers out there and she keeps me thoroughly entertained. Take my money, Amber.”

Now she’s a published author as well, I’ve bought two of her books and fully intend to read the other four in the series (I’m halfway through the second and loving it). Therefore, why wouldn’t I pay to read her stories on Substack? Amber is the blogger who, in my opinion, could write a blog post about something as banal as cling film but make me laugh so much I’ll give my husband a blow-by-blow account of how entertaining it was (whether he wants to hear it or not). Her story about testing out magnetic eyelashes rates as one of my all-time favourite blog posts ever. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.

Secondly, in one of her Substack newsletters, Amber gave a recommendation link to “The blogging boom is back—and it’s happening on Substack” by Christina Loff - and halfway through reading it, a switch went off in my brain. It was a genuine epiphany.

Christina: “Creators are adapting because the blogosphere [oh, how I miss that term] was steamrolled by ads and social media… If the early 2000s was the golden age of blogging, then the 2020s welcome its renaissance, and it’s happening on Substack.”

Me: “Yes. Yes, yes, YES.”

It really was that easy. Those two things made me immediately open a new browser tab and sign up for Substack faster than you can say Blogging isn’t dead (and social media is pretty sucky at times but what can we do when we’re at the mercy of Fuckerberg and his control over our total and utter addiction to a platform that we just can’t seem to leave alone for more than five minutes that’s also affected our self-esteem and our grip on what’s real and what’s all just show for the ‘gram and oh don’t get me started on TikTok).

I’ve totally resurrected the blog over the summer, going from publishing just nine posts in a year to posting regularly (twice a week, woo-hoo!) following a hiatus whereby there was nothing but tumbleweeds for four long months. I’ve even redesigned my blog header and found a whole new style where images are concerned.

I LOVE writing. I didn’t realise how much I’d missed it till I started again. I’ve fallen back in love with my blog.

Therefore, with the encouragement of the more-than-two-but-fewer-than-ten people who suggested I start writing on a platform with a paid subscription, I’m here - and I’m doing it.

The paid content option won’t happen for a little while. I’m making it all 100% free to start with as I want to get my writing chops in order. Test the water. See if I can muster up more subscribers than two and fewer than… well, the sky’s the limit, I’m that inspired to inspire right now.

So this content will always be free, BUT if you want to pledge a subscription for whatever you are willing to pay for extra content, then I will be forever grateful. After a year of having no money to buy food and having to put it all on credit cards, any contribution is received with an ENORMOUS amount of gratitude. And if you can’t pledge anything due to your financial position, I totally get it and understand because I’m in the exact same position. If you just don’t want to that’s also fine. No stress, it’s all good, I’m cool with whatever you want to do.

Substack is pretty new to me, and it feels a bit like those early days of trying to work out - literally - how to start a blog when Blogspot was the go-to of the blogosphere. And how I felt when I switched to WordPress and had to start all over again with the whole “What am I doing and how do I even insert images into my blog post?” bewilderment.

I may not be a total dinosaur when it comes to learning new online skills, but I do ask that you bear with me for a short while (currently all the new pages and menus and tabs are a tad overwhelming).

But writing is what I love to do, and writing is what you shall get. And who knows what I’ll write about, because at the moment this feels very… freeing. Freedom to just write. And when I say write, I probably should just say ramble.

Just ignore any guarantees of “This will be quick, I promise”. Take those with a pinch of salt and we’re good.

Catherine x

P.S. As detailed in my blog post that went out to all my blog subscribers over the weekend, everyone who subscribes to blog updates will now also receive newsletters from me via Substack (as a supplement to the blog, if you will). You can unsubscribe to these at any time, though I’ll be sorry to see you go :(