Newsletter vs blogpost…
And we’re not talking just the normal subscribed newsletter here that many folk, authors mainly, seem to deliver.
I’m talking about something more special.
Two of the most interesting newsletters I subscribe to are paid-for models. One of the writers, Tom Ryan of Following Atticus fame, has eschewed all social media except for the occasional tweet. His philosophical journey through life and the surrounding countryside is usually the highlight of my week.
I can’t begin to tell you how spirits light up and how I hurriedly clean my glasses, find a comfortable and quiet space and become lost in Tom’s words.
Paying for such bounty seems worth it, because with this stressed and unwell world which dominates our airwaves and threatens to smother us, isn’t it nice to be reminded that there are folk who are mindful of so much goodness and beauty outside our doors?
Yesterday, I discovered another, courtesy of my daughter who is a fan of this woman’s writings. It’s called The Sit Spot by Maggie Mckellar who lives not far up the highway from me.
She and her partner farm merinos (yes, I know. We do too!) and, she has a deeply philosophical bent amongst the fibre and firewood life that she leads. She also reads AMAZING books, poetry, essays and is writing her next book and my heaven above, her brain must churn with words!
Mine’s bad enough but her reading list is Erudite with a capital ‘E’. Mine is a little less so.
How does she do it? I hope one day on The Sit Spot, she’ll explain.
Anyway, it’s another newsletter I feel is worth paying for. Like Tom, I’m not aware of Maggie’s presence online, except for Instagram, where I find many aspects of her life are similar to mine. Men swearing in the sheepyards, birds, dogs, beaches, swimming in winter, boats, the east coast… writing…
I’m telling you this because I’m at a crossroads with my writing life. I’m still writing novels (mostly historical fiction) but not many blogposts these days. I share gardening moments with a group of worldwide gardeners via Six on Saturday on my blog and if there’s bookish news, I’d always advertise it on the blog, but I’m wondering if I dare write my life-thoughts and experiences in a regular subscribed newsletter. No more bloggish blogposts. Prue Batten’s blog may become an historical artifact.
You may ask, what have I got to offer you?
Myself, I guess. In all humility. I don’t claim to be erudite and my reading list might just make you laugh with its eclecticism but I have a life spent on a far southern-flung island, fossicking among the rocks and sand-dunes, picnicking or as Tom says, having a coddywomple. Digging in the garden or knocking up a cake in the tiny kitchen, sometimes helping OH in the farmyard or babysitting the Littlest Farmer, musing on how we all get to a point in our lives where only the very special things really matter.
What do you think?
Would you follow me to a subscribed newsletter? Would it be worth your while? Would it give you the kind of joy that Tom’s and Maggie’s newsletters give me?
Let me know. If you would be prefer, talk to me through the contact button on my website. I’d love to hear from you. I can’t move forward without you…
I think it’s very sad when people take themselves behind a paywall. For me, it blows away the spirit of generosity, conversation, and community that I value about social media. I would miss your posts from the other side of the world, but I wouldn’t follow you.
This is exactly the kind of comment I want to hear, Nicky, because I feel undue pressure to move with ‘the times’.
I love my blog – it’s always been a joy to write and it’s free and available to any and all who want to read it. Whether they comment or not is immaterial, as long as they enjoy the reading.
I really do thank you for making a comment like this and I suspect there’ll be a few private communications along similar lines.
Something that’s worrying me about my own interactions with the world is how narrowly focussed into bubbles we seem to be becoming. A paywall blog can only re-enforce that – with the added twist that people are paying for the privilege. I don’t like the idea at all. If that means I’m moving across “the times” – so be it 🙂
Nicky, I have baulked for a long time against the idea of newsletters (no paywall) because I don’t want to spam people’s inboxes. I could say whatever I wanted to say in a blog post. Maybe not quite with the same marketing success and with less subscribers than a newsletter but it felt good to uphold some kind of ethics. Call it anti-marketing. 😉
Such a thing would have most of the gurus like Dave Gaughran, Jane Friedman et al slapping their foreheads and saying, ‘She really is so behind the times. She’s goin’ nowhere’.
But I guess ‘Goin’ nowhere’ in my own good time whilst being loyal to subscribers is quite a comfortable feeling.
I think you have to do what you feel is right for you Prue, and not feel pressurised to do it xx, I think perhaps because you are asking you don’t really feel entirely comfortable doing it, and would you feel that it would affect what you write on it ? As its now “a paid job” rather than a pleasure , does that make sense ?
If it indeed became a ‘paid’ job, yes, I think you’re right, some of the light and life would leave the pleasure of writing posts, because one would feel obliged to be regular and focused on giving subscribers their money’s worth.
I haven’t made up my mind yet – but if I’m erring at all to one side or the other, it’s the fact that my blog has been active and constant and free since 2010. Eleven years of free.
That sort of relationship with readers would be very hard to change. And quite simply, I sing from my own hymn sheet without worrying much about anything as it stands.
It’s quite a good feeling…
Prue–I prefer a blog to a newsletter, because generally it’s harder to read a long piece in an email, and they clog up your inbox. But for some reason, your blog has become almost impossible to read in my browser (Chrome). The font has become such a pale grey that it just looks like smudges on the white background. I sometimes copy and paste it into Word so I can make the font black, but I usually don’t have time. If you’ve been losing traffic here, that might be the reason. You might see if a different template might provide a more readable text. I’ve always enjoyed your blog and the window into a world on the other side of the world.
That’s interesting, Anne and so I checked the blog on my own computer using Chrome (which is what I use anyway, my husband’s also. Got various subscribers to check theirs using Chrome as well and it’s all okay, so perhaps it could be your computer, your internet provider or any number of technical things. I may put a call-out on FB for anyone using Chrome to have a look and report back.
I haven’t been losing traffic at all actually, in fact, quite the reverse which is why I wrote this blogpost.Pundits constantly push the newsletter as the new medium of communication and I felt I needed to have a discussion with those it would affect if I decided to go to a paywall model. But it sits badly with me for reasons listed above in chats with Nicky and Rebecca and I suspect this weekend will see me follow a tried and true system.
After all, if it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it! Cheers
I love your blog and would miss it, but would most definitely follow you to newsletter land if that’s where your writing takes you. The newsletter is new terrain for you to explore and it will be interesting to see what you make of it. xox
Not entirely confident, Rebecca, that the newsletter mode is going to offer me and my subscribers anything that I/they don’t already have. Maybe I’m getting too old for change. It’s a big birthday in a month!!!!!
Always the dilemma! I think we’re a year apart. My “big one” was last October!
I hope I wished you Happy S….!!!!! 😉