Writing is a lonely business...
Writing is a lonely business; hours spent in solitary confinement as you chip-away at your latest ‘work-in-progress’ hoping to craft something which, when released to the world, will a) find some readers, and b) resonate sufficiently for those same readers to like.
It’s one of the reasons why reviews are so important to writers: they prove their offspring have made it into the wider world and, hopefully, that they have been well-received.
Reviews represent validation, not just of the work itself, but of you as ‘a writer’. They allow you to feel that you have earned the title.
Having said that, reviews can seem a long way off when you are only part-way into a new novel, and one you know will not be finished for perhaps a year or more. Which is why many writers take to social media to try and find both those potential readers and a writing community.
I have run my website — www.iangouge.com — for a number of years and have used it as part diary, part notebook, part engagement tool. And thanks to a loyal band of subscribers I have enjoyed thousands of views and thousands of likes. I will be eternally grateful to these people.
Recently, in order to try and broaden my reach (expand ‘my brand’, if you will) I have tried to invest more time in Twitter, but I have to say I find the platform somewhat depressing: inane questions; pathological pursuit of ‘followers’ at any cost; being sold to (directly or indirectly); and no real connection. Perhaps it doesn’t help that I don’t write horror, or murder, or stories about unreal worlds and dragons!
But now, thanks to the Society of Authors, I have been introduced to Substack and have decided to see if that is a better companion for the next stage of my writing journey.
At this point I will come clean. I am a mature writer. Or, I have lots of life experience upon which to draw. I am also a creative writing mentor and sometime publisher, so have a more rounded view of the craft than many. Still in possession of all my faculties — certainly enough to perform on-stage for the first time in my life earlier this year when I read my poem Crash as a 40-minute monologue! I suspect I may have about ten years of good writing left in me; which may mean another 8-12 books. We’ll see.
I also need to confess that apart from a small regular sum, my only income is writing-related: the mentoring and the publishing — not that either is sufficient to pay any of the bills these days! So one of the reasons for the move to Substack is to see if I can’t boost my income just a little. After all, I’m spending hours putting together material for my website and podcast — and all for no immediate financial benefit (nor an uptick in sales).
So my ‘Grand Plan’ is as follows:
- keep my website, but gradually reduce the regular content there;
- keep my Twitter account (@CoverstoryB), but do likewise;
- move to post all my material on iangouge.substack.com, still keeping the majority of it free;
- and for paid subscribers, give them access to additional content e.g. drafts from any works-in-progress, serialisation of existing or upcoming published work, occasional offers of critiquing or editing — and anything else I might come up with! I may even think about publishing a subscriber-only anthology under my Coverstory books imprint (www.coverstorybooks.com). There will also be the opportunity to engage directly, start chat threads, build community etc.
How does that sound? I’m sure I’ll make some mistakes along the way, but I’d love to have you accompany me on the journey.
So please subscribe — free or paid — and help me make the most of the next ten years of ‘writing furiously until the light goes out’…