Substack

In the world of comic books, one of the hottest topics in recent months has been all the major name creators who've decided to migrate their work to Substack.  So eventually, I got to thinking, maybe this is a venue I should consider.  This week I did more than consider.  I started Scouring Monk at Substack.

Now, longtime followers of my blogging know "Scouring Monk" isn't exactly a new title for me.  My first blog (which, sadly, is pretty much abandoned at this point), was of course also called Scouring Monk.  Most of the readers I've ever had in blogging read my work there.  I launched a thousand other blogs later, including this one, but it was for a long time what I most considered "home."  

So, barring any better ideas once I made a commitment to considering Substack, I named it Scouring Monk.

The only other problem was that I had no idea what this new thing was actually going to be.  The setup prompted an answer to this, and I spit out, "uh, fiction, and books, and film," which of course are among the primary things I've been doing as a blogger anyway.

And then I had to actually provide content, which comes in the form of an email newsletter.  The whole idea of Substack is that you collect a list of subscribers.  Successful Substack users can then consider the paid option, in which subscribers are given the option of paying for content.  Very successful Substack users can make considerable money out of this.  

Given my track record, I can only believe in my prospects in an optimistic manner.  So far I have sent out three newsletters.  Each begins with a new piece of short fiction, and then talk about a book I've read recently, and then a movie, which for the immediate future means movies released in 2021.  I only have the strength of my writing, as always, to go on.  

None of this means I will stop blogging, meanwhile.  This author blog is a separate thing.  I have a Star Trek blog, and a movie blog (the latter maintained sporadically), and a few others.  Only madmen attempt to read all of them, although now it's a lot easier to do so, on the off chance you would like to label yourself as a madman.  Although, honestly, few enough people are reading even this one these days, once I made that break with the Cavanaugh folk.  (Even Cavanaugh doesn't visit anymore!)

I know, I know, stop making the hard sell!

Anyway, hopefully I can continue to do stuff.  I made a concerted strong initial push, to help establish tone.  Can't say if that will be maintained.  Usually, these days, my best is once a week, depending on how motivated I'm feeling.  This is the longest post at this blog outside the pandemic journal I've done in a while.  Hurray!  

I will certainly let you know if things turn out very differently.