Going paid: subscribe and get a freebie
After 4 years, I’m adding a paid option to this newsletter. Here’s why:
I have a lot of ideas, and many of them work best in this format. There’s a place in the world for thinking which is less formal than an academic paper, and hopefully more fun to read.
If you get paid for something, you do it more and better. I don’t expect to get rich or even make a living from writing alone, but some incoming cash will encourage me to write more.
So, this is my pitch to you as a reader, for why you should get a paid subscription.
Support me. If my ideas and writing are worth your time, put in some money to help me do more.
Get access to more content. I still expect to write many free posts. But I plan to make about one long form post a month, for paid subscribers only with a free preview. The first one has just gone out.
My paid posts will probably be on the same kind of topics I have written about till now. There’s social science,
including my own work,
history,
politics,
and social change,
plus the occasional googly:
I write about 30 posts a year, probably about 50,000 words. But I am more focused on quality than quantity — I will never write unless I have something worth saying.
So, getting a paid subscription is an act of trust in me and my ideas. Believe me, I will appreciate it.
Pricing is a challenge on Substack. It is known. The New York Times can provide hundreds of writers for £12/month because it has millions of subscribers. Substacks are usually individual writers like me, and even the most productive journalist probably only writes 2-3 pieces a week. I don’t have a neat solution to this; in the long run, probably writers should band together more into collective publications. Meanwhile:
I’ve priced subscriptions as low as Substack allows, at £3.50 per month.
There is a big discount if you subscribe for a year: just £25.
As a limited time offer, readers who subscribe for a year will get a free copy of my book Wyclif’s Dust: Western Cultures from the Printing Press to the Present.
I started this newsletter to publicize my book. I’m terrible at marketing, and in the end the newsletter kind of outgrew the book. But if you enjoy my essays, and the kind of ideas I write about, I think you’ll enjoy a more in-depth look at where I’m coming from. There’s an excerpt here, by the way.
Early days
This is my first shot at getting paid, so I am still experimenting. Over time, I will probably adjust my pricing, the amount of paid content, and so on. In particular, I may put some of my previous longer posts behind a paywall. (This is your chance to read them free while you still may!)
I hope you will think about supporting me if you can. Click the “upgrade to paid” button above, or subscribe here if you haven’t already:
