No. 115: A brief announcement

For a good long while, I’ve felt stuck.

I love writing stories, which means I want to share them with as many readers who are willing to read them. If they’re well-received, I might even make a buck doing it, not as an end in itself, but as a means of dedicating more time to more stories, the same way musicians, filmmakers, painters, and stand-up comedians do.

But the path to achieving this goal isn’t clear. In fact, it’s far from it. Becoming a Published Writer has no obvious rulebook when it comes to giving yourself the best chance for success. Plus, even if such a rulebook did exist, it’s constantly changing.

The result has been paralysis as I constantly vacillate between two options:

• The Traditional Route: Submit to literary journals, feel validated when they accept, maybe etch a name for myself in the cloistered world of literary journal enthusiasts — of whom I don’t consider myself a member

• The New-Age Route: Publish my stories, for free, on Substack and hope for the best. Yeehaw.

This brief announcement is to share that I’ve chosen option two.

Yeehaw.

In the next week or so, I’m going to create a “Stories” category for this newsletter. Friday emails will come per usual under the “matt” category, as will my other sporadic writings. But going forward, when I’m feeling like a story is fully baked, I’ll share it here instead of or in addition to submitting to literary journals.

Why did I decide this?

It feels like the better of the two options for a few reasons.

The most important is that it seems more promising to commit to you, my reader, directly — to be “direct-to-reader” — than to rely on the interference of a middle man (which also means being able to hear directly from you) who gives permission.

Also, I have more confidence in people coming to a place like this to encounter interesting writing than navigating to a literary journal’s website or purchasing a hard copy. Let’s be honest, that’s some 1965 stuff — and the fact that I’m a subscriber to two literary journals is not enough evidence to convince me otherwise. I’m weird.

Then there’s the non-negligible fact that Substack has been great thus far in terms of community, ease-of-use, and discoverability both in finding new and writers and being discovered. All that said, what sense does it make for me to send my stuff into the ether in the hopes that someone will “accept” them? It may be the wrong bet, but I’m betting on myself and this community as the best place to set my fiction free.

As you’re maybe noticing, this is sort of a big deal for me.

I wholeheartedly believe artists should put huge value on their work, and I don’t except myself from this rule. This is the classic allure of literary journals and big publishing houses. The works coming out of these outlets having been given a kind of blessing, and that comes with very real gloss — literally and figuratively.

But isn’t that getting a little ahead of myself?

If I can share my stories here, find a community, and feel happy and fulfilled because my work is “out there” instead of gathering dust, isn’t that a massive win? If I can continue to connect with new readers and do my thing unencumbered by the go-ahead of journals and publishing houses, doesn’t that give me the agency, later on, to engage with those institutions should I choose, instead of relying on them?

So there’s my announcement, ya’ll.

Stories are coming in hot.

With love,
matt <3

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P.S.

By default, you’re subscribed to all categories of my newsletter. If you only want to receive certain emails, you can adjust your settings in “Manage Subscription”.

Here, you can sign up for regular newsletters only, say, and not my forthcoming stories. Likewise, you can sign up my forthcoming stories only, and nothing else.

You get the point.

Here’s an example. I’ve chosen to receive only Freddie deBoer’s regular newsletter while opting out of his serialized novel, weekly digest, and book club.