Here we are with another newsletter! I can hear you groan and be like the most annoyed "yay" ever told.
But fear not. I know, another email in your inbox, but you might actually be glad you opened this one. Give me two minutes.
Long story short: I started my Substack in May with a clear plan: keep you posted and grow my readership. Six months later, I ran the numbers and the picture is pretty clear: Substack is working, slowly, but people who found me through its own social side interact there. While people who came from outside, just to stay in touch, mostly don’t.
And Substack, like every social network, has an algorithm that needs feeding: you've to post, repost, like, share, and sometimes overshare when you have nothing to say. Above all, Substack loves essays and hates serialized fiction. That’s my problem: I’m not a journalist and I’m not selling courses, I’m a fiction writer, and I honestly can’t produce stories at social-media speed.
So, I’ve started a new newsletter. That "yay" again, right?
It’s for short stories mainly. The ones about 1,000 words go straight in the email body. But I’m not great at short-short fiction, though, so for anything longer I’ll send an open Royal Road link, where you can read the full story for free, on browser, no account needed, and without digging an old email back out to finish it.
Every now and then I’ll also send the big stuff that doesn’t go on Substack (the algorithm gets touchy): upcoming books, cover reveals, that kind of thing. No spam. No essays. No musings. Just the juicy bits.
I'm sending it to everybody, so you can decide for yourself: switch to the new newsletter, stay here on Substack, keep both, or flip me the bird and leave. Any of those is fine.
Now, I want to thank you for your patience: I debuted as an indie author this year, I’m learning something new every day, making plenty of mistakes, and sometimes changing course to make the non-writing efforts (marketing, posting, social, etc) as effective as possible.
So whatever you decide, thank you for reading this far.
And if you’re joining: welcome. The first two stories, Blight and The Lottery, will soon be up on Royal Road in full. One link, one sitting, no waiting for the next part. Perfect if you missed them before, or if you just couldn’t be bothered with the serialized version.
Damova
