Hello, Friend, and happy fall!
As far as I’m concerned, fall (not the holidays) is the most wonderful time of year!
I’m delighted to have you be part of this growing community. I fully realize it’s a privilege that you share your inbox with me. I promise to never take this for granted.
I’m grateful you’ve opened your heart to reading and responding to my writing. Many of you have been supporting my writing for a long time now. (If this is you, thank you for being here for the long haul!)
I’m grateful for new readers who’ve decided to join this community of Best Readers Ever as well. Thank you for being here, too.
The words, thank you, feel small and inadequate to express the gratitude I feel for every reader. For YOU.
This is one reason I want to explore the mystery of why you and I gravitated toward one another.
It’s a fascinating thing to mull over, don’t you think? Or perhaps you’ve never given it much thought at all. That’s okay too!
In either case, I hope you’ll bear with me, read to the end, and share YOUR thoughts about what brings writers and readers together here on Substack or anywhere.
How many Substacks (or blogs) do YOU read?
Okay, here’s what I really want to know, how do you keep the number manageable?
Every day, more emails of all kinds land in my inbox. I try to stay on top of the sifting, deleting, reading, and responding.
Who am I kidding?
I fall behind in this task, too. But besides all those generic emails we all get that need sorting and deleting, what about the ones you’ve actually signed up to receive? The ones you want to get. (Like this one. I hope.)
Let’s talk about those.
There are so many gifted Substackers and fine writers all over the internet writing stuff worthy of reading. Since I try to support other writers, cancer survivors, and grievers as much as I can, I’m on a fair number of email lists. (What about you?)
So, where does one draw the line?
Okay, this definitely isn’t the most pressing question of the day, but it is one to ponder over — I sometimes do anyway. I guess I’m thinking about this as I just passed my 14 year blogging anniversary. Yeah, hard to believe, I know.
How many Substacks (or blogs) is too many to read?
Do you actually read all the ones you subscribe to?
Is subscribing without reading meaningless?
What moves you to follow, subscribe to, and actually read someone’s writings?
And when do you unsubscribe?
I’ve recently been reminded that these days, the answer to that latter question is often related to politics. If someone disagrees with me politically, the other topics I write about seem to matter less. Such an interesting phenomenon. And kind of sad, too.
But back to the point, or rather questions I’m asking in this post…
How many Substacks (and/or blogs) do YOU subscribe to?
How do you keep the number manageable?
What draws you in and keeps you reading anyone’s writing?
What makes you unsubscribe?
Thank you for answering any or all of these questions. If you like this article, consider restacking it. Thank you in advance!
Next week brings October, and you know what that means. Yep. Breast Cancer Awareness Month has rolled around yet again. Are you ready for pink this and pink that? I’m still contemplating what to do, if anything, regarding this beloved (it’s my favorite month), and also, much-disliked 31 days of the calendar.
Stay tuned!
Thank you for reading this week’s article.
Thank you for being here with me. I appreciate YOU.
As always, I see you. I hear you, and I care about what you have to say.
Until next time…
Take care of yourself, and be kind to someone.
Warmly,
Nancy
Just a gal posing with her books in front of her wheat field in ND last month. To learn more about any or all of them, visit my website.
This is a good question, Nancy. I tend to return the compliment which my engaged readers give me when they like/comment on my posts. So I always read theirs and, if I feel moved to, because I’ve enjoyed what they’ve written (which I usually do…there’s a mutual appreciation of the same kind of topic/writing involved) I like/comment on theirs. Sometimes others who don’t necessarily read everything I’ve written, write things I really like…if they comment back on my positive reactions to their posts (showing appreciation that I’ve made the effort) this tends to keep me coming back to read their future posts.
So basically, loyalty and appreciation are my go-to’s as far as reading others. There are so many brilliant writers on here of course…some criteria is needed, isn’t it!!!
Nancy, great question. I’d say as many as the heart desires. Though I doubt people subscribe only to read every single one. I’d say the value is in the human exchange and togetherness.