Arete

from Tales

I write in celebration of milestones!

I have been pleased to discover not only my newsletter’s consistent, steady growth since I created it this summer but also the number of strangers who subscribed to it. It always makes me curious. Who are they? And how did they find me? I do not know. It encouraged me, though, to know that people I do not know were curious enough to want to know more of my thoughts and, moreover, it also encouraged me to rewrite my “Welcome” e-mail that people receive when they subscribe to my newsletter. (Also, I never knew one existed—or I forgot that it did after being overwhelmed by the sheer content to explore and manage on here after I created my Substack.) I modified it to explore how I intend to use my newsletter and how I would like to engage with those who join me in reading what I share. I updated my welcome letter as such:

How good to have you here!

Thank you for joining me in my journey toward understanding. I would like to share what you might find arriving in your inbox as our time together unfurls.

I intend to share what I read and constellate this with my experiences and aspirations. As someone who wishes to seek and, more importantly, profess the truth, I look forward to welcoming others who find community in those who wish to know rather than those who claim to know. I learn from that which I do not yet know. You might offer me this and I might offer you that as well. Let us walk in the direction of truth and light together.

I welcome you to see my foundational beliefs about this. I wrote about freeing ourselves and others from our ignorance, our natural state. We exist for one another and must learn how to communicate our values and ideas in a civil fashion. Our world desperately needs us to learn how to do this as we careen on this little rock in an infinite chasm together. We learn and develop our ideas and beliefs by entering into dialogue, and once we muster our bravery, we share ourselves—what we think, what we feel—with the world. You will notice similar themes among those writing samples. It cycles: we read, we enter dialogue, we write, we invite others to read our work and hopefully offer civil criticism—and it happens again. I invite you to explore my other broader writings and, of course, to invite others to do the same:

It seemed like introducing readers to my core ideas for my newsletter and community would be best and offer something to explore between when they join and when I next inundate their inboxes.

Speaking of my supportive readers, I reached another milestone: I received pledges from people who offered to support my writing as patrons, should I ever activate paid subscriptions. (I also never knew this feature existed—or, once again, forgot as I navigated Substack as a fledgling.) Not only did a few people share kind words of support and offered to pay me for the words flitting around my mind, but a few of the aforementioned mysterious strangers did too. (Wow!) Moreover, as I began exploring the settings in the site, I discovered that a couple of newsletter listed me as one of their “Recommended Reads” to their audiences. (Golly!) This felt encouraging too and also motivated me to research more about how to improve my page, newsletter, and content, not to mention how I would like to interact with those who read what I write. I added a section to my welcome e-mail which addresses this topic too:

You will begin receiving updates in your inbox weekly. I write about being and meaning through the lens of literature and how I find it connects to the human condition. For those of you using the app, I will also be using the “Notes” feature to share fragments of my works-in-progress and impressionistic writing. This leads to what remains most important to me: I will also use Substack to share much of my literary writing—stories, poems, slivers from my novel. All of this will remain free.

I am heartened by the number of people who have pledged to support a paid subscription. I never knew this feature existed when I began my newsletter. It lent me perspective, though, about how I might approach creating a more thoughtfully nuanced offering. Once I activate the paid feature, I will offer unique features to those subscribers as well as a separate newsletter which will explore the following:

• Digital copies of my literary writing—PDFs and ePubs—behind the paywall;

• Insights into the literary origins, symbols, and allusions in my art;

• A portal into my innermost thoughts, feelings, and experiences which inform my art;

• Invitations to create a genuine sense of community among those who seek the truth;

• Chat—exploring a weekly topic;

• And more to come!

Do you value the time I devote to what I offer? Let me know if you will champion me:

I am still mulling over other ideas for patrons as I genuinely like the idea of forming a community of knowers. I am thinking that opening a chat with a weekly topic to explore and also a monthly book club to hone analytical thinking and exploring texts as a lens for life. What do you think? Let me know with a comment below or a reply to this e-mail—especially with any other ideas that you might suggest to me!

I have not yet activated paid subscriptions but eventually will. I intend to make almost everything that I write available freely. However, I also want to honor and recognize those who have been willing to pledge money toward my writing and have decided primarily to offer those people an exclusive newsletter that will explore insights into my literature. Yet I also want to open opportunities for everyone to “earn” those privileges too. This is why I like Substack. They created a feature this summer that allows me to activate referrals for my readers. I can create tiered rewards for readers who refer my newsletter to others. I decided that this would be a great opportunity to give paid subscriber features to those devoted readers who support me in that way. I will write more about that in the future when I am ready to activate paid subscriptions.

I closed my welcome e-mail as follows:

This apprises me of my readership’s beliefs in my work. It allows me to prioritize my own worth, gives me the confidence to produce better work, and reinforces the notion that my community wishes to support me and, consequently, themselves in a journey toward understanding.

The most important topic I would like to address in this welcoming letter is my curiosity about my reader. I would love to hear who you are. How did you find me, what led you to subscribe, and what do you hope to find here? Write back to me so that this feels like a community of those who seek truth.

I look forward to hearing from and sharing with you.

These sentiments remain true: I always would value hearing from my readers if you manage to finish reading one of my newsletters—I always make the effort to reply thoughtfully.

I now turn to my next milestone: This is my first newsletter to include some of my own literature.

Tales

This story serves as one story within my collection of eighteen, Tales. Each story