Category: WritingCategory: Writing

Maria Popova started Brain Pickings “in 2006 as an email to seven friends.”

The left sidebar is titled “donating = loving,” and goes on to say “If you find any joy, solace, and inspiration here, please consider a donation.”

No tiers, no levels, no free tote bag, no bonus content.

In a recent Zoom call, Shelley told a story about going to the book store, and a kind stranger giving her quarters to buy the kids some books, to which she initially refused. She eventually took the coins, and her daughter told her afterwards, “don’t ever refuse prosperity.”

If we don’t give our readers a chance to donate, we are literally refusing prosperity.

Set up a Buy Me a Coffee account, and Ko-Fi, and a Patreon – why not? Lots of people use different services. To get the ball rolling, let people give you money in a way that’s comfortable for them.

Remind them of their options, send them links on occasion, subtle reminders.

There are people who want to support the work you do in its present form, without extra content or behind the scenes material.

If you enjoy my work, you can buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi, PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo. You can also become a Social Media Escape Club Member here, and buy my HUNTERTHEN music here.

Bree Stilwell tells the story about posting an idea on a local Reddit:

The idea was for an alternative local print magazine, something a bit more sideways than the long-reigning Ann Arbor Observer. The response:

‘How about contributing to the Observer? (I’m the deputy editor.)’

I’m dm’d her, she emailed me back, I sent her links to my Substack newsletter—my only published editorial work. I pitched her several ideas, we met for ice cream. We kept talking.

Yesterday, after a weekly online pilot since August, I got to see my first monthly advice column in ink, literally hot off the presses.

The audience? 53,000 direct mail recipients.

Your body of work can be expressed outside of just posting about it and hoping for the right person to see if and sweep you off your feet.

• Instagram is not the only place for your photography to exist!
• Substack is not the only place for your writing to exist!
• Your website is not the only place for your work to exist!
• Your Bandcamp page is not the only place for your music to exist!

Meet for ice cream! Get on the phone! Set up a Zoom call!

Stop waiting for people to stumble upon your magic and REACH FOR THE STARS!

From my piece “How I Write” over at Indie Thinkers:

For me, staying in the game is winning, and winning just means I get to play again tomorrow. I just never stopped writing for my little corner of the world.

Read the full piece here.

Sean Cannon, from a recent Escape Pod guest appearance.

“All you have to do is just be 5% better than everyone else who’s really bad at it. You don’t have to get everything perfect… you just have to be a little bit better so you can survive the war of attrition.”

You don’t have to our run a bear, you just need to out run your friends.

Got this bit from ‘Discoverability for illustrators’ by Tasha Goddard via Robyn Hepburn:

“While emailing is more about outreach than discoverability, I have heard that art directors and art commissioners will actually use the search facility in their email app (e.g. Outlook or Gmail) as a first point of call after any in-house databases – so they might type ‘room illustration, colourful’ or ‘collage illustrator, newspaper’ etc. into the search bar to see if they have been sent any work by a relevant illustrator.”

Keep this in mind when reaching out to art directors and venues and other people you’re pitching for potential opportunities.