One year ago I opened my Substack account. It was free and took only a couple of minutes. Why? I had time on my hands. My wife urged me to give it a try. It is like writing a column for a newspaper when there still were print newspapers. The contemplative fellow with a pencil at the top represents a thinker, in general; he’s not me.
I never know what my next post will be. I wait until something catches my interest that I think others may like to see – usually about once a week.
Substack let me create a subscriber list of email addressees. I have 22 friends on my list. It is free to them. Substack reports the number of “views.” It varies between 30 and 200 from one post to another. I never know how many it will be.
Sometimes my post has an error. I edit it, but the corrected version only goes to new readers, not those on my subscriber list.
I draft my post on word processing, copy it, and paste it on the dashboard. In the meantime, I have searched online for pictures to illustrate my post, saved them to copy and paste. Some of my posts are stories I make up. I surprise myself that I can sometimes write fragments of fiction (and imagine I am another Jack London or John Steinbeck). My other posts are nonfiction.
I offer this “dummies” post in case anyone wonders how it’s done and considers joining the club. What’s in it for me? Nothing more than I enjoy the process.
Aun Aprendo, Goya