Thanks for Being in My Niche
***I’ll be signing my books Dragged Into the Light, Delaware Beer, and Eastern Shore Beer at the Greyhound in Berlin on May 6, during the Jazz and Blues, Wine and Brews event, so come by and say hello!***
“Find your niche.” Every writing guru or social media influencer lives dies and makes a living repeating this, mantra-like. It took me a while to understand that “Find your niche” only makes sense if you’re trying to “build an audience” or sell something. I’m not doing either, and it’s time I admitted it. After spending the last four years publishing in various places for multiple “niches,” I’ve succeeded only in stifling myself.
There are so many stories that didn’t have a home or didn’t get written until I found them a home. Some are OK (I think) but there are honestly more stories to tell than niches I write in.
It’s tough because I don’t think in niches. I’m a curious guy and a competent enough writer that I can tell other people about the cool things I’ve seen. At heart, I’m a general assignment reporter or essayist searching for a different take on something obvious.
At the risk of sounding advertorial, Substack solved my problem, and so did you (by continuing to read this. THANKS! SO MUCH!).
Substack changed their website (platform?) in ways that dare me not to write. As a result, I’ve been writing more and I’ve been more fluid about it. This is a great explainer by a vocal Substack critic about why these changes are enticing.
Some Substacks email every day, or multiple times per week with no rhyme or reason. I promised you I wouldn’t be a noodge with these emails, and I’m sticking to that. You’ll still get the one big email each week (paid subscribers get two), but you might also get the occasional ping about a chat (more about that later).
I don’t have to email you every time I write something. I’ll have links in my weekly email so you can read what interests you and skip what doesn’t. There are people from three combined email lists here, so everybody won’t read everything every week, and that’s OK with me, if it’s OK with you.
I post everything on the “Notes” function (which is very like old-school Facebook). If you’re on your desktop, check it out. If you’re reading this on your phone, Substack will ask you to download the app. Sorry about that. They’re really proud about their app (which is growing as people leave Twitter).
I replaced my Twitter app with Substack, but I know many if not most of you are hitting app exhaustion. I’m one of thousands of writers here, though, so someone is writing something you like (or making art/comics/podcasts/poetry, you get it).
Chat
I’ll be using the “Chat” function more. As with Notes, you can use it on your desktop but not on your phone (without the app). Chat is a thread where we (or at least I) can hash out some different ideas. I ran a test last night and you might have gotten an email with the first thread. Expect to see more of them, but if it’s a thread you’re not interested in, just ignore it.
If you pop over there now, I’ve started a bunch of potential conversations. This one’s fun:
I would love to talk about cheating. In sports, in life, in fiction and in history. There’s a fine line between seeking an advantage and outright cheating. We frame it as the spirit versus the letter of the law, but I think it goes deeper than that.
Podcast
I really want to podcast again. I enjoyed reading my stories aloud, but they felt redundant. I’m going to experiment a bit with that, probably by reading the extra stories instead of the email and possibly some interviews I think you’ll get a kick out of. Again, it won’t be very niche. Rather than have 10 podcast feeds, I’ll probably drop a different cover on each so you know what you’re getting.
You may recall I’m covering the funeral industry now, which is insanely interesting. Most of what I write is paywalled and a little inside baseball, but I host a podcast there called Funeral Service Insider: The Podcast (the newsletter I write is called Funeral Service Insider). I think it’s fascinating, but it really is for people already working in funeral service (that’s what it’s called).
I’ll be back next week with something else and (possibly) a Bagel Manifesto podcast on this Elon Musk thing. More on that in the stories below.
Keep the Faith,
Tony
Postscript
I was at a funeral conference last week, which is why I didn’t publish anything, but as I said, I feel like I’m hitting my stride.
I get a lot of Facebook friend requests, but no engagement on Facebook. My solution was this post. It’s an invitation to follow me here if they’re really that interested. Several have (WELCOME! FOLKS!), so I’ll probably keep doing it.
In last week’s Elon Musk Twitter Kerfuffle, his original post about democratizing the internet made the rounds. Setting Musk as a person aside, this notion about a paid democracy versus one where you just get to participate by virtue of your citizen status isn’t exclusive to him.
Finally, I was listening to a one-man podcast this week and it was SO CRINGY it made me stop recording the one I was working on. I’ll try and get one next week, but I wrote a personal plea/disclaimer I wanna share. The TLDR version is I’ve been having trouble writing because I worry about sounding too preachy. I’m going to stop worrying first and (hopefully, eventually) stop sounding preachy second.
That’s it. Let me renew my invitation to interact with me (and other writers et al) here on Substack. I’ll catch you later.
TR