Six Years!

it's my anniversary transparency post

It’s been (a bit over) six years since I started this newsletter, and as I do every anniversary (that I remember) I celebrate by providing stats and asking for readers to suggest topics for me to write about next (aka A POLL).

To start with, subscriber info:

My number of subscribers keeps increasing, but the number of paid ones has stayed flat over the past year. This time in 2023, I had 5,736 subscribers, of which 442 were paid.

• My most-clicked post was about the onerous demands of nonfiction books proposals.
  

• My readers, from the last 90 days (could not pull stats from past year), stem mainly from NY and CA and also, surprisingly, Georgia (?) They overlap with popular culture and/or publishing-adjacent newsletters (but I suspect those are all so large that the overlap is caused as much by volume as anything).

• My most “opened” newsletter was a recent one about nonfiction book proposals (44%)
  

• The newsletter that led to the most sign-ups was the one when I announced Belt had acquired a novel by

  John Pistelli
  .
  

• The post that brought in the most paid subscribers was “Myths about Publishing Part II” (but that’s not what was led people to sign up—I also offered a sale on annual subscriptions in that post).
  

• The single traffic source that leads to the most paid subscriptions is Google (I assume because I paywall my posts a day or so after emailing them).
  

• The most common reasons people provide for unsubscribing are price ($30/ year or $5/month) and time (I get it!).

And now for some thoughts about my approach to Notes from a Small Press over the past year:

• As someone who receives a lot of newsletters to which I mutter “too long” as I read (or skip), I work towards keeping mine short.
  

• During the past year I sold Belt, and we became an imprint of another, larger press. This has led me to be more cautious about what I reveal of the backend and inner workings of my day job, which was the initial impetus of this newsletter, lo those six years ago, but also, this change has allowed me more headspace to consider different publishing and related topics.
  

And plans for the next year:

• More of the same! Once per week, usually either Monday or Tuesday morning.

• More posts that involve research, like those I do on publishing history, as well as (hopefully!) some more research-based (as opposed to op-ed-y) posts on underreported aspects of contemporary publishing.
  

• Continue to stay away, for the most part, from the “hotly debated” topic of the moment, as there will be so many other newsletters weighing in as well.
  

• I’ve really enjoyed chatting with folks in the comments, as well as (not that often, hopefully more commonly) on Substack Notes (which is quite lively!), and hope to do that more (sound off below!)
  

• Develop newsletters based on any comments you all drop here (ahem!) about what what you’d like to read more about in this newsletter next year.

Finally, thanks for being a subscriber, whether it’s been for one day or six years. Writing this newsletter brings me enormous pleasure, and I appreciate, value, and do not take for granted that there are folks out there interested in what I have to say. Special thanks to those who are paid subscribers, whose commitment inspires me to keep showing up each week. I see you ;)