WHY SUBSTACK?!
HOPE FOR THE NICHELESS?!
Substack a Waste of Time?
Survey Question: Has anyone actually proved having ten-thousand-plus subscribers gets you a publishing deal or prestigious art/film/music show? It seems that this wouldn’t really count so much these days because so many (relatively unknown) people have tens of thousands of subscribers in social media. Some of these people have talent. Some are just winning a popularity and/or marketing contest—which seems very true these days when you take into account the critical mass of mediocrity in all art forms (especially at the top). It trickles down!
Joey (my co-Substacker) and I don’t have other social media, except when we’re promoting specific projects. In fact, we’d love to promote the next iteration of our opera MelanchoLalaland. Right now, we’re slammed with our exodus (oh god please) from SOFLO! BTW, things are pretty grim. We have a nutso HOA Assoc and a non-remodeled townhouse making it difficult to sell. Oh, poor us! (Wah wah.) Everyone has (worse) issues these days, but it’s just that the people we’re dealing with are so miserable and misanthropic (without knowing, admitting, or embracing it). They’re rabid-angry, brain-fogged (more than most), ethnic-identity-obsessed (including white trash)—all of this. It’s HELL trying to get concrete/coherent things done with them and get outta here! We also have a herd of cats and out-of-state income (when we move outta state) so we can’t rent. Our soulful pursuits—like into Gnosticism, for instance—have also proved far from comforting lately. (See Thea Z’s next Substack article in which she interviews some “Gnostic” clergy.)
Substack provides a little bit of community with like-minded people (for Joey, too, though he has the university where he teaches). We also like having a place to announce publications, exhibits, performances which, again, we have no time to pursue currently. Substack does make Thea feel more seen, in contrast to the many years she lived in the shadows as an aspiring creative writer (years of rejection, lots of learning, and a lot of ghosting from those more institutionally educated and/or more successful). Joey has gained a fair amount of recognition during his career, but we have little time to promote him now. But, yes, we’re trying to connect with visual artists, videographers, filmmakers, composers, music people, in addition to the base of creative writers we have now. Who knows?! Maybe all of us WACs will collaborate one day! Multimedia rules!
WE’RE NICHELESS!
Whenever we read a Substack advice bit, it always seems to say “FIND YOUR NICHE!” Be unique in your niche! Oh well! We proudly have no niche, but that also makes our promotion slow-going.
We’re also wondering if maybe some people are onto the fact that we’re over forty (and yet “undiscovered”) which might make us less interesting (understatement). There is DEF some ageism going on EVERYWHERE (even in liberal circles)! We love GEN-Z, BTW. We seek out their take on things, along with all the other generationally labeled groups (labels which should be abolished)! I (Thea) don’t know if I’m also maybe suffering some antisemitism (or paranoia) because of my last name? I am one-fourth Jewish (from my maternal grandfather) though I took my mom’s maiden name for my last name years back, when I thought it’d be cool to have a Jewish-German-sounding name! It shouldn’t really matter anyway because the vast majority of Jews in the U.S. voted against TRUMP and, therefore, against NETANYAHU! You gotta respect that! It took balls! And intellect! Get mad at all the groups who DID vote for Trump, why don’t you?! Don’t get me started! Our (probably naïve) hope is that every branch of the GOP gets kicked out, starting with the House/Senate in November! The GOP SCOTUS is a disgrace!
We’ve pretty much given up the dream of world-wide fame! But hopefully we’ll get our opera done again one day! We’re just plugging along trying to survive Bosch Gardens in Bully-Land!
Going to tag some people below: Substack friends who’ve been supportive of us and take part in our projects, but also more recently discovered peeps. Some may even feel like communing. If not, DELETE, DELETE!
WHY DO YOU SUBSTACK? IS IT “PAYING OFF” IN ANY FORM? ARE YOU PROMOTING A PROJECT, SERVICE, PUBLICATION, OR (LIBERAL) AGENDA? IN WHATEVER STAGE, FEEL FREE TO PROMOTE IT HERE! (JOEY BARGSTEN IS A PROFESSOR OF MULTIMEDIA AND VIDEOGRAPHY/FILM, XR, SOUND DESIGN, ETC., BUT HE ALSO HAS A PHD IN MUSIC COMPOSITION, WHICH IS WHY WE INCLUDE ALL TYPES OF MUSIC PEOPLE AS WELL)
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I used to blog. It became a journal. I also used to keep a diary. I have diaries going back to the early 80s. The blog replaced those but looking back much of it was screaming into the void. Even so I had hundreds of people who used to leave comments. Many I would count as friends.
But then one person went and spoiled it. I've always operated online anonymously and will continue to do so. There are genuinely dangerous people around.
I write mainly for myself but it's nice to engage socially. I will not turn on paywalls as I'm not consistent enough to provide any product. Some of it is rap poetry, some structured, some Sufi, some logic or law or biology. Some of it is jokes. It's whatever comes.
I'm kinda with Andrew. Mine is for me. My musical career died a whimpering death three years ago and so I have nothing to sell or promote. Substack has increased my want to write though...songs and otherwise. And, except for a few recurring dicks, people have been pretty friendly. Does this relate to what you're saying? Maybe not.