Paid Subscription Updates
What's going on with the essay project, you ask?
Reminder: I am unemployed now! I’d love it if you became a paid subscriber! Don’t want to deal with Substack? Venmo me, and I will add you to the subscriber list. You can also hire me for all your copywriting/communications/freelance reporting needs! I even have a new portfolio website where you can see what I can do!
When I started this project last April, you may recall that I said I planned to publish my last essay on my 48th birthday (which was this past Sunday) and then turn off subscriptions before anyone’s renewal could renew. Well, I did publish the essay on my birthday, but I haven’t actually written 12 whole essays yet. Never fear! One will go out to paid subscribers either this Friday or Monday, depending on revisions, and the rest will follow in April for everyone. By April 30, you will have all 12 essays!
However, as I am currently unemployed and my unemployment ends in two weeks and I need to pay my bills, I am not going to turn off paid subscription renewals … because I am going to start a new project in May! No one’s subscription will renew before April 13, best I can tell, so this is your two-week notice (at a minimum) if you want to cancel it. (Substack should also send you a renewal reminder email.)
If you do cancel, I will take zero offense! You will still get the rest of the essays you paid for and some occasional free posts going forward. (However, if you cancel today, you won’t get that next subscriber-only essay, so please wait for that to run before deciding to not renew.) But if you want to keep subscribing, here’s what you’ll get in 2025 and into 2026:
A monthly book review. I will be reading and writing a review of a newly(ish) released book. These books will include fiction, memoir, reporting, etc — the same range of books that I used to review for Metro Pulse back in the day. I will try to only write about books that may be worth your time (and/or are extremely hyped). I think I need to get back to reviewing to be able to think about my own writing more critically, and you get the benefit of this.
Occasional recommendations. These may or may not be monthly. Do you love them and want to read them? Tell me in the comments.
Occasional essays. I’m still working on a bunch of these! Some of these I am actively pitching to publications that will pay me for them, but if I can’t sell them, you’ll get to read them instead.
News, maybe? Do you need more news? Probably not. But there are still stories that need reporting, and if I don’t have another place for them, they will appear here.
If you haven’t subscribed, today’s a really great day to sign up! You’ll get my next essay, just for subscribers, which is about getting carjacked and dealing with the Memphis criminal justice system and PTSD and trying to figure out how you know if you’ve forgiven someone. A subscription is just $5/month — that’s the cost of just one iced coffee! — or $50/year, which saves you $10 to spend on two extra iced coffees.
Writing these pieces takes A LOT of time, and if you like reading my work, please consider paying for it. If every single free subscriber became a paid subscriber, I could just do this full time. I know that’s incredibly unrealistic, and I have zero expectations of ever being able to make a living doing just this alone. But if I can cover a few months of car and health insurance and expensive medications, that goes a long way towards a sustainable budget. Thank you for your consideration, and back soon with my next piece!
Carrie Wade, I would like to see you do the book reviews!
I want to get paid to subscribe how do I go about