New platform, new format, new start!

I mentioned in my last newsletter that I wanted to rethink my approach to updates and find ways to remove some of the barriers that have kept me from being consistent in the past. And while I expect it to take me a while to fully settle in, you can tell I’m making a beginning!

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Here are some of the changes I’m looking at…

1. New platform

To be honest, my old newsletter platform was difficult to work with. Too many buttons to hit. Menus I always needed hidden in places that I couldn’t remember. Having to re-learn unintuitive processes every time I opened the site. Basically, the platform I was using was frustrating enough that “I don’t have the energy/brain power to put out a newsletter today” had become a lot more than a lame excuse.

On the other hand, I had started using Substack last year to publish my serial story, The Chronic Warrior Chronicles, and found it much easier to keep up with, even when I was running on fumes. So when I sat back and took stock of just how much the old platform was getting in my way, Substack was the obvious switch. My hope is that by getting the platform frustration out of the way, I’ll have more time and thought to give to the newsletter itself.

2. New format

As I mentioned in my last letter, writing out a plain update is hard for me. It’s not just this newsletter either—letters, emails, basically any kind of casual writing that isn’t fiction apparently comes from a totally different place in my brain than where my stories live. “But you’re a writer,” they say… Yep. I can’t explain why it’s not the same, but there you have it.

However, I do have updates to get out! Sales, promos, new releases—I can’t just sit back and expect you to find out about these things through the whispers on the wind. (Though wouldn’t that be lovely?)

Enter—

3. New plan

Okay, well it’s more of a hazy idea at the moment, but I want to find and create content to share with you that feeds the fiction-writing part of my brain—the part that I’m excited to share with you all. My hope is that focusing on this will help me get over the hump of “I don’t know what to write” and past the pit of “but there’s nothing new to update on!”

I’ll be playing around with what exactly this looks like, whether it’s sharing snippets of existing stories, spotlighting favorite characters, or creating exclusive sketches based on random prompts. If you have any ideas, or any opinions on what’s working and what’s not, please chime in and let me know! As much as I’m rethinking what works for me, the goal remains to get you content you enjoy on a consistent time frame.

4. New start

Some of you have stuck with me through some very dry years. (And I’m sure that some of you have signed up for too many author newsletters over the years and just ignored all of them, which is entirely fair!) If you don’t like where this goes, or just decide you need a break for a while, no hard feelings. But if you do decide to stick with me, I’m going to do my best to give you better updates more consistently than I’ve managed before.

My hope is to send these approximately once a month (with a flexible schedule around time-bound announcements like sales, new releases, etc.). Your next installment should be complete with something from the creative side of my brain—any ideas, send them my way!

Until then, thanks for sticking with me and for all your support over the years as I continue to figure this out. God bless, and happy reading!

~ Angie
contact@quietwaterspress.com

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