I started this newsletter a year ago, and I want to use the anniversary to thank you for being its audience.
When I first published a book, I was already accustomed to the rapid response you get from sharing music – not only from a live audience, which reacts literally immediately, but from recordings which as we all know tend to provoke hot takes. Books get a very different reception: they take time to read, there are few opportunities for real-time encounters with the author, and venues for reviews sometimes only run them months and months later.
The experience was unnerving. Was there an audience out there? If I wanted to keep writing and working on the next book, I had to continue without being sure.
Publishing in journals is more immediate – it can provoke hot takes, for better and worse – but even that has its delays. Many the time I pitched an article just to have it kick around editorial for weeks until word finally came back: interesting, but no longer timely. What else you got?
I was complaining about that very situation when a young colleague suggested I launch this newsletter. She was right – it’s been tremendously rewarding to write as topics come up, without pitching, without waiting, and with quick response from readers.
It feels, all in all, more like encounters I am used to with audiences for music. Which has been a happy thing for me. Thank you.
It has also led – I’m delighted to report – to new book projects. If you are a free subscriber to this newsletter you know that I hardly make use of restricting access with a paywall. But I have put an incentive into one of the paid subscription plans: Founding Members ($100 or more) will receive a “Signed first edition of any book developed from these posts.”
I can’t yet share details but I can assure you that it will come to pass. In fact there are three books presently in the works that might qualify for this offer. Maybe it’s turning into a pretty good deal!
I also have to get these books done – which means, for time management, I’m going to change the rhythm of these newsletter posts. Starting with this new season, I plan to move to biweekly publication. I hope that doesn’t change our developing relationship as author and audience, because I have truly been enjoying that above all.
Please keep commenting, or dive in and start commenting, or share on social media and comment that way (if you tag me on Twitter @dada_drummer I will see it). And now let’s play that tune again, it’s never the same twice.
Listening to: My readers
Cooking: Nectarine and fig jam – wish I could share this with you as well, but some things don’t translate online
it's been a great year 1
Congratulations! You've given me a lot to think about over the past year.
It's fig and nectarine season where I am, too, and I'd like some guidance on making my own nectarine-fig jam. That sounds delicious.