16 Comments
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The Obsolete Man's avatar

I would much rather read something you actually cared about, whatever the frequency may be. Holding yourself to a publishing schedule will lead to work being rushed in order to have something to release. Quality over quantity.

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J.E. Petersen's avatar

Truth! But the irony is that I would publish more frequently if I would stop worrying about whether or not a given post was "long enough" or "topical enough." I care a lot about a lot of things, but I mute myself for fear that I'll fail to express myself in the "right" way.

Probably, though, this is just a disguised excuse to put off the tough choice of decision making.

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Fraulein Zen's avatar

I have found my twin and it is J.E. Petersen! I feel the same

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Kent Primrose's avatar

“People expect less of you than you think.” Great reminder! Its corollary is also powerful: “People think of you less often than you expect.” Sounds depressing, but actually gives you a tremendous power to unexpectedly delight!

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J.E. Petersen's avatar

Absolutely! Remembering this never fails to be helpful.

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Meg Oolders's avatar

"bigger audiences, more predictable publishing cadences, and clearly delineated topics of focus?" We don't need no "bigger audiences, more predictable publishing cadences, and clearly delineated topics of focus!"

Honestly, I'm still here because you don't have that stuff. I mean, you can get a bigger audience if you want. As long as you don't forget the people that were here for you when you were small.

Our podcast will cheer you up this weekend. We are freakin' delightful.

In the meantime, be gone demons and sore phlegmmy throats. Be gone!

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J.E. Petersen's avatar

Meg if I can keep you from unsubscribing, I'll know I'm on the right track.

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Meg Oolders's avatar

Happy to be your "success" meter. But good luck getting me to unsubscribe. Loyalty is my calling card. Especially for people who deserve it.

P.S. Your proof arrived today! I'm looking forward to reading it, spilling coffee all over it, and then buying a polished copy off the demon site to replace it. 💜

P.P.S. Thanks for using my review on the back copy! I'm famous now!

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Tom Pendergast's avatar

I’m a fan of “publish worthwhile stuff, when it’s ready.”

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J.E. Petersen's avatar

I'm also a fan of this. But who, other than me, can say when it's "ready?" I keep looking for some outside rule or metric that will relieve me of that burden, but it turns out there's no such thing.

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Tom Pendergast's avatar

Funny, was just having the conversation with my wife, who was trying to decide whether to submit a painting to a show. We decided that if the work showed well who we thought we were right now , that was good enough. That's a slightly higher standard than "if it doesn't embarrass you," mind you! And I do think you are the only vote that matters on "ready."

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J.E. Petersen's avatar

Depends on where your threshold for embarrassment is :)

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Sabrina Y. Smith's avatar

Those little head demons are the worse!👹 I was also thinking of doing a reader poll to ask what they want and have opted against it too (for now…).

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J.E. Petersen's avatar

Ha! I figure this is a pretty common phenomenon among Substackers. Polls: cool feature! / usually not worth it.

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Sean Worsley's avatar

Wow this felt like a journal entry of mine but way more eloquent

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Caz Hart's avatar

Publish whatever and whenever.

Can you Americans please stop using cadence incorrectly? Please?

It's a Substack thing. All Americans on the platform, which means nearly everyone, insists on using certain words inappropriately.

It's a schedule. You're talking about a fooking schedule.

On the other hand, if you want to tell us that no one likes the cadence of your voice, fine, you can tell us that.

Rant over

Thank you.

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