We Need to Talk about Money

In which our hero asks some questions about paid subscriptions

A golden coin, not often seen. Photo: Gregory Garretson

I do not tend to think of myself as a very typical male. Nonetheless, one way in which I suspect I am pretty typical is my fear of certain four-word sentences, such as “We need to talk.” This utterance sends chills down my spine and into my stomach, which tries to hide. Even worse is “I want a divorce.” I have heard both of these things said, albeit not with equal frequency. There are other dreaded four-word sentences that I am less familiar with, such as “The result is positive.” And if I let my imagination run wild, I can come up with even worse ones, such as “Is this your penis?” But I digress.

We’re here to talk about money. One of the reasons I let myself be prodded into starting a Substack (by the wonderful

Liza Debevec

—it’s all her fault) was that I was told there was potential for earning money. Which means potential for supporting myself by writing—which, to my ears, sounds as good as “flying around on a chocolate unicorn”.¹

Another coin not often seen: Wayne Coyne, of the Flaming Lips, riding around on a unicorn. Photo: Gregory Garretson

Recently, I quit an insanely stable job (a tenured university position) to see if I could make a living as a writer. Is it working? No. Not yet. To earn a living, I still have to do other things (like teach, give workshops, and juggle at intersections—just kidding about one of those). I am working on two book projects which may result in actual contracts with a publisher—or may not. And if they do, they may sell, or may not. So it will be a long time before I can say that my book writing is a viable source of income.

Four months ago today (trumpets, please), I also started Living Elsewhere. It has been wonderfully rewarding: my pieces have been well-received, my free subscriber base has grown rapidly, and I have made connections with lots of terrific people. But sadly, from a financial perspective, it is, thus far, a losing proposition: the income from the few paid subscribers I have (also known as my favorite people ever) doesn’t even come close to covering the time I’m spending on writing the content, which steals time from activities that would actually bring in revenue and help me support myself.

In short, I need to figure out how I can continue to write Living Elsewhere without going broke. I realize that very few people are going to buy paid subscriptions out of sheer kindness. So I need to start to offer paid content. My hope is that I can produce things that some of you will find interesting enough that you will be willing to part with one dollar a week to have it.

So if I ask you to consider upgrading your subscription, it’s not out of greed, it’s because I’m trying to find a path toward realizing my dream of making a living as a writer. If you could help me with that, it would mean more to me than I can express.

My goal is that the weekly essays I publish will always remain free to everyone. This is the main content of this Substack, and the thing that has drawn readers to it (unless it’s my charming smile, in which case, you really should get out more). What I am going to do is add more content on top of this. And yes, that means that I will be sinking even more time into Living Elsewhere, so this is very much an experiment. Let’s see where it leads.

What, you ask, will this new content be? A good question. I’m hoping to get some feedback from my readers, to see what they would be interested in.

I hope that some people will be willing to join the “Inner Elsewhere”—a magical space for paying subscribers only, with hardwood floors and tasteful lighting. I will be experimenting with different types of content to fill it with, to see what people respond well to. Over the next few months, I will be rolling out some of the following:

• A serialized long-form travel narrative detailing Liza’s and my one-year, 20,000-mile trip around Europe with Stjärna the turtle, at the end of our relationship

• Interviews (in podcast form) with people who have interesting perspectives on living elsewhere

• Guest essays written by people more talented than me

• Live online events (exact format to be determined) to give members of the Inner Elsewhere a chance to talk with each other about topics of shared interest. Possible themes:

  • Living abroad: Workshops on moving/living abroad

  • Expat life: “Expat Speed-Dating” sessions for chats between expats and the expat-curious (no actual dating required)

  • Emotional support: “Grouchy Immigrant” bitch sessions—where it’s OK to rant and ask for sympathy

  • Language: “Ask Mr. Linguist Person” sessions about learning and using different languages

  • Games: Travel- and language-themed games, just for fun

• Voiceovers (done by me) of all of my posts, including those in the archive

• Tips and hacks for living abroad, travel, and language learning

I would be interested to hear which of these sound interesting to you, and whether you have other ideas that you could suggest. If you would be willing to take a couple of minutes and take this survey, I would really appreciate it!

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY!

As always, if you really want to be part of the Inner Elsewhere but are experiencing financial hardship, just write to me and we’ll figure something out.

Thank you for your attention, and for all of your support thus far! I will end with a much nicer four-word sentence: You are the best! Here is how I feel every time I get a paying subscriber (also from a Flaming Lips concert):

1. No, it’s not a pegasus, dammit, it’s an actual flying unicorn. Made of chocolate!