Shifting Gears
A Tribe Blog entry from 2nd March 2024
You're now reading what will become the last of the "Tribe Blog" series. This piece is also public, for reasons which will become obvious soon.
After I really struggled to make something I was happy with in last week's piece, I realised just how taxing trying to make a meaningful weekly blog post has actually been on me: I want to be able to create meaningful content every week, but some weeks I don't always have my thoughts fully together in order to be able to bring that to you.
24th February 2024 - Adventure Time
It's been a funny sort of week. Any other author who would have just released a book might have been in full-steam-ahead marketing mode. Not me; I've had a bunch of other work commitments to attend t…
It was also difficult to bring that piece together due to the amount of time I was travelling and involved in other engagements. I already know this will not be the last time I will be in this situation should I continue on the current trajectory.
This also comes at a time when I'm really experimenting with what will give my paid subscribers the best bang for their £5 a month without completely burning myself out. To this effect, I want to use this piece to talk about my next approach going forward, and how I think it'll benefit both me and you. There'll still be lots of worthwhile exclusive stuff for my paid subscribers, but it will be more meaningful and varied.
Let me tell you what's in-store.
A Rotating Schedule
I'll be moving to a four-week rotating schedule from next week of different kinds of benefits for my paid subscribers. That schedule will be as follows:
Week 1 - a podcast with someone I find interesting
Week 2 - a Tribe Poetry Jam
Week 3 - an essay
Week 4 - a Tribe Gathering via Zoom
As you can see, this varies up the format of what I'm offering while encouraging quality over quantity (which is what I want to go for!).
I'll now go into these in more detail.
Podcast
I really enjoy having conversations with people. And I've had many people tell me how much they enjoy having conversations with me. To this effect, it seems wise to keep having meaningful discussions in podcast format on this Substack, building on the format I experimented with for Over To The Youth with some of my podcasts there (now hosted on this Substack).
It's also a great format for people who prefer listening over reading. I have a few faces in mind for the first couple of episodes, but I'd be keen to hear who you'd like to see on. Let me know in the comments below!
Poetry Jam
In the Poetry Jam, I'll be releasing a prompt and any special restrictions for my Tribe members on Friday night UK time. They'll have all of Saturday to write a completed poem and share it via the comments on that thread. I'll then pick my favourite and share it in the Newsletter the following day, with the winner getting a gift subscription they can give to a friend.
I can already see this being a great format that'll yield some great reads, even if not all of them end up winning the week directly.
I'll try and write something too as a means of inspiration, but for obvious reasons I will not be entering my piece into consideration for winning!!
Essays
By moving to a monthly essay in place of the Tribe Blog, I can build up and iterate on my ideas over multiple weeks to give you a much more in-depth, fleshed-out essay or opinion piece on a particular topic. I really like the idea of being able to do literary analysis with this format, but it won't be limited to this by any means.
All the existing Tribe Blog posts and future essays have already been merged with the "Other Stuff" tab to create "Essays & Writings". There will still be free stuff in the tab for everyone to view, but essays specifically for Tribe members will be labelled as such.
Gathering
The Gatherings will remain as before - a 1hr 30min call via Zoom on a pre-set date, with details sent via email an hour before. There will be a mix of external guest QnAs, general catch-ups, and probably some live poetry sharing too going forward. I'm particularly excited to see this blossom!
Other Benefits
I'll be keeping some of the other existing benefits too, including:
A free digital copy of my poetry book "Born Anew”
Early access to all my poems
An exclusive Tribe Chat, which I migrated from Telegram to Substack earlier this week.
Easter eggs and extra tidbits which I plan to add to each of my free poems and articles which only Tribe members can see.
But How Do I Know If It's Worth It?
Good question. I already offer a couple of tools to give you some idea, such as unlocking one paid piece for free. If you're still on the fence, however, I'm pleased to announce I'm giving away five 1-month Tribe memberships for free to let people experience what's on offer.
All you need to do is restack your favourite poem of mine on Substack and say why its your favourite. And that's it!
Everyone who does this between today (2nd March) and next Saturday (9th March) will be entered into a random draw. I'll then announce the winners in the newsletter on Sunday.
With all that, thank you all for your ongoing support. If you’re already a Tribe member, you can expect to see a new podcast from me arriving next week on Saturday! If not, feel free to use the button below to subscribe and set yourself up as a Tribe member.
Some super ideas here on moving forwards!