It's Still $5, Plus Final Book Review Contest Reminder
So - this March 1st will mark the third anniversary of this newsletter. Given inflation, I have considered raising the price to $6/month, but I’m not gonna. $5 a month still just feels like the right price. I will, however, eventually be removing the option to pay $50 for a year. This may sound like an effort for me to stop offering a discount, but as anyone who runs one of these subscription services will tell you, the certainty of an upfront $50 is more valuable to me than the extra $10. I’m switching to a strict $5/month not to make more money but to afford myself some flexibility - if I want to go on hiatus or end this project, I can always pause payments for those who have signed up for $5, but unless I’m missing something, the people who paid $50 upfront would be missing out. I would of course try to issue prorated refunds for anyone who asked for one, and maybe there’s a Substack function that lets me do that en masse, but switching everybody to monthly payments seems easier and more flexible. At present, I don’t have the financial ability to do any such thing, and I remain grateful to the point of amazement that I get to do this for money. But it’s also true that if I had the opportunity to do something else that I found interesting, I may put the newsletter on hiatus, temporarily or permanently. Rest assured that I won’t cheat anyone out of any money. If you have particularly passionate feelings about paying an annual $50 instead of a monthly $5, well, maybe we can work something out.
Second! Entries for the 2023 book review contest (cash prize $1200 for the victor) are due tonight, December 7th, at 10PM EST. I have to be strict about the deadline for fairness’s sake! Get those entries in to my Dropbox; please see the linked post for submission details. I’m really excited to see what you guys come up with. Good luck.