A Note About Paid Subscriptions
Substack has figured out a way to enable creators to get paid directly from people who read and enjoy their work. With traditional publishing, a writer would need to compile an entire manuscript (or pitch a summary to a publisher), write the whole thing before it was in the hands of readers, and then take a small percentage of pay if and when the book sold.
Substack does away with some of those traditional limitations. Readers of the Darkling Psalter have been enjoying and influencing this project from the beginning. Writers can now receive payment directly from their readers to fund the work as it is being written. If and when it is published in print, it will be the continuation of a relationship readers have with the work and the author, not the beginning.
I’m re-enabling paid subscriptions.
The Darkling Psalter started out with an option for readers to choose a paid subscription as well as a free subscription. I paused the paid subscriptions because when each post included a poem and a psalm rendition, they were taking 6-8 weeks to write. I thought that was too slow a pace to justify allowing people pay me money for the project. Now that the poems are more sporadic, I have been able to run ahead with the psalm renditions.
Since that pivot, I’ve been able to send out 17 new psalm renditions in three months and we are just shy of the 1/3 mark for the entire project.
With that faster pace, I’m unpausing the paid subscriptions. If you were a paid subscriber last year, you’ll find that subscription is active again. If you have joined the project since that time and you are the kind of person who wants to use their money to support creative projects, come on board!
The Darkling Psalter will still be free.
If you want to continue reading the Darkling Psalter for free, great! I will not add any paywalls to these posts and everyone who has been enjoying them for freefr up to now will still be able to read that way. Paid subscribers receive no additional benefits or posts; it is just a way to use your money to say “Keep going!” and to support me as I work on this project.
Thank you for coming along for this journey and for all your kind comments and support. If I was only typing these renditions into my computer in isolation and could not interact directly with readers, I doubt I would have made it six months, let alone three years.