50 Subscribers!

I just recently hit a milestone of 50 subscribers! Thanks to everyone who has subscribed for your support! This means I am halfway to the first possible moment that Substack removes that embarrassing “tens of subscribers” message from the intro page to my blog. Yes, having so few subscribers is a little embarrassing for me. But I’m not terribly worried about it. In fact, one of the many 3x5 cards I have taped to my wall is a reminder not to make a big deal out of things like this:

There are a lot of reasons why I don’t have that many subscribers, and a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t care. For one, I don’t really do social media at all. I do have a Twitter account, but it was established after this blog, I barely ever use it, and I have significantly fewer followers there than I have subscribers here. If I had an active Twitter or Facebook account, I could advertise my blog there, and pick up a bunch of subscribers that way. I remember having over 500 “friends” on Facebook before deleting my account. I think I could have tallied up a few dozen subscribers there. LinkedIn is basically the only social media account I have, and at one point, I spammed a bunch of post notifications there, and I picked up maybe half a dozen subscribers that way. I have a lot of connections on LinkedIn, but most of them probably have no interest in what I’m writing about, unless maybe it was about “work”.

I want to write from the heart, and focus on what I am writing about, so I don’t really follow any strategies or game plans for growing my subscriber base. For instance, I’ve seen people recommend that an author should stick to a single subject in their blogging to help develop an audience. My “single subject” is, roughly speaking, “science and religion”, which, yeah, is a little too broad to be considered a single subject. They also recommend that I publish on a regular schedule, which I have tried to do, but the fact is, some of the posts I make take a lot of effort. And there are so many things going on in my life, and so many things that take priority over writing, that this is rarely possible. I definitely do look forward to the school year starting up soon! That should free up some time for writing.

I’m sure they recommend a bunch of other stuff for growing an audience, but I don’t really pay much attention to that kind of thing.

I think one of the major reasons that I don’t have a larger subscriber base is that the things I write about tend to alienate large potential audiences. For instance, consider my Yahweh and Elohim series. People who have no interest in the Bible are going to be immediately turned off by a series of 10 essays coming in at 20K words on the gods of the Old Testament. On the other hand, probably most potential readers who follow any of the Abrahamic religions will be quickly turned off by all my blasphemies and heresies. (I like to remember that they called Jesus a blasphemer in his time too.) Similarly, I write things about science that anybody pro-science would find distasteful, to put it mildly. So who is interested in science that is not pro-science? People who are anti-science? Those who share similar views with me regarding science tend to favor spirituality, and have some degree of disdain for religion. (Some day I will write an essay on the differences between spirituality and religiosity.)

Here are some reasons why I don’t really care, or rather, really try not to care, about the number of readers I have:

• I definitely don’t want to be censoring myself, or choosing “safer” topics over “riskier” topics, for the sake of growing or maintaining an audience.

• Because I have a strange niche, it might just take some time for me and my audience to find each other.

• Every new reader is able to go back and read whatever they like, however long ago I wrote it. I even keep things tidily organized by topics here, for just such people.

• There are many ways that history could proceed that would make my essays more palatable to a larger audience.

• Simply writing my ideas down — even without a single reader — adds them to the collective consciousness via morphic resonance.

• I write for myself. I learn so much from writing. Both off-the-cuff notes and time-consumingly researched essays really get my mind moving into spaces it hasn’t been before.

• I write for God. This blog is an active part of my religious practice. It helps me become more deeply connected with Dao and universe.

• I write for you too — but you are already subscribed! Right?

Anyhoo, thanks once again for supporting my work by subscribing!

One more thing before I go. I’d like to give a shout-out to David Bentley Hart, who recently started recommending my blog on his site. I’m not entirely sure why, as we have only had one single interaction as far as I can remember, and it had nothing to do with my blog or his¹. But given that he gets more likes on any random post he makes than I have subscribers, I figure it’s a good thing. According to Substack’s statistics, he has already gotten me five referrals in about three weeks. And another big shout-out to J.R. Leach, the only other Substacker who recommends my blog on theirs! They have garnered me two subscriptions over the years. They should be coming out with the second edition of his book really soon, and I’m really looking forward to reading it! Check out some of the beautiful artwork here.

1. I asked via email for his expert opinion on a verse from the Gospel of John. I am reading his New Testament translation, and quote from it in all my posts. Early on, I used to quote from Lattimore, which is also a fine translation, but Hart’s is by far my favorite now.