Couldn't agree more! It's hard when someone unsubscribes. I've spent way too much time wondering what I might have said that offended unsubscribers. And I ultimately came up with the same conclusion. They're not my people. It's ok. I also unsubscribe from publications. Life is hard. Let's not spend time worrying about who does and doesn't like our words!
I've been getting quite a few unsubscribes recently and it doesn't bug me too much, I just find it baffling. For now, I prefer to receive the notifications informing me of 'email disabled' because I'm interested in who exactly is unsubscribing.
Here's the odd thing with me - I started in June 2023 with a heavy focus on language learning (I'm an EFL teacher) and right off the bat had around 150 subscribers, mainly students and colleagues. Then I started picked up more of a 'lay audience' and now I'm very nicheless and all over the place, but with language still at the heart of what I'm trying to do.
I started serialising my first novel a few weeks ago, which is when the unsubscribes started. My book is about English teachers and there are a lot of 'language lessons' in it, so it's not exactly straying far away from my focus. And I've also made it clear that regular business will continue when I'm not posting chapters, and that readers can opt out of those emails.
And yet...I'm getting unsubscribes from some of my earliest, previously most loyal readers who don't read anything else on Substack besides me! It's almost like they're punishing me or something. Is my fiction really prompting them to unsubscribe when they've happily read my nonsense for nearly 2 years? Is the fiction so bad that they're like 'screw this guy, haha, I'll show him!' 😂
Anyway, I'm not losing any sleep over it, I'll continue doing what I'm doing.
Thank you for this today! I’m attempting to grow my newsletter and this inspired me.
I’m glad to hear it! Hope the newsletter is going well.
Couldn't agree more! It's hard when someone unsubscribes. I've spent way too much time wondering what I might have said that offended unsubscribers. And I ultimately came up with the same conclusion. They're not my people. It's ok. I also unsubscribe from publications. Life is hard. Let's not spend time worrying about who does and doesn't like our words!
Great piece! A realignment for both writer and reader I think…
It’s all about mindset with this topic isn’t it? ✨🫶🏼
Enlightening and useful, appreciate this.
I've been getting quite a few unsubscribes recently and it doesn't bug me too much, I just find it baffling. For now, I prefer to receive the notifications informing me of 'email disabled' because I'm interested in who exactly is unsubscribing.
Here's the odd thing with me - I started in June 2023 with a heavy focus on language learning (I'm an EFL teacher) and right off the bat had around 150 subscribers, mainly students and colleagues. Then I started picked up more of a 'lay audience' and now I'm very nicheless and all over the place, but with language still at the heart of what I'm trying to do.
I started serialising my first novel a few weeks ago, which is when the unsubscribes started. My book is about English teachers and there are a lot of 'language lessons' in it, so it's not exactly straying far away from my focus. And I've also made it clear that regular business will continue when I'm not posting chapters, and that readers can opt out of those emails.
And yet...I'm getting unsubscribes from some of my earliest, previously most loyal readers who don't read anything else on Substack besides me! It's almost like they're punishing me or something. Is my fiction really prompting them to unsubscribe when they've happily read my nonsense for nearly 2 years? Is the fiction so bad that they're like 'screw this guy, haha, I'll show him!' 😂
Anyway, I'm not losing any sleep over it, I'll continue doing what I'm doing.