I've Slowed Down Time by Joining Substack

Today is Six Months on Substack

Today (October 17, 2024) is my sixth-month anniversary on Substack. In that time, I’ve gained 1000 subscribers, turned my efforts here into a fledgling business, and discovered how to slow down the passing years. Everything is happening so fast here that the events of a week ago feel like ancient history.

One week ago. Where were we a week ago?

On October 3rd, I previewed the Bookmotion.pro site for the first time.

On October 5th, the chain of events began that led to a surge of upgrades to my managed Bookfunnel services. I was approached with the offer of funding to get the service off the ground, and on the 7th, one week ago, the money came through.

Since then, I’ve repeatedly changed how the books are presented. I’ve overhauled the back-end. I started testing ads, landing pages, and fulfillment pages. I built the first storefront and the overhauled it when conversions dropped compared to a simple landing page. I added a feature to promote writing reviews, helped a client with her eBook, and outlined the workings of a publisher account for a potential new client. Our authors are in six promotions with five more on the way.

I delivered the first subscribers on Sept. 29th. Our best performing book has earned an average of just over 6.5 new subscribers every day since then. The slowest growing book as earned over 2.5 subscribers a day and resulted in hockey-stick growth for his newsletter. Another member just announced his posted chapter topped 100 views for the first time.

There’s just so much happening, so quickly, that time doesn’t make sense anymore.

And yet, although I’ve happily let Bookmotion take over my life, I know not everyone will feel the same. I’ll be posting Bookmotion-related articles more on the site than here in the newsletter, and if you missed it, the first one is Cost-Effective Advertising for Self-Published Authors, in which I try to share what I’ve learned in my journey into advertising.

I doubt that means I’ll be able to breakaway from Bookmotion in my articles here, though. Literary Salon is about chronicling what I learn as seek to awaken my dormant and half-started publishing career. That means talking about where I am in this journey in the most transparent way I can.

I’ll make a point I’ve made before. Literary Salon isn’t about you copying what I do. Something I learn can be relevant to you without that. Since June 25th, when I returned from vacation with my idea for The Right-Reader Method, it’s taken over my life, now more than ever. I’m not complaining, but I am saying that I’m doing this instead of writing my next book. That’s not a lesson to be learned.

Instead, while I give myself to this for hours a day, you need only download your subscribers and write away. For the moment, this is my creative endeavor. The time will come when this will require less time, and I’ll write more fiction. In the meantime, I’ll try to budget some time for things other than this project.

One thing I must budget time for is sleep, but before I go, I’ll close with a discussion about pricing and what I offered that I shared in Notes. I said there, that I could have just offered the Bookfunnel management services; it would have been a bargain. There’s nothing at risk here. Every subscriber, sale, and review that comes out of Bookmotion is fundamentally free.

Now eventually, you’ll need to be a Founding Member to participate in this service, but that’s also one of the biggest values in paid memberships. Let me show you why.

First—if you’re doing Bookfunnel on your own, you’re paying $100 a year.

I charge $80. I’ll ask $50 a year for Founding Membership, but it’s a name-your-price system with the lowest option being $31 a year. So you could end up paying as little as $111 a year, if money’s tight.

Excluding the $100 you’d pay for Bookfunnel on your own, that means a qualifying subscription functionally costs you $11 a year. That’s less than $1 a month.

And if you subscribe in October, you can still get six-months free. Starting in November, that drops to three. When the time is over, if you don’t do anything, your membership drops to the free level. You have to decide it’s worth it to you to subscribe… and I give you time so you can make that determination.

If you don’t want to pay for a subscription, you can still stay with the service for the time you’ve already paid.

Ask any managed Bookfunnel member. I’ve brought them all results. Bookmotion will take time as I test ads and build storefronts for each author, but that time doesn’t matter because our efforts are diversified—and they’re paying off.

I can’t think of any approach more ethical, honest, and real than that.

Okay, that’s going to wrap up this six-month anniversary post. Be sure to check out Bookmotion.pro, and if you’re ready to sign up, head on over to Whop.com/bookmotion. And I’ve just discovered that my submission form limits you to a 200 character blurb. I’ll have to change that soon. In the meantime, type anything there, and drop me a longer blurb in the ThaddeusThomas.com chat. I’m moving the Bookfunnel discussion there so that the Literary Salon community can get back to its original focus of supporting one another.

— Thaddeus Thomas