Why subscribe?
Honestly, I have been asking myself this question a lot lately. Personally, I hate subscribing to email lists because I don’t know what kind of clutter I will end up with in my email inbox, which already has hundreds (actually, probably thousands) of junk emails in there.
But, the more I lean into this idea of Substack, the more I am coming to believe that email delivery is much, much better than social media. For one thing, I don’t find myself going down a rabbit hole because I went to see someone’s article but was instead fed a steady stream of short videos about terrible or stupid things that have nothing to do with what I was trying to see in the first place. If I had been sent the article in my email through Substack, I would have read it and then went happily back to my work, without any kitten, protest or dance videos taking up space in my brain.
So, for starters, you may want to…
Subscribe as an act of protest
By subscribing to my Substack, you help me move away from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter and all the other platforms whose algorithms are built to manipulate people and keep us all on the platform to sell us junk we don’t want or need. If you subscribe to my Substack, you will get my writing and audio files sent directly to your inbox, cutting out the middleman (or middlewoman, or middleAI??). But only if you want that.
As much as I love the thought of moving away from those other platforms which always seem to leave me feeling drained and uninspired, I personally, never feel motivated to take action based on what I don’t want to support (see any US Presidential election to understand what I mean). I want to cast my vote for things I love and believe in, both literally and with my dollars. Maybe you are like that too. If so, perhaps you would like to subscribe because you want to…
Support my writing
This is the hard part for me. While I do love to support other creatives to free them up to do their important work in the world without worrying about the financial side of things, I find it nearly impossible to ask for similar support myself. But I know this is an important part of my independent author journey. When I worked as a reporter or anchor at various TV stations around the USA, I was always compensated for my work. While that paycheck covered the bills, it always came with a price, namely having to cover the stories that station management deemed worthy. More often than not, that meant death and destruction.
Once I started my family and left the TV news business, I began my independent career through podcasting, livestreaming and, most recently, as an author. This independent creator journey has been life affirming for me. Over the past two decades I have found my voice and am finally creating a body of work I love. Now, the only death and destruction you will find in my writing is in my fiction conspiracy thrillers.
The freedom this gives me to be myself is invaluable. To be able to craft stories while traveling fulltime with my family — whether by planes, trains or catamarans — is the greatest blessing. And to have others on my “crew,” supporting my work, seriously makes me want to cry happy tears.
So, if you are someone who would like to support this sappy, independent broadcast journalist-turned-author you can do that here. Once you click the purple subscribe button, you will find more details about both the paid and free subscription options.
Don’t worry, if you aren’t ready to commit the $5 a month or $50 a year just yet, please do still sign up for the free subscription. Your time commitment to read and support my work is also incredibly valuable to me.
But what is this Substack?
If you would like to know more about me and the story behind why I created the “Rosa Linda Román” Substack, I explain a lot of that in this post, which I wrote when I first started it:
There have been plenty of changes here since then (I changed the name from “Untethered Adventurers” to my own name, for starters…), but the backstory is still the same.
If you are more curious about the future of this Substack rather than its past, I explain a little about that in this post:
Once you read that and (hopefully) decide to become a subscriber, which you can do here:
You then decide which content you want from me. If you go to your account settings page you will find toggle switches to choose which sections interest you. Here’s the breakdown of what they are:
Rosa Linda Román - This is the main publication where any generic or uncategorized posts will go.
Rosa Linda’s Thrillers - This section is for my fiction work. Here you will hear about the trilogy of near future conspiracy thrillers I am writing; “Death Wounds,” “Pyro Pastor” and “Made in China.”
Untethered Adventurers - This section is for my non-fiction work. Here you will find chapters of my sailing memoir, “Losing Sight of the Shore” plus posts about my family’s current full-time travel adventures.
New chat threads - To be honest, I am still learning what this is and why I would use it, so only choose this one if you are willing to get updates as I experiment.
Finally, you can decide if you want to get my newsletter by email, or if you prefer to see it in the Substack app. Personally, I prefer the app (see the first paragraph above about the thousands of emails in my inbox), but that’s what I like about this platform, it is up to you to decide, for both the readers and authors.
But what about Substack the platform?
If you have read this far, and have decided you would like to support my work, but are unsure about the platform of Substack itself, you can check out more about how the whole thing works here:
Bottom line is it is a place that brings authors and readers together to help more magic get created in this world. Unlike most platforms, Substack always keeps the creators in the driver’s seat. If the creators don’t make money, the platform doesn’t make money. So far, other than a few missteps, I like they way they operate and the freedom it offers me. Thanks to Substack, I am able to connect with you and create work I am proud of, all while having the freedom to lose sight of the shore.
If you have any questions about all of this, write me a comment or send me a message. Thank you for checking out my page.
Kungaloosh, adventurer!
-Rosa Linda Román
