The Dead Zones That Have Become Substack and X
...not sure how to proceed, if at all
Let’s be real.
Substack once held promise for indie authors, but it has increasingly turned into a dead zone. Twitter/X hasn’t fared much better - it’s devolved in a similar way. While writers can still interact with their peers, reaching a broader audience has become nearly impossible. If I weren’t in the middle of wrapping up a grueling, three year-long book series, I’d probably just nope the fuck out of both platforms entirely.
But honestly, I am reminded of why I started this book series and that I wrote it for myself in an effort to craft something cool that I wanted to see in the world. The main reason was due to being severely dissatisfied with the quality of entertainment that was being pumped out over the last several years. I have, for the most part, created a universe that I am pretty happy with. Granted, I still need to finish this saga and I hope to within a year. And sure, I have some plans beyond that, but my overall enthusiasm has waned greatly.
That being said, I’m in a weird spot lately. Because of that and because I want to get this series done, I am going to take a step back from my presence here and on X. I’ll check X and be on it because it’s my only point of contact for a few important people, but I can’t say for sure how much I’ll be there. It’s a play it by ear situation.
Anyway, that’s about it. Not that anyone but the same few people will see this and certainly no one on X will click on the post. Any major updates will be posted on X directly (not here), because they seem to at least get some minimal engagement there.
I’m starting to buy into this Dead Internet Theory more and more with each passing day.
I completely understand the frustration. If I hadn't been building up my Substack to the point that it's now the one platform that I am most associated with, I probably would have jumped ship at some point. Or maybe not, since it's pretty easy to use and looks good compared to Blogger, at the very least I would still keep on blogging. But fiction would have been a different story. I'm honestly disgusted by how the higher-ups are handling this place. What waste of potential.
This is a big reason why I'm focusing on writing for magazines and anthologies, and remounting my YouTube channel in a big way. I'm not getting paid for my tweets, and I'm in keep-on-keeping-on mode with growing my Substack and working on prepping my crowdfund campaign to keep 365 INFANTRY going. Instead of focusing on what's not working, I'm looking for ways to make things work. Totally get the burnout on this point too.