
The Writer of the Future - agronaut
https://books.substack.com/p/notebook-the-writer-of-the-future
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sixtypoundhound
The problem is the reader world is bifurcating. It is no longer viable to
write "for the middle" of the audience.

The two profitable price-quality points are:

\- Cheap content for the masses (lowest common denominator, ad supported)

\- Deep content for the vested (at a high price point)

"The middle" graces you with:

\- High cost to produce (research, depth, diction)

\- Limited audience

\- Zero willingness to pay

A writer demanding the world take them seriously is the last step on the way
down.... performance begets entitlement, not the reverse. There are critical
writers in the business world: those who write landing pages, build core
content, drive desirable activity. They are often very well paid and - in the
event they aren't - are frequently positioned to go out on their own as an
independent publisher. It's the ones that write what in retrospect was the
filler who tend to complain....

~~~
BookPost
Book Post here. Thanks for giving us some thought! Agree, $45 subscription is
a lift. Upside: Overhead is low & I don’t need a mass readership to make it
work. The New York Review of Books and the New Yorker were built on an
“aspirational” audience of people not necessarily seriously into books but
wanting to keep up with culture in an approachable/manageable way. Would love
to have enough readers to charge less. Isn’t there something between business
reporting and “filler” that is a social good? Like, just because teachers
don’t have the market leverage to earn millions, doesn’t mean we don’t want
their salaries set at a level that attracts qualified people and makes the
profession sustainable...

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mirimir
Interesting.

But they want $45 for a one-year subscription to get book reviews. I have a
hard time parsing that. Maybe if I were seriously into literary matters. Also,
I can't see what forms of payment they accept, unless I provide an email
address. Probably not Bitcoin, I'm guessing.

~~~
sramsay
> Maybe if I were seriously into literary matters.

Like the subscribers to the _London Review of Books_ ($49 US / year), the _New
York Review of Books_ ($89 US / year), or the _LA Review of Books?_ ($100 US /
year for a _quarterly_ , if I'm not mistaken).

There are lots of people who are serious enough about books to pay these kinds
of prices, and the price they're asking is around market (though maybe a
little high for digital only).

My question is this: Are they as good as these other very famous publications?

~~~
BookPost
Book post here! I worked at the NY Review of Bks for 30 years. One thing we
heard over & over is that the issues pile up and no one has time to read them.
Trying to develop a model that fits into modern life, makes people feel
plugged in, not guilty. Looking not to compete with the old lions but offer
something different.

