a cosmo quiz for newsletter glow-up.

+ recommended reading/watching/listening & more <3

late spring blooms//ohio.

Dear friends, 

As I wrote about recently, I am transitioning out of full-time employment and back to part-time teaching/part-time hustling. I have always found ways to pay my bills doing a variety of jobs, but this time around I would love for the bulk of the hustling part to be writing-related. I feel almost embarrassed to tell you that; all of these deservingness narratives fill my head when I type it out. How dare I try to make money from this labor? How dare I try to do something I love? Etcetera. But I’m trying to resist those because I know that there are few things I value more than art, and I also know I genuinely love supporting my favorite writers with my dollars.

It’s boring to have to defend art. It’s boring to say “writers deserve to be paid.” But we keep having to say it—to audiences and to ourselves. Especially in an age of AI when writers are being robbed and devalued more than ever before. So I’m saying it again. 

I won’t be subtle about it: I want (and need) to increase paid subscribers. I keep this newsletter cheap ($33/year, way less than a cup of coffee a month), and I put tons of work into it. I am excited that I will have time to put even more work into it now that my full-time gig has ended. And I really want to offer something that y’all want. June will begin the transition to new and more regular content. I want it to be stuff we’re both/all excited about! 

I currently have 302 paid subscribers; I’d like to get to 500 paid subscribers by the end of summer, and 1000 paid subscribers by the end of the year. I know those are lofty goals, but I’m aiming high! If you are a paid subscriber already, thank you. If not, I hope you’ll consider it. If you want to support me/want full newsletter access but can’t afford it, I always comp people who request it, no questions asked. A thing everyone could do to help would be to share this newsletter with a friend who you think might appreciate my writing. 

To get clear on how I can move forward creating something we both love, let’s do some polls! I’ve tried something like this before and I know there’s only so much I can glean from the diversity of desires y’all have, but these feel like old timey Cosmo quizzes, so I want to do it anyway. Please click with abandon! And if there’s something else you want to share, just hit that reply button. <3 

If you are a paying subscriber, why? These are the current/main bonuses I offer for paid subs. If you value my work but are also really motivated by one of the other things, please select the other thing! If you would pay regardless of extra content, click the first one. :)

If you aren’t, what would compel you to become a paid sub? 

I’m planning on launching a podcast (or two) again this summer. I’m really excited to get back to audio (my Feminist Killjoy, PhD fans/friends know!). Here are some podcast related questions:

Do you like the option to watch a video to correspond with your pods? 

Do you like getting audio/podcast content through your newsletters, or do you just listen on podcast apps?

Okay, thank you so much!!! Again, if there are other things you’d like to share to help me improve the newsletter, hit that reply button and let me know.

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Below! Links galore to articles/essays on writing amidst genocide and despair, coping with pet loss, my very belated thoughts on Kathleen Hanna’s memoir, & more; brief capsule reviews of Pee-wee As Himself (more on this film in an upcoming essay), Hacks, and a late (&cranky) response to The Brutalist; a new summer playlist; and my usual list of things that brought my joy this week. <3

I love & appreciate you! 

love & solidarity,

raechel 

Reading.