A New Publishing Platform

It's been a little bit, friends, and I just want to give a brief check-in. If you've received this in your inbox, then that means I have done everything correct in my transition from Substack to Ghost (although I'm not looking to turn my audience into a business).

Substack as a publishing platform was very easy and convenient. It had an app that I could read my subscriptions in, see tons of recommended content, and even post from. However, as an eternally fee-free newsletter/blog/entity, I didn't care about algorithmically-fed content and audience drivers and subscription sales or none of that crap from the beginning. I wasn't looking to share my pictures and writing in order to grow my audience... I just wanted to put my pictures and writing out there.

I've never felt compelled to join the race to maximum followers. I have often joked that I commit the worst crime of social media: I'm pretty boring, actually.

I finally, finally, finally got around to setting up a proper blog with my own proper domain (https://blog.mtthwsmth.com) and the ability to subscribe to it as a (always free!) newsletter.

Does that devalue my work? I'm not sure. Does it inherently have any value at all? Why do we focus on generating income from artistic hobbies/practices we love doing, anyways? To me, that shifts the focus from being artist for the love of the art, to creating art for the sake of making money. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm privileged where I don't have to worry about the money side of my artistic endeavors. I'm absolutely not turning my nose at people who are struggling artists! For me, though, I do admit that I am lucky enough to not have to that weight on my shoulders where my life is dependent on my creative output.

So I guess what does this mean for you? Hopefully not too much has changed. I mean, you got the email and I think that was the biggest hurdle to jump.

What does this change mean for me? Freedom from social media. As I'm this close to turning 40, the luddite in me is coming out and I'm just getting more than a little tired of mega-corporations controlling the algorithms and the content and all the constant advertising and tracking and... This is free of all that junk.

Just me, my pictures, and my frequently insufficient words.

Cheers to the future and thanks for sticking around!