Hi All,
This is a bit of a strange email. Strange because typically I would just assign it to my Section “Notes from a Writer” and leave it at that. But were I to do that, only 3 of you would receive it! There in lies the problem.
So, I thought I would write this email once and hopefully it will help many of you understand Sections within my newsletter so that more of you will OPT-IN to receiving more of my emails you probably didn’t even know I send.
A SUMMARY OF TERMS
Substack - The platform I use as both my email newsletter and my online blog.
Sections - A Substack feature that allows me to organize my emails/blog posts.
Tags - A further level of organization that you can’t see on the surface but happens in the background and I will typically create clickable links for.
Manage Subscription - The place where you must go in order to OPT-IN or OPT-OUT of receiving Sections (aka emails) from anyone you’re subscribed to on Substack.
FIND “MANAGE SUBSCRIPTION”
There are two ways you can get here:
Click the button below:
(If you’re not signed into your Substack account you might need to sign in first.)
Follow these steps while signed into your Substack account from the website (mobile or desktop):
Click your icon (top right) → Manage subscription → Select the Sections you want to receive via email.
NOTE: Manage subscription cannot be accessed from the Substack mobile app.
WHAT ACCOUNT LOOKS LIKE
Here is probably what you’ll see when you click Manage subscription:
As you can see there are several Sections that aren’t switched on. That means you won’t receive emails from me that I assign to these Sections:
🚪 Short Stories - A mix of Free-to-Read and For-Paid-Subscribers-Only stories that go out several times per month. They range from 3k - 10k+ words.
🗒️ Notes from a Writer - My thoughts on the art and the business of writing fiction online.
🫱🏾🫲🏻 Community Writing - Prompts you can use to help you write 6-word, 50-word, and 100-word stories.
🔪 The Murder Pen Society - A secret club for lovers of horror and mystery. We’ll read stories together. Have open discussions about all things horror/mystery. And much more!
🖖🏾 Stardate - I am a Trekkie and this is where I get to share my love of the series, the movies, and the memorabilia.
🎮 Notes from a Gamer - I grew up on Nintendo and all the consoles they’ve released since the mid-80’s. This is where I discuss games I’m playing and looking forward to from Nintendo.
If you want to receive these additional emails, be sure to turn them on.
WHY EVERYONE DOESN’T GET ALL OF MY EMAILS?
The reason I set some of my Sections to only go to those who want to OPT-IN is because I realize the above might not appeal to everyone so rather than force these emails into your inbox I’m giving you the option. However, this may have backfired on me since the below are the numbers showing how many of you have OPTED-IN:
Notes from a Writer - only 3 people Opted-In
Community Writing - only 9 people Opted-In
Murder Pen Society - only 3 people Opted-In
Stardate - no one has Opted-In
Notes from a Gamer - no one had Opted-In
I hope you consider taking a bit of time out of your busy day to update your subscription to Erica Drayton Writes so you don’t miss out on the many emails/posts that are coming throughout the rest of the year.
Also, my 1st of the month emails will always contain links to anything that was put under the above Sections in case you decide to leave your subscription as-is.
Thanks for this, I added myself to the other section emails.
I think it's a good idea to keep some sections separate (Notes from a Gamer, for example) because not every interested reader is also an interested gamer. Going forward, though, I'd make the literary sections all default to opt in and include a manage subscriptions button in each email or otherwise remind readers that they can opt out. If I get around to sectioning, I think that's what I'm going to do. I bet you have a lot of subscribers who had no clue that all those other possibilities existed.
How do you determine how many people have subscribed to each section?