The Widower
Building an Audience One Subscriber at a Time
This being my sixth Substack column, it’s time for an update.
My goal, as I explained when I launched “The Widower,” is to help others and to build an audience and show a potential publisher that I have a following of readers, making me more enticing as an author.
My first book, “Death Beyond the Willows,” was published twice, both by small companies, both of which ran into financial trouble. Though the guy who became my second publisher was a friend I met on the Wisconsin Writers Association Board of Directors, and we revised that book in a way that was near flawless in my mind, I cannot believe that this collaboration became more problematic than the first publisher. I cannot get author-discounted copies to resell at speaking events and conferences. He fed it through Amazon’s Create Space for printing, and now I must pay full price on Amazon, plus tax and shipping. For a $16.95 book, I pay $18.80 per copy to get it to my door. I sell it for $20 and reap a buck. I don’t even receive royalties.
With that track record, I opted to self-published my second book, “Memories of Marshall, Ups and Downs of Growing Up in a Small Town.” I struggle with computer technology, so it was a minor miracle that I pulled off this project, with help from a cover designer and using Amazon’s kindle direct publishing (kdp). Each book I sell at $13.95 nets almost $10 profit, all of which has gone to the Marshall Area Historical Society. In three years, I’ve donated more than $5,400.
In April of 2023, I again turned to kdp and that cover designer for “Snakes, Squirrels & Bears, Oh My! Finding Humor Amid Life’s Frustrations.” I net almost $10 for each $13.95 book I sell. Yet after subtracting expenses, I reaped about $300 in profit—the same amount I got in checks for speaking engagements last year.
In other words, I’m not getting rich selling books. Instead, I’ve enjoyed it for the craft of writing.
In the past 10 years, I’ve kept a journal on my computer about Cheryl’s journey into dementia. Sometimes two or three weeks went by between entries. Sometimes I turned to it twice daily. It helped me vent. It helped me process what was happening. And it helped me monitor her decline. That journal contains more than 330,000 words.
Everyone’s dementia story is unique, but dementia affects so many families, that I think I could offer guidance, some do’s and don’ts, for families and caregivers on similar journeys.
I even have a working title: “Diary into Dementia: One Wife’s Descent; One Husband’s Deliverance.”
While the “D” words create alliteration, deliverance is a hopeful word, one that suggests caregivers can come out on the other side and move on with life.
I want to write the book this fall and winter. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but I hope to be ready to seek a publisher a year from now. Given what has happened with my first three books, I realize I need a larger publisher with marketing savvy, a company that could hook me up with dementia conferences nationwide for speaking engagements. Absent that, there’s little reason to publish it. Sure, my friends and relatives might buy such a book, and those who read it will learn something, but the goal must be broader. Otherwise, I’m doing much work for little pay, all while exposing a dark, painful chapter about my life with Cheryl that might be better left unpublished.
On April 3, I went to a program at Janesville’s Hedberg Public Library about blogging. Before retiring seven years ago, I wrote a blog—an online column—while serving as Opinion Page editor of The Janesville Gazette. It covered a range of topics and plugged the next day’s editorial. The speaker at the library suggested finding a niche. If you’re trying to write on general topics for everybody, “You’ll be writing for nobody.” He likened it to cows, noting that there are many black and white cows in fields, and urged each writer to find that unique, purple cow.
As he said that, I thought about writing as “The Widower,” the perspective in life I face since Cheryl died Feb. 25. How do I mourn yet move forward? That’s what these columns are about. I didn’t think I’d have a problem writing such a column, though crafting one each week has proved challenging. Instead, the big issue was what online platform to use.
An author’s website would be a good place to post blogs, but I have never had one. When I’m only pocketing money on the latest of my three books, it makes little sense to pay someone to help me build a website and spend more money maintaining it. The speaker mentioned Mailchimp, a program I heard about at a writers conference. As I understand it, you collect emails from interested readers, link them to that program, and it automatically sends your new posts to those readers or subscribers.
Substack works similarly, but I don’t recall hearing about it. After I bounced my blog idea off a friend and former Gazette coworker, he put me in touch with another former coworker, a guy who uses Substack for two local news services. I was surprised to learn that I already was tapped into two other Substacks, including one that Wisconsin author Michael Perry uses to deliver short audio chats.
I was intrigued enough to try it. I wanted to offer these columns/blogs free, again with the goal of building an audience. Not knowing what to expect, I thought maybe I could hit 100 subscribers by the end of the year.
I hit 100 within 10 days. I’m now up to 155 subscribers.
Is that good? Would a publisher be intrigued? Maybe so. Maybe not. Many are friends and relatives, and that supply is limited. Substack suggests ways I could build my audience by cross-referencing my columns on other social media and even doing audio tapes. But other than announcing my columns to my hundreds of Facebook friends, I’ve taken it no further. My lack of familiarity with other social media might doom this endeavor.
However, I’ve gotten nice feedback, which I appreciate. None more so than from two of my readers.
--“I really want to support this because it is a topic that needs to be shared. For too long there have been too many misconceptions about this horrible disease that robs families of people they dearly love.”
--“Your gift of writing is a blessing to so many, and I think it’s great you’re now applying it to this deeply personal and important topic. Much more needs to be said about what Alzheimer’s disease is like and surviving and even thriving through and beyond the caregiving years. Wishing you well …”
Both pledged $80 for the rest of the year. I’m touched and honored by their encouragement and generosity. I know both of these readers. Yet as I stated upfront, my goal is not to make money on The Widower but instead encourage others on their own paths of mourning and to build an audience. So keeping it free seems to be the right avenue, and I won’t accept the offers from these two readers.
Please, if you enjoy what I’m doing, offer a few kind words, and reach out to others who might find my columns helpful and might join my growing list of subscribers.
I've been on Substack for more than 2 years now, up to about 500 subscribers. Small, niche audience but constantly growing. I really enjoy it and Substack is easy to use and grow.