Introducing Letters from Lauren

Sometimes we have to take a step back to move ahead, or why I'm making this Substack more messy yet personal

If you’ve been here from the beginning, you’ve seen these Substack go through a few ideations.

We were Because Fat Girl. Then School for Writers. Now, I’ve settled on Letters from Lauren.

Yes, I’ve rebranded this thing three times in six months.

Yes, that’s allowed.

Yes, you can remake yourself as many times as you want as well.

I hesitated joining Substack for many years because I have a blog of my own on my own website. What’s the point of giving Substack my SEO? Plus, don’t they that have that whole alt-right problem?

But one solid argument got me on this platform more than anything else:

With a paywall, you can protect yourself from random trolls and haters.

As someone with a personal brand and a business, I feel like everything I create has to be commodified.

Capitalism has that effect on all of us.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to make money. A lot of it actually. Like my friend told me once, years ago, “there are enough broke dykes running non-profits, we need someone to fund the revolution.”

I don’t want to sell out completely to “the man” but I do love being a boss who pays her people well and donate to organizations I care about. And to do that, I need to make money.

But do I need to make money off of everything?

The irony is not lost on me that I’m having this conversation on a Substack with a paywall. However, it is precisely because I set that paywall I felt like I had to come on here and make posts that fit into what the Internet would want.

I started this Substack to be able to share intimate thoughts with my followers, using a paywall to help keep trolls out. Then somehow along the line, I decided I needed to make it a search-engine-optimized blog full of the kinds of posts that would get Google’s attention, then get you to buy stuff from me.

What I’m trying to say is: I got caught in the trap of capitalism.

What I really want to do is write intimate letters to my readers like I used to do 7-20 years ago. I called them Letters from Lauren, and they were conversations, pen pals, true letters. (More about that here.)

I’ve got a polished personal website.

I’ve got a polished business website.

I want a place to be a bit more messy.

So that’s what my Substack is.

Yes, there’s a paywall, but it’s less for profit and more for keeping the trolls away from both of us. They can’t comment, we can chat all we want.

It’s a win-win.

So, instead of the how-to blogs I was writing there for a bit, I’m going to be sending you messages like this, random insights and thoughts, an inside look into the process of publishing and running a business, and some tips here and there.

It’s going to be full of love, so I hope you love it.

And I hope you subscribe if you haven’t already. You can do that with this little button right here:

Got a question about publishing or running a creative business?

Ask it in the comments and I’ll be sure to answer it in a future post.

I say this often and I say it with a passion:

The world needs your story now more than ever.

So welcome to my story. I hope it encourages you to tell your own.

With love,

Lauren

P.S. If you’re looking for those in-depth how-to blogs, we’ll still be doing them over at SchoolForWriters.com.