#Substack for Avid Readers

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

What Merging of Fable & Everand Mean to Indie Authors

Early reflection and perspectives from an indie author on how this strategic merger empowers book authors to reach engaged, censorship-free audiences across borders. Publishing Case Study #137 Are you a book author looking to reach a broader audience through a proven system supported by a like-minded community? Are you an aspiring writer who wants to publish your first book within 3 months with…

[justforbooks]

Fancy getting poetry performances and DJ sets all in one place?

A growing number of event organisers across the UK are putting their own spins on literature readings – and there are queues out the door

On a Saturday evening in London’s Notting Hill, a large crowd of moderately tipsy young people are spilling into a tailor’s shop on Portobello Road. A passerby could easily assume they were walking past a fashion pop-up attracting a stylish herd of fanatics. But they’d be wrong. The buzzing crowd is here for a live reading event, and they’re eager with energy and anticipation.

Soho Reading Series began in the summer of 2023 and was founded by Tom Willis, a writer and PhD student. He wanted to make a “scene where anyone could turn up, party, and have a killer time with literature as the centre,” he says over an extra-dry martini a couple of hours before one of the events.

Live literature readings are, of course, nothing new. Salons, bookshop readings, poetry slams and open mics have been fixtures of literary cultures for decades. However, lately this tradition has been revitalised, with events like the Soho Reading Series cropping up all over the country.

Willis was inspired by the cultural heyday of Soho in the 80s and 90s, an era when writers and literary types coalesced in the boozy backrooms of private members’ clubs. Unlike its name, the Soho Reading Series migrates with each event to different venues across the city – from a Grade II-listed pub in Harringay to a Victorian Anglican church on Ladbroke Grove.

“If you’re a published writer, you might go to your publishing house’s Christmas party, and everyone just knows each other there. That’s the professional literary scene, and then we’re the unprofessional literary scene.” Willis says with a smile.

“Scene” is a word used by many of the event’s attendees – but only ever while miming air quotes. I guess this is because the word implies an air of pretentiousness and exclusivity. In reality, these events are unassuming and attract a diverse and expanding crowd. There’s no immovable barrier, secret password or even a ticket to enter – anyone can walk in.

“It’s a party of like-minded people who care about literature. So that’s why it’s such a good party, because everyone cares about the same thing, and everyone’s not there for their career. They hang out with people who like books and have something nice to share,” says Willis.

Soho Reading Series is just one vein in a growing web of live reading events. The audience is young compared with the average literature festival crowd and it attracts a devout congregation of both literary and party-curious individuals.

“Some people come for a party. Some people come for readings. People often end up staying for the thing that they hadn’t planned to come for,” says Sophie Barshall, editor of London-based quarterly DIY arts and culture newspaper The Toe Rag, which also hosts popular live readings.

Inside the tailor’s shop on Portobello Road, the readings begin an hour late. There is no microphone; each reader flicks through printed sheets of paper or scrolls through the notes app on their phone, attempting to project their voice over shuffling, mumbles, momentary laughter and heckling. The shop – usually populated by people shopping for cashmere socks – is full to capacity. The audience has leaked out on to the pavement, and a young woman next to me is FaceTiming a friend outside so they can hear what’s going on.

What is being read aloud is unrestricted by theme or genre. The readings jump from excerpts of short stories published in Granta magazine to a five-star Google review of the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille.

Most of the people I speak to have“never been to something like this before but came across the event through social media or a writer’s Substack and decided to give it a try. Avid readers and amateur writers make up around half of those in attendance, but a significant portion of people tell me they are there purely because they like the idea of being considered literary.

As the reading ends and we move from one local pub to the next, a young man drunkenly confesses that “he doesn’t even enjoy the readings that much” – he just comes to “meet the types of people who would enjoy it”.

“It’s probably not for everyone,” Willis says. “It’s boring unless you’re really engaged in it. It’s free and open to everyone, but it does self-select. But that’s the scene – that’s why literature is so good for scene making.”

In Glasgow, a number of reading series such as thi wurd and Shrill have emerged in recent years. Waterwings Press, which has been hosting live reading events in the city’s south side since 2020, was set up by Leo Bussi, who moved to Glasgow wanting to discover its art scene and meet different people. “I thought the best way to do that is to message someone on Instagram and say, ‘Hey, do you want to read for my reading?’” he says.

Each Waterwings event is made up of readings by five writers: some are seasoned performers, others are first-time readers. Contemporary poetry is the most represented genre alongside what Bussi loosely defines as “art writing” – a mixture of autofiction, art and literary criticism.

“It’s like taking a piece of spaghetti and throwing it against the wall to see if it’ll stick,” he says. “There’s an improvisation to the evening, which can be incredibly stressful but also gratifying because when it works, it really works.”

Though there are plenty of people with formal writing qualifications at these events, and I spot a number of attendees sporting the go-to literary status symbol, a Daunt Books tote bag, this new approach to live readings feels separate from the world of mainstream publishing. If anything, these are spaces specifically curated to rail against it.

In trade magazine the Bookseller’s 2025 survey of publishing salaries, 73% of respondents said they were middle class and 86% that they were white. Because so many publishing staff members “come from the same background”, they “picture the reader as someone like them and people they know,” says Rachel Connolly, a writer and regular on the London live reading circuit.

Connolly co-hosts a series called New Work alongside her friend and writer, Isis O’Regan, a dedicated space for fiction writers to litmus-test new, unpublished work with an audience. The series debuted last July; previous readers include authors Eliza Clark, Gabriel Smith and Nicole Flattery.

“Our ideal reader is really good at writing, funny, sexy and a bit weird, a bit out there. In the digital age, writers probably know each other online from Twitter and Instagram, but it’s way nicer to come and meet people and listen to their work, hear their voice and actually put a body to the impression that you have of someone,” Connolly says.

“But maybe people are also trying to get laid,” she adds, half jokingly.

This seems to be a common theme – Willis often begins a Soho Reading Series event by jokily suggesting that audience members get with someone they find attractive – and is another reason that attending them feels more like going to a music gig than a literature fixture.

“It’s meant to be enjoyable,” says poet and musician James Massiah, whose east London reading series Adult Entertainment is all about “party poetry”. His nights typically begin with audiences sitting on the floor listening to performances by poets and rappers, before a DJ takes to the decks and the dancing begins.

“What do people like at parties? They like dancing, they like meeting someone they fancy, they like hearing some tunes and they like getting it on,” he says. “I want the writing to reflect that, and I want the mood to reflect that as well.”

“Any live literature event is about bringing work into the world and sharing it with others,” agrees Joey Frances, a poet and organiser of the long-running reading series Peter Barlow’s Cig based in Manchester, named after the chain-smoking character from Coronation Street.

“You’re hearing one another, you’re feeding back from one another, you’re hanging out, you’re having fun.”

Fun is the key to the success of these events, Massiah thinks. “It’s not a lecture. It’s like the spirit of dance or dub sound systems where people congregate for the music. It’s like that, but people are congregating for the words.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[consanguinitatum]

Hello! Greetings.

I just had 2 things:

The link to your substack in your bio sadly isn’t clickable, do you want me to send you the code for that? (It’s really easy!)

I know there was an interview on TV that David did where it was mentioned he was X number of times on TV at Christmas 2009, but I can’t seem to find it. Do you happen to know which it is? K you!

Have a great day! (And I’m also an avid reader of your substack :) )

I'd love to have the code for that - I got confused for a minute thinking, "Yeah, it's clickable..." and then realized I was looking at my pinned post and not my bio LOL!

Hmmm.....that interview isn't ringing any bells for me. I'll ask around and see if I can find anything out for you!

Thanks for letting me know about my bio - and that you like my Substack. I love doing it, and I'm so glad people are enjoying it. I'm looking forward to getting my post on Only Human out, but OMG the creator and developer went for coffee today to talk over all they remembered before setting up another Zoom call with me. So it might be a few weeks before I get it all written and organized. I'm stupid excited! Thanks again!

[thinkingbeyondscience]

Created a new blog on Substack. Topics of Neuroscience, Psychology and other Life Sciences would be covered.

[swkrullimaging]

Colorado Coloquey

I’m excited to announce my new profile on Substack, called Colorado Coloquey! Substack seems to be a social media platform suited for authors and poets, which I find refreshing.  The profile setup provides links for your book and publications on Amazon and other places,  and most of the participants appear to be avid readers, hopefully a welcoming home for my novels and photo books. Even though…

[novelideaspod]

🦋 Meet Elsa! 🦋

Hi! I'm Elsa! 💖

I am an avid reader, writer and singer. I also occasionally do review reading, beta reading and editing.

When it comes to reading, my favorite genre is fantasy though I enjoy a wide range of genres.

I am a published poet, with poems featured in Cult of Clio, Blue River Review and Silent Spark Press. I also write short stories and novels but have yet to seek publication in those areas. I presently write a Substack blog where I also sometimes share what I am working on.

Outside of the literary realm, I enjoy a number of hobbies. I love gaming, going on random adventures and attending concerts just to name a few. I am also a small Twitch streamer and YouTuber.

Elsa's Linktree Elsa's Tumblr

[livingmybestjm]

[knittingcrochetcrafts]

Introduction + My October Craft Projects and Works-In-Progress

Hello Tumblrs! I'm Amy. What's your name?

Nice to "meet" you!

What do you blog about? Whatever it is, I look forward to checking out your corner of Tumblr.

I'm a freelance writer. I write about everything! But since I usually ghostwrite, most of my work gets published under other authors' by-lines. I like it this way.

But there are a few topics I write about using my own by-line:

*Crafts: crochet, knitting, needlework, paper crafts, etc.

*Fashion and Textiles: I hold a degree in textile design and worked in the textile / fashion / home furnishings industries for about decade.

*Books: I'm an avid reader and book reviewer. (You can check out crochet book reviews HERE and knitting book reviews HERE, if that sounds interesting to you.)

*Planning and Productivity: I obsessively use planners to keep myself on track.

My current crochet works-in-progress are fingerless gloves and crocheted coffee cup cozies.

I just moved my crafts newsletter to Substack!

The newsletter tool I used to use is now defunct, so I am in the process of emailing my thousands of subscribers and asking them to join me at my new provider.

I invite you to subscribe if you'd like to join in the fun, too!

In my newsletter, I mostly focus on sharing free crochet patterns, but I also share some pay-for patterns and some other types of craft project ideas. And I want to collab with other artists and crafters to help them promote their best work.

That's me and my current work-in-progress, in a nutshell!

Thanks so much for dropping by to say "hi!" I appreciate your interest!

[nj-stone]

Elisabeth Grace - Monday 11/27/2023: Sneak Peek at the Week; Full Moon in Gemini; Mercury-Venus Demand Focushttps://elisabethgrace.com/monday-11-27-2023-sneak-peek-at-the-week-full-moon-in-gemini-mercury-venus-demand-focus/

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Mike’s Favorite Stories on ILLUMINATION Publications — #212

Curated Collection — Nostalgia Series Featuring engaging stories that you may enjoy as well Health Science Research By Dr Mike Broadly Dear Readers, I couldn’t post my collections for a while. We had an excessive workload but it is getting better now with some strategic moves of our chief editors bringing innovative solutions to the table. We have exciting projects coming up to make writers’…

[thehorrorwasfor-love]

I’ve always struggled with originality, and with Twitter on its last legs and many friends or idols moving to other websites, I wanted to move too. I saw a friend move to Substack, and adored her idea. But I was afraid.

The benefit of sites like Twitter or tumblr or Instagram is that they don’t require much originality. On sites like those, where you retweet, reblog, repost, the content doesn’t have to be yours, you just have to spread it around. There’s appeal there, less pressure. It’s easier to hop onto Twitter and spout inane thoughts and share silly tweets like Sexy Billy the Puppet than it is to create something that is my own. It’s much easier to share the clever words of others than to take ownership. It’s easier to set up a tumblr queue than it is to put myself out there like this, unsure of where I’ll land.

But I’m going to do it anyway. Since I started my movie review Twitter in late 2020, I’ve time and time again joked that I have no idea what I’m doing. I have not gotten any formal education on film analysis; I haven’t even been in school since 2015. The majority of my writing skills are self-taught, developed through being an avid reader and sheer stubbornness. I am more often than not unsure of myself and my reality, which only makes something like film analysis even harder. How can I say what a film means, when I’m not even sure if I am real?

[livingmybestjm]

a dirty mug, perched on the bathroom sink,

like a hawk watching its prey

a patient predator, waiting for the right moment to strike

staring. judging. reminding.

pink, covered in flowers

my initial in the middle of it -

once, it made me feel at home

as though I belonged in the crook of the J

a long distance embrace

but now, that single letter stares back

hollow and cold

a reflection of another failure, another loss

it mocks me

it catches my eye and sticks it tongue out

always staring. judging. reminding.

a never ending glimpse at what was, what might have been

a friendship -

peculiar beginning, exceptional middle,

dramatic end

this mug, we filled it with commitments,

passed it from her hand to mine, like an empty promise

“when will I learn?”

the mug,

the little pink witness,

does not answer me

it just sits, stares, judges, reminds.

it waits, like a hawk,

for me to blink -

to turn away, so it can strike again.

[livingmybestjm]

[livingmybestjm]

A monster is hiding under my bed.

At least, I think it is.

I can hear it whispering to me sometimes.

Only in the dead of the night, when the sky is black and the moon is bright.

It tells me things.

Or, more accurately, it reminds me of things.

Of things that I do not want to be reminded of.

 

These whispers are barely audible, as quiet as a clock ticking.

They remind me that I cannot forgive myself.

They mumble about all my wrongdoings.

Whispers that arouse a deep hatred within, threatening to bubble over any second, like an overfilled kettle.

It burns it’s way through my veins, inscribing the anger and hatred.

 

In my nightmares, these whispers turn into screams.

Screams that force me awake.

The monster under my bed comes out, and it is me.

Screaming at myself, asking how I could’ve forgiven myself for what I’ve done.

All the hearts you’ve broken?

All the hurt you’ve inflicted?

It begs me to answer, how did I forgive myself?