Oh Hello
Please Excuse the Mess While I Unpack
Hey friends, guess what? I moved over to Ghost! I'd been on Substack for almost seven years, and frankly, it was time to go. If you're not seeing my newsletter regularly, check your spam. But otherwise, everything should be seamless for you. If you encounter any hiccups, respond to me here or reach out to me at kate@katemckean.com.
Is Anything Going to Be Different Here?
Nah, not really. Things might look a little different. Old comments didn't port over, I think. I'm still futzing with some settings, but Agents & Books will still come to you on Tuesdays and Thursdays (cough cough or Wednesdays and Fridays). Tuesdays will be free and will often focus on nuts and bolts stuff about publishing that I want everyone to have access to. Thursdays will be our famous Q&A Thursdays, for paid subscribers only, where we go deep on reader-submitted questions. (Have a question? Respond to any Thursday email and it'll come right to me!)
So, Why'd You Leave Substack?
Well, I mean, this is not great, and hasn't been for a while. You can yell at me for not leaving sooner if you want. That's ok. It's not like I thought all that was ok OBVIOUSLY but also I had a book coming out and fuck them, I wasn't going to let them ruin it for me. Their recent decision to allow subscribers to sign up and pay through Apple kinda did me in, though. It's not a more important reason to leave than not sharing a platform with Nazis but, well, it was finally time to get moving. If you sign up for a Substack through Apple, the creator can't take your email with them if they move platforms. From day one Substack has always been you own your audience! you control your subscribers! And now, we don't. Oh, and Apple takes 30%. Substack costs more for creators, platforms Nazis and transphobes, and goes back on their promises. So that's why I left, in a nutshell.
I'm not like a Substack big shot or anything. I got invited to the parties and I was there in the early days and have had lots of conversations with the bigwigs. I felt like I was a big shot over there, even if they didn't see me as one. I think 99% of the people who work at Substack are wonderful, talented, dedicated, and smart. I'd follow their work anywhere. I also heard some things late nights at those parties that I probably wasn't supposed to hear, and it was not great, Bob. Not like call out the tribunal bad, but just stuff I probably didn't need to know about the workings on the higher, higher, highest level. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but like, I was done hanging out there, newsletter-wise.
Can We Stick To Sports?
Honestly, yes. I am ready to get back into the nitty gritty of talking about books, agents, writing, and publishing. It's been a little off over here the last few months while I tackled some big projects this summer and I moved everything over to Ghost. (Ghost was AMAZING in helping me transfer everything over. Zero hiccups. They held my hand the whole way. Shout out to Alex and Nick for answering 100 emails!!) But, now that the dust has settled, let's talk about books, ok? Gah, I love books.
The most valuable thing you can do to support me, or any other author or newsletter-writer, is to tell your friends about their work. Like what you're reading? Forward the email to your writing buddy. Thought my jokes were funny? Post it on whatever platform you use the most. All we really want to do when we're online is see the cool things our friends are doing, right? So tell your friends about the cool things you see. I'm on Bluesky here, Instagram here and here, Threads here, and gah, even TikTok. I'm going to have to start posting more on socials, so please come laugh at my bad jokes online.
Thanks for bearing with me while I still unpack a few boxes after the move. I love the nesting phase, though. And this place already feels like home.
XOXOXOX,
Kate
