The Future of Read More Books
Hello, readers!
Since launching in February 2018, Read More Books has been a bit of an experiment. I was on Substack well before the paid subscription model became the norm for small, independent publishers and publications. And since it’s always been a side hustle, I had the privilege of never needing to rely on income from this newsletter, allowing me to play around with different models and publishing schedules.
The time has come to shift once more and turn Read More Books into a paid publication — while still maintaining discussion threads and some book reviews for free subscribers.
After a couple of years of trying to get any momentum going with advertisers and affiliate models, I can pretty easily say that path just hasn’t worked. It takes a lot of work to reach out to already-hesitant advertisers, and affiliate bros have perfected their pitches to make you think you’ll be making bank in no time. (You won’t be.)
Plus, the media landscape has drastically changed in the last 1-2 years. I’ve canceled subscriptions to legacy publications — The Atlantic and WIRED — and have instead supported a few of my favorite Substacks, like
, , and . It’s clear that this individualized subscription model is here to stay.The TL;DR is that I’d much rather just focus on the books and this amazing community of readers. After losing my job last September, I’m also now at a point with my career where I can take a little bit of a risk and move towards a long-held dream of reading and writing about books for a living.
Here’s how this will work.
Free subscribers will get:
Discussion threads — 1-2 per month
One book review each Friday (rather than two)
Paid subscribers ($5/month or $45/year) will get:
Two book reviews each Friday
Tuesday essays — 1-2 per month
What to Read Next (Kids’ Edition) — every other week
Access to chat — starting now, paid subscribers can start Read More Books chat threads, which allows you to directly ask me questions and get book recs
A lifetime 50% off coupon for The Big Read, my online book club (note: this will work both ways — current Big Read members will get a 50% off coupon to Read More Books)
If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask! You can drop them in the comments or respond directly to this email.
Thanks so much for your support for the last eight years! I’m convinced this is the best community of readers on the web.
-Jeremy
Hi Jeremy. I’ve been reading Read More Books for a quite awhile now and I’m happy to subscribe. I’m also a subscriber to Big Reads. I didn’t see a way to indicate my BR subscription when I subscribed to RMB and was charged $52. Will I automatically get the lifetime 50% discount when my credit card is charged? Thanks for all your hard word. I always look forward to your newsletters.
Happy to subscribe!