That’s a great way to put it, except maybe not a flea market but a high end gallery, where we’re competing against some of the very best. How to get noticed when the spotlight is on them? The answer keeps cropping up. Write better. Well, sure, we should be writing killer stuff, but who’s to say what that is?

Are they really better than we are? Sometimes. Maybe most of the time. But we’re good, too. We work at our writing, we’re professionals, and we deserve to be paid.

Are we being compensated for what we do at Substack? Obviously not or we wouldn’t be talking about it. So we either accept that this is the way it is or we spend most of our writing time trying to get paid for it.

I’m exhausted by this; I have to be honest. I’m going back to writing. It’s what I love best and when and if my readers find a way to pay me for it, I’ll be ever grateful. But I’m not good at marketing. I hate it, in fact, and for my own peace of mind I’m going to do as little of it as possible from now on.

I’m taking myself out of the running. I’m leaving a slot in the marketplace for someone else.

Payment for my work is optional. Liking it is optional. My own need to write is not.