Practical Matters and a Sale

Pre-S: Read all the way to the bottom for a discount code on Hexen Haus products!

Hey there everyone!

I hope this email finds you well - or at least as well as possible. I am currently vibing with the Cowboy Bebop OST on vinyl and working on some behind-the-scenes stuff. In my slow shift into focusing on fiction and writing, as well as closing Lore, I'm auditing all of my business systems. Which is far too boring to be a newsletter, but it pertains to you!

The newsletter service I was using is upping their prices and they did it in a kind of scummy way, which means that I've migrated the newsletter to Ghost.

I have used Ghost in the past and didn't like it, but I've gained many more DIY Internet skills and audacity since then, so I think it'll be better this time around. I'm also learning a lot more about Open Source web formats. This basically means that the web team has made their code available to anyone, which also means that you can more easily modify code to suit your needs. I will ALSO be able to let go of my expensive Squarespace website, since Ghost is also a web platform. I've already migrated my blog posts from sirivincentplouff.com to Ghost.

I also really appreciate Ghost's philosophy around the content that I create here: I have full access, which means that I can download all of my posts on Ghost and back them up at any time. The other really great thing about Ghost is that it doesn't take a percentage of subscriber's funds. I pay one flat monthly fee to host the newsletter, but if you choose to become a paid subscriber through Ghost I keep all of that money.

Which leads me to ... paid subscriptions!

In the spring I did an audience survey to figure out what people are looking for from me, and get a better sense of which of my ideas for patron benefits make the most sense. I also asked people about their preferred format to support creators.

About 64% of people said that they liked Patreon as a format, but 27% of people said they preferred a paid newsletter format. Of the people who commented about Patreon, they said that they love/hate it because it's convenient but they feel like the creator is not getting enough of their money. A few people also commented that Patreon is difficult to use, so they would rather subscribe to a newsletter. And several people mentioned that they didn't want to support writers on Substack because of Substack's platforming of white supremacists and fascists. And while it appears that the platform has kicked some Nazis, it's still not enough to earn back the trust that a lot of people placed in the platform, meaning that many writers are looking for an alternative.

All of this to say: I've been trying to figure out how to run a paid newsletter alongside my Patreon for a few months now, and the price hikes on my current newsletter platform meant that I started looking elsewhere.

The plan for now is to run my Ghost newsletter alongside Patreon. I'll be able to do some fancy back-end stuff that will mean that if you are a paid Patron on Patreon, you'll also be able to access the paid material at Ghost. So you don't need to change that if you don't want to! But if you WANTED to switch to Ghost, I would totally get it.

And for all the free subscribers, don't worry, if you're reading this you have already been migrated. You don't need to do anything.

And now for the fun stuff ...

I've marked down all Hexen Haus Products! They are now 30% off from now until I close Lore Books on November 1st.

These are the ritual oils and bath teas that I make! I adore all of them, and I want them to be out in the world. I also use them in my own practice - and let me tell you, a little goes a long way with them.

And on top of this, you still get the 15% off sitewide.

More sales will be coming to your inbox between now and Halloween, so keep an eye out! And if you're not into the sales emails, that's ok they'll end on the 31st I promise!

And that is all for now! Thank you all so much for bearing with me through all of these transitions! And if there's something on the Lore site you've been looking for ... I think it might be time to treat yourself 😉

Best,

Siri Vincent Plouff

• I've rediscovered how much I love listening to music on vinyl, and I have many many good records to listen to in my collection
• I've been diving into some old school cookbooks a friend lent me - one is called "Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930s" and the other is called "Good Recipes for Hard Times." Both of them are definitely vintage.
• Rewatching old episodes of the X Files. Yessssss.