Supporting Homo Vitruvius
Ways to Support Homo Vitruvius
My writing life
I have been writing creatively and intellectually since I was fifteen years old.
I’m more than a few decades older than that now, but writing remains my life. It is who I am. It is what I am: a writer. There is no me, as anyone knows me, without it.
I have a writer website. You could call it my billboard on the Web. (I even have an old blog on the web that I keep paying to keep alive because I just can’t let it go.)
But Homo Vitruvius is my true writing home on the internet. In addition to the writing I do in the background – including longer works, of greater scope — Homo Vitruvius is where I meet my readership on a regular basis by publishing the generally short-form work, but sometimes longer, that serves as the lifeblood of this writing organism that is me.
If I publish more traditionally, with a book or in a magazine, I’m compensated, as all of us seek to be for our work. I understand, however, that the culture of the internet and of Substack have developed a little differently for creative writers, so for those of you who appreciate and value the writing that I publish here — and it’s my fervent wish that you all do — I’ve developed these subscription options through which you can show that support.
SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS
Free Subscriptions: Everything I publish on Homo Vitruvius and on my second Substack, American Samizdat, is free to all for the week of its publication. There is no paid subscriber-only writing. You might think of that week as akin to the time spent in a bookstore reading what you can before, or even without, buying. I want to be read. I need to be read. I say in places all over Homo Vitruvius that you read; therefore, the writer exists. I mean it. I’m a lone voice in the wind without you. I’m happy for your eyes and ears alone if you can’t afford to pay, and I’m deeply rewarded hearing from you in the comments. I need to try to help make a living from my writing, though, as we all need income, so if you can afford to pay something for what I offer, I’ve tried to make it affordable for you to do it.
Monthly Paid Subscriptions: This is the real bargain: just $2 per month.
For that amount, the monthly subscriber gains access to my full 2+ year archive of Homo Vitruvius writing. That’s a significant amount of my life’s work. I don’t think anyone believes that should be free, but it costs only that $2 to gain access to it for the month. I hope you think that’s a genuine value. As a bonus, on request, I’ll send monthly subscribers a digital version of my 2021 poetry collection Waiting for Word. It costs me nothing but a little time to send it to you, and I want to be read. I’ll be honored if you want to read it.
Annual Paid Subscriptions: Also a good deal: now just $40 per year.
You’ll note that contrary to what’s usual, the monthly subscription costs less on a yearly basis than the annual. That’s because I’m trying to lower the barrier of entry to paid subscriptions as much as seems reasonable. If you can afford the additional $16 per year, I’d appreciate it if you purchase the annual subscription, which is a particular gesture of appreciation. In return, in addition to what monthly subscriptions gain, for annual subscribers there are
· Signed hard copies of Waiting for Word and Footnote available for purchase.
· 3 gift subscriptions yearly at half the standard cost (only $20).
· For fellow Substack writers, 1 month per quarter (4X) screen-top promotion on request of your stack, website, or book as a thank you for your support of a fellow writer.
Sustaining Patron subscriptions: $125 per year.
For centuries, patrons of the arts have helped sustain artists in their careers, including writers, by financially supporting them when a secure, reliable income from the work of artistic creation was a challenge to achieve. The practice still exists in modern times, though more often for writers that sustenance comes from teaching careers, as it did for me for over thirty years, though as often as not, the teaching got in the way of the writing. For those who can afford it and who value my work enough to do it, the sustaining patron subscription is available.
$125 is now the suggested amount. I deeply appreciate all who can and do support me at the full level. Thank you, always. However, the dollar amount for sustaining patrons is flexible. It must be greater than the annual subscription price level, but if you’d like to support me as a patron (thank you!) but feel financially more comfortable at a level lower than full price, you have that option (and still very much my thanks).
The one-time-at-a-time expression of thanks.
Some people are commitment phobic. (I see you.) Thank you. Come again. 😊
Poet. Storyteller. Dramatist. Essayist. Artificer.
“Not just words about the ideas but the words themselves.”
AJA