Queerly Recommended's Newsletter is Now On Substack!
And it's staying free, too
Once upon a time, or around a year ago (depending on how much you care about precision), Twitter was purchased by a mercurial billionaire. Given that Twitter was the best way for us to get the word out about new episodes of our podcast, we knew it was time to stop kicking the can down the road and finally start a newsletter.
So, every other week, we dropped a newsletter that had features like:
Notifications of new podcast episodes
Roundups of the latest in LGBTQ+ entertainment news
Stories about fundraisers that gave out queer ebooks or video games
Spotlights of regional charities and nonprofits that support the LGBTQ+
Mailchimp served us well, but it’s time to move on, so now we’re on Substack. You can still see all of our old newsletters here.
Why Substack?
Honestly, a few reasons make this feel like the best home for our newsletter:
The media options are so much better. We’ll be able to directly embed YouTube videos, social media posts, and Spotify playlists, for a more dynamic and seamless experience.
We can start opening up community discussion posts, because we want to know about the queer films, TV shows, books and more that YOU are enjoying. Substack is perfect for making this more of a community experience without setting up yet another Facebook group or other closed experience.
We’re finally able to set up membership options.
Wait, are you charging for access to the newsletter?
Absolutely not. We are committed to keeping the podcast, newsletter, and community posts completely free.
Our mission all along has been to make it easy for people to connect with the queer media they need and that hasn’t changed. However, the podcast and newsletter are truly a labour of love and none of what we do is self-sustaining yet, even with the Ko-fi contributions we receive and deeply appreciate.
Our ask
If you value what we do, there are a couple of things we’d truly appreciate:
If you’re able, please consider signing up for one of our paid tiers. We’ve tried to keep the pricing affordable, especially with the annual option.
Tell a friend about the podcast and newsletter, especially if they’re looking for queer books, films, TV shows, video games or more. Word of mouth is the best way for people to find us.
What about Substack platforming transphobes?
This is a serious problem and we’d never deny it. However, unlike Medium, Substack allows us to keep most of our content out from behind a paywall. And, unlike Mailchimp or other newsletter providers, we don’t have to pay a monthly fee as more people subscribe.
Substack isn’t perfect, but it’s the best solution today that lets us balance our mission (getting the word out about queer media) with our current financial reality (having a way for folks to subscribe makes it easier for us to keep doing our work without spending hundreds of our own dollars each year).
In conclusion
We’re excited to explore the possibilities of what we can do now that we’re on Substack. We hope you’ll stick with us and tell your friends so we can have fun talking about LGBTQ media on here together.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s newsletter!
Tara & Kris