Beautiful readers,

Since the launch of the very first issue of Astrolabe last year, I’ve been providing a ton of great content—from a look at how Japanese RPGs inform my worldbuilding, to thoughts on each writer’s personal journey, to a how-to on long form non-fiction feature writing, to *cough* making money as a writer—all for free.

Writing takes time and energy, and as a writer with a day job and a young family, expanding Astrolabe’s scope in a sustainable way is one of my top priorities this year. But I have to make decisions of where to put my energy based on how I can put food on my table, and balance that against other options for writing that… actually pay.

I want more from Astrolabe. I want to provide full interview transcripts, Astrolabe-exclusive features, long form essays, reported work, and all the other type of content I’ve been publishing around the web for well over a decade. But the opportunity cost of doing so without being able to justify it financially isn’t there yet.

So, earlier this year, I launched paid subscriptions for Astrolabe. It’s $5 USD/month, or there’s a yearly option with a discount. Now I want to tell you the plan.

Regular issues of Astrolabe will always be free. This ain’t gonna change. I’m going to keep working on it to provide all of you with the same mix of retro gaming, SFF books, and geek culture coverage you signed up for. Other content like Astrolabe Gaiden—my side-issues that dig more deeply into single topics—might eventually become paid content, for instance.

Launching a paid newsletter is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. Exclusive paid content available to a small number of paid subs won’t get shared or ready widely, but people won’t sub unless there’s exclusive paid content. I think I’ve proved myself as a content creator, and hope to build a list of paid subscribers that will allow me to expand the possibilities of what Astrolabe can be. An investment, if you will.

My instincts tell me that having 10% of my readers convert to paid subscribers would be a sustainable and worthwhile goal—and line up with other paid newsletter creators I’ve spoken with. I’m currently about two molecules above 0%. Help me change that.

However you support Astrolabe—as a free subscriber, an early paid subscriber, or someone who’s dropped by to read and share my posts once or twice—I appreciate you and the platform you’ve provide me for SFF and gaming goodies. I’m just finishing up the 11th issue of Astrolabe, due later this week. I explore time as currency, voracious reading, and how to reconcile changing routines. After that, Astrolabe #12 will highlight a few of the great books I’ve read over the past couple of months. Thanks for reading!

To sum up:

• Astrolabe will always be free.

• Right now the paid subscriptions are an option for readers who want to financially support Astrolabe and my other work, but there’s no obligation.

• If I build enough of a paid subscription list, I’ll start doing more in-depth paid exclusive content, including full interviews, essays, feature articles, etc.

• Creating content takes a lot of time, and I appreciate your support in whatever form it comes.

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