SPAWN Office Hours #17
Pirate hours now! Get over here with your questions and support. Thursday 6pm-7pm BST and 7-8pm CET.
Welcome to SPAWN, Substack Pirate After Work Network. We’re here on Thursdays 6pm BST UK, 7pm CET. For those who are unable to join live, post a question out of hours and tick the box to have it on Notes so you get more chances for an answer.
If you’re here for the first time introduce yourself. Ideally, answer questions from others and engage with newcomers and veteran stackers.
I’ll start us off with a few questions/tasks for today’s SPAWN:
1). How do you use feedback? (Do you take into consideration if its someone you know/don’t know, want to impress etc… Why) Coincidentally, I read a poem today by Wendell Berry at
with these lines in the first stanza:“Any readers who like your poems, doubt their judgment.”
You can take this seriously or not. But the point is not to analyse this poem, rather embrace the point of view it offers. It came across as I was preparing today’s newsletter for SPAWN and it is in alignment with my love for poetry and today’s questions. A chance to visit the fantastic site Poetic Outlaws offer.
2). How do you give feedback? (Do you say what you think they want to hear or do you provoke? Why)
3). Share your top 3 annoying facts about Substacks… I don’t want you to shame anyone, just say 3 things you don’t like in posts/newsletters/Notes that it puts you off so much you are on the edge of unsubscribing from an account.
SPAWN is Office Hours and hang out with
and our lovely crew. We’ll talk all things Substack that we love or don’t understand. The floor is always open to your questions.Thursday 20 June
Vancouver PDT 10am -11am
Phoenix, Arizona MST 10am-11am
London BST 6pm-7pm
Paris CET 7pm-8pm
Athens EEST 8pm-10pm
New Delhi IST 10:30pm-11:30pm
Sydney AEST (21 June) 3am-4am
Fiji GMT+12 (21 June) 5am-6am
We are live for an hour and many stay for longer. Mostly, we chat about writing and Substacking; we celebrate each other’s successes and find new readers and subscribers in the process. Before we go on to this week’s SPAWN here’s what we did last week and make sure you check the comments as there are some useful resources in there:
Time zones differ and our community is all over the world so naturally comments spill outside the live. You’re welcome to join any hour. We have novel, short story, poetry, non-fiction and travel writers, podcasters, youtubers and journalists. Between us, we solve most questions.
I invite you over to comment about what’s been eating you on Substack and what’s been good this week. Share your questions and achievements.
This session is about sharing what you know about writing or Substack, asking questions and socialising with others. Politeness and kindness are our rules. Offer advice if you can, no guesswork and no spammers. We haven’t had anyone’s comments left unanswered so far. Our readers and SPAWN are a supportive community and many of us support one another outside this weekly event.
Tip:
has a post with free books to download only today! Make sure you check it out here and fill your reading devices with books if you want to.Subscribe so you get the updates, poems, information about courses and posts straight to your inbox. Thank you for being here.
Since you’re here a couple of free for yearly paid subscribers: Writer Pilgrim Sounds, a poetry podcast and TINAWW running for 6 live sessions.
There is also a live in person 10 week Writer Pilgrim workshop for which you sign up here, starts this Friday for the Greater London crowd. (This event is now sold out).
1). How do you use feedback? (Do you take into consideration if its someone you know/don’t know, want to impress etc… Why)
Feedback can be touchy as a subject and everything around it. Sometimes you got to keep your mouth shut and sometimes you just have to express what's on your mind. When I get feedback, there are two things I consider. a) is it relevant? b) does the person offering feedback have a point?
2). How do you give feedback? (Do you say what you think they want to hear or do you provoke? Why)
I try to be honest and give constructive feedback. Sometimes, I have to gage if the person on the receiving end will get it. It's about helping, not being mean.
3). Share your top 3 annoying facts about Substacks… I don’t want you to shame anyone, just say 3 things you don’t like in posts/newsletters/Notes that it puts you off so much you are on the edge of unsubscribing from an account.
I am so so, I have sold so many books, I have written so many books. Gets me each time. If I see it frequently it will make me unsubscribe. I don't care, I want good writing and engaging communication.
1) receiving feedback? If it’s a typo or grammar issue, I fix it. If it’s clear they haven’t caught up with the serial, I suggest they do that.
2) giving? Only when asked (aside from typos. Thank god for DMs so I don’t have to publicly comment those any more) and then vewwy vewwy carefuwwy.
3) posts that are free to read but only paid subscribers can comment; podcasts or talking head videos with no transcript (hey, I actually prefer to read)