A new beginning
Saying farewell to platforms of old
In a few days, I begin shutting down my self-hosted instance of Ghost, which I dubbed the Scriptorium when I launched it several years ago. This marks a significant change in my web presence because I’ve decided to transition from self-hosting my blog and newsletter to Medium and Substack, respectively.
Although I’ve always believed it was essential for creators to own their platforms, I don’t have the time or energy to build a following that makes it worthwhile. Maybe I started too late; maybe I’ve not been consistent or prolific enough to make a dent, or maybe I’m not that good. Regardless, my little corner of the internet will never attract enough readers or traffic, nor can I spend enough on SEO, advertising or keeping up with Google’s ever-changing search algorithm.
So, if I really want to continue writing, or more accurately, write to be read, I need to put my words where the readers already are. Right now, that seems to be Medium and Substack. At the very least, I hope it will help me reach more readers and experiment with forms of writing that felt too constrained to explore in the Scriptorium. If this fails, then I guess I have other questions to ask.
ChrisRosser.net will live on as a landing page for my books and reading list and funnel readers to Medium or Substack. Since it’s a purely static site hosted for free on Netlify, I’m under no pressure to change it beyond cosmetic tweaks.
So, what can you expect from now? In a nutshell, Medium will be where I blog, and Substack will be where I write my newsletter. At some point, I will begin writing serialised fiction again but I haven’t decided if I’ll do that on Substack or Medium or both. Substack also opens up the possibility of podcasting (which I miss) and even video, so when time permits I may explore those media once more.
Anyway, for new readers and (especially) old, I thank you for your support and I hope you’ll stay with me as I continue the journey, albeit on a different path.