I had a call with a very helpful woman on the Substack team. After explaining how Iād left my full-time job in tech to focus on my own writing and content, she stopped me. āDo your readers know this?ā I shrugged.
I mentioned in a paid-only letter a few weeks back, without details and sort of gingerly. As someone with a massive list of paid subscriptions on this platform, I sort of felt bad asking for people to subscribe. But feelings aside, letās have a state of the union, shall we?
Letās start with writing, since itās a huge part of why I left my full-time role and the thing I love to do the most. Iāve cooled on writing for outlets (hereās how the sausage gets made FYI) and am focusing most of my time here! Iāve alluded to it a few times, but Iām in the process of writing my first book (!!!) with 831 Stories and awaiting edits on my first draft. That book will come out next Spring, and trust me, you will all hear lots about it. I love how
writes about her journey as an author on her Substack and hope to do something similar.But what becomes of all the time I spent pitching, following up, chasing editors, getting quotes? It gets funneled back into Long Live, baby. Hereās what you can expect:
Free readers:
Weekly long letter on Thursday with curated secondhand links and recommendations
Paid readers:
Weekly long letter on Thursday with curated secondhand links and recommendations
Additional letter on Tuesday with more links, personal musings, and BTS content
Access to our chat that functions like a group chat youād *actually* want to read
Monthly podcast episodes with cool guests
So this kind of letter is what Paid readers will get on Tuesdays going forward. And instead of working hard to find the coolest new brands or most exciting trends for C**** N***, Iāll be reporting out to you all.
How else will I fill my days other than this darling outlet, you might be asking? Iām consulting with brands I loveāLong Live readers get the best ratesāand dipping my toe into the cesspool that is content creation. But since you asked, here are the pros and cons of working for yourself.
Pros:
Walks and naps whenever I want (hypothetically)
Meeting for lunch sans stressed Slack check
Actually no Slack at all
Time to level up Long Live!
Cons:
Consistent paycheck is a fever dream of yore
Mean clients you must be dealt with
I miss co-workers, but really, I miss pestering
every day.Flexibility is required! (You know Iām notoriously rigid š)
And not to bury the lede, but all this also makes time for my pride and joyāEV Salon. Iāll get into it on Thursday. Itās a true labor of love and having space and time to bring it to life in bigger ways makes me so happy. See Exhibit A.
So thatās whatās up. Iām reading more, which is something that really suffered when I was trying to do 1008 things at once. You know Iāll pass along the best recs. Iām spending more time aimlessly walking around Fort Greene and scrolling on eBay. Nature is healing!
And I want to hear from youāwhat are you excited about seeing? What content are you desperate for? What could you skip? Please feel free to write back or participate in the below poll.
That was a lot! Some links as a palate cleanser?
Scoop up your J.Crew roll neck sweater before thereās a shortage. This is the right one, trust me. If you can find one secondhand, great, but people are marking them up a ton.
vlog. Iāve been watching her forever + canāt wait to share her guest feature.The bralette for people who need to wear a bra. I know you get me.
Reminder: itās ok to want commercial success. Not all of us were born to be indie darlings.
Quick podcast for when you feel uninspired and stuck.
Iām rereading this book for a kick in the creative pants. And this one too, always.
These are the shorts of the summer, according to much cooler girls than me.
AND I made a curated collection of (mostly) secondhand pieces inspired by Gap x DĆ“en.
Thank you for reading Long Live. It means so much to me. You can shop my favs here, follow along on Instagram + Tiktok, shop my Notion template, and as always, respond to this dispatch for my direct line x
More personal anecdotes please! Excited for the future of LL
Inspired! Excited to see more of your work in the world.