Keeping Written Tales Alive: A Call for Support

Proposed Changes for 2025 and Why Your Feedback Matters

As many of you know, Written Tales is self-funded and reader-supported. Since losing my job, I’ve had to confront a difficult reality: I can no longer self-fund the magazine without the support of this amazing community. While Substack is free, the time, effort, and resources required to run Written Tales—like web hosting, Canva for design, social media tools, and the hours spent reviewing, editing, designing, and promoting every submission—are not.

One challenge I’ve noticed is that free articles tend to have much higher engagement than paywalled content. This shows how much you value free access to stories and poems, but it also highlights a struggle: many people believe that everything online should be free. While I understand that perspective, the truth is, I simply can’t sustain Written Tales without support. The magazine’s quality—and its existence—depends on that support.

For 2025, I’m considering making some big changes to ensure the future of Written Tales:

1. Introducing a Submission Fee – To help offset the time and effort required to review and prepare submissions for publication. Paying subscribers would have this fee waived as a benefit of their support.

2. Making All Newsletter Content Free – If I implement a submission fee, poems and stories would become free for everyone to read. However, writing tips, tutorials, and other resources designed to help writers grow will be available exclusively to paid subscribers.

What Free and Paid Subscribers Receive

• Free Subscribers
  📃 Read occasional free poems & stories.

• Paid Subscribers
  📙 Access every edition of our e-magazines or e-chapbooks in your favorite digital format (mobi, PDF, epub).
  📖 Read all poems & stories first published on Written Tales.
  🗣 Engage in community conversations with fellow writers and readers.
  ✍🏻 Exclusive access to writing tips, tutorials, and resources designed to help you grow as a writer.
  ✍🏻 Receive a 15% discount on poetry and short story proofreading and editing services.

Why Your Support Matters

By subscribing, you’re not just supporting a magazine—you’re helping to create a thriving community that values poetry and short stories. Your support ensures that independent voices have a platform to share their work, allowing me to continue the time-intensive process of bringing these stories to life.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these changes. Written Tales exists because of this incredible community, and your feedback is invaluable. That said, I also need to be honest: if we can’t grow the number of paying subscribers, the magazine simply won’t be able to continue.

If you believe in the mission of Written Tales and want to ensure its future, please consider subscribing today. Your support makes all the difference, and together, we can keep this incredible journey alive.