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This is my bi-weekly “newsletter” delivered straight to your inbox with at least one guaranteed typo I’ll catch after hitting send! If email collectors’ items aren’t your thing, don’t hesitate to switch to the RSS feed or just bookmark loudpoet.com and check in now and then. You do you!

NOTE: “Spring forward, fall back” has never really affected me, even in my younger years when “gaining” an hour was just an excuse to party harder. My partying days are way in the past now, and the return to standard time unexpectedly kicked my ass this year for three straight days. On the bright side, I’m now officially counting down to a short vacation somewhere warm right before Thanksgiving, and then the end of year shenanigans will be in full swing. Also on the bright side, Election Day had a few positive results in an otherwise bleak year for politics, particularly here in NJ and NYC.

_ONE

You need to use the tools of the job you’ve chosen to do | Baldur Bjarnason

Over the past three decades, journalistic practices have steadily been devalued. That many, if not most, of you consider them to be useless purity signalling only serves authoritarians and oligarchs. It serves those who don’t like their power to be scrutinised or criticised… Turns out, if you want to act like a journalist, write like a journalist, and fight the fights of a journalist, not practicing journalism can get you into trouble.

Bjarnason covers a lot of ground in this one, partly inspired by the aggressively verbose Ed Zitron’s conflicts of interest as an AI critic and PR flack. It’s an ironically long read, but that’s driven more by Bjarnason’s scope than an inability to self-edit, which is Zitron’s most transparent weakness — in writing and audio, both of which I quickly tapped out of despite the core of his criticisms often being on point. (I feel sorry for the editor of his upcoming book, assuming it will actually be edited at all in any useful way.)

Zitron is just one glaring example of the larger problem Bjarnason unpacks so well, though, and it’s an insightful read in an era of context collapse and the continued devaluation of craft and expertise in almost every industry.

__TWO

Top Substack writers depart for Patreon | Sarah Scire

The “Why I’m Leaving Substack” post is the new “Goodbye to All That.” Previous departing writers often cited moderation issues — especially Nazis on the platform — and the implications of Substack’s 10% cut for the most successful subscription businesses. This most recent wave is also citing email delivery issues, a lack of customer and tech support, and overemphasis on social media features like Substack Notes.

Substack has weathered the periodic reminders that they openly embrace literal Nazis, with a smattering of high profile exits offset by a steady stream of new newsletters being launched by people who should know better, partly influenced by other people who’ve remained on the platform despite absolutely knowing better. Because we live in the worst timeline where moral reasons usually aren’t enough to risk discomfort, their ongoing pivot to becoming just another social platform with increasingly higher walls is apparently causing another mini-exodus, this time to Patreon.

Ironically, much like Substack threw lots of money at select comics creators a few years back to launch newsletters on a platform ill-suited for them —most of which faded away after the subsidy ran out — Patreon is taking the same approach, poaching writers to be early adopters of their own newsletter tools. Patreon has had its own issues over the years, but adding a newsletter to their platform is arguably less problematic for existing users than Substack’s building walls between creators and subscribers.

It’s an interesting experiment that could work well for certain business models, but for your typical Substack newsletter, Ghost, Beehiiv, etc. are all still better options right now.

___THREE

Which platform should I use for my newsletter business? | Lex Roman

The fixation on platforms worries me as you could be blocked from a tech tool at any time. You also can’t rely on them to build your business for you… Just like you need to have a go bag for a fire or flood prone area, you need to be ready to bail on your platform quickly. Back up your audience. Know your paths to distribution. Build deep networks of support.

Speaking of better options, Roman put together a great overview of the various options you need to be aware of if you’re launching (or already running) a newsletter-centric business in 2025, including tips on which services to avoid and why. Patreon gets a notable mention, and I suspect their newsletter angle won’t change her advice about avoiding them.

If you still think Substack is your best option for a newsletter in November 2025, you’re either not running a serious business and have no concerns about their moral issues, or you’ve been misled by “influencers” who’ve found themselves locked in and don’t want to admit it. The only thing that loves company more than misery is complicity.

____FOUR

Discord Alternatives, Ranked | Michael Taggart

But Discord, like all freemium services, is a risk. At any moment their advertising model could become intolerable, or their policy about using my data to train AI could change, or their pricing could get out of control, or some other rent-seeking nonsense common to internet services trying to stretch their profit margin. I need an exit strategy.

I guess this is a random tech advice issue of the newsletter?!? I’ve used Discord for several years now and, while I understand its appeal for specific use cases, I generally dislike it. Real-time asynchronous chat might be fine for a small group (eg, a Slack alternative), but at scale, it’s like Reddit on meth.

I’ve joined several gaming-related Discords over the years, but almost always ended up using their Reddit equivalents more often, but that’s mainly because I have no interest in their chat features because I never play games that require a mic. I’m in a few others that are basically just harder-to-use forums (RIP Ning… hold on… IT STILL EXISTS?!?!), but none of them are my primary nor secondary channels for their respective interests. I even have a server for my immediate family as an alternative to texting, but that’s mainly because my daughter never checks her phone, but she always has Discord running!

While Roman’s overview doesn’t include Discord, Taggart’s is purely focused on it and its alternatives, most of which I’ve never even heard of, but a few sound interesting. If your business model includes a community / forum / chat angle, it’s an informative read.

_____FIVE

Time to Act: The ONIX 3 Transition is Actually Here | Claire Holloway

The ONIX 3 transition for eBooks isn’t optional anymore, it’s a business necessity driven by legal requirements, technical evolution, and marketplace demands. Publishers who acted in 2020 for physical books already see the benefits. Those who waited now face a compressed timeline, but they can learn from early adopters and move forward strategically.

I took metadata for granted for a long time, incorrectly assuming everyone knew how important it is, and that surely every publisher, big and small, prioritized it accordingly. Over the past five years in particular, I’ve realized how wrong I was!

I lauded BISG’s efforts in general earlier this year and give them kudos again for continuing to amplify metadata’s importance, offering publishers a wide range of resources to help them move forward with ONIX 3 — even the stragglers who waited for Amazon (and then legal requirements) to finally force their hands.

Related, I was talking to a long-time industry friend recently about the most interesting things in publishing for me, and I realized metadata is one of those things, but I rarely write anything about it! Meanwhile, it’s a favorite FUD vector for “AI” grifters who are making ridiculous promises about automating metadata creation and enhancement to drive backlist sales — if only you’ll let them ingest your books into their proprietary LLM, which they totally built themselves and, pinky promise, your content won’t be used to train their underlying models or be shared with anyone else. #cmonson

______BONUS

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