Why pay for writing?

A conversation on value and worth

How can I read paid posts without paying?

I have been asked this question more than once.  My Sister told me in no uncertain terms: “I am not going to pay to read what my little brother writes!!” Most posts are entirely free. About once per month there is a post with a portion only accessible to paid subscribers. Here is how to get to those posts without paying. It does ask for payment info, but gives you a week of full access to everything including paid posts before payment is processed. Cancel before the end of the free trial week. Every subscriber, free or paid, brings me joy. That anyone is willing to read what I write is thrilling to me. 

If that is so, why have a paid option at all?

Writing is a profession. It is my Editor’s profession. I value what she does and I provide part of the income she uses for her and her family’s needs. She invests many hours helping me do what is now my profession. I love writing and feel valued when anyone reads what I write. I include a paid option to place a tangible value on the writing for those who choose to support what I do in that way. I follow other Substacks and apps of one sort or another, mostly as a free Subscriber. I have only a few paid subscriptions.  Whether a paid or free subscriber, please just keep reading.    

Early in my career I was serving a congregation as the Associate Pastor.  One fall, the budget for the next year included a nice raise in my salary. A young couple made an appointment to come to my office and meet with me. He was early in his career as an Architect. He asked me how I could accept such a raise; what I did wasn’t important enough to warrant it. Millions of dollars were at stake when he did his job. My first response was that I had no say in what the leadership of the Church Council recommended and the Voters had decided what the salary should be. They had calculated the value of my ministry to the congregation. He was not satisfied. How could I justify that salary? I was just an Associate Pastor and should do it because of my religious beliefs. My job was not that important. I was shocked at how little he valued me and what I was doing. I loved what I was doing, the people, and the satisfaction I received from doing it. He caught me off guard and I became defensive. I had just done a five month time study and was working an average of 69.5 hours per week. I worked every weekend preparing for worship services and planning and leading Youth activities, doing premarital counseling and performing weddings. It continued during our busiest seasons, traditional holiday seasons, and most evenings. Summers were full of Youth activities. I had responsibility for all the Education programs for children and Adults, and spent many hours doing Pastoral Counseling for couples, Youth, and Adults. I wrote and preached sermons. I had graduated 8th in my class of 323 in high school. I got a 34 out of 36 in the math portion of the ACT. I spent (and paid for) eight years of full time education obtaining Bachelors and then Masters degrees, requiring that I learn to read Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. All that was required before I was certified to be ordained as a Pastor. This meeting happened before I had spent a few additional years obtaining a Doctor of Ministry degree. I am embarrassed that I bothered to try to defend the value of my profession. He dismissed all of it saying that if I was so smart why was I doing something with such little value and importance.

I recognize that what is most important is that I value who I am and what I do. I have lived 80 years and even with the painful times that have come, every decade I have lived has felt like the best one when I have been living in it, this decade included. Each has been filled from end to end with life lived to the fullest. I have enjoyed more wonderful relationships than I can count. I have been treated better than I deserve all along the way. Just as would be so for anyone who has lived to my age, I draw on everything I have done, the education and the lived experience, when I write. There have been no millions of dollars going through my hands, but the life I have lived so far is worth more than can be measured in dollars and cents.  

Thank you for reading my Substack posts at whatever your subscription level.  

• Peter