Looking ahead

Or: What to expect while we're expecting

When Cold Caller launched last week, I figured it would take a couple months of making noise before the first submissions began trickling in.

Happily, I was very wrong about that. Submissions are now rolling in daily, and we’ve already got some great contenders. We originally expected to start publishing new fiction beginning in July, but at the rate things are going we may be starting much sooner. Stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, what should subscribers expect?

Notes from the Editor

On Mondays, we’ll publish a regular feature about the publication itself (very meta!). If you’re on Substack, you’re probably wrestling with the same questions we are about how to get the most leverage out of this platform. To that end, we’ll talk about some of the things we’re learning—the dos and don’ts and well-maybe-sometimeses.

Cold Caller’s mission is to pay writers for original crime and mystery fiction. But we’re also an experiment in publishing, driven in part by a desire to get away from the inverted business model that charges writers submission fees and then gives away their writing for free.

Maybe that’s Just How Things Are Now. But maybe they could also be different.

Three Things We Loved This Week

Most publications ask contributors to “read us first to see what we like” before sending submissions. That’s a real tall order when said publication hasn’t, well, published anything yet.

Our Thursday “Three Things” feature will help fill that gap by highlighting interviews, music, stories, books, other Substacks, and anything else that we happen to vibe with. It’s also a nice excuse to recommend some cool stuff we’re excited about.

Subscriber Writing

Many (most?) of our subscribers are also writers, doing all kinds of great work. In the coming weeks, you’re going to see us post calls for subscriber writing. That’s your chance to share something you might like to highlight—a Substack, a short story you’ve published, an interview you’ve done—with the Cold Caller audience. Community always takes time, but we think this could be a great way to start building one among our subscribers.

Of course, this only works to the extent that you’re interested. If we put out a call and nobody answers, no harm done; we’ll keep looking for other ways to bring our readers together.

Is there anything else you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments. And, as always, thank you for calling.