Thank you, Luisa! I loved your "burn it down" storm. What could feel more creative? Your new name is so welcoming. As a fellow edge-writer, I find what you're doing very important and reader-focused. Very happy to shine my little light on your renovations!
Thank you, David! I have long found Cave and his magazine so interesting, so it was a pleasure to dig into his biography and find all these points of writerly advice demonstrated.
I hadn't thought about "frank" subscriptions, but you're right. Substack was wise to create a model that allowed for both frank and paid options. :-) You might enjoy Samuel Johnson's 1755 definition. In the entry for the verb, "to frank" (in the mail), he refers back to this entry for the adjective: https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=magazine .
Tara - just got home from work and read your article. Really enjoyed this historical lesson and the ways in which you tied it in with our modern endeavors. I had never heard of Edward Cave prior to today so I feel accomplished, learning something new. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Matthew! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I can't wait to share some writers whose careers had other trajectories. I'm sold on "many kinds of success." :-)
Great post! I love how the same principles for creating an interesting newsletter apply today as they did three hundred years ago. I can’t wait to read the next post in this series.
Thank you, Alison. The more I dug into Edward Cave, the more striking was the resemblance between then and now. I love when history does that. I think you know what I mean, fellow reader (and writer) of the past. :-)
Thank you, Jeffrey. Glad you enjoyed it. The Gentleman's Magazine has layers and layers of interest for me (despite the evident misfit of the name for someone who has never aspired to Gentlemanliness). I would love to read a good, full-length biography of Edward Cave.
Almost my namesake made it in a century that there wasn't any advanced tools to market and reach audience. How he managed to earn enough subscriptions to pay his contributions was the biggest milestone. Also, it shows people in that century were eager to read, deeply read thought-provoking newsletters unlike today, in the current era of social media fuzz, a carousel of dopamine-stimulating posts are given much attention. Incredible Edward!
Edwin! Almost your namesake - yes. 😂 I wonder if there was a moment when Edward Cave's parents considered calling him Edwin. I do not know. Maybe! :-)
You are right that many people did want to read in those days. They trusted that reading would help them rise in social status, which it generally did. You might like a book I am reading right now (recommended by Dee Rambeau), called "Stolen Focus" by journalist Johann Hari. It has a chapter on the "collapse of sustained reading." I hear you! I appreciate that engaged readers can find each other here on Substack.
There were more philosophers than in the current era ,which again I highly doubt if there is any. So far, Substack has initiated the once-unused writers like me. I have found incredible writer community and readership here.
Some of those philosophers met in taverns in and around St. John's Gate, where Edward Cave published his magazine. I look forward to checking out your Substack. You have several posts with titles that draw me in. I'm headed to campus shortly but am eager to come back and read later. Nice to meet you!
Fascinating to reflect on how our contemporary, digital communications have their roots in historical innovations. It feels very heartening to be part of such a lineage. I love how you pull together those connections, with such clear examples, at the end. Thanks, Tara!
Now I understand why my initial foray into writing a newsletter on clay tablets using cuneiform characters only attracted two subscribers. I was simply ahead of my time.
I took a book arts class from a late prof who assigned us a project to create a book of some sort using Owyhee County clay. The assignment was pretty open-ended. I decided to take it up a couple of tech notches and made an iPod sized device with a little wind vain on top that rotated a series of tiny simple drawings in the viewing window quickly enough when the wind vain rotated that the drawings appeared animated. I gave it away, but I did not transfer my intellectual rights, so if the world ever gets nuked back to the Stone Age, I plan to build and market those babies and be the richest Zog in my cavehood. Cave division? .
Talk about zero carbon footprint manufacturing. The clay body of the device was sunbaked. at the end of its useful life, it could be pulverized with a common household hammer and spread on sandy garden soil as an additive.
Consumers didn't even need to decide between IOS or Android. It worked equally well from either the left or right car windows, or on a mountain beneath billowing white clouds. Content was limited, but content follows the consumer demand.
The postal service is always going after little people!! (reference to what's going on in the UK...)
What a great post, Tara. I find it so interesting to consider the way the internet now is merely reflecting what other writers have previously established but with further reach. Incredible story and gives me a lot to think about moving forward.
Glad you enjoyed it! I like learning that writers have more kinships than we know. I looked up the postal scandal. What a sorry mess! Those poor employees! May the drama pass for them and unexpected opportunities open.
Just delightful, Tara! Threads of interest and inspiration all woven together so well. I appreciate Cave's willingness to "make his move" after years of thought and networking. His tenacity and vision are just what we moderns need to read about. Thank you!
Thank you, Elizabeth! I agree: interest and inspiration are just the words for Edward Cave’s story. Those words apply to some women writers I have in mind for this series, too, but there’s a friend of Cave’s coming up first....
Thank you for this, Tara! The historian in me is utterly delighted! (Now that I think of it, I may have failed to ever mention that my degree is actually in history. We've had so much else to discuss! 🤗) It's fascinating to me that even in the 18th century, people were experiencing a sort of information overload that made the news-letter such an appealing option.
Haha - another history buff, outed. Makes perfect sense, now that you mention it. 😎 Information overload, “News-Papers ... so multiply’d” -- a perennial challenge for curious readers! :-)
In the library of life, where dozens of new books show up every day, a good curator is like a skilled librarian who knows that the most powerful stories often lie hidden in the least assuming covers.
Thank you for reading, Max! I'm glad you mentioned librarians. You are so right. They are gifted at matching readers with books on the basis of just a few words about a person's interest. I have benefited from those gifts. Are you, by chance, a librarian?
It really is a superpower! To take a few small, simple observations and be able to make an educated suggestion on what a person might like is just magic. The folks who worked at Blockbuster did something similar.
Hah! Now I'm picturing Edward Cave as a Blockbuster franchisee, and it fits. Even better, I wonder if he'd have founded the business. Possibly! You've got me thinking. :-)
Thank you for this, Tara. I ran into the Gentleman's Magazine when I was researching a book about Elizabeth Blackwell (A Curious Herbal, 1735-37). This backstory was a pleasure to read. You've given us an excellent piece of research/writing.
I've been doing a niche newsletter on herbs for almost 30 years now, in various formats. I brought it to Substack last August. You're right about the importance of finding/creating a niche.
I'm glad you enjoyed the post, Susan. Thank you for reading! I just read one of your posts and learned that your academic background is in Chaucer or his period (he was one of my early literary loves), which puts herbs into a literary perspective that I can appreciate. Do you draw on medieval herbal lore?
I work with early herbals when they fit the subject, as in HEMLOCK (about Elizabeth Blackwell's 1735 herbal). The protag in one of my series (contemporary) is an herbalist. And yes, the interest was prompted by the medieval/Renaissance work. I like your focus (about page) on the "responsive reader."
Tara, thank you for this. Especially as we open into the New Year, you’ve given us eyes to see the long game and a fresh way to look at the news-letter. I echo Jenna’s comment about people experiencing information overload in the 18th century, and I take heart.
Thank you, Luisa! I loved your "burn it down" storm. What could feel more creative? Your new name is so welcoming. As a fellow edge-writer, I find what you're doing very important and reader-focused. Very happy to shine my little light on your renovations!
Tara,
What a pleasure to read this essay and learn about Edward Cave.
I'd heard the word "franking" before, but didn't know its meaning. Now I can see how it relates to its use as candid, i.e,. free.
I guess we all have "frank" subscribers and paying ones.
This is a great idea for a series. Looking forward to future installments.
Thank you, David! I have long found Cave and his magazine so interesting, so it was a pleasure to dig into his biography and find all these points of writerly advice demonstrated.
I hadn't thought about "frank" subscriptions, but you're right. Substack was wise to create a model that allowed for both frank and paid options. :-) You might enjoy Samuel Johnson's 1755 definition. In the entry for the verb, "to frank" (in the mail), he refers back to this entry for the adjective: https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=magazine .
Thank you. I enjoyed reading this. What a great idea for a new section of posts! I look forward to the next. 🙂
Thank you for reading and commenting, Janette! Glad you enjoyed Edward Cave. :-)
Tara - just got home from work and read your article. Really enjoyed this historical lesson and the ways in which you tied it in with our modern endeavors. I had never heard of Edward Cave prior to today so I feel accomplished, learning something new. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Matthew! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I can't wait to share some writers whose careers had other trajectories. I'm sold on "many kinds of success." :-)
Cool! Who knew? Tara did 💪🏻
😂😂
Great post! I love how the same principles for creating an interesting newsletter apply today as they did three hundred years ago. I can’t wait to read the next post in this series.
Thank you, Alison. The more I dug into Edward Cave, the more striking was the resemblance between then and now. I love when history does that. I think you know what I mean, fellow reader (and writer) of the past. :-)
Wonderful, Tara. I knew The Gentleman’s Magazine, but not Cave's history. Thank you for sharing such a fascinating story.
Thank you, Jeffrey. Glad you enjoyed it. The Gentleman's Magazine has layers and layers of interest for me (despite the evident misfit of the name for someone who has never aspired to Gentlemanliness). I would love to read a good, full-length biography of Edward Cave.
Perhaps you'll need to write it! 😊
😂🙈
Almost my namesake made it in a century that there wasn't any advanced tools to market and reach audience. How he managed to earn enough subscriptions to pay his contributions was the biggest milestone. Also, it shows people in that century were eager to read, deeply read thought-provoking newsletters unlike today, in the current era of social media fuzz, a carousel of dopamine-stimulating posts are given much attention. Incredible Edward!
Edwin! Almost your namesake - yes. 😂 I wonder if there was a moment when Edward Cave's parents considered calling him Edwin. I do not know. Maybe! :-)
You are right that many people did want to read in those days. They trusted that reading would help them rise in social status, which it generally did. You might like a book I am reading right now (recommended by Dee Rambeau), called "Stolen Focus" by journalist Johann Hari. It has a chapter on the "collapse of sustained reading." I hear you! I appreciate that engaged readers can find each other here on Substack.
There were more philosophers than in the current era ,which again I highly doubt if there is any. So far, Substack has initiated the once-unused writers like me. I have found incredible writer community and readership here.
Some of those philosophers met in taverns in and around St. John's Gate, where Edward Cave published his magazine. I look forward to checking out your Substack. You have several posts with titles that draw me in. I'm headed to campus shortly but am eager to come back and read later. Nice to meet you!
Thank you so much. Enjoy my reads. I have more instore !
👍🏼
Fascinating to reflect on how our contemporary, digital communications have their roots in historical innovations. It feels very heartening to be part of such a lineage. I love how you pull together those connections, with such clear examples, at the end. Thanks, Tara!
I feel that "heartening" sense, too, when the space closes between the obscure past and today. Thank goodness for so many books to help close it.
Thanks, Tara. I love these little forays.
Now I understand why my initial foray into writing a newsletter on clay tablets using cuneiform characters only attracted two subscribers. I was simply ahead of my time.
There ya go. You just needed technology to catch up. And voilà! It did.
I took a book arts class from a late prof who assigned us a project to create a book of some sort using Owyhee County clay. The assignment was pretty open-ended. I decided to take it up a couple of tech notches and made an iPod sized device with a little wind vain on top that rotated a series of tiny simple drawings in the viewing window quickly enough when the wind vain rotated that the drawings appeared animated. I gave it away, but I did not transfer my intellectual rights, so if the world ever gets nuked back to the Stone Age, I plan to build and market those babies and be the richest Zog in my cavehood. Cave division? .
A genuine clay tablet! Apple and Google have nothing on Switter. ;-)
Talk about zero carbon footprint manufacturing. The clay body of the device was sunbaked. at the end of its useful life, it could be pulverized with a common household hammer and spread on sandy garden soil as an additive.
Consumers didn't even need to decide between IOS or Android. It worked equally well from either the left or right car windows, or on a mountain beneath billowing white clouds. Content was limited, but content follows the consumer demand.
But again, I was ahead of my time.
😂
The postal service is always going after little people!! (reference to what's going on in the UK...)
What a great post, Tara. I find it so interesting to consider the way the internet now is merely reflecting what other writers have previously established but with further reach. Incredible story and gives me a lot to think about moving forward.
Glad you enjoyed it! I like learning that writers have more kinships than we know. I looked up the postal scandal. What a sorry mess! Those poor employees! May the drama pass for them and unexpected opportunities open.
Absolutely. There was a very good dramatisation of it on the BBC.
Just delightful, Tara! Threads of interest and inspiration all woven together so well. I appreciate Cave's willingness to "make his move" after years of thought and networking. His tenacity and vision are just what we moderns need to read about. Thank you!
Thank you, Elizabeth! I agree: interest and inspiration are just the words for Edward Cave’s story. Those words apply to some women writers I have in mind for this series, too, but there’s a friend of Cave’s coming up first....
Thank you for this, Tara! The historian in me is utterly delighted! (Now that I think of it, I may have failed to ever mention that my degree is actually in history. We've had so much else to discuss! 🤗) It's fascinating to me that even in the 18th century, people were experiencing a sort of information overload that made the news-letter such an appealing option.
Haha - another history buff, outed. Makes perfect sense, now that you mention it. 😎 Information overload, “News-Papers ... so multiply’d” -- a perennial challenge for curious readers! :-)
In the library of life, where dozens of new books show up every day, a good curator is like a skilled librarian who knows that the most powerful stories often lie hidden in the least assuming covers.
Thank you for reading, Max! I'm glad you mentioned librarians. You are so right. They are gifted at matching readers with books on the basis of just a few words about a person's interest. I have benefited from those gifts. Are you, by chance, a librarian?
It really is a superpower! To take a few small, simple observations and be able to make an educated suggestion on what a person might like is just magic. The folks who worked at Blockbuster did something similar.
And no, I wish!
Hah! Now I'm picturing Edward Cave as a Blockbuster franchisee, and it fits. Even better, I wonder if he'd have founded the business. Possibly! You've got me thinking. :-)
Thank you for this, Tara. I ran into the Gentleman's Magazine when I was researching a book about Elizabeth Blackwell (A Curious Herbal, 1735-37). This backstory was a pleasure to read. You've given us an excellent piece of research/writing.
I've been doing a niche newsletter on herbs for almost 30 years now, in various formats. I brought it to Substack last August. You're right about the importance of finding/creating a niche.
I'm glad you enjoyed the post, Susan. Thank you for reading! I just read one of your posts and learned that your academic background is in Chaucer or his period (he was one of my early literary loves), which puts herbs into a literary perspective that I can appreciate. Do you draw on medieval herbal lore?
I work with early herbals when they fit the subject, as in HEMLOCK (about Elizabeth Blackwell's 1735 herbal). The protag in one of my series (contemporary) is an herbalist. And yes, the interest was prompted by the medieval/Renaissance work. I like your focus (about page) on the "responsive reader."
That sounds like a story I'd enjoy. I love a good missing-manuscript or missing-book mystery. Putting it on my pleasure list!
Tara, thank you for this. Especially as we open into the New Year, you’ve given us eyes to see the long game and a fresh way to look at the news-letter. I echo Jenna’s comment about people experiencing information overload in the 18th century, and I take heart.
Thank you, Renée. The long game does have a different feel to it for me - more interesting, less urgent. :-)
ECHO: more interesting, less urgent. Here. Here.