What Do You Want From Me?

Help me make this newsletter into something you're excited to see in your inbox.

Seals off Cape Cod, just because

When I moved my newsletter away from Mad Mimi ($$$) to Substack (free), I didn’t really expect the content to change. But there’s something about the culture of Substack—a lot of great writers writing insightful, witty, and important writing (the kinds of writers who would come up with synonyms for some of the forms of “write” in this sentence)—that I’ve felt inspired to make my newsletters a little longer and chattier than they used to be. Sometimes they’ve even bordered on funny (at least I hope so.)

The trouble is, some people just want the facts—the recipe or the link to the recipe or a helpful tip for replacing cream with roasted onions (do it in pasta sauce, don’t do it in coffee.)

I struggle quite a bit with anxiety around blogging and newsletters and writing in general, and when I post a new recipe, I experience a little elation and a lot of relief. So it was in this elated/relieved state that I opened the first email I received after sending out the last newsletter:

Re: A New Lentil Soup

To: Susan Voisin

My third request to be unsubscribed from

Your new format.  Do it 

I unsubscribed the person as fast as I could, which was pretty fast considering I had never unsubscribed anyone on Substack before. (I didn’t receive any previous unsub requests from them; I assume they tried the link in the email and it didn’t work.) The tone of the email suggested that this person wouldn't be very receptive to questions about why they were leaving, so I wrote back a quick “Done” and tried to stop feeling like someone had spat in my soup.

I’ve been around the internet (and the world) long enough to know to brush off negative comments, but this email still left me wondering what most of my subscribers want out of the newsletter. For every person who likes dog photos, am I turning two off? Do most people just want a link to the recipe?

So here’s your chance to tell me what you want.

Do you prefer the newsletter as it is, or with less chat, or something else—more dog photos, fewer dog photos, more cats? Please explain in the comments.

I’d also like to know how often you would like the newsletter to come out: weekly, twice a month, monthly? I’m not allowed to put two polls in one post, so please let me know in the comments.

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Just to keep this food-related, here’s what I’m planning to make for dinner:

It’s Instant Pot Vegetable Soup, the most nutritious fast food I know of. This version contained chickpeas, kidney beans, and a spring mix with asparagus. Any canned beans and frozen veggies will do.

And for some behind-the-scenes realism, here’s how that photo was staged:

On my crowded, messy spare room bed! It was just a quick pic with my iPhone after dark, so I made do with the best light I had.

And here’s how that spot looked 30 minutes later:

Sorry to my anti-dog readers! I promise Salem was not on the bed while the soup was.

Leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments below. Please be nice.